Modern Times Beer

The sale of Modern Times took another turn Thursday with the ultimate acquirer of the San Diego brewery still in question.

A judge in Orange County Superior Court has approved the sale of San Diego-based Modern Times Drinks to BX MT BAMF LLC – a limited liability company connected with Anaheim, California-based Brewery X – for $20 million.

Court records filed in the wake of last Friday’s auction for San Diego craft brewery Modern Times give a closer look at bidding play-by-play, and the tension between qualified bidders MTD Asset Acquisition and BX MT BAMF LLC. Earlier this week, MTD (the group referred to during the auction as North Carolina brewery Tru Colors), whose $20.1 million bid was not accepted as the winning bid, filed an objection to the sale of Modern Times to BX MT (an affiliate of Brewery X in Anaheim), and submitted a new bid of $21 million. MTD claims priority was given to Brewery X’s bid due to its inclusion of a shorter closing period, despite what it believes was a previous guarantee that such conditions would not be weighted in choosing a winning bid. Those efforts caused a federal judge to table a hearing Monday set to confirm the sale of the brewery.

MTD Asset Acquisition (MTD), the bidder that was not selected during the auction for Modern Times last week, has filed an objection to the court-appointed receiver’s selection of BX MT BAMF LLC (BX), an affiliate of Anaheim, California-based Brewery X, as the “winning” bidder in the auction for the San Diego craft brewery.

The auction for San Diego’s Modern Times Beer Co. concluded Friday with an affiliate of Anaheim’s Brewery X, BX MT BAMF LLC, casting the “winning bid” at $20 million, according to Modern Times.

A California superior court judge signed an order Monday approving bidding procedures and setting forth the schedule for the auction of San Diego craft brewery Modern Times, according to Orange County Superior Court of California court records.

Live Oak Bank filed an objection today in the Orange County Superior Court of California, contesting the jurisdiction of the court to relieve debts owed by Modern Times Beer to Live Oak, as well as the sale of assets at Modern Times’ flagship Anaheim location, as part of the sale of the San Diego craft brewery.

Modern Times CEO Jennifer Briggs spoke to Brewbound Tuesday, with an update on the impending sale of the San Diego-based brewery.

Kihei, Hawaii-based Maui Brewing Company has placed a “stalking horse” bid to acquire San Diego, California-based Modern Times Beer, which has been accepted by a court-appointed receiver.

“We’ll know the future of Modern Times by the end of June, I can confidently say that,” Jennifer Briggs, CEO of the San Diego, California-based brewery, said during a discussion Tuesday with Brewers Association (BA) president and CEO Bob Pease at the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) in Minneapolis.

Modern Times is on the edge of entering receivership to begin a court-ordered sale process. Jack O’Connor, a partner with Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Helsinger in Chicago, joins the Brewbound Podcast to explain the process.

Two weeks after a jury sided with Stone Brewing in its trial against Molson Coors, the Escondido, California-headquartered craft brewer is tangled in another trademark infringement lawsuit – this time as the defendant. The founders of Laurelwood Brewing have bought back the distribution and brand rights of the Portland, Oregon-based company from Eugene, Oregon-based Ninkasi Brewing, The Oregonian reported Wednesday.

Modern Times Beer’s bank has “commenced litigation” that is expected to “result in a court-ordered receivership sale” of the San Diego-headquartered craft brewery, according to a blog post on Modern Times’ website.

Leaders of San Diego craft brewery Modern Times fielded questions on the state of the business, its potential sale and the future of its membership clubs (the League of Partygoers and Elegant People and the Theory of Leisure Committee) during a 53-minute Zoom meeting earlier this month.