Have a beer.

Or possibly thousands of them. Article in yesterday's Washington Post about the Frederick Brewing Co., and its economic woes. Seems they expanded a bit too much during the microbrewery boom of the 90's, and the changes in beer-drinking fads has caught up to them. They're currently in bankruptcy, and Frederick County, Maryland, is coming after them for over $1 million in unpaid taxes and debts, much of which is for water.

At the height of its popularity, Frederick Brewing went public and built a large brewery. Even though it bought up a number of its smaller competitors, making their brews, and did contract brewing for other labels, it's not selling enough to make its payments. Rather like what happened to one of my favorite microbreweries, Catamount Brewing Company of Vermont, a couple of years ago.

I remember considering buying some stock in the company when it went public, a token 100 shares at $5 a share, just so I could pretend to own a brewery (or, at least, a piece of one). I didn't get around to it, though, and was able to watch without sweating or swearing as the stock price fell through $2, through $1, through 25 cents, was "reverse-split" at 1-10 to bring the price up above $1 to try to avoid de-listing on NASDAQ, and continued to fall to its present level of 1 to 2 cents per share. Probably one of my best investment decisions ever, not buying this stock. Of course, part of that may have been due to the fact that I didn't especially like their beers, with the possible exception of the Snow Goose, a winter beer made by one of the competitors they bought up.

Well, it's the free market at work. If a company makes repeated poor decisions regarding expansion, product lines, or personnel, it's not that surprising that it has trouble staying afloat.