San Francisco craft brewery Speakeasy Ales & Lagers has been purchased by former beer distributor and owner of Hunters Point Brewery, Ces Butner, in an asset sale arranged by Business Capital.

Speakeasy began in San Francisco in 1997, opened a taproom in 2011 and developed a cult following for its craft beers.

The company underwent a major expansion in 2015 with the addition of a new 60-barrel brew-house, malt handling system, fermenters and canning line. The $6.5 million project significantly increased capacity to 67,000 barrels, but left the company overleveraged and undercapitalized.

In March 2017, the company ran out of funds and was forced into receivership. Business Capital was brought in to run the asset sale and Jigsaw Advisors, a turnaround management firm, was appointed as receiver to oversee brewery operations.

“Reed Upson and the team at Business Capital were great to work with, they did an incredible job managing the sell-side process and presenting Speakeasy to a plethora of interested investors in a very short period of time,” said Bill Brinkman of Jigsaw Advisors.