The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) is giving businesses across the state another shot at securing coveted liquor licenses — often referred to as “zombie licenses.”

PLCB Opens Bidding on 25 Expired Pennsylvania Liquor Licenses

Yesterday, August 7th, bidding officially opened for the 14th auction since the passage of Act 39, the 2016 law that dramatically reshaped liquor sales in Pennsylvania. Among its many provisions, Act 39 created a way for the state to reissue expired or unused restaurant liquor licenses, which previously would have simply disappeared from circulation.

Where Are the Available Licenses?

This round includes 25 restaurant liquor licenses — one for each of the following counties:

• Adams

• Allegheny

• Armstrong

• Bedford

• Berks

• Bucks

• Cambria

• Carbon

• Clearfield

• Crawford

• Delaware

• Erie

• Greene

• Juniata

• Lawrence

• Lackawanna

• Lehigh

• Luzerne

• Northampton

• Northumberland

• Pike

• Schuylkill

• Somerset

• Sullivan

• Wyoming

Each license comes with a minimum bid of $25,000, and as in previous auctions, the highest bidder in each county will win the rights to apply for the license.

How the Auction Works

• Sealed bids must be submitted by noon on October 6th.

• The PLCB will open bids on October 9th, announcing winners shortly after.

• Successful bidders then have six months to apply for their license.

• Payment must be received within two weeks of the award, or the opportunity passes to the second-highest bidder.

Past Bidding Heavyweights

In previous auctions, major players such as Giant Food Stores, Weis Markets, Sheetz, and Rutter’s Farm Stores have secured licenses — often paying well above the minimum to gain entry into select counties where licenses are scarce.

Before Act 39, the state had no system to re-sell licenses lost due to enforcement actions, financial failures, or other circumstances — meaning roughly 70 licenses “died” each year. Now, these auctions offer new opportunities for restaurants, grocery stores, and other hospitality businesses to expand.

How to Bid

The Invitation for Bids and full details can be found on the PLCB’s official website. Once there, scroll down to “Related Solicitation Files” to view the necessary documents.

Potential bidders with questions must email RA-LBLicenseAuction@pa.gov no later than noon on August 28th.

This PLCB license auction could be a game-changer for businesses looking to expand alcohol sales in high-demand Pennsylvania markets. With some counties historically seeing fierce competition — and licenses going for well above the $25,000 minimum — the next two months could prove pivotal for bidders hoping to tap into new markets.

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

Thanks again for reading everyone. Take some time to check out the site, we greatly appreciate it. We have affiliates and sponsors with Pretzels.com and Beer Drop.com, which can save you money on their products if you are interested. Check out our articles on them. Make sure to check out our beer reviews, brewery reviews, Amy’s weekly column, book reviews, hike reviews, and so much more.

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you! You can also reach out to us at our direct e-mail address: thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank you for visiting our blog. Please make sure to follow, bookmark, subscribe, and make sure to comment and leave feedback and like the blog posts you read. It will help us to better tailor the blog to you, the readers, likes and make this a better blog for everyone.

We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

• MAPS OF BREWERIES

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

Please be sure to follow us on our social media accounts – Facebook, Facebook Group, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Influence. As well as our brand new Tumblr page. Please be sure to also follow, like, subscribe to the blog here itself to keep updated. We are also now on BlueSky as well, so make sure to check us out there also. We love to hear from you guys, so be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

You can now find us on our Discord Server here: The Beer Thrillers (Discord Server).

We also now have a SLACK channel – which acts as a hybrid chat room, message board, Reddit style; workspace and posting area for us. You can hang out with us there and chat about all kinds of things – not just beer, but “off topic” things like movies, TV, books, podcasts, hiking, sports, and more! Join us at: The Beer Thrillers on SLACK.

We’ve also joined LinkTree to keep track of all of our social media pages, as well as hot new articles we’ve written. The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

We have partnered with an affiliateship with Beer Drop.com. You can check out that partnership and receive great discounts, coupons, and more here: Beer Drop. Going here and logging in and ordering will help you receive your discounts and coupons as well as help support our page. Thank you for helping to support The Beer Thrillers and to help us maintain the site and blog and to keep it running.

The Beer Thrillers are a blog that prides itself on writing beer reviews, brewery reviews, travelogues, news (especially local to the Central PA brewery scene), as well as covering other topics of our interests – such as hiking, literature and books, board games, and video games which we sometimes stream with our friends over at Knights of Nostalgia. We are currently listed as #5 on FeedSpot’s “Top 100 Beer Blogs” and #9 on FeedSpot’s “Top 40 Pennsylvania Blogs”. (As of May 2025.) Thank you for reading our site today, please subscribe, follow, and bookmark. Please reach out to us if you are interested in working together. If you would like to donate to the blog you can here: Donate to The Beer Thrillers. Thank you!

You can also check out our partnership and affiliation with Pretzels.com, where ordering pretzels and using our affiliate code – AFFILIATE CODE IS THEBEERTHRILLERS20 – will help you get wonderful pretzels and help us maintain and keep this blog running. Thank you!

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

(Thank you for reading. The opinions, thoughts, and expressions of each article posted on The Beer Thrillers represents the author of the content and only themselves. It does not express the opinions, beliefs, or ideas held by The Beer Thrillers or any company in which the author themselves work for. Each piece of written content is written by the creator(s) listed in the authorial section on each article unless otherwise noted. Their opinions, comments, and words on screen do not represent any company in which they work for and / or are affiliated with or any non – profits that they contribute to. Thank you.)

Little Mutants brewing equipment will be up for auction on January 6th by H.K. Keller. As we previously posted – Little Mutants Brewery Has Closed – and with that closure, it seems the equipment will be sold. H.K. Keller will be in charge of the auction, and has posted a Facebook video detailing the equipment. Little Mutants Brewery was located at 841 N Prince Street, Lancaster PA, 17603.

Little Mutants

Little Mutants Brewing Equipment Up for Auction

H.K. Keller has a Facebook post and video detailing the auction and showcasing the equipment. You can click here for the video: Little Mutants Brewery Auction.

The post reads:

BREWERY EQUIPMENT AUCTION: This auction features an extensive selection of brewery, bar, and restaurant equipment, ideal for craft brewers, beverage producers, hospitality businesses and restaurants.

The brewery lineup includes professional-grade stainless steel fermenters, a mash tun with mixing paddles, and tanks from trusted brands like Albrigi Tecnologie and Stout Tanks.

An external glycol chiller, nitrogen draft system, and large storage tanks are also available, along with more of what you need for your business or hobby brewing setup.

Bidding Ends: Monday, January 6 at 7:00pm

Preview Time: Friday, January 3 from 1:00pm to 6:00pm

Preview and Pickup Location: 841 N Prince St, Lancaster, PA 17603, USA

Pickup Time: Wednesday, January 8 from 9:00am to 3:00pm and Thursday, January 9 from 9:00am to 3:00pm

–H.K. Keller Facebook Post

Little Mutants Brewery Closing

For more information on their closing, you can see our article here: Little Mutants Brewing Has Closed.

The long and short of it though, is that Little Mutants Brewery was being quite shady near the end, underpaying (or not even paying bartenders at all), failing to provide the things they guaranteed for performers at their venue, ghosting performers on upcoming events, and much more. The above article goes into detail a bit more.

More Information on Little Mutants

The following comes via Untappd.

Little Mutants is listed as a cidery from Lancaster, PA. They have 51 unique beers, and just 813 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.72 (as of 12.27.24). Their Untappd description reads: “World class fermented offerings. Specializing in local apples and fruits along with traditional and experimental beer varieties. Based in Lancaster, PA”

You can follow them at these social media platforms:

• Little Mutants – Official Website
• Little Mutants – Facebook
• Little Mutants – Instagram
• Little Mutants – Untappd

Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery

Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery is Now Up for Auction

The retail property at 1 S. Union St., is scheduled for auction on June 24, according to Nik Sgagais of NAI CIR, a commercial real estate company in Lemoyne, previously the location of the Tattered Flag Brewery and Distillery – which closed last fall. The former site of Tattered Flag Brewery going up for auction; starting at $275,000.