After several years on the market, Cogstone Brewing Co. has been sold to new owners who say they plan to carry on the brand, its current menu, hours of operation and the lineup of popular and award-winning beers on tap at the brew pub in Colorado Springs’ Village Seven Neighborhood. 

Founding owners Robert Hemphill and Marc Malenfant marked their last days heading up the 10-year-old craft beer destination the final weekend of March, a brief goodbye tour Hemphill said was full of emotions and reflections.

“For me, it’s bittersweet. We made a heck of a lot of friends and customers throughout those 10 years, and we’re very happy to have those people who supported us,” Hemphill said this week, as the ink dried on the Cogstone sale and property lease paperwork officially turning over the brewery – its legacy and future – to Mike and Mary O’Neil.

Hemphill said the takeover by the O’Neils – after many long months of “tire-kickers,” nibbles from potential buyers, and deals that kept falling through – felt like providence.

“I asked Mike, ‘What made you want to buy this place?’ and he said that, as a little kid, his grandfather was a World War II veteran who owned a tavern in Illinois,” Hemphill said. “He just thought it would always be cool to own something like this. When he came across our listing – because we’re a brewpub; not only do we have food, we make our own beer here – he just thought it was the best of both worlds.”

Hemphill and Malenfant were hobby brewers before meeting and deciding to launch their startup, the first of several new Springs breweries to open in 2016, in what then was a squeezed storefront in a retail plaza off North Academy Boulevard, at 3858 Village 7 Road.

By 2019, they’d expanded the brewpub’s footprint into the remodeled storefront next door and also nabbed a coveted bronze medal at Denver’s hallowed Great American Beer Festival for their “experimental” Chips N’ Salsa beer. 

Pre-pandemic, Hemphill said Cogstone was on the verge of investing in a second location, at one point involving a potential $1 million build-out of a former Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant at Chapel Hills Mall. After moving on from that plan, the ownership team considered seeking a small business loan to beef up the brewing operation at Village Seven.

“It’s good none of that ended up happening or we’d be in trouble (financially) right now,” Hemphill said in a 2025 interview with The Gazette.

After settling on the decision to sell, Hemphill said hopes were to find a buyer who wanted to keep alive the endeavor — brand name, recipes, menu, customer base – he and Malenfant spent years building into a thriving local business.

“I was worried that someone might buy the place and just totally change it up and, you know, either make it just a bar or some other kind of business,” Hemphill said. “I’m glad they were able to buy it, so we could pass on the Cogstone torch.”

Now that those hopes (finally) have been realized, well: Cue the nostalgia. 

“I still love beer, and I still love hanging around the breweries,” Hemphill said. “I gave it a long run and enjoyed every minute of it.“