Firehouse Brewing Company Sold at Auction

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firehouse auction, firehouse bankruptcy, firehouse brewing co auction

Firehouse Brewing Company, which filed for bankruptcy protection about two months ago, was sold at auction this morning. The company’s assets were broken down into about 150 lots ranging from complete brewing systems to miscellaneous office products.

Some of the lots including the most valuable brewing equipment sold for over $100,000 which seems like a pretty good deal to me based on what was included.

The Firehouse brand, the name, the website, the recipes, etc sold for a mere $1,500. It’s obvious it was the brewing equipment that was so sought after, drawing large crowds of hopeful brewers looking for a deal, not the Firehouse name.

There were two lots with quite a bit of brewing equipment (mash tuns, boil kettles, fermenter tanks, etc) as well as another lot with a bottling line in addition to miscellaneous equipment including bottles, kegs and more things useful to a brewery. Quite a bit of general office furniture and office supplies were auctioned off as well, some for what appeared to be quite a deal.

According to West Coaster, all lots combined sold for about $350,000 with the brewhouse going to one party, the bottling line to someone else and everything else going to various individuals. Jeff Fischer of Fischer Auction tells me the total from the sale was about $400,000.

A listing of all items sold as well as the final price can be seen here.

I haven’t heard who walked out of there with some of the more desirable brewing equipment or what might become of it. It could have gone to an existing brewery looking to expand, those looking to start a new brewery or (it seems to be a slim possibility at this point but still possible) someone could revive the Firehouse Brewing Company, either with their old equipment or not.

If you know who picked up brewing equipment or the Firehouse brand, shoot me an email at events@sandiegobeerblog.com or leave a comment below.

I wrote a summary for West Coaster with a bit more info, you can read it here.

This post was updated 5/24/2011 at 6:00pm to add additional information and a link to West Coaster.

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Has Firehouse Brewing Company Gone Out of Business?

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firehouse brewing co. san diego, firehouse brewing company san diego, firehouse brewing out of business, firehouse brewing shut down, firehouse san diego

I’ve gotten to write many times over the last few months about new breweries opening up in San Diego, all of which seem to be doing incredibly well. That doesn’t seem to be the case for all of our local breweries.

Today credible sources have told me that Mission Valley’s Firehouse Brewing Company is no longer in business. I have not yet been able to confirm with anyone at Firehouse, calls and emails have not been returned, but it does appear something is going on.

Firehouse Brewing Co.’s Facebook and Twitter page seem to have vanished recently (and an older Facebook profile has been locked down to show almost no information). Although their website remains unchanged and the recording at their phone number says nothing out of ordinary.

If you know more about Firehouse’s situation feel free to email me mail@sandiegobeerblog.com or leave a comment below (if you would like to remain anonymous just enter a fake name and email address).

UPDATE: I have confirmed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of California that Firehouse Brewing Co. voluntarily filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on March 27th, 2011. I am far from a a bankruptcy law expert, but as far as I can tell Chapter 7 is for the liquidation of a business’s assets and the business ceases operation (as opposed to chapter 11 and chapter 13 bankruptcy which govern the reorganization of a business)

UPDATE 2: Scott Patridge (whom Peter Rowe at The Union Tribune reported took over as President and Board Chairman of Firehouse Brewing Company in February) responded to an email I had sent earlier today. He said that Firehouse did indeed declare chapter 7 bankruptcy which he says in legal terms means: “a liquidation of a business’s assets and the business ceases operation.” He notes that the assets include both the physical property Firehouse owns as well as the brand itself. He says that the bankruptcy court will make the decision as to whether to sell the business in it’s entirety (brand and property) or sell off the individual assets. Patridge says, “If the company is sold as a whole, it is therefore conceivable that the FBC could re-emerge with new owners and a new management team.”

A commenter left a link below to the blog of Justin Burnsed who appears to be a recent graduate of the UC-Davis Master Brewers Program. According to this post on his blog dated March 20th, 2011 (seven days before Firehouse declared bankruptcy)  he was recently hired as part of the brew team at Firehouse. He says that he turned down at job at Dogfish Head for the job at Firehouse. From his post: “There was one remaining brewer that survived the old guard and a prospective Brewmaster that would be working as a consultant to help right the ship.  That was it for the production staff.  They wanted to know if I was interested in rounding out this trio.”

This may or may not be related, but Burnsed mentioned a “brewmaster consultant”. According to posts on El Cajon Brewing Company’s Facebook page, David Meadows , one of the owners of ECBC was hired by Firehouse as a “master brewer and technical consultant”. On March 26th Meadows said he would be working with Firehouse until May 22nd, but a few days later on April 1st he posted that he was no longer with Firehouse. He gives no explanation for his departure.

I’ll admit, I’m not sure what to make of this situation. Firehouse President and Board Chairman Patridge ended his email to me with the following words: “Bottom line is, stay tuned.” While the recently hired Burnsed says in his blog post: “I haven’t a clue as to what’s going to happen in the coming months.  …  One thing I do know is that America loves a comeback story and I can’t wait to be a part of this one at the Firehouse Brewing Co.”

UPDATE 3: I just heard from Justin Burnsed, he said he’s back on the job hunt after working for Firehouse for about a month before they filed for bankruptcy. He hasn’t blogged about his experience at Firehouse yet, but if he does I’ll update this post with a link.

San Diego Beer Events March 24th – March 30th

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awesome beer drinkers, brewdog, brewdog bashah, brewdog keep the glass, brewdog tokyo, Bruton Brewery, cantillon, cantillon Classic Gueuze, Firestone Walker 14th Anniversary, Iacopo Lenci, Jean Van Roy, Mango Mongo DIPA, march madness beer tasting, mission valley craft beer festival, Paradox Imperial Stout, suds for surgeries, The Handlery Hotel & Resort, union jack ipa

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday Mar 24th:

Pizza Port Ocean Beach is doing a Pizza Port Keep the Glass night. They’ll have a tun of Pizza Port OB beers as well as a few favorites from the other PP locations. They’ll also have some treats from Lost Abbey as well including Red Poppy.

Friday Mar 25th:

More Pizza Port fun, Downtown Johnny Brown’s is doing a Pizza Port/Port Brewing Co. night with 17 different beers on draft. They’ll also have a cask of Mango Mongo DIPA.

Live Wire might not be the first place you think of when you think craft beer, but some say they’re the original San Diego beer bar. They’re featuring a Firestone Walker showcase with four draft beers, including Firestone Walker 14th Anniversary as well as a cask of Union Jack IPA.

Saturday Mar 26th:

My friends over at West Coaster, Awesome Beer Drinkers and Best Damn Beer Shop have teamed up to host a charity beer tasting at The Beer Company downtown. They have an insane VIP bottle list lined up as well as a more standard regular session with a chance to try five beers from The Beer Company, including three never seen before.

Sunday Mar 27th:

Jean Van Roy, owner and brewer at Cantillon, producer of some of the world’s most sought after sour beers will be at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens Sunday afternoon. They’ll have Classic Gueuze on draft and six other Cantillon beers available in bottles. All Cantillon beers will only be available at the outside bar in 4oz pours only.

The Handlery Hotel & Resort is hosting the Second Annual Mission Valley Craft Beer Festival, Suds for Surgeries to benefit Fresh Start Surgical Gifts. They’ll have unlimited tasters as well as food and live music, all for a good cause.

Monday Mar 28th:

Another European brewer will be in town, this time it’s Iacopo Lenci from Italy’s Bruton Brewery. He’ll be at Hamilton’s Tavern with five of his beers.

Tuesday Mar 29th:

I haven’t heard of anything special going on. If you know of something please email events@sandiegobeerblog.comto get it added.

Wednesday Mar 30th:

There’s a lot going on for a Wednesday night, but BrewDog night at URGE Gastropub looks the most promising. They’ll have two different kegs of BrewDog’s Paradox Imperial Stout aged in different Scotch Whiskey barrels and have it on cask as well. They’ll have kegs of the 18.2% ABV Tokyo as well as the  BrewDog/Stone Brewing Co. collaboration Bashah. They’ll even send you home with your own BrewDog glass.

Ten Beer Related Reasons I’m Excited to Return to San Diego

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BLAH, dog friendly bars, grand cru, keg n bottle, la jolla brew house, old viscosity, pizza port real ale festival, quaff, quality ale and fermentation fraternity, san diego beer week'nd, san diego beer weekend, san diego festival of beer, san diego international beer festival, speedway stout, stone anniversary and international beer festival, stone bistro and world gardens, stone late night movies, stone sourfest, tap hunter, taphunter

Durango, Colorado, where I’ve lived for the past year and half, isn’t a bad place to be a beer geek (check out my old beer blog from Durango). But it’s not San Diego. It’s also in the middle of nowhere. Durango has four breweries and but it’s also about 300 miles from Denver, which means the many beers brewed in the Front Range, and those from out of state breweries that get distributed in Colorado often don’t make it down here. I don’t mean this as a complaint about Durango but rather a way to show how excited I am about returning to San Diego. Below are ten (of the many) beer related reasons I’m glad to be back.

Hanging out on the patio at the La Jolla Brew House with my dog. The patio at La Jolla Brew House isn’t a bad place to drink a beer, and it’s made all the better because I can bring my dog. Firehouse Brewing Co.’s beer garden is also dog friendly so I’m sure we’ll be enjoying some pints there too. Before I left San Diego Hamilton’s allowed dogs, if anyone knows if they still do please leave a comment below.

Festivals and Events: Summer typically means beer festival season no matter where you are, and because of the number of breweries and beer lovin’ folks in San Diego, there are plenty of festivals. Pizza Port’s Real Ale Festival, Stone SourFest, San Diego International Beer Festival, San Diego Festival of Beer, San Diego Beer Week’nd and Stone’s Anniversary and Invitational Beer Festival. I’ve probably left a few out, but those are the first that come to mind.

QUAFF: Quality Ale and Fermentation Fraternity is a San Diego based home brew club. Their member’s beers have won numerous American Homebrewer Championships over the years. I’m excited to check out and join the club and hope I can learn some skills to further my home brewing.

Beer Box Tijuana. Sure Tijuana isn’t San Diego, but to me they’re inseparable. I came across Beer Box Tijuana while visiting friends and was amazed at their beer selection. In Tijuana terms (where Tecate pretty much rules to the city) they have an impressive beer selection. They have a good selection of San Diego craft beers, but of more interest to San Diegans they have plenty of Mexican craft beers that don’t get distributed in the US and many beers from Europe. In addition to all that the folks at Beer Box Tijuana are homebrewers and often host homebrew club meetings and tastings.

Beers: Regardless of everything else, beer blogging is about the beer. And there are plenty of beers I haven’t been able to easily get out here in Durango that will be much more accessible in San Diego. Here’s a short list of some I’m most looking forward to: Alesmith’s Speedway Stout and Grand Cru, Port Brewing’s Old Viscosity, and so many Lost Abbey beers I’ve never tried.

Stone Bistro and World Gardens: This is one of my favorite places to have a beer and eat dinner. And since it’s all the way up in Escondido I don’t make it up to often, which keeps is special and ensures it will never become ordinary. I’m hoping to make it up for a few movie nights this summer as well.

The beer bars that have opened in the last year or two: Blind Lady Ale House, Small Bar, The Station, Ritual Tavern, Toronado just to name a few. I’ve been to BLAH, Small Bar, and Toronado but I’m looking forward to spend far more time at each.

The Liquor Stores: South Bay Drugs, The Best Damn Beer Shop and Keg N Bottle just to name a few. The beer selection at these stores is phenomenal. I’m like a kid in a candy store every time I walk in.

The Newer Breweries: I’ve never had any beers from Airdale Brewing Co., New English Brewing Co., or Mother Earth Brew Co. There are plenty of other small breweries that have opened tasting rooms or expanded their lineups recently. I’m excited to try them all.

Tap Hunter: Tap Hunter is one of the coolest ideas and websites around. I’m sure every San Diego beer geek already knows and uses it (if you don’t click the link above to check it out) and now I’m happy that I’ll be able to also. Tap Hunter launched shortly after I left San Diego last year. What Tap Hunter does (in a nutshell) is crowd source a list of what beers are on tap at various bars and restaurants. You can check the website before you go out to see what is most likely on tap and use your smartphone to report corrections if a new beer has gone on tap or a keg is empty.

10306 San Diego Mission Road