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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