Commonhouse Ales Overwhelmed With Columbus Support After Fire Destroys Supply

This past weekend, a terrible fire destroyed a huge supply of beer ready for distribution. One of those brewers affected was Commonhouse Ales.

We were fortunate to speak with Lenny Kolada, a.k.a The Brewdood, at Commonhouse Ales about this recent set back, how they’re moving forward and how we as a city/community can help.

How will the brewers move on from here? How do you pick up the pieces?

The fire represents a significant break in the supply chain of getting the beer back throughout Central Ohio. Our primary obstacle right now is securing a temporary cold storage warehouse. Our distributor, 17th Star Distributing, is working hard on this challenge, and may be ready with a solution in about a week. If we don’t have a place to put the beer, we can’t sell the beer.
At the brewery, we’ve got our own challenges. We lost most of our cooperage and tap handles. We have to be able to put our beer into something. Right now, kegs are being shipped to us. We have already come up with a solution for temporary tap handles, which should be arriving today.
Fortunately, we had all three beers currently in production ready for packaging when the fire broke out. As a result, we’ll be able to move pretty quickly once the other issues are resolved.
The Commonhouse crew won’t be going anywhere. There’s plenty to do as we reboot.

How soon can we expect to see beer on the shelves?

Optimistically, we could expect to see product shipping sometime the last week of August, with all products packaged by the end of the first week of September. There’s still product out in the marketplace, so hopefully, there will be little disruption of supply at your favorite watering holes and bottle shops.
We may see another small break as the current supply gets consumed, and before our next batches are ready, but that should be for just a short time.

Finally, what can Columbus do to help? We love our beer in the capital city, so we’re eager to do some good.

We can’t believe the outpouring of concern, support and love we’ve received by both the craft brewing community and beer drinkers in Columbus. Can we say that we love Columbus?
Columbus can help by supporting local beer, made fresh with blood, sweat and tears right here, and by buying Commonhouse Ales wherever it’s spotted.
This is a race now between the existing supply that’s out there and how fast we can replenish. We hope to lose due to demand outstripping our supply. Make us work harder to get Beer for Good into your hands!

To keep up-to-date with Commonhouse Ales, visit their facebook page where they’ll announce shipments and news as it rolls in.