Truck Smashes Into Comrade Brewing, Making for Major Buzzkill

Comrade Brewing took enemy fire yesterday afternoon when a large pickup truck smashed into the front of the building, destroying two garage doors, damaging the brewery’s beer tanks and rupturing the gas and water lines. The brewery was open at the time, but no one was hurt in the accident...

By Jonathan Shikes

October 14, 2016

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Comrade Brewing took enemy fire yesterday afternoon when a large pickup truck smashed into the front of the building, destroying two garage doors, damaging the brewery’s beer tanks and rupturing the gas and water lines.

The brewery was open at the time, but no one was hurt in the accident. However, the beer that was being brewed at the time — a batch of Comrade’s acclaimed Superpower IPA — will have to be dumped.

Comrade Brewing owner David Lin says the taproom should be open again today, but that brewing operations will cease for several weeks while repairs are made — and that will have a significant effect on the brewery’s business, since the kettle and brewhouse will be offline.

“We have a good amount of beer in the cellar right now, but we might have to cut back” on distributing kegs to bars and restaurants," he adds. “We can’t wash kegs, either, because the water line was damaged.”

Lin says other breweries have offered to help wash kegs and even to temporarily brew beer until Comrade is back online, but he's not yet sure whether he'll take them up on those offers.

Comrade and the police are still trying to piece together what happened. According to Lin, witnesses said the driver of the pickup had been sitting in the parking lot and later ran into another car and the brewery.

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