New Garage and the Phoenix Brewery

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Warrior

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
909
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Location
York, Pa
Looks like my brewing days are going to be suspended for a while. My wife called me at work around 3:00 yesterday. My Garage, Brewery, Workshop burn't to the ground yesterday. My neighbor put some ashes from a burn pit behind his barn in the field. The ashes still had some hot coals that started his barn on fire. With that strong wind out of the South yesterday it quickly spread to my garage which was only about 50 ft from his barn. It burn't to the ground, but it could have been much worse. The wind carried some hot ashes up to my house and started a bush on fire which started the vinyl siding on my house bruning. I thank the lord that the local fire cheif from Mt. Wolf saw it and put the fire out on my house. I was ten minutes away from losing my House! The local fire departments saved my house and those of my neighbors. You can see whats left of my garage on Fox 43 News out of York. Need less to say my brewing is going to be out of comission for a while. My brew system, ingredients, lager freezer, beer fridge was all out there. Not to mention all my wood working equipment.

Bottom line is I still have my house and no body was hurt! I'll be doing some serious fund raising for my local fire company, those guys were great!

Look for my brewery to rise again out of the ashes, the Pheonix brewery is what its new name is going to be.
 
First off sorry to hear about your loss, but good to hear that you still have a house. Is your neighbors insurance going to be repalcing at least your woodworking equipment and 2 freezers?

Nice new Brewery name.
 
Damn dude that is really horrible. I'm really glad no one was hurt. Hope things work out for you.
 
Yeah man, sorry to hear about the news. Glad that everyone is safe and the house came out relatively unharmed.

You should make your first brew a smoked porter.
 
Ryan_PA said:
Yeah man, sorry to hear about the news. Glad that everyone is safe and the house came out relatively unharmed.

You should make your first brew a smoked porter.
Click to expand...
Ryan,

The smoked Porter got me laughing:) A smoked beer will definately be done in the new garage brewery. Have fun brewing Sat.
 
Mike,

I am terribly sorry to hear about the fire. Saw it on CBS 21 last night after reading your postings here. If there's any way that I can help, do let me know.

Jason
 
That's a hard way to come up with a great brewery name. Good luck with the rebuild and the smoked beer (eventually).
 
Sorry to hear about the loss Warrior. I unfortunatlly can relate, we lost our house and barn and every tool I owned 3 years ago :(. Make sure you stay on top of your insurance company, they will try to f-you over anyway they can. Be sure to have a a complete contents list. Make sure you get quotes on the replacment, and compare it to what they think it's worth. Be sure to save every email, letter, mark down any phone call and what you talked about. Keep your head up things do get better..;)
 
It pays to be on forums and posting pics of what you do, it's an easy way to prove what you had.
photo inventory is about as good as a pile of receipts, especially to back up a claim of hand made items. Don't (let them) discount all your hard work.
-Ben
 
BRL said:
Sorry to hear about the loss Warrior. I unfortunatlly can relate, we lost our house and barn and every tool I owned 3 years ago :(. Make sure you stay on top of your insurance company, they will try to f-you over anyway they can. Be sure to have a a complete contents list. Make sure you get quotes on the replacment, and compare it to what they think it's worth. Be sure to save every email, letter, mark down any phone call and what you talked about. Keep your head up things do get better..;)
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Thanks for the advice. I'm going to speak with a lawyer just to make sure they don't try and screw me. It's a shame you need to fight them for coverage you've been paying for for over 25 years. I'm thinking they will try and low ball some of my equipment because some of it was 30 years old. How low did they try to depreciate your older equipment?
 
I'm sorry to hear about your loss. If you have the itch to brew in the mean time. My friends and I are building up my/our brewery and would be glad to have you over to brew some time. I am in the New Cumberland Area....
 
I am so sorry for you; this is the worst new I have heard beer related in a long time.

It is, however, a second chance to do it over, and as such, is an opportunity in a positive way.

Good luck and plan well! :mug:
 
Warrior,

As a wildland firefighter, This hits pretty close to home for me. Keep us updated.

I'm pretty sure us HBTers can come up with some spare equipment to help you get the brewery back up & running.
 
Evan! said:
So is the neighbor paying for it, or will you have to dip into your HO's insurance?
Click to expand...

Generally your insurance covers the loss and then they subjugate (subrugate sp?)to claim their loss from the offending parties carrier.

Had it happen but I lost no building or property as in tools or equipment, trees are a compensable loss.
 
Warrior,

I am very sorry to hear about your loss. I am very glad no one was hurt. When you get around to raising the brewery from the ashes be sure to give me a call. I will do everything I can to save you some money getting your brewery back up. Not trying to profit from your loss, just trying to help you out.

Ed
 
I had my shop WW shop destroyed by Hurricane Ike. I was told to give them a like for like price. If it cost $100 back when you bought it, but it is now $500, put down the $500. You have the right to get EVERYTHING back you lost. Insurance is a gamble, sometimes (most) they win, ie - paying premiums, sometimes you win, ie - getting everything replaced with an equal.

It took us a while to do the paperwork and documentation, but it paid off in the end.

Ryan
 
in a lot of states you have to have replacement cost for contents. If your policy doesn't have the endorsment then you will receive Actual cash value for the contents - but since this was negligence on your neighbors part then you may be able to set up the claim directly with his insurance company. This way you avoid the deductible on your policy until subrogation when your insurance company collects the entire loss from his.


If you have one call your agent before doing anything he/she should be able to advise if you can file the claim with the neighbors insurance.
 
I want to thank everyone on here for your support and ideas. I keep looking at the side of my house where the siding started to burn. The fire cheif spoted this at just the right time. My garage was 125 ft behind my house. The fire crew was fighting that when he noticed my house. He had to use my neighbors garden hose to put it out! 10 more mins with that 30 mph wind and my house plus half the block would've been gone! All of our houses here are 100 years or older. Under their vinyl and aluminum siding is the old clapboard wood siding, it would've went up as fast as dry kindling in a wind storm. I keep thanking the Lord because of how much worse this fire could've been. I doubt I'll be doing much brewing till my new garage is built. If I want to my friend who lives only a mile away said I can use his all grain system, he has a good set up with temp controled firdge. Again thanks for all your support but I'll be fine. Some firends were over last night and we were drinking homebrews and joking around. I have not laughed that hard in quite some time! I'm not looking at this as a bad thing that happened to me but how I would've felt losing my house and seeing my neighbors losing their homes. What if this happened at 3:00 in the morning? My wife and I along with my neighbors could be dead right now! I consider myself extremely blessed right now.
 
First of all, I am glad that noone was hurt and that your house was saved. That said, I am very sorry that you lost your garage and the fruits of all of your labor. Good on ya for having such a positive outlook on this whole situation. You are so right: it could have been much, much worse! I love the brewery name and the idea that you will rise stronger out of the ashes.
 
I am glad nobody was hurt and your house was saved. As you have done. Look on the bright side and consider yourself and family lucky. You can brew another day. Now your brewries name will have real meaning. I sense a smoked porter in your future.

I had a similar, though nowhere near as bad, situation when I was building my house. My neighbor about 1'000 ft away liked to walk over and check up on the build... and he smokes. Well like most smokers he tosses the butts on the ground without a thought. He got back to his house, looked back, and saw the dry grass field in front of my house in flames. Luckily my house was surrounded by a wide perimeter of barren dirt. All I lost were the trees I had planted outside the construction dirt perimeter. On the bright side I did not have to mow for a while.
 
If you can't homebrew for a while. PM me your address and I'll send you some of my very amateur "yeast samples" to help get you through until your brewery is up and running again.
 
BrewBeemer said:
I know the feeling as I was 20 seconds too late with my cross holstered RedHawk .44 holding three extra speed loaders full of Black-Talon amo.
Click to expand...
Well JEESH! maybe if you'd had just grabbed the gun with one load you'd had made it out in time. If you need 24 shots to hit a guy, maybe you shouldn't be shooting in the neighborhood!
:mug:
 
sorry to hear man! sooo glad no one got hurt, that could have been a disaster... thank god for the good folks at your fire dept. please let us know when you're back at it and as was said before, i'm sure all of those at HBT can scrounge up some equipment for you to get back to brewin! good luck with the journey.
 
I know we have replacement value on our insurance. Meaning if it's 10 years old it'd covered at today's prices. Hopefully you have something similar.

Also if it helps, i'm willing to let you out of the 9-9-09 swap. You probably have more things to worry about than shipping beer.:mug:
 
wildwest450 said:
I know we have replacement value on our insurance. Meaning if it's 10 years old it'd covered at today's prices. Hopefully you have something similar.

Also if it helps, i'm willing to let you out of the 9-9-09 swap. You probably have more things to worry about than shipping beer.:mug:
Click to expand...
No way am I backing out of the 09-09-09! Only lost 11 gal in carboys but most of all my brewing equipment went. Luckily I did have replacement coverage on contents. Once again thanks to everyone here offering brewing euipment but a friend of mine lives only a mile away and he has an all grain set up. I just doubt I'll be doing much brewing as I'll be designing and will be the general contractor for building my new garage and brewery. I plan on hiring some people to help make it go much faster, thinking of hiring some amish guys for a hybrid type barn only with metal siding and roofing. The old garage was vinyl siding and asphalt shingles. If it had been metal would've had a much more delayed time before going up in smoke. Amazing how you think of these things after a fire. Once again I consider myself blessed could've easily lost my entire home along with a lot of my neighbors. Don't feel bad for me **** happens to people all the time. The key is to get up and keep on going.
 
When you do your itemized contents list they take that list and change/keep the value you write down. Then they factor in depriciation, so you really on get 60-80% of new value or less. Make sure you go line item by line item after they do there corrections to make sure they don't hose you on some items. Brian
 
BRL said:
When you do your itemized contents list they take that list and change/keep the value you write down. Then they factor in depriciation, so you really on get 60-80% of new value or less. Make sure you go line item by line item after they do there corrections to make sure they don't hose you on some items. Brian
Click to expand...


Not with replacement cost coverage if the item cost 100$ now you get 100$ its full replacement with no depreciation. Your scenario is for actual cash value policy where depreciation is applied


You still need to pay the deductible first if there is no subro.
 
Update on progress. I have not been to active here lately as I've been busy getting ready to build the new garage and brewery. Check this link to see what the old site looked like. I also have the new structure plans for the new building here. The plans are fairly close to what I had with some changes. All metal siding and roofing this time, and having the entire downstairs and 2nd floor cieling spary foam insulation. Going to build a walk in cooler under the stairs going to the 2nd floor. This will also be spray foamed insulated.

img002 - HomeBrewTalk Gallery
 
Good luck on all you are going through. It sucks but like you said, nobody got hurt.

ACV clauses are a *****. I had a serious traffic accident a few years back. Head on collision with a 17 year old kid racing his cousin and passing on a slight hill. combined impact speed of over 135 mph and we both lived. 38 broken bones and one hell of a head ache i looked over my shoulder to see fire starting from a fuel leak, dry grass and a very hot catalytic converter.
I pulled my self out and a passer by grabbed me and pulled me away from the fire as it went fully involved. Only thing was I had to leave 18,000 dollars of camera equipment in the car.
I had been paying for over 10 years on an "Inland Marine" policy that scheduled the replacement cost and the premium was set per thousand dollars of coverage. I specifically paid for a NO ACV policy (No Actual Cash Value)

Saved my ass. I sat there in a wheel chair as the adjuster looked at the charred remains of my camera equipment and asked where the rest of the scheduled items were? I handed him pics of the Wasa 1995 Jeep Cherokee and said in here.

He said OKAY, and started reading the policy. I let him read it 3 times, knowing full well what he was looking for. I said on the start of his 4th run though, "You are not going to see it." He asked "What am I looking for?" I said "ACV clause" he asked how I knew what he was looking for. I said "Look at the premium, not cheap is it? I pay to NOT have that in there." He looked up and said "I will have you a check by the end of the week. Check came on thursday. Cancellation notice came on Friday.

I was able to completely upgrade my old, and outdated equipment because i scheduled the "Suggested Retail Prices" for all my Nikon cameras and lenses. IF ANYBODY ever actually paid those prices they would be insane, but that is what the Ins. company was bound to pay me.

Sorry a bit off topic.

BTW, ALl of my wood working equipment is on an Inland Marine policy the same way my camera equipment is. Any loss and I get the scheduled figure, less the deductible.

Good luck and POST SOME PICS DUDE!!!!!
 
Simphoto02 said:
Good luck on all you are going through. It sucks but like you said, nobody got hurt.

ACV clauses are a *****. I had a serious traffic accident a few years back. Head on collision with a 17 year old kid racing his cousin and passing on a slight hill. combined impact speed of over 135 mph and we both lived. 38 broken bones and one hell of a head ache i looked over my shoulder to see fire starting from a fuel leak, dry grass and a very hot catalytic converter.
I pulled my self out and a passer by grabbed me and pulled me away from the fire as it went fully involved. Only thing was I had to leave 18,000 dollars of camera equipment in the car.
I had been paying for over 10 years on an "Inland Marine" policy that scheduled the replacement cost and the premium was set per thousand dollars of coverage. I specifically paid for a NO ACV policy (No Actual Cash Value)

Saved my ass. I sat there in a wheel chair as the adjuster looked at the charred remains of my camera equipment and asked where the rest of the scheduled items were? I handed him pics of the Wasa 1995 Jeep Cherokee and said in here.

He said OKAY, and started reading the policy. I let him read it 3 times, knowing full well what he was looking for. I said on the start of his 4th run though, "You are not going to see it." He asked "What am I looking for?" I said "ACV clause" he asked how I knew what he was looking for. I said "Look at the premium, not cheap is it? I pay to NOT have that in there." He looked up and said "I will have you a check by the end of the week. Check came on thursday. Cancellation notice came on Friday.

I was able to completely upgrade my old, and outdated equipment because i scheduled the "Suggested Retail Prices" for all my Nikon cameras and lenses. IF ANYBODY ever actually paid those prices they would be insane, but that is what the Ins. company was bound to pay me.

Sorry a bit off topic.

BTW, ALl of my wood working equipment is on an Inland Marine policy the same way my camera equipment is. Any loss and I get the scheduled figure, less the deductible.

Good luck and POST SOME PICS DUDE!!!!!
Click to expand...
Building was only covered for $36,000. Luckily I'm going to be the general contractor and will save quite a bit compared to having a contractor build it for me. This was a 2,000 sq ft garage with a full 2nd floor. You can check my link which shows the drawings for the new building, that is very close to what I had. Most of the contents were under my homeowners policy and yes I had replacement value. They will give me depreciated value for anything that I don't replace. Once I buy it new they will give me the difference.
 
Simphoto02 said:
Good luck on all you are going through. It sucks but like you said, nobody got hurt.

ACV clauses are a *****. I had a serious traffic accident a few years back. Head on collision with a 17 year old kid racing his cousin and passing on a slight hill. combined impact speed of over 135 mph and we both lived. 38 broken bones and one hell of a head ache i looked over my shoulder to see fire starting from a fuel leak, dry grass and a very hot catalytic converter.
I pulled my self out and a passer by grabbed me and pulled me away from the fire as it went fully involved. Only thing was I had to leave 18,000 dollars of camera equipment in the car.
I had been paying for over 10 years on an "Inland Marine" policy that scheduled the replacement cost and the premium was set per thousand dollars of coverage. I specifically paid for a NO ACV policy (No Actual Cash Value)

Saved my ass. I sat there in a wheel chair as the adjuster looked at the charred remains of my camera equipment and asked where the rest of the scheduled items were? I handed him pics of the Wasa 1995 Jeep Cherokee and said in here.

He said OKAY, and started reading the policy. I let him read it 3 times, knowing full well what he was looking for. I said on the start of his 4th run though, "You are not going to see it." He asked "What am I looking for?" I said "ACV clause" he asked how I knew what he was looking for. I said "Look at the premium, not cheap is it? I pay to NOT have that in there." He looked up and said "I will have you a check by the end of the week. Check came on thursday. Cancellation notice came on Friday.

I was able to completely upgrade my old, and outdated equipment because i scheduled the "Suggested Retail Prices" for all my Nikon cameras and lenses. IF ANYBODY ever actually paid those prices they would be insane, but that is what the Ins. company was bound to pay me.

Sorry a bit off topic.

BTW, ALl of my wood working equipment is on an Inland Marine policy the same way my camera equipment is. Any loss and I get the scheduled figure, less the deductible.

Good luck and POST SOME PICS DUDE!!!!!
Click to expand...
Offically started the rebuild today, damn I remeber why I hate Masonary work. It's been 18 years since I helped tend for block laying and it's hard work. Of course it was the hottest and muggiest day of the year. The Mason laid 400 block today, 100 more tomorrow and the block will be done. Hopefully the new slab will be done this Friday. Pictures should follow sometime this week of the foundation.
 

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