Sad news

The Alchemist, which I've mentioned before in the immediate aftermath of its destruction in the wake of Hurricane Irene, has just announced that they will not be rebuilding its pub- one reason being that their insurance didn't cover any of the brewing equipment they had set up in the basement brewery of their pub.

We have made the very difficult decision not to re-open The Alchemist Pub and Brewery.  While it is extremely difficult to walk away from the business we have spent our last 10 years building, this is the best option for us moving forward.  There were many factors that helped us come to this decision.

Primarily, we have recently learned that none of the contents in our basement were covered by flood insurance.  Unfortunately, our basement was the lifeblood of our business—our brewery, our beer, all of our food and our offices were in the basement.  Moving forward, we have come to the realization that re-building our basement brewery is not a viable option.

This is really heartbreaking news. They still have their production brewery and will be moving their small batch brewing setup over there to send beers to local businesses, it looks like:

Moreover, and probably most important, we will move our 7 barrel brewery to our new production brewery at 35 Crossroad. Once we have installed the brewery, John will be hard at work to supply the community with his creative and tasty small production beers.

 I wish them all the luck in the world.  I hope someday to be tasting their beers down here in New Orleans.