Some of that Olde Towne Religion

Olde Towne Brewery was gutted by fire yesterday. It’s still too early to know why or how the fire started. Right now we only know that the building was destroyed and the roof collapsed. They have blocked off the street in front of the brewery and engineers are working to stabilize the structure and maybe save the front brick wall.

Don Alan Hankins, one of the co-founders and brew-master, was quoted as saying that he wants to rebuild the brewery. The quote was taken while the building was still smoldering so it’s hard to say how predictive it will be. I hope they are able to rebuild.

So sad. Olde Towne Brewery was the first brewery to be opened in Huntsville since prohibition. I can’t find the exact date of the last brewery but it has to be close to the first brewery in Huntsville in 100 years.

Here’s a strange thing I just learned about the brewery. The fire has displaced two Christian groups, Renown and Sojourn. The owners allowed the two congregations to use the brewery as a meeting place. Evidently the groups were non-traditional attempts to minister, namely to minister people who dislike churches but like beer.

What I think is actually pretty cool is the Sojourn congregation formed a prayer vigil around the smoldering brewery. If Alabama insists on projecting a religious image to the rest of the country, at least for a change it's praying for handcrafted microbrewery beer.