A car is buried in bricks after a fire in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood that destroyed Tesited Hippo Brewing on Feb. 21, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

An Albany Park block that housed the Twisted Hippo brewery was devastated by a fire Monday morning.

According to an update by the Chicago Tribune, the first had started in an apartment building and spread to the neighboring brewery and an obstacle course gym called Ultimate Ninjas. Twisted Hippo was blown over when the fire reached several pressurized tanks. Just one person was taken to the hospital, with severe smoke inhalation, but dozens have been left unhoused. The blaze started at 4 Monday morning and involved 150 firefighters,

A few walls at Twisted Hippo were left standing, but the city of Chicago determined them to be a hazard, and ordered the rest of the building razed.

Twisted Hippo co-owner, Marilee Rutherford, has posted to the brewery’s Facebook page:

Simply unreal. At around 4:00 this morning we found ourselves in the inexplicable position of knowing there was a fire at the brewery. By 4:30 I was onsite – cold, grateful for reports that everyone was safe, but pretty useless – which is not my preferred state of being. It was clear, long before the sun was up, that if we weren’t going to lose everything, it was going to be nearly so.

Today has been a blur of well-wishes, kindness, and compartmentalization. Our staff and neighbors are safe. Our family is well and intact. Go Fund Me campaigns have been plurally started, shared and supported. Fundraisers have been planned. Insurance claims processes have begun, and the expertise of an army of brains and experience offered around every corner. Our cups runneth over so much that we’re left, at the end of the day, surveying a river of love and grief on which we travel forward. The last two years have taught us how to keep standing, keep fighting, and ride the current when we can’t control the wind.

We *will* move forward, though we once again have no idea where the next leg of the journey will take us. And tomorrow, as the remaining walls of the building are likely razed, we will sift through the hundreds of messages, posts, and voicemails we have received in support. We will share more when the sun is up again. Tonight, with gratitude for so much that remains after everything seems lost, we rest.

A GoFundMe page has been started to cover immediate expenses and to help out employees as insurance claims are worked out. In less that 24 hours, it has already $110,000 toward its $200,000 goal, and has counted several donations from other Chicago breweries, large and small.

The brewery building, at 2925 W. Montrose Ave., was home to three previous brewers before Twisted Hippo moved in. The location had opened in 2015 as BreakRoom Brewery, intended to served as a gastropub and as a showroom for a co-owner’s bar-building business. It ran into problems immediately, including having it original brewer Mike Pallen depart to start Mikerphone Brewing. It closed in May the following year. Finch Beer Co. moved in, but shuttered the place before the end of 2016 and resettled as a production brewery in the West Side, a block from Goose Island. Ravinia Brewing produced a few beers in the building, but coudln’t come to terms for a lease.Twisted Hippo finally took over the space in January, 2019. (Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune).

Twisted Hippo itself saw a twisty pathway to its own brewery. Margie and Karl Rutherford began homebrewing over 12 years ago, and picked up the Twisted Hippo name early on. They turned pro by teaming up with another couple brewing as Rude Boy. The resulting Rude Hippo actually got a few batches made at 18th Street before the two couples parted company, and the Rutherfords resumed the Twisted Hippo brand with business partner, Todd Ruddick. (Tribune)

Their brewpub also attracted notice for paying its staffers $15 per hour as a base, and offering health insurance after 30 days of employement.