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Twisted Hippo brewery launches at District Brew Yards, months after massive fire

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Published  August 16, 2022 4:58pm CDT
Albany Park
FOX 32 Chicago

Twisted Hippo brewery launches at District Brew Yards after massive fire

Months after a massive fire ripped through an Albany Park brewery, the owners of the Twisted Hippo have brewed up something special.

CHICAGO - Months after a massive fire ripped through an Albany Park brewery, the owners of the Twisted Hippo have brewed up something special.

If you brew a good beer you’ll have friends for life, and never was that more true than for Twisted Hippo, which is rising from the ashes of a fire that couldn’t put them out of business.

Marilee Rutherford and her husband Karl own the Twisted Hippo brewery, which burned to the ground in a massive fire last February.

"We are so lucky to have beer back on the market. We are really excited," said Marilee Rutherford.

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Even though they’d only been open for three years, they had quickly become an institution in the Albany Park neighborhood. Fans have been missing their beer and their bar.

Now it is back in the District Brew Yards on the West Side, a brewery incubator of sorts. It’s home to five different breweries under one roof and allows customers to pour their own taps.

Some of Twisted Hippo’s favorite beers, and a few new ones, are being brewed at the location. Not only is the beer on tap there, it’s also being canned and kegged to send back to the bars and restaurants in Albany Park for fans who been waiting months to get a taste of their favorite brew.

"It was really important to us to get back into people's minds and hearts after all the support that we got after the fire. So being able to be here just six months afterwards has been a tremendous boom," said Marilee Rutherford.

"For them to have a presence in Chicago to start distributing beer I think will be really important to all of their followers, which they have a ton. And we're so excited for them," said Steve Soble, owner of District Brew Yards.

This is really helping them get back on their feet, get some revenue coming in and most importantly, getting their beer back in the neighborhood taps, restaurants and liquor store shelves.

They're hoping to rebuild a new brewery in their home base of the Albany Park neighborhood but at this point, they're still looking around.