Toolmaker and homebrewer Mike Knaub was busy at work when the phone rang.   

“My wife called and said I better get home now,” he said. “She told me the garage was on fire — that we might even lose the house.”   

Knaub hopped in his vehicle and sped off to his Mt. Wolf, Pennsylvania home.  During the nervous and anxious drive that ensued, he couldn’t help but note the irony of what was happening.   

“We had fire extinguisher training that morning at work,” he said.   

By the time he got home, firefighters had contained the blaze. But Knaub’s garage and homebrewing headquarters had burned to ashes.   

“I was in a state of disbelief,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t see it actually burning and fall down.”   

Having consumed the garage, the fire began to make its way towards his house. Ash and glowing ambers ignited a small bush near the kitchen side of Knaub’s house. The flame quickly spread, singeing a portion of the house’s vinyl siding before being put out.   

“I was about 10 minutes away from losing my home,” Knaub said.   

It all started earlier that day. Knaub’s neighbor was cleaning out an ash pit full of spent scrap wood that had been burned two days prior. The neighbor dumped the ashes behind his barn — 40 feet from Knaub’s garage — unaware that they still contained a small amount of hot embers. Mother Nature took over from there. A 30-mph wind stoked the tiny embers to flame. After the barn went up in a fury, a little breeze was all it took to spread the fire to Knaub’s garage.   

“I actually consider myself blessed and thank the Lord I didn’t lose my home that day,” he said. “The garage and everything in it is one thing, but to lose your home would’ve been a lot more tragic.”   

In addition to losing the garage, which housed his lawn mowers, workbenches, 700-board-feet of black walnut lumber, dozens of assorted tools and other items, the fire also claimed nearly all of Knaub’s homebrewing equipment and supplies.   

“Wow the list was extensive,” said Knaub, counting his brewing losses. “My brewing system, motorized malt mill,
400 lbs. (316 kg) of grain, 7 lbs. (3.2 kg) of hops, chest freezer with a temp control, a side-by-side fridge. Luckily, I only lost 11 gallons (42 L) of beer — a Czech Pilsner and a Munich Dunkel,” he said.    

While the contents of the garage were covered under Knaub’s homeowner’s policy, damage estimates came in at more than $60,000 between the garage, house, and landscaping. Insurance would cover roughly half, so he decided to rebuild everything from the ground up himself.    

“I’m the general contractor on this job. I built the garage myself about eighteen years ago,” Knaub said. “If I had to pay a contractor I would’ve come up short on the project.”   

Using the opportunity to start from scratch also allowed Knaub to make adjustments to the design of the old garage, adding a few brew-related improvements during the construction process. He has plans to add a walk-in cooler underneath the stairs ascending to the garage’s second floor; a space that he said was underutilized in the past.   

He also installed a few flame repellant modifications — just in case.   

“The old building was over 100 sheets of plywood and vinyl siding,” he said, adding that he used 2-feet by
4-feet girts and purlins with metal siding this time around. “The metal siding and roofing allow a longer contact time before burning.”   

And while the fire may have been the death of Knaub’s trusty garage, it also marked the birth of his new homebrewing hideout, the Phoenix Brewery.    

“Naturally with the fire I thought ‘what a good name,’” he said. “Like a phoenix rising again from the ashes.”   

As for what he plans to brew first when everything’s settled with his new brewery, it’s still up in the air. But that doesn’t stop his friends from making the occasional off-color suggestion.   

“Another homebrewer I know suggested a smoked porter should be first,” he said. “But I’m thinking a Czech Pils or Munich helles.”