Philadelphia Brewing Co. blaming city for miscommunication that could cost business thousands
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A local brewery says some of its most popular beers will not be available. It appears that a miscommunication between city workers is to blame.
The government generally exists to make the lives of the citizenry better. Sometimes they succeed, other times they fail. This is one of those other times.
On Tuesday morning, members of the city's Community Life Improvement Program, or CLIP, mistook a lot that was growing hops for an annual fall beer for weeds and chopped them all down.
"Surprise is an understatement," Philadelphia Brewing Company co-owner Nancy Barton said. "I came in yesterday and the city CLIP was here mowing down our hop garden."
The mistake looks to be a very costly one for the Philadelphia Brewing Company, which was growing hops on the lot clearly marked for their Harvest from the Hood, usually released every October.
"I don't know if $25,000 maybe, I don't know," Barton said. "We're figuring it out right now."
Patrons at the brewery Wednesday evening were also shocked.
"I work in the restaurant industry," Samanta Fryzol said. "I know that people are very excited for seasonal things that come out. And I think it's a small business, it's very unfortunate that this happened."
Another patron believes the city should financially compensate the brewery for the error.
"There's no doubt," Dantes Louis said. "If it's done by mistake regardless, it's somebody's profit that they could hvae made."
The city did issue a statement which reads, in part, "Regrettably, due to miscommunication and staff error, the hops were removed as they were initially marked as a violation as it appeared the lot was overgrown. We are reaching out to Philadelphia Brewing and NKCDC to explain the situation, apologize and explore what we can do to rectify this situation."
This is truly an evolving story. It's fluid as they say, an intentional pun, but we'll have to wait and see if the city steps up financially and if the brewery can figure out another way to make that seasonal brew.