Late Kickstarter surge makes Goat Haus Biergarten a reality

There’s officially a public beer garden on tap for downtown Montgomery.

The plan to build the Goat Haus Biergarten behind an 1880s cottage on Clay Street sat thousands of dollars away from its all-or-nothing Kickstarter goal as the deadline approached. But donations have come pouring in over the final few days and pushed it over the top.

If the project hadn’t hit its $10,000 goal, the campaign would have failed and no donors would have paid anything.

Co-owners Adam Warnke and James Weddle kept a glass-half-full mindset during the process. Warnke said they knew that Kickstarter campaigns usually attract most of their donations in the first few days and the final few days, and “it’s kind of dead” in the middle. So they knew what to expect.

“I felt comfortable, but you never know,” Weddle said.

The Kickstarter campaign ends at midnight Thursday. With a few hours left, it had raised more than $11,000 from 80 backers.

More: Read more about the Goat Haus Biergarten project

The Montgomery Advertiser first reported in February that Warnke and Weddle wanted to set up a traditional German biergarten at 532 Clay St., on a hill overlooking downtown and the riverfront. The site already serves as an Airbnb stop and is the future home of Karma Gastropub.

Goat Haus is planning to serve beer and German food in the afternoon and early evening each weekend, with a little music and some outdoor beer stands. It’ll also be an event venue for everything from launch parties to wedding receptions. They’re planning to open to the public sometime this spring – “as fast as we can,” an excited Weddle said Thursday.

“It drives me crazy (to not already be open),” he said. “We’ve got March Madness. We’ve got St. Paddy’s Day.”

The Kickstarter campaign money will cover equipment, some minor renovations and landscaping work. Weddle said people have offered to help and have also put in some “cool ideas” for the setup, which is helping to keep costs down and the renovation time short.

In fact, Weddle said the scope of the biergarten could expand as the project moves along.

The Kickstarter page launched just a few days after the Advertiser reported that Common Bond Brewers was opening a production brewery and taproom just a few blocks away. Weddle said the two projects could help build momentum toward establishing the area as a craft beer hotspot.

The Goat House fundraising surge was reassuring in a different way, Warnke said.

“It allows us to know that, hey, people really want this,” he said.