Fremont Brewing Company...Because Beer Matters

Growing Up

2010-12-02T21:34:00.000-08:00

Soon you'll notice something different about our homepage if it hasn't already changed by the time you read this. It will soon feature a video produced by soulmoto, an upscale yet nimble video branding company whose portfolio includes Getty Images, Starbucks, and Rick Steves’ Europe. The world premier of of this swanky new video will be on FRIDAY, DEC. 3^RD, 4:00 – 9:00 pm at the Urban Beer Garden for December’s Fremont First Friday Art Walk.

It was quite a departure from our scrappy, DIY modus operandi to hire soulmoto to produce such a fancy video for us. But we figured it was time to grow up a little and put something pretty on our home page instead of the usual low-grade iPhone videos of the guys goofing around in the shop. I know some people are really into that roots sort of thing so don't worry, it will still be available on our site.

One of soulmoto's partners is Dave Scudder. He's a beer aficionado, a Fremont local, and a regular at the Urban Beer Garden. His familiarity with Fremont Brewing made him and his company the logical choice for this endeavor. Their product is absolutely gorgeous and entertaining, capturing perfectly the essence of Fremont Brewing’s people, beer, and community. Well, maybe not perfectly. We look a lot better and come off more articulate than in real life thanks to professional lighting and editing. But seriously, it conveys a genuine slice of who we are. Soulmoto’s tagline isn’t “moving brand stories” for nothing.

This little gem will be posted on the homepage as soon as we figure out how to load such a huge file where our YouTube embed usually goes. But stay tuned. And if you’re a regular at UBG, you might even see yourself in the footage!

PS: Sorry so lame in posting lately -- I got my real, paying job back at City Council. I'll get better.

(Image above provided by soulmoto.)

Almost ready! Cowiche Canyon organic hops, part 3

2010-09-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

This is the third post in a three-part series on our partnership with organic hop growers in Yakima.

My last two posts have focused on our partnership with the American Organic Hop Growers Association. I’ve talked about our trip to Yakima to visit the new Cowiche Canyon organic hop farm on entomologist Ron Britt’s family’s property just outside Yakima. And last time I wrote about some of the challenges faced by organic hop growers.

To review: on September 1^st, the Cowiche Canyon organic Simcoe® and Citra® hops were harvested. The next morning, Brad Carpenter, Ron Britt, and his son Reed trucked 75 lbs of each to Seattle.

It was tricky to brew but by the end of the day, our first fresh-hopped beer, the Cowiche Canyon Organic Fresh Hop Ale, was in the fermenter. Here’s Matt to expalain: “We had to use a totally different process with fresh hops. Using exclusively fresh, wet hops was an interesting challenge due to the sheer volume of hops and the unique flavor of fresh hops as opposed to dry hops. We decided to use our mash tun as a hop back which means we put 100 pounds of hops in one of our tanks and ran all the beer through this wall of hops before it went into our fermenters. The wall of hops concept was designed to get the freshest hop flavor possible out of the hops.”

Want to try some? We’ll tap it at the Yakima Fresh Hop Ale Festival on Oct. 2 but after that, it will be on tap for as long as the 15 barrels last at the Urban Beer Garden and maybe also in growlers. It was the ultimate “farm-to-table” experience to watch the evolution of the cowiche Canyon hop farm, eat them right off the vine on our visit and then make beer with them the day after harvest. We’re looking forward to many more seasons of collaboration with the Carpenters, Britts, and other members of the American Organic Hop Growers Association.

Cowiche Canyon organic hops, part 2

2010-09-08T15:08:00.001-07:00

Like most cash-crops, hops are very vulnerable to visitudes in both weather and supply and demand which drive prices up or down like a yo-yo. But unlike other crops, say corn or barley for example, the growing region for hops is relatively small. In 2008, according to the American Organic Hop Growers Association, the Yakima Valley produced 30,595 acres of hops, comprising 75% of the U.S. commercial hop production. Compare Yakima to other agricultural regions like the Midwest or the San Joaquin Valley in CA and you get my point. On top of that, demand for Northwest hops has exploded in recent years with both the growth of the craft brewing market and the decision by major manufacturers (think Anheuser-Bucsh) to source their hops from here rather than, say, New Zealand or Germany.

The cycle goes like this: a couple consecutive bad weather seasons could decrease the supply of Yakima hops and drive up their price. Conversely, subsequent growing seasons could produce bumper crops of hops which would lower prices. These price fluctuations make it difficult for growers to plan their next year’s crop and for brewers to budget for their hops needs. On top of that, the vast majority of brewers enter into multi-year contracts for hops, requiring them to commit to a price that might be relatively high, compared to prices in subsequent years when supplies might increase and prices drop – bad for brewers, good for growers. But the opposite can happen: brewers can luck into a low price in a multi-year contract during which the price of hops might increase – bad for growers, good for brewers. You might remember that a few years ago, supplies of Yakima hops fell and prices spiked, a cycle that jacked up the price of beer production and, consequently, the price of beer.

Given this volatility, you can see why it would seem very risky for hops growers to go organic, despite increasing demand for all things organic. Indeed, in 2009, only about 100 acres in WA are producing organic hops. Without all the fertilizers and chemical pesticides, an acre of organic bines yields half as much as conventionally-grown hops. And if it’s a bad year, well, see above. So brewers might not believe that they can secure a reliable supply of organic hops – or specific varieties of organic hops like Simcoe, Citra, or Amarillo that brewers need for their specialty beers. And most growers, lacking confidence that devoting their land to vastly more labor-intensive organic hops will pay off, are wary of going organic.

That’s why we’re supporting the efforts of the American Organic Hop Growers Association to dedicate increasing resources for organic hop production. By buying and promoting their organic hops, we’re trying to generate a reliable market that their growers can depend on as they plan for future production cycles. Last week, Brad Carpenter and Ron Britt trucked in a load of FRESH, ORGANIC hops from Cowiche Canyon’s first-ever harvest. (That's Matt, Ron Britt, Ron's son Reed, and Brad Carpenter holding up fresh organic Simcoe hop cones.) You might have read the tweets we sent out as the guys here brewed their first batch of fresh-hopped beer. The aroma was amazingly distinct – super-concentrated, earthy yet floral, and100% hoppy. We look forward to tapping the first batch of Cowiche Canyon Fresh-Hopped Ale at the Yakima Fresh Hop Festival on October 2 – stay tuned for sneak previews!

Cowiche Canyon organic hops, Part 1.

2010-08-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

This is the first of a three-part story about our trip to Yakima to tour an organic hop farm and why that's a big deal.

Last fall, we met with Brad and Craig Carpenter, the sixth generation of the oldest hop growing family in WA, and Ron Britt, their entomologist and pest-control czar. The Carpenters are also one of several families who own Yakima Chief, the major hops processor. They approached us because they were considering a new venture: an organic hop farm on Britt’s family property in Cowiche Canyon, just outside Yakima. But they wanted to spec out potential demand among Seattle microbreweries and they targeted us because of all our high-fallutin talk of sustainability on our website. (I posted about meeting them on Dec. 1, 2009)

Encouraged by our interest and the growing demand for organic hops in the craft brewing industry in general, they wasted no time and planted a half-acre of Simcoe and Citra hops. (We've featured both Simcoe and Citra in our cask IPA's.) They also formed the American Organic Hop Growers Association, comprised of a handful of other hop growers who are dedicating portions of their land to organic production. Last weekend, the whole gang here went to tour the bines and meet with Brad Carpenter, Ron and Kathie Britt and their sons Reed and Nathan, and Jason Perrault, Vice President of Select Botanicals and the actual, real-life creator of the Simcoe variety, among many other strains of organic (and conventional) hops. He’s pretty much a rock star in the beer world – google him. Videographer and Fremont Brewing fan Greg Young (aka @CoolGuyGreg), volunteered his time and expertise to video the history-in-the-making gathering. [And no, for once that was not a typo: they’re called “bines” because they’re not “vines” – hops climb and cling by little hairs instead of by tendrils as do vines – see, ya learn something every day.]

Cowiche Canyon, about six miles northwest of Yakima, is a stunning, basalt-lined canyon that frames the lush, winding Cowiche Creek, home to a remnant run of Coho salmon and several hundred species of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, including the rare Tauschia hooveri, found only there. So pristine and unique is this riparian oasis in the middle of the arid shrub-steppe surrounding it that the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy was formed in 1985 to preserve and protect it. Among the Conservancy’s many projects is to acquire and restore enough parcels of private and public land to the west of the canyon to build an 80-mile long trail from its mouth all the way to Mt. Rainier. (!) I know all this because its Executive Director, Betsy Bloomfield, came to the gathering to meet everyone and educate us on what the Conservancy is doing in the hops' backyard.

The Carpenters and Britts decided to locate their organic hop experiment there because, a) the Britts already owned the land, it having been in the family for 25 years and, b) because its isolation from any other hop fields will protect the plants from cross-fertilization by air-borne spores. But beyond these practical reasons, the Britts are committed to showing that agricultural uses can co-exist with conservation efforts, that it doesn’t have to be farmers vs. nature-freaks (of whom I am one, I guess). Indeed, since they’re farming organically, they’re not dumping a bunch of nasty chemicals into the creek, proving that farmers can be stewards and not mere extractors of the land.

I’ll close on that high-minded note. Next: the politics and economics of organic hops and AOHGA’s Grand Plan.

In these photos: The group shot is Ron Britt, Kathie Britt, Brad Carpenter (sitting), Matt Lincecum, and Betsy Bloomfield showing a map of Cowiche Canyon (the woman whose back is to the camera is Janet, a Britt family friend). Missing from the shot is Jeano who, with Kathie, made us the most amazing BBQ lunch. The guy standing in front of the hops is said rock-star horticulturalist Jason Perrault. The pic of the bines is courtesy of Brad Carpenter, taken July 19, 2010 (note the basalt towers in the background).

The Bad, Good, and New

2010-07-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

I have some good news and some bad news. Per my dark nature, I’ll give you the bad news first: our sub-letter, Blue Marble Energy is moving their production facility to Corvallis, MT. We’ve enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with this green energy company by giving them our spent grain which they essentially distill into high-grade chemical compounds for use in food flavorings, cosmetics and other products. The byproduct of this biorefining process is ammonia and methane which they will clean and sell as a clean, green renewable energy source. This is bad news because off-loading our spent grain has saved us about $500 a month in disposal costs – plus, they’ve been fun neighbors.

The good news – besides the fact that Corvallis will inherit a cutting-edge biochemical refinery* – is that we’ll be forced to come up with new, creative uses for our spent grain. Right now, we, like many microbreweries in town, have relationships with farmers who pick up our grain and feed it to their cattle, pigs and chickens instead of feeding them commercial feed which is expensive and usually loaded with lots of stuff animals were never meant to ingest. This is fine but pick-ups are sporadic and then there’s the little problem of all these farmers driving down from places like Marysville, emitting all those green house gasses for one truck-load of feed. (The photos above depict one of our takers. As you may gather, he's no hippy-dippy, anti-capitalist, slow-foodie -- just a guy who wants cheap, good feed.)

We’d like to expand and regularize this exchange for the benefit of not just farmers and Fremont Brewing Company but for many other local microbreweries. Just brainstorming here but wouldn’t it be great to develop a program that would pick up breweries’ spent grain, deposit it in one place (say, the new North transfer station, whenever and wherever it finally gets built), and then transport it to one central location (like, say, Cedar Grove’s facility up north) where farmers could pick it up closer to their farms?

To make this happen we’d need the cooperation of the City (which runs the transfer stations) and a company with big trucks like Cedar Grove as well as $. Maybe a regional entity could kick in some start-up funds and once a threshold number of breweries and farmers were involved, it could be self-sustaining, with breweries paying a fee much smaller than their regular disposal bill and farmers paying much less for animal feed than they would pay for commercially-available and antibiotic-laced feed (to say nothing of other nasty ingredients in industrialized feed that can make people and animals very sick).

It’s just an idea and in the meantime, we bid the folks at Blue Marble Energy farewell (although their corporate office will remain in Seattle) and the best of luck as they expand their business. To learn more about BME’s ventures, see http://bluemarblebio.com/newsroom/blue-marble-biomaterials-to-launch-specialty-biochemical-refinery/

* Why BME is taking its technology and jobs to Montana instead of relocating somewhere else in Washington is a matter for another day but suffice it to say WA dropped the ball on this one.

Give Me Liberty

2010-06-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

Having survived the dueling festivities of the Fremont Solstice Parade/Fremont Fair and the Washington Brewers Fest a couple weeks ago, we are now prepping for extended 4th of July Urban Beer Garden hours. We'll be open on Sunday from noon to 9:00 p.m. to serve party-goers en route to the Gasworks Park fireworks show.*

And in a special display of patriotism, we'll be serving "Liberty Lager," a small-batch collaboration between our head brewer Matt Lincoln and Elliot Ryan from the Latona Pub, first mentioned in this video (scroll to bottom). If the temperature gets above 65 that day, it will be the perfect, thirst-quenching treat -- light, yet complex. I should know because I just sampled it from the bright tank in the walk-in. The sample valve on that tank being rather touchy, I also gave the floor a gushing taste. That'll teach me from sneaking drinks in the walk-in! But I digress. We'll also be serving a cask-conditioned IPA (discussed by Matt Lincecum here in addition to our regular line-up.

You might have noticed we're trying to amplify our "online presence" via tweets (@fremontbrewing), our new Facebook page (become a fan and post on our wall!), and our video-enhanced homepage. Thanks for your patience while this 44-year old with Luddite tendencies attempts to master the world of social media.

I'm sad to inform you that one of our brewers, Aaron Golston, will be leaving us next week to begin a graduate program at UC Davis so he can be a rich and famous brewer on his own some day. Aaron came to us by way of Charlie from Pike Place Brewing and he's been of invaluable service from the get-go: building the brewery, designing recipes, hauling kegs all over town, teaching us about beer chemistry, and scaring my sons into submission when they get wild. He's super-smart, conscientious, and funny but you probably don't know that because we try to keep him away from customers (his attitude is an acquired taste). He will be missed, particularly bybar managers who've grown used to the pleasure of his sunny disposition. Pictured above, painting kegs -- he just loves repetitive, mind-numbing tasks!

Yesterday I went to Whole Foods (@wholefoodsrsq) to get stuff for a dinner party and I saw myself on their FBC growler display -- it was weird. But better than seeing myself on a poster in the post office. So here's a little reminder that you can buy our beer in all five Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue stores. And to answer questions about how long they keep, we shoot them full of C02 before filling them so that the beer stays fresher longer -- it can last weeks in the fridge before opening and for up to 3 or 4 days after opening, so I'm told. Speaking of Whole Foods, we'll be doing a tasting at the Interbay store (@interbaywfm) this Saturday, July 3rd from 4:00 to 6:00.

Finally, I'm excited to announce the launch of the Seattle Good Business Network, a network of local, independently-owned businesses that are committed to sustainability as an operating principle, either in their operations or products. I've been on the advisory team and I look forward to taking advantage of the business-to-business benefits as well as the business-to-consumer promotion opportunities. It's not just another business network and my description won't do it justice so just go here to find out more. It takes a village.

*Our regular Sunday hours are from noon to 5:00 p.m.

Happy Anniversary!!

2010-06-04T14:55:00.000-07:00

We're approaching the anniversary of a MAJOR MILESTONE in our history. The Fremont 5k & Briefcase Relay is next Friday, June 11 and we’re serving the beer. That event, ONE YEAR AGO, was the first time we ever served our beer to the public. I think we called it “Test Batch, Universale” or something like that because we hadn’t worked out all the kinks of our production process (remember that, Kemp?). And if you were there as a runner or just a partier, you’ll remember we hadn’t worked any of the kinks out of our serving system. We didn’t bring a cash box for change (and I was slow on the ol’ subtraction – change for 2 beers from a twenty is um, wait a minute…), we hadn’t decided who would pour, serve, and take money, etc. The lines got long but it was sunny, the beer tasted OK, and people were happy enough that we were invited back this year.

I get a little misty-eyed thinking about that day a year ago – how totally psyched we were to make our debut and how much has transpired in our business since then. We owe much to the enthusiastic and forgiving Fremont community for our continued success and all the fun we’ve had. So cheers to the fact that we’re still here together and promise: the beer garden at the run will be run by true pros who’ve got beer-making and counting down pat.

Enjoy these photos from the vault. They include current server/investor Kemp Hiatt, Matt Lincecum, and yours truly, Sara Nelson.

Seattle Beer Week Events

2010-05-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a not-necessarily-comprehensive list of events we're participating in for Seattle Beer Week. Please refer to the event list for more details.

Today, Tuesday, 5/18:

Beer Cruise, 2:00 – 6:00, riders start at the Big Time and arrive at FBC about 3:00.

Wednesday, 5/19

Firkin-Firkin WA vs OR @ Elysian Capitol Hill, 3:00 – 11:00 serving Totonac BBomb
Beer & Brats at the Ballpark, Safeco Field, 5:00 – 7:00
Brewers Night at Alligator Soul, Everett, 6:00 – 10:00

Thursday, 5/20:

Urban Beer Garden, 4:00 – 8:00, as usual
Ray’s Boathouse Copper River Extravaganza, 6:00 – 8:00, sold out.

Friday, 5/21:

Urban Beer Garden, 4:00 – 8:00, as usual
Brewers 9 Ball Tournament, Taphouse Grill, 6-10:00

Sunday, 5/22:

Closing Ceremony at Hales noon- 5:00

Fresh Fills!

2010-05-13T16:14:00.000-07:00

Seattle Beer Week is here!!! It’s scary thinking of all that great beer, all those fun events, and all those calories. We’re participating in several events over the next 2 weeks; tonight we’ll be serving at the Park Pub’s New Brewers Night and at West Seattle’s Beverage Place Cask Fest (serving a dry-hopped cask IPA with blood orange zest). Check SBW's calendar for more info.

Tomorrow, Friday, the 3 Seattle Whole Foods stores will launch their brand-new “Fresh Fills” growler offering with our beer!!! It was a bit of a scramble filling 72 growlers of IPA and 48 growlers each of Universale and Solstice during the ramp up for SBW but, hey, we’re scrappy and highly motivated (that's Matt filling in the pic above)! It’s been fun working with WF Corporate on this project and we look forward to more in the future.

To be honest, we had a fleeting concern that we’d lose business if people can buy our growlers at WF. But let’s face it, it’s a pain to get here during our business or UBG hours and the customer service isn’t always exemplary. So we figured the kind of person stopping by for a growler in the middle of the day (i.e. a determined, yet slacker, fan) is not the same kind of person who’s picking up some of our beer while shopping for delicious, healthy groceries at WF (basically, everyone else). Like I said, fleeting.

I look at this partnership with WF as a great opportunity to spread the goodness – and also, it might be the closest I get to being famous, with Matt’s and my photo on the displays ("end-caps") all over town (promo shot, above).

Hey, don’t forget we’re on Twitter: @fremontbrewing ! And you might have noticed the video snippets I’ve added to the homepage – fancy!

Can Can

2010-04-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

The used caning line Matt scored for us arrived yesterday! It's a manual system capable of canning 20 cases an hour. Now we

just have to buy

some cans (minimum order: 85,000) and soon you'll see us in grocery stores -- and elsewhere...

Also yesterday, we put Universale into two cab barrels where they'll live for a year, turning into a subtle, oak & cabernet-inflected sour. Sours are the new thing, you know, and our head brewer, Matt Lincoln, produced some of the classiest sours when he worked at Goose Island in Chicago.

You might've noticed that we've been pouring cask beers at the Urban Beer Garden lately. Last week was a cask IPA and this weekend it's going to be a Porter. They haven't tapped it yet

though so I don't know how to describe its loveliness. Come on down and try it, why dontcha?

Last week's FRESH event with Theo Chocolate, Mt. Townsend Creamery and Whole Foods was a big hit among folks into sustainably-produced local food and beer (which pretty much covers half of Seattle, right?). Fun to party with our neighbors from Theo, who -- contrary to my Willy Wonka Oompa-Loompa associations -- are quite hip and hot.

(I'm pretty lame at formatting these posts and getting the photos where I want them. Above: Matt with canning line, barrels of Universale, the Theo team, Council President Richard Conlin speaking to the FRESH crowd, and Graham Day from Mt. Townsend Creamery -- the last 3 photos taken by Amy Benson.)

FRESH!

2010-04-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

We've wanted to collaborate on a project with our neighbor, Theo Chocolate, for some time now, but we were always a little shy about approaching such a highly-esteemed chocolatier. As it turns out, they came to us and we've joined forces to promote "FRESH," an award-winning documentary celebrating the farmers, business people, and visionaries from accross the country whose commitment to local, sustainable food is helping to revolutionize our food system.

At an event here on Sunday, April 25 from 3:00 - 5:00 pm, Theo will launch two brand new chocolates made with our winter and summer seasonals. We've sampled a couple iterations and they are melt-in-your-mouth divine. That's chocolatier Joanna Lepore, in the middle, one of Theo's marketing people, Audrey, on the left, and me on the right tasting the first batch in Theo's test kitchen.

Here's Joanna's description: "The Abominable hits with a malty bitterness that recalls the fermentation process of making both chocolate and beer. The Saison is more subtle, finishing with a grassy bite that stands out against the sweetness of the ganache. Decorated with hops and malted barley, each confection ends with a powerful beer-y crunch that lends depth to this decadent treat!"

Thinking a party with just beer and chocolate might be a tad decadent, we've teamed up with Mt. Townsend Creamery to provide a smattering of their hand-crafted cheeses. Tickets for the event cost $25 and include a voucher to "FRESH," running at Seattle Central Cinema from April 30 - May 6th.

Special guests will include Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, champion of sustainability and instigator of Seattle's Local Food Action Initiative and Ana Sofia Joanes, Director of "Fresh". Capacity is limited to 200 so get your tickets now!

Call for Artists, Cask Festival, Twestival

2010-03-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

We're now participants in the Fremont First Friday Art Walk. This month we featured bike screen prints by Dan Stuckey. Now we need more material to show, most pressingly for Friday, April 2. And we're building up a list of folks to show throughout the year. So if you are -- or know -- an artist looking for exposure and sales, please contact me by email: sara@fremontbrewing.com.

Today, we tapped the first firkin of our brand new cask program! It's an IPA, dry-hopped with Chinook and Amarillo hops. It's delicious and ON TAP tonight at UBG. Tapping it was a rehearsal (it sort of erupted) for the casks we're contributing to the not-to-be-missed Cask Festival this Saturday at Seattle Center Fischer Pavilion:

Totonac Bbomb: slow-roasted winter ale aged in 15-year old bourbon barrels from Kentucky with organic vanilla bean pods. It's basically an elaboration of our Bourbon Abominable (B-Bomb) which, sadly, is no longer available at UBG.
Wee Little Woody: Universale Pale aged on American white oak and spiced with zest of organic blood orange.
Mystere de Mars: As in March. It's a secret -- 3rd in the Mystery Series.

Matt's on his way right now to Emerald City Trapeze to donate the beer for Twestival Seattle. It's a 24-hour-long, world-wide fundraiser for World Concern. Tweeters and other social media geeks will schmooze, party, tweet, and swing (on trapezes) for this non-profit that's raising money for earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile. TONIGHT from 7-10:30.

Hey cyclists: SDOT finally installed a bike rack in front of the brewery! I was getting impatient as folks were locking their bikes up to anything that doesn't move -- the gas meter, garbage cans, trees. Rack space is limited so get here early.

All Night Long

2010-03-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

You gotta know about this: There’s a proposal circulating among Seattle electeds, bar/club owners, and opinion leaders to extend alcohol service hours in Seattle. The Seattle Nightlife and Music Association has been promoting two versions of the idea – the first to stagger closing times (2:00, 3:00, 3:30 or whatever) of venues based on size and other criteria and, more recently, to allow 24-hour service hours and “let the market decide.” Both have received initial support from Mayor McGinn, City Attorney Pete Homes, and several Councilmembers. Many news outlets have run stories, including Publicola, King 5 News, The Stranger, and KUOW here and here (CMs Richard Conlin and Sally Clark applaud the issue about half-way into Weekday).

To name a few of the proposal’s many benefits:

Times are tough and this would give a boost to SMALL BUSINESS. Bar, restaurant, and club owners would generate more sales, which would result in increased City revenues.
Having more night spots open in the wee hours would invigorate Seattle’s nightlife scene and would result in more “eyes on the street”, making people feel safer than they otherwise would while carousing or returning home from the late shift.
Perhaps counter-intuitively, proponents argue that public safety would increase, partly because of the above reason and also because police could better allocate their patrol officers. If they don’t have to be everywhere at 2:00 am when all bars close and patrons flood the streets en masse (after slamming as many drinks as possible come “last call”), they can more strategically deploy cops according to the varying closing times.

Of course, for either version of this proposal to work, the City would have to enact several measures to ensure that venues take responsibility for over-drinking patrons and comply with more stringent safety regulations.

Personally, I love the idea and not primarily for crass business self-interest. Yes, Fremont Brewing could benefit from increased late-night sales of our product – but so would everyone on tap. Rather, I find increasing City revenues and boosting Seattle’s nightlife scene the most compelling reasons to go forward. And I agree that extending alcohol service hours would decrease many of the problems associated with the binge drinking caused by mandatory 2:00 closing times.

All-night/extended drinking is nothing new in many GROWN-UP cities in the US and beyond (see above news sources for examples). But Seattle’s sad legacy of over-the-top blue laws might contribute to resistance to this effort. Leading with the indisputable economic benefits might be the best approach: Seattle needs more sales and B&O tax-generated revenues to fund services we demand, like parks, libraries, and cops & firefighters. Equally important, instead of inhibiting nightlife, Seattle should take full advantage of the rich cultural resources this city has been famous for (namely the performing arts and its resident, thirsty hipsters) and give folks more options for public, communal recreation.

My last word on this is that we’re lucky to have such an engaged, politically savvy group of bar/club owners to guide policy makers on this (esp. The Red Door's Pete Hanning and The 5 Point Cafe's David Meinert). They’re putting in a lot of time and energy to provide the political cover our electeds need to persuade the WA Liquor Control Board to change existing regulations. It’s easy to kvetch about how hard it is to make a buck but the SNMA has a plan that all bar/club/restaurant owners stand to gain from.

Art & Politics

2010-03-03T14:16:00.000-08:00

At last Friday's Urban Beer Garden, our landlord, Suzie Burke, brought her beer-loving, home-brewing, off-duty buddies from SPD's North Precinct to enjoy some pints.

In case you missed my last post, we’re now on Twitter (@fremontbrewing) so you can follow new developments in recipe experimentation, upcoming events, and plain old daily life around here.

At this Thursday’s (March 4^th) Urban Beer Garden, we’re hosting a big event for Seattle Politicos, a Facebook group I’m involved in. It’s the kick-off event for this year’s campaign season and a good opportunity for new candidates running for state office to meet Seattle’s political cogniscenti (and check-books); for incumbents to shore up support among their base; and for political hacks to play their favorite sport. I mention this because everyone’s welcome as usual but space will be tight – not the best UBG night to bring your PEPS group. Fortunately for those who wearied of my frequent soap-boxing last year, I don’t have a dog in this season’s race so I won’t be blogging as much about politics unless encouraged.

We are now participants in Fremont’s First Friday Art Walk, starting this Friday! We’ll be showcasing Dan Stuckey’s bike screen-prints (the ones that have been up all along, coincidentally). Dan designed our gorgeous logo. He was our next-door neighbor for years before he abandoned us for California because his wife got a sweet job developing gear for Fox Racing. I tell ya, this guy’s gonna be famous someday so you might as well start accumulating his signed, limited-run prints while we’re selling them for a dirt-cheap twenty bucks.

Tweet tweet

2010-02-25T11:11:00.000-08:00

Kicking and screaming, we've submitted to our fans' demands and we are now “Twitterific”! (Is it just me or does that just sound so babyish?) Follow @fremontbrewing and you’ll get at least one tweet a day about life at ye ol’ brewery. I’m just learning the intricacies of this whole social media thing (thanks to help from my beer- and social media-geek hand-holder, Michael Foley @foleymo) and your patience is appreciated while I work out the kinks. If you’re wondering why I’m following Georgetown University, it’s because I thought I’d found Georgetown Brewing (@gtownbeer) and I don’t know how to un-follow yet.

And speaking of modernization, we're planning a major website redo that will reduce the boring text and feature rotating short videos of our goings-on among other things. Stay tuned...

Also new: we’re on the brink of signing with a distributor so you’ll have many more places at which to enjoy our beer – even some places south of the ship canal!

Our Urban Beer Garden is thriving and we’ve now got 6 beers on tap instead of four. This week: Universale, Interurban IPA, Abominable (our winter dark), Bourbon Abominable (my absolute favorite – Aboninable aged in bourbon barrels for months), Nitro Universale (creamy), and Little Woody (an old favorite, revived: our oaked Universale). That's Aaron prepping a tea-bag thingy of Chinook and Cascade hops for the next Woody.

Thanks to Green Frog Acoustic Tavern in Bellingham for hosting our Brewers Night last night. Matt Lincoln and Aaron had a great time – Aaron mostly at the expense of the red-head wine-drinker.

The new normal

2010-01-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

The two new unitanks have been hooked up, rinsed and put to use. Yesterday we brewed a double-batch of Universale and today will be a double of Interurban IPA. By day’s end tomorrow, we’ll have 120 barrels of beer on the floor (“…120 barrels of beer. You take one down…”) in varying states of readiness. Feels good not having to ration product all the time to meet accounts.

If you missed out on sampling our delicious winter Abominable Ale during the holidays, don’t fret. It is still available in growlers and at the Urban Beer Garden so drink up – we’re offering 12 oz. goblets for 3 bucks while supply lasts. And if you want a really, really decadent treat, we’ve got a bit of our bourbon barrel-aged Abominable left on tap this week too. Redolent of whiskey, rich but not cloying, and about 8% alcohol, this is a rare treat (not sold by growler due to limited quantity).

In with the new!

2009-12-31T14:07:00.000-08:00

The Urban Beer Garden is OPEN tonight and tomorrow night, DECEMBER 31st and JANUARY 1st, 4:00 to around 8:30 p.m. -- the perfect place to launch your New Year's Eve carousing and nurse your post-party hangover. On tap this week:

1. Oak-Aged Abominable Ale: A blend of our winter ale, aged in heavy-toasted French oak barrels and medium-toasted American oak barrels.

2. Universale: the intergalactically, world-famously tasty ale that begat the Empire of Fremont Brewing Co.

3. Interurban IPA: Perfectly balanced -- hoppy but not too hoppy.

4. Abominable Ale: roasty, chocolatey, malt flavors balanced by subtle hoppy spice. Warm up to it. Don't be scared to be Abominable.

Double the fun!

2009-12-22T16:43:00.000-08:00

We’ve doubled our capacity! Yesterday, Jim Uer of Interior Stainless delivered two brand-new 30-barrel unitanks that he made in his shop in Summerland, BC. We bought our first two used from Georgetown Brewery, also supplied by Interior Stainless. So now we have four identical, gorgeous, stainless steel tanks, all lined up and ready for action. Jim, his wife, and two daughters drove them down on a long flat-bed trailer attached to their family pick-up. These things weigh 2,000 lbs each and took some fancy fork-lifting to get into place. Jim’s a calm, tall craftsman whose primary clientele is small breweries -- which seems to be a lucrative and fun market niche (compared to, say, dairies or bio-deisel or any other industry needing stainless steel tanks).

Why is this major purchase such a big deal? First, some Brewing 101: beer starts by boiling grain, hops, and magic in water to make wort. Once the wort is ready, it’s pumped from the brew house into a unitank where it ferments for a week or so. After the fermentation stage, the beer is transferred to another unitank for finishing: the suspended yeast falls to the bottom, carbon dioxide is added and the beer’s ready to be put into kegs. They’re called “unitanks” because they do everything: ferment, cool, refine, carbonate.

We have a 15-barrel brew house and until now, we could only accommodate two batches of beer at any one time – one batch in the fermenter, one finishing in the other tank. Even if we brewed double batches, we’d still only have two brews (or 60 barrels max) in the pipeline at any one time. With two additional tanks, we can do more experimenting with recipes, produce more one-off specialty beers, and make more mistakes without worrying about having enough beer for our wholesale accounts and retail sales. So this is a major milestone in our evolution. Now we need to get our hands on about 300 more kegs and we can sit tight while the cash comes rolling in – until we shell out the big, big bucks for a canning line.

Reminder: we’re offering the Interurban IPA at cheap, holiday prices through December 31^st: $3.00 pints at the Urban Beer Garden, $13.00 growlers (glass and fill), $6.00 growler refills, and two free FBC pint glasses if you buy a keg. Please check our holiday schedule to ensure someone’s here to take your money and check out our swanky new merchandise while you’re at it.

HOLIDAY IPA SPECIAL and NEW MERCHANDISE

2009-12-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

Holiday shopping got you stressed? We can help. We’ve got a whole new shipment of merchandise including hoodies, women’s, men’s and kid-sized long & short-sleeve T-shirts in a dizzying (but not overwhelming) array of colors and styles. Many items feature an image of one of our fermenters on the front, launching our “artsy” line of brewery apparel. We also have baseball caps embroidered with our logo. And then of course, there’s always BEER which makes an ideal gift and sure takes the shopping edge off! Scroll down for pricing or go to the “Schwag” section of our website for photos of selected items modeled by real beer drinkers (and taken by iPhone – classy!).

And speaking of beer, sidle on down to the Urban Beer Garden for SPECIAL HOLIDAY PRICES on our new Interurban IPA! Pints: $3.00, new growlers: $13, growler refills: $6. Or buy a keg of IPA for that Boxing Day party and get two free commemorative pint glasses! And, just a reminder, the UBG is open Thursday, Friday, and now Saturday evenings from 4:00 to 8:30-ish. We’re open for retail Monday through Friday during regular working hours and now Saturdays from noon until last call. The IPA special will last through this month but if I were you, I’d take advantage of our very limited quantity of bourbon barrel-aged Abominable Winter Ale – truly extraordinary (if you’re a whisky fan).

PRICING:

Hoodies: $35

Unisex and Women’s long-sleeve T-shirts: $20

Kid-sized long-sleeve T-shirts: $15

Unisex and Women’s short-sleeve T-shirts: $15

Baseball caps: $20

Growlers (excluding IPA which is cheaper): glass + fill $15, refills $8

Bourbon-Beer and IPA

2009-12-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

In case you’re wondering what to give those folks in your life who “have it all” (I don’t know anybody like that but I hear they exist), I wanted to let you know that we’ve got a huge new shipment of clothes for sale. Long and short-sleeve, men’s and cute-cut women’s, kids’ long sleeve shirts, hoodies, and soon baseball caps when Destee-Nation Shirt Co., our producer, gets them to us today or tomorrow. In addition to our logo, we have a new graphic of one of our big fermenters on the front of some of our items for the artsy-inclined on your holiday list.

Last night we threw a party (see photo) for our investors to thank them for making possible what was only last year a mere twinkle in Matt’s eye. We’re completely equity-financed (until some bank does what TARP intended and start LENDING MONEY with all that cash taxpayers fronted them) and a long time ago I said that I would extend a special thanks to them.

THANK YOU SO MUCH (in no meaningful order), Kemp, Matt, Eric, Shawn, Rob, Jerry, Michael, David, Colter, Ryan, Walt, and your spouses/SO’s for your generosity!!! You saw our vision and had faith in our ability to realize it. I believe the folks who drink our beer around town and enjoy the scene at the Urban Beer Garden appreciate your support as well. Cheers to you!

This morning I sampled some of our bourbon barrel-aged Abominable Ale Winter Warmer. Wow. Dark beer heavily infused with whisky -- yum. That's a picture of Matt Lincoln tapping a barrel for samples. Also, in case you haven't heard, we're serving (and selling) our Interurban IPA, FINALLY! As you know, I'm not a hop person but even I like this stuff. It's hoppy enough to be an IPA but you don't need a chainsaw to get through a glass. Check it out at the Urban Beer Garden this week (and buy a shirt while you're at it).

CO2 -- bad, Organic hops -- good!

2009-12-01T16:05:00.000-08:00

An Urban Beer Garden regular recently admonished me for not blogging since Oct. 29 – my, how time flies!* But during my silence, a lot of interesting stuff has been going on around here. First, I’m working with Ross Freeman who is the Sustainability Director for Stevens Pass to finally calculate our carbon footprint using the Seattle Climate Partnership calculator. Our hope is to calculate our footprint per pint of beer produced and then, over the next few months, make serious efforts to reduce that footprint so that we can eventually get to a zero carbon footprint -- a lofty goal but there’s nothing like a challenge to motivate!

Part of reducing our footprint will entail funneling our CO2 into greenhouses that we’re in the exploratory phase of building on our roof. We’ll grow hops horizontally and probably lots of edible greens. I’ve long been distressed that the fermentation process of beer produces a bunch of CO2 that drifts into the atmosphere and changes the climate – bad, bad, bad. Adding insult to injury, we actually buy a big tank of CO2 and inject it into the beer at the last stage – expensive! The ideal solution would be to purchase a CO2 recapture system that stores our yeast-produced CO2 in a pressurized tank and converts it into a form we need in the finishing process. Big, commercial breweries do this because it’s cost-effective and they can afford the big bucks these systems cost (plus, they get carbon credits). But a system to fit our scale of operation would cost about $700,000 which is way, way, way out of our range. (If there are any rogue engineers who’d like to design us a system for less, get in touch!)

So the next best thing would be carbon sequestration -- in this case, putting that CO2 to good use by growing plants. Remember kids: plants breathe in CO2 and produce oxygen and food.

Another exciting thing is that yesterday the owners of Carpenter Ranches in Yakima paid us a visit to discuss the possibility of establishing a long-term relationship to purchase their organic hops (in this photo from left to right: FBC owner Matt Lincecum, Carpenter Ranches owner Craig Carpenter, his son, Colt, his brother, Brad, Ron Britt, Entomologist -- pest control czar, and our Head Brewer, Matt Lincoln). The Carpenter family is the oldest hop-growing family in Washington. Seven generations have been growing hops on their land since 1868. They supply several big beer producers with conventionally-grown Cascade, Columbus, Simca and other hop varieties but they’ve been devoting increasing acerage to grow hops organically. They already have several certified organic acres of land and several more in transition. But growing anything organically is more risky and costly – requiring high-maintenance integrated pest management methods (primarily developing fungus-resistant strains and using aphid and mite predators), higher labor costs, higher-tech watering systems etc. So the Carpenter family approached us to see if we’d like to become regular customers.

You might think there’d be enough organically-oriented breweries to provide a fairly steady revenue stream but, as I learned, a beer only has to have 95% organic ingredients to be certified organic and hops only contisitute about 3% of the total ingredient load. Therefore, if the grain’s organic, they don’t have to fuss with organic hops. Given the volatility of the hop market as a whole and organic hops in particular, many beer producers are reluctant to build recipes around an ingredient they can’t be sure they can get every year. And without a stable customer base, hop growers are reluctant to invest in the higher costs of organic production. But the Carpenter family is one of a handful of hop growers who are starting a non-profit organic hop association in order to share the resources needed to develop a diverse line-up of pest-resistant organic hop varieties – spreading the risk and increasing supply. Again, the beauty of the Collective!

More on all of this later. BTW, check us out at the Winter Beer Fest at Hales this weekend and we're providing the beer for a Seattle Climate Partnership event tomorrow, hosted by Unico. And we're also providing the beer for Councilmember-elect Mike O'Brien's campaign debt-relief part on monday, Dec. 6, ditto for Mayor-elect Mike McGinn on December 14th. google these events and drink up!

* By way of excuse, first there was the last push of the campaign (Richard won by almost 80% and received more votes than any Seattle candidate ever, including mayoral and unopposed candidates.). Then, on the Monday following the election, I reported for jury duty and was, despite my best efforts to get rejected, empanelled on a jury for a civil case that was to last about 3 weeks (Matt was not pleased). I served 2 days (fascinating!) but when I went to the doctor to deal with a cough I’d had for 2 weeks and the fever and muscle aches that I’d been experiencing for a couple days, I was diagnosed with swine flu and dismissed to convalesce (after likely infecting everyone in the jury box). Then there was Thanksgiving break, etc.

Last Call!

2009-10-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Just a quick reminder that Universale is the Red Door's Beer of the Month and you should take advantage of the discounted pint and pitcher prices before this month ends. Pints: $3.75, pitchers: $13.50.

On tap today and tomorrow at Urban Beer Garden are: 1) From Pumpkin to Carriage Stout (a rich stout subtly flavored with real pumpkin but without the allspice, cardamom, cinnamon spicing of many pumpkin beers), 2) Little Woody Oaked and Dry-hopped Pale, 3) Universale, and 4) Nitro Universale.

Also, we're finally on tap at the Nickerson Street Saloon and we're breaking into classy joints like the Hunt Club at the Sorrento Hotel and the Grand Hyatt -- but don't let that dissuade you.

Community

2009-10-22T16:53:00.000-07:00

Our Urban Beer Garden continues to draw a fun, eclectic crowd.* My favorite offering tonight is the Gilded Marmot Belgian Golden Ale, superbly crafted by Matt Lincoln. It’s light (in taste and color, not alcohol) yet complex and refreshingly un-hoppy (but then, I’m one of those IPA-hating philistines). Don’t take my word for it, c’mon down!

Despite the craziness of the campaign trail (Election Day’s Nov. 3 – don’t forget to vote!), I finally managed to add content to the “community” section of our sustainability page and I added another: Community Involvement. It’s important to remind ourselves that one of the things that gives us so much satisfaction is being part of a thriving community, meeting new people, making connections, becoming part of the fabric of the social life of Fremont and beyond. Easy for me to say since I don’t actually make our beer and thus derive satisfaction only from drinking it.

But really, when Matt considered the perils of opening a small business amid a recession, one of the things that drove him into beer-making in Fremont was the desire to contribute something of value to the Greater Good. Whether or not beer, however sustainably-produced, is the right something is admittedly a matter of debate (insert long digression on the dangers of alcohol abuse). But providing a place to get together with friends, meet new people, cruise for dates, or just sit alone in the company of others is important. (Cafes serve this purpose too but -- and maybe I'm just going to the wrong ones -- nowadays it's sort of creepy how everyone's hidden behind their laptops.) Because places where one can re-create oneself and connect with others sustain community and provide refuge from the alienation and anonymity of these hyper-speedy, teched-out, economically-precarious, weird times. End of sermon.

Cheers, Sara

*Last Friday, a local PEPS group rendez-voused here – not to scare the child-averse among you. The typical flow of folks is as follows: 4-5:30, parents returning from picking up their kids from school, thirsty Bikram Yoga studs, and various drinkers convinced it’s beer o’clock somewhere (like Montana maybe). From 5-6:30 it’s the after-work crowd, from Fremont’s many large (i.e. Adobe, Getty Images) and small businesses (i.e. Bjarko/Serra Architects). These folks come to meet up with friends or have a bite before their main gig of the night. Then from 7-8:00ish it’s people like me who consider going out for a beer the big event of the night.

Beer of the month!

2009-10-02T16:17:00.000-07:00

Universale is the Beer of the Month at Fremont’s Red Door, starting tonight! Not only is this great promo for Fremont Brewing, patrons get to drink our beer for cheap: $3.75 a pint or $13.50 for a pitcher.

Our Universale Pale and the Organic Berry Pale Ale (“Mystere de la Passion”) received top rankings at the Fremont Oktoberfest a couple weeks ago. Both were rated 4 out of 5 on the special iPhone app created for the event. No beer got 5 out of 5, making me question the ratings criteria. But whatever. Let’s just say the discriminating sophisticates who went to Oktoberfest thought we were pretty good.

Meanwhile, back at the brewery, the Urban Beer Garden is going strong. The Red Door’s old swanky furniture provides intimate little niches in an otherwise pretty industrial space. I brought in more toys to entertain the little ones accompanying the pick-up-from-daycare crowd so that’s good. On tap today: Nitro Portage Bay Porter (new), All Salmon IPA (new), Little Woody Oak-Aged Pale, and Universale. Reminder: the Urban Beer Garden will be closed next Thursday, Oct. 8 for a previously scheduled event (see below) but will re-open on Friday, Oct. 9.

Drinking Liberally

2009-09-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t had a chance to check out our Urban Beer Garden, I encourage you to do so. It's on Thursday and Friday, 4-8:00 pm.* Matt and his crew serve three or four beers, including Universale, Nitro Universale and a couple small-batch mystery beers they invent just for fun – last Friday featured Firelight IPA and Matt’s Creamy Steamy Porter. Patrons get to enjoy the fruit of our brewers' creative genius and we get the benefit of the community’s feedback for future recipe refinement. Pints are four or five bucks and seven buys you an FBC pint glass and a fill.

For most people, the attraction of the UBG is simply to have a place to hang out with friends on Thursday and Friday afternoons from 4-8:00 – to unwind after work or get loose before the weekend’s prime-time events. Since beginning three weeks ago, the news has spread among locals and folks who work in and around Fremont that it’s a relaxed, unpretentious (yet hip in its own way) scene where you can meet up with other friends, have a bite, or just hang with our crew.

We have one long family-style table made from wide-plank fir bleacher board and several swanky red leather circular booths and funky art glass tables inherited from the old Red Door that we set up for the occasion. We have menus from several local restaurants from which you can order delivery or take-out (if you’re not sated by the pretzels Aaron so generously shares). Kids of all ages are welcome – there’s chalk, a sturdy spring ridey-thing and other stuff to entertain them (with your supervision, of course).

Last Friday, there was a steady stream of people sampling the crazy brews, rendez-vousing with buddies, and enjoying local grub. Many stopped by just to pick up a growler and ended up staying until close. It’s that cool. Try it!

*Please note: on Thursday, October 8 the Fremont Brewing Company will host a party for Councilmember Richard Conlin to raise money for his reelection campaign (which I’m managing). So the Urban Beer Garden will resume the next day, on Friday, Oct. 9.

But please consider attending this shindig for Richard! It’s an open event aimed at people who aren’t your typical political junkies but who appreciate Richard’s work on behalf of neighborhoods, the environment, sustainable local food, skateboarding, the music scene, transit (pretty much the gamut of good causes) – or want to know more about what he’s done for them lately and what he plans to do in his next term if reelected. Basically, we’re expanding our base by appealing to beer lovers. In fact, YOU are very likely my target audience so come on down, drink some beer, eat some food (I’m looking for donations in this department), meet your councilmember, and get to know more about your city.

The facts: October 8, 6-9:00 pm. $25 suggested donation. RSVPs would be nice: sara@richardconlin.com.

Four-Oh!

2009-09-07T12:47:00.000-07:00

Guess what! Today, September 7th, is Matt's birthday -- he's 40!!! Last night I asked Matt how he felt about this socially-contrived milestone in his life and he told me that his greatest pride is fulfilling a goal he set for himself long ago: to launch his own successful business by the time he was 40.

And here we are. You all can help his dream come true by staying engaged in the evolution of Fremont Brewing Company.

Happy birthday, Matt! Cheers for beer!

Love, your wife.

On-Site Urban Beer Garden opens THURSDAY AUGUST 27!

2009-08-26T16:27:00.000-07:00

To kick off the official end of summer celebration season, the Fremont Brewing Company is opening the Urban Beer Garden this Thursday. The UBG will be inside the brewery, very low-key/industrial in atmosphere (we turned some kegs over and put some old bleacher boards together for a table) and will be serving Universale and one-of-a-kind beers as they come to maturity. Hours are from 4pm-8pm Thursdays and Fridays until the weather turns cold, wet and rainy. PLEASE NOTE: Hop Fest is this Friday and we all have to be there, so the beer garden will not run this coming Friday but will resume the following week on September 3^rd and 4^th.

On Tap for Thursday, August 27 at the Urban Beer Garden:

Universale Pale

Rye P.A. - this is what happens when you think about beer too much. We blended organic pilsner malt and pale malt, added some crystal malt, some crystal rye and a wee touch of Belgian aromatic malt and then dropped a bomb of Amarillo and other hops in the boil and stepped back after we dryhopped with Cascade and German Saaz. How does it taste? We want to know, too. Come explore this bold beer, on tap.

NitroUniversale - it had to be done. We added a nitro tap and put the Universale on for a little fun - creamy pale anyone? Mmmmm.

Coming Up: porters, more IPAs (oaked), blonde ales, Belgian wits, and more.

Come on down to the Fremont Urban Beer Garden this Thursday from 4pm-8pm and enjoy the creative side of beer. Also, bring yer cash because we do not have the credit card swiper running yet.

Thanks,

Matt Lincecum, Founder, Owner, Brewer

Universale comes home!

2009-08-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

The big news is that although we’ve been on tap for about 3 weeks at (by now) over 25 watering holes, we’re finally doing a media event at the LATONA PUB next MONDAY, AUGUST 17 to celebrate our “opening.” Matt will be there to talk about Universale Pale and our experience launching a small, sustainable business during a severe economic downturn.

Why there? Why now? Because Matt has lived in Green Lake off and on during most of his time in Seattle, including the last nine years in our current home, and is thus a dedicated Latona patron. Because the Latona is famous for serving high-quality craft beer and nurturing the region’s microbrewery scene. Because the Latona was the first place to tell Matt they’d put his beer on tap if he ever got this thing off the ground. That covers the “there.” As for the “now,” because the promised tap opened up. Because it could have been sooner but I needed some time to get a news advisory out in hope of attracting media attention. Because the Latona turns 22 years old at midnight on the 17^th. Because there’s no time like the present.

To witness the symbolic tapping of Universale at the Latona Pub, BE THERE BY 7:00 PM and stick around until midnight to sing “Happy Birthday” to one of the city’s best.

Acting on a tip from a volunteer, Matt talked his way into being one of three beers on tap at the Seattle Boat Show last weekend. They hadn’t planned on 3 but upon tasting Universale, they threw us on and ran through an unexpectedly high number of kegs. That exposure led to several requests for kegs o’ Universale at upcoming events and parties.

By the way, they’re draining our kegs fast at Leny’s Tavern (2219 N 56th St), another fine Green Lake bar (or Wallingford, depending on which Chamber of Commerce you’re talking to).

If you vote, remember to mail in your ballot by 8:00 pm on August 18^th! I’m voting YES on Referendum 1.

Taps and Bags

2009-08-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

I should’ve known that my pledge to blog every Monday would result in failure. My New Year’s resolution every year is to floss and drink more water and I usually bail on that by early February. Sorry if I let you down last week but I’m really trying.

So, major progress on the retail front! Matt has secured about 25 accounts at bars/taverns/restaurants around town, mostly in the north end. Find a source near you here.

If you were to stroll along 34^thand turn north onto Woodland Park Ave, N., you’d instantly notice the striking blue (not navy, sky or royal blue but handsome “Honorable Blue”) building with a sleek, stainless steel-lined doorway on your left. The first thing you’d see upon entering is a handsome, antique (1936) wooden cooler. Matt bought that cooler at ReStore and, unbeknownst to him at the time, it was already connected to our family. Its previous home was Pies and Pints on 65^th near Roosevelt (serving meat pies and cold beverages), which was owned by Vince Gallapega until he died suddenly in 2007. Vince was my very first boyfriend and my very first kiss (March 16, 1979, Arden Junior High, Sacramento, CA). He was a charismatic lover of food and beer and showcasing this old treasure is a perfect homage to his memory.

That cooler will contain growlers and (future) six-packs as soon as Mad Mike has finished refurbishing it once he has fully recovered from his crash returning from the motorcycle gathering in Hollister, CA last month.

By now you’ve received your mail-in ballot if you’re a registered voter. My guy, Richard Conlin, is not on the ballot because he has only one opponent so you won’t get a chance to vote for him until the general election on November 3^rd. While I have a lot of strong opinions about the candidates on the ballot for the August 18^th primary, I’ll spare you my thoughts on all but one very crucial ballot measure, Referendum 1. This is the Green Bag Fee and I urge you to VOTE YES. Because this is a beer blog and I already take considerable advantage of this soap-box for issues unrelated directly to our product (like domestic and civic politics), I direct you to my Facebook note to learn more about why.

Out there

2009-07-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

Your opportunities to enjoy Universale increase by the day! It’s now available at locales as close as the Fremont Dock, kitty-corner to FBC (don’t knock the food – I can personally recommend the refreshingly un-mayonnaisey Cesar salad) and as far-flung as The Roanoke on Mercer Island. In between are the Pacific Inn Pub, The Dray, The Park Pub, Naked City, The Local Vine and soon Duck Island Ale House, the Latona Pub and where ever else Matt can charm his way into during his rounds tomorrow. See the Find Our Beer section of the site for links and more current updates.

The Phinney Neighborhood Association Summer Beer Tasting on Saturday was a lot of fun! The PNA and its “beer committee” (as fundraising gigs go, I’d say that’s got to be one of the funner ones!) put on a stellar event – great diversity of breweries, festive yet not yahoo scene, and tasty, alcohol-mitigating snacks. Too bad we didn’t win any awards. Thanks for the invite, Chardell!

It's weird to shift into the actual selling of beer. Every new account is a celebration and it was thrilling to deposit a thousand bucks today. Is this what writers experience when they finally see their novel on the bookstore shelf (that's me!)? For me personally, it's about our private life -- Matt's ambition, my hope, his talent, my fears – resolving itself in the public realm, that's the weird part. It's been like a season of Domestic Boot Camp, with early episodes including lines from me like: What do you mean you want to quit law? Um, who's going to pay for this? If I wanted to go into small business, I wouldn't have wasted my time being poor in academia and public service. I'm more into wine. I'd rather do something Meaningful.

Well, I've found meaning in this journey and Matt has followed his passion and this is our little IPO. This must be what it feels like to be in a bar where people know your name.

Cheers!

News Flash!

2009-07-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Universale Pale went on tap TONIGHT at Park Pub on Phinney Ridge! That's us, third from left.

Matt also delivered to The Dray on 65th in Ballard (on tap tomorrow, Thursday) and Duck Island Alehouse on Aurora at 73rd (on tap the week after next).

Assuming Matt can take a break from brewing tomorrow for deliveries, Universale will also be served at Naked City Brewery and Taphouse (Greenwood at 85th) tomorrow night.

Bottoms up!

30 kegs of beer in the walk-in, 30 kegs of beer...

2009-07-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

They’re racking (that means filling) the kegs right now with the first edition of UNIVERSALE PALE! It’s a crisp, hoppy but not too hoppy, maple syrup & honey-colored elixir with girl-pleasing hints of malt. “Don’t say that!” Aaron yelled, as if pleasing girls weren’t a good thing to do in this heavily-populated craft beer market dominated by male consumers. “Say ‘well-balanced’,” encouraged Kemp. Matt Lincoln, our new brewer, noted the “light citrus nose.” I could try channeling Robert Parker and say something like, “classic Northwest blend of spice with a feminine malt roundness on the back-end (he’d probably say ‘finish’).” But beer is difficult to describe – you just know what you like. And I think you will.

Ta da! Monday, right on schedule. Photos forthcoming.

In Business!

2009-07-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

Howdy Folks!

I’m sorry I’ve been so lame about posting recently. I’ve been pretty busy managing Richard's re-election campaign, tending to Matt’s excruciating sciatica, performing quality-control on the batches in the tanks, and swimming, biking, and triking with the kids. But because it appears that people actually read this blog, I hereby commit to posting EVERY MONDAY, if not more frequently. I’m also loading content on the rest of the site so you’ll have something new to read during lunch. So here’s what’s going on:

Test Batch Two, a beta run of our flagship Universale Pale, was delicious and was served at the Fremont 5K and Briefcase Relay and the Washington Brewers Festival at St. Edwards Park to appreciative crowds. It’s gone now. I’ve never been around commercial beer production and I’m amazed how fast a 30-barrel tank will disappear – you people are lushes!

We brewed what Matt is proud to call the first batch of true Universale Pale a week ago and it’s ripening in the fermentation tanks right now. If all goes well with those little yeasties in the next couple days, we’ll be kegging it this week and getting it out to our very patient accounts soon thereafter. And growlers will be for sale in the retail space – price and sales hours to be announced.

This may come crushing disappointment to you – it is to me, that’s for sure – but we have come to the decision that the tasting room will not open any time soon. With so many bars and restaurants eager to sell our beer, we need to focus on our wholesale business. We have a gorgeous space with splendid views in a totally happening neighborhood full of beer lovers but we don’t have the bandwidth right now to do everything it will take to make the tasting room structurally sound and comfortably appointed. So we’re putting off that part of the business until production, sales, and revenue are regularized. It’s a shame to miss out on this summer’s drinking season but the good news is that if we play our cards right, we could have everything, including the roof-top deck, ready for next summer.

This does not mean that we’re putting off the PARTY – on the shop floor, amidst the tanks. Details forthcoming. You can dress for the occasion in one of our swanky T-SHIRTS -- including cute women's cut -- available now.

By the way, on June 17, King 5 did a piece focusing on our symbiotic relationship with our sub-letter, Blue Marble Energy, who uses our spent grain to make their product. Check out our TV kiss here.

If you’re a member of the 36th Legislative District Democrats (FREMONT, Queen Anne, Ballard, and beyond), I urge you to attend their endorsement meeting on July 9th and show your support for the greenest guy on City Council, Richard Conlin (of course).

Come and Get It!!

2009-06-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

Greetings! Just a quick post to let you know that our beer will be available at the Fremont 5k and Briefcase Relay beer garden TODAY, starting at 6:00 pm at Adobe. We’ll be serving $2.00 pints of Test Batch Two – a precursor to the currently-being-tweaked Universale. A beta run, you might say. So mosey on over after work or pre-run and tip back a cold one. Comments welcome!

Got Beer?

2009-06-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering what’s up. Well, Seattle City Council President, Richard Conlin’s, reelection campaign Kick-Off BBQ on June 4^th was a resounding success, drawing about 350 guests. The standing-room only crowd was testimony to the respect Seattleites have for the leadership he’s demonstrated over the last 12 years on the environment; transit, pedestrian, bicycle issues; and community-building. BTW, have I mentioned I was a policy advisor for Richard for six years and am now his campaign manager?

Also, the pair of swallows that made a nest on our porch last year, despite our 2 cats and 2 water pistol-wielding sons, returned last month and Momma laid three eggs last week.

Regarding beer, the first batch (see blog post on May 23) had some kinks but is still delicious and ripening in one of the 30-barrel fermentation tanks. Matt brewed a second run on Friday, May 29 which will debut at the Fremont 5k and Briefcase Relay on June 12^th. NOTE: this will not be the Universale Pale. Rather, it’s the second run on a brand-new (to us) system and Matt is still tweaking the process and recipe of our future flagship brew. I’d say one more batch and he’ll have it nailed.

We’ve got 200 growlers, 600 pint glasses, 130 limited-run commemorative T-shirts (also in cute women’s cut, thank you) and significant obstacles to overcome on the retail side such as, but not limited to:

1) We have no cash register, credit-card thingy or door into the retail space (but there is a big hole in the wall on Woodland Park Ave. where the door will go).

2) We need to beef up the stairs leading to the tasting room (with the future best view in Fremont). This is not a big job but we have no time.

3) We need to acquire some stools and install the 10” wide, Douglas fir, former Ballard High bleacher boards which will serve as the temporary bar looking out onto the afore-mentioned view.

4) And I want to punch 3 holes into the south wall of the space for big, openable windows in order to expand the view onto the ship canal, Aurora Bridge and Olympics. This is a big job. It will require some structural work and electrical re-routing, subsidized in part by the Fremont Dock Company. Thanks, Mike and Suzie.

Matt and his crew are consumed with production yet we’re both scrambling to create the space to enjoy our product as beer season settles over Seattle. So bear with us, donate a cash box, and sample our evolving blend at the upcoming Fremont 5k and Art Car Blow-Out – both sponsored by Fremont Brewing Company.

... Can't Ya Smell That Smell?

2009-05-23T22:38:00.000-07:00

That’s right, folks. That delicious aroma rising from south-eastern Fremont and settling over the neighborhood on this gorgeous, windless day is not the transfer station. Finally, after a brutal week of tank-cleaning (man, those kettles were foul – c’mon, Red Lodge, ya could’ve cleaned the system after that last run!), final hook-ups, testing, fixing of leaks and jerry-rigging of equipment – FINALLY Fremont Brewing Company is, in fact, BREWING!!

I feel like a woman in her 43^rd week of pregnancy on her way to the hospital. It’s taken a lot of blood, time, and sweat to get here. Matt hasn’t seen the kids awake in 4 days. He’s cut up (minor brushes with sharp things this time, his severed tendon is healing well), under-slept, and suffering terrible pain in his behind (not me; his sciatica) caused by climbing all over they brew house. Kemp had to take a welding class (!) to learn how to build the grain platform. Pumps have broken and pumps have been loaned (thanks Mike!). The pilot light on the water heater mysteriously went out yesterday afternoon. We would’ve been SOL at 4:30 on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend were it not for the grace of the owner of Ballard Natural Gas who came to the rescue and spent 4 hours here taking the thing apart and putting it back together again. And Rick’s been commuting across the lake from his real, paying job to stay until midnight helping out. Mike from Georgetown Brewery was here last night and again today, contributing some professional street-smarts.

This is but a sampling of the awe-inspiring goodwill that has made today possible. A future blog post will be devoted to acknowledging another fundamental piece of this enterprise: the generosity of our investors. So, today if you’re close by, take a deep whiff and smile that the dream is coming true.

FBC featured on KUOW 94.9 fm

2009-05-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

There's so much happening that I don't have time for a real post but I wanted to let you know that Seattle's NPR station, KUOW 94.9 (www.kuow.org), did a show on green business that featured Fremont Brewing Company last Wednesday, May 13th. Steve Scher introduces FBC at about 9:40 am or 40 minutes into the show. If you missed it, You can find an audio link at: http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=17535. The interest in Seattle was so enthusiastic that KUOW has decided to run the show again tomorrow SATURDAY, MAY 16TH. Irene Noguchi who produced the show says, "KUOW Presents will be playing it tomorrow (Sat.) around 12:30, I think." So you can stream it live tomorrow (on your way to the Gorge for the Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers and Dead show starting at 3:30) or download the podcast at said link.

PS: Gas inspection passed today, CIP (Clean In Place) tomorrow, test batch Sunday.

pre-May Day Post

2009-04-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

I’m about 10 days late but while it’s still April, I want to draw your attention to FBC’s phone number: 420-2407. Get it?

Anyway, the last major piece of this project is falling into place today. The refrigerator guys are hooking up the compressor coils to the cold room. Which means we can hook gas up next week. Kemp is mounting the grain auger (interesting visual, huh?) to pull the grain out of the grain room and into the mash tank. By mounting, I mean he’s up in the forklift box and hanging the motor from the 28 foot high ceiling – precision work.

To pretty up the place for the 40^th birthday bash tomorrow, I moved the piles of flotsam and jetsam all over the place and consolidated them into one room. Now no one can find anything! And today I get to mount the forklift box to wash all the tanks so that the ambient lights for the party will reflect off the gorgeous towers of stainless steel. Then I’ll have to clean the bathrooms –volunteers, anyone?

Meanwhile, 100 tap handles are in production and will soon be available to fine drinking and dining establishments across town and beyond.

All this is happening in the wake of Matt’s surgery a couple days ago. Did I mention that he slit his wrist (accidentally!) cutting zip ties with a box cutter? Didn’t follow the constant admonition we give our sons to always cut away from themselves when chopping veggies with our Henckels. He severed the flexor minor tendon his left wrist. The surgeon made a two-inch incision to retract the tendon and stitched the two ends together with titanium thread – fancy! After six weeks of physical therapy which he’s sure to do religiously, he should be almost back to normal but his rock star career is shot. (Speaking of, if anyone has extra tickets to the Dead at the Gorge, let me know: sara@fremontbrewing.com.)

2009-04-30T21:15:00.001-07:00

I’m about 10 days late but while it’s still April, I want to draw your attention to FBC’s phone number: 420-2407. Get it?

Anyway, the last major piece of this project is falling into place today. The refrigerator guys are h

ooking up the compressor coils to the cold room. Which means we can hook gas up next week. Kemp is mounting the grain auger (interesting visual, huh?) to pull the grain out of the grain room and into the mash tank. By mounting, I mean he’s up in the forklift box and hanging the motor from the 28 foot high ceiling – precision work.

Meanwhile, 100 tap handles are in production and will soon be available to fine drinking and dining establishments across town and beyond.

Getting There

2009-04-15T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hello Beer lovers! We're getting close!! Carbonix. which sells C02, nitrogen and helium (no N02, in case you were wondering) has been here all day hooking up the carbon dioxide and oxygen tanks. I wonder if I should ask him to comp me some helium for my son's birthday party balloons (he turns 5 tomorrow, 4/16). Earlier this week, the two liquor tanks, reused from Georgetwon Brewing, arrived. It was fun to watch Matt, Devin and Kemp unload those two 450-gallon tanks with the tiny forklift and some really fat straps. Keith, our ass-kicking plumber (and stainless steel welder) has been here all week attaching copper pipes to the wall and running the glycol lines. Matt got a new/used stereo to keep the place rocking all day. Our friend Dan is throwing his 40th birthday party here so Matt's brewing a test batch of beer on the old "husband land" system. That's what I called Matt's original set-up that was first in our garage and then in the outside shed (the boys are very happy to have that newly empty space for a fort to sneak their Easter candy). Practice makes perfect, you know.

And the checks keep rolling in -- which is what I predicted (see my Feb. 6 post below). In this down economy, people want somewhere to invest their money that's not gonna disappear before their retirement. And rather than buy gold bars (which I hear is the all-time safest investment), they want something cooler, colder, tastier -- like gold beer.

So the place is looking like a real brewery, with all this stuff around. Very little room for scootering which was fun in the big empty space of yore. It's anticipated that Matt will run the first batch in two weeks. First, he and our oldest son are going to the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston (and to hang with his brother and see his new niece). When he gets back, they will run the test batch and beer will follow shortly. Yummy. I'm going to keep my text brief and fill up this space with some exciting visuals for you. But first, if you're jonesing from the action of the last campaign season and looking for a worthy cause to get involved in, consider supporting the reelection campaign of my old boss, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin. He's an effective leader with politics that any sustainable beer fan could get behind. Check out http://www.richardconlin.com/

That's all, folks.

Welcome Home

2009-04-04T09:16:00.001-07:00

What’s new? The brew house (is that the Northwest equivalent of a New England sugar shack?) arrived safe and sound last Tuesday, March 24th. (That’s also the day, BTW, that Michael McGinn announced he’s running for mayor. And now former Sonics player James Donaldson is officially in too – after months of teasing and musing about which branch of government he’d like to work in, if any. This campaign season is shaping up to be very interesting. The PI folded too soon. The buzz over this three-way will surely sell lots of advertising space for, like, the PCC, LEED-certified condos, and other things appealing to a certain demographic profile. That, plus the million council candidates and Peter Holmes running against City Attorney Tom Carr, could float two dailies and several blogs for months.)

But I digress. (Love that verb! Way more official-sounding than ramble.) Where was I? Oh, yeah. Brew house is home and we also now have the water filter and grain handling equipment. The liquor tanks (that hold the hot water) arrive next week. Most very importantly, we’re fully licensed! The Feds came through last week and the Washington State Liquor Control Board finalized (Thanks, Tom) the state license TODAY! We can sell beer (legally)! Now, we need to make some beer…see pictures of the unloading and stay tuned for the pictures of the brewery in final position. Most excellent.

So the whole kit&kaboodle is ready to be hooked up and then the real fun begins: the opening party (you thought I’d say brewing, did’ncha?), setting up the tasting room, promoting sustainability and the vitality of Fremont, and, of course, drinking Matt’s clean, crisp beer.

Montana Dreaming

2009-03-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

It happened! He's back (see photo) and the brewhouse is on the way home. Tuesday is the big day! Thanks to the guys and gals at Red Lodge Brewing for helping and sharing a large amount of their tasty IPA, the Broken Nail.

Bringing It All Back Home

2009-03-18T14:05:00.000-07:00

Right now, as I write (it’s 1:30, Wednesday March 18, 2009), Matt’s sitting in a bar in SeaTac drinking a beer and waiting for his plane to Billings, Montana. From there he’ll rent a car and drive to Red Lodge, a small town about an hour and a half outside Billings in the mountains on the highway to Yellowstone and also home to Red Lodge Brewery. Matt is finally TAKING POSSESSION of the brew system he bought from them now that Red Lodge’s new facility is built and they can use their new, bigger system.

I say finally because we first met the gorgeous, 15 bbl system last September when the whole family road-tripped to MT in order to check it out (and visit my uncle who lives in Billings while we were at it). Since then, Matt has signed the lease, acquired fermentation tanks and a bunch of other equipment, laid plumbing, redid the electrical, painted, built a wall and more (much thanks to all the volunteer and cheap labor!) – everything but brew beer!

The Plan: Matt arrives in Billings at 6:30 tonight. He’ll drive straight to Red Lodge and help the crew brew one lasty: a triple batch of IPA because they don’t want to leave their customers jonesing while they get their new system up and running. Tomorrow, Thursday, Matt will spend all day helping to clean everything so that it’s ready to be loaded on a big truck (with a crane, my sons would add) on Friday the 20th. He’ll supervise the loading and fly home that night and the truck will arrive in Seattle on Tuesday, March whatever.

It’s happening! Stay tuned…

Construction Update from Matt

2009-03-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

....and for those that are following the hardcore construction, we've put together the walk in cold room. Note the green, very green paint job. Painting the cold room was a slog but Devin from Blue Marble stepped up to the task and, three coats later, got the job done and done well. Thanks, Devin. Rick and I put the cold room together one weekend and then Kemp and I fine tuned the rest until she was just right. Kemp (see photo of Kemp trapped on the fork lift) and I then set about, with Devin's help, constructing decking for the glycol chiller and compressor, which were put into place yesterday. Today, Devin, Kemp and I picked up the antique refrigerator (see picture) from the ReStore and planned out her restoration. This refrigerator will hold our growlers for sale in the retail area and we are very excited to restore it to it's former glory. It was made sometime in the 1930's here in Seattle by Marine Refrigeration and was previously in use at Pies and Pints in the Roosevelt neighborhood. Coincidentally, Pies and Pints was started and run by one of Sara's childhood friends from Sacramento. You can also see in the picture below, Mike, our landlord, driving the forklift and hauling out the concrete blocks left behind from cutting the trench drains. Mike came early in the morning and worked all day, even providing the dump truck and driving said death trap to one of his lots where he is storing them for a future use. Thanks, Mike. Our hats off to Mike and the Fremont Dock Company (our landlord) for believing in what we're doing and for going the extra mile. We've also finished demoing (thanks, Devin) the area that will be our temporary retail sales room and will begin build out next week. Kemp is drawing up a material list and our friends at Bitters Co. will help with the design. With friends like these, it's easy to believe that this community will pull through these hard times. We're humbled. So, now the big news: the brewhouse is set to arrive on March 23rd and we're very ready to make some beer. Why? Because Beer Matters. So, a big thanks to Kemp for working in the trenches EVERY DAY through surgery, kidney stones and some really bad music; to Rick for picking up the ball on marketing and for digging, building and endless planning; to Devin for painting everything and not breaking too many of our tools, to Sara for holding down the fort, the blog and putting up with me and all this insanity, to Terry, Mike, Roger, Manny, and Bret for helping out with all the little questions that are a big deal and for allowing us to treat their company like a big brewery Costco; to our investors who have put their faith in our vision and to the many volunteers who have pitched in with a smile. We would not be here today without each and every one of you.

Random updates: we've singed up to sponsor the Fremont 5K which is the Friday night before the Fremont Fair and are the proud sponsors of the Seattle Art Car show during the Fair.

Well, that's a little more than a construction update, but there it is. Next week, we'll dial in the last of the plumbing, get our new gas service and spiffy up our retail section. Thanks for staying tuned...now back to Sara's regular blogging.

Killer Green Beer

2009-03-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

I’ve never thought about running my own business because I’ve never had any good ideas of things to sell and I’m not one of those can’t-work-for-anybody-else sorts of people. I’ll work for the Man no problem – as long as I believe in the mission and values of said (figurative) Man. And for the most part, I’ve been perfectly happy executing the vision of someone else, most recently my former boss, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin.

Being a complacent cog in a machine, I haven’t focused on the challenges of running a small business -- if it’s too hard Working For Yourself, then be a happy little cog like me or quit complaining. Until now. You might remember that my husband, Matt, is starting a brewery from scratch, in the midst of a financial catastrophe, with 2 kids at home and a wife whose marketable skills are inversely related to her education. Plus, Fremont Brewing Company is striving to produce beer as sustainably as possible, which can mean more expensive equipment, ingredients, and all that.

Mayor Greg Nickels has spoken a lot about both the importance of climate protection and supporting small businesses. So, using my contacts at my old place of employ, I set out to see what bennies were available for small businesses trying to do the right thing. Loan assistance for small green businesses? Nope. City Light did a site visit and told us that we could get a rebate by using certain lights and VSD pumps to conserve energy. But overall, there’s no single program for small businesses that are either producing green technologies or trying to be green in their operations, procurement, facility, etc.

So I’ve drawn up an outline for a City of Seattle program for a One-Stop-Shop for green-inclined businesses who need technical assistance (in designing their space or figuring out which equipment is most energy efficient etc.); information on incentive programs for water, electricity, and gas conservation; building permit expedition; and so on. Most of this is already available but it’s hard to access because there’s no integrated program to go to – businesses have to contact SPU, OED, DPD, City Light, etc. And who has time for that when you’re trying to Make Money? Even though my program has gotten positive feedback from City staff, there’s no cash to fund anything new these days.

In the meantime, businesses should check out the Seattle Climate Partnership (http://www.seattle.gov/climate/partnership.htm). It’s a group of businesses that pledge to reduce their carbon footprint. And Fremont Brewing Company will be the very first brewery to sign up (paperwork in progress). Stay tuned…

About Construction

2009-02-22T15:26:00.000-08:00

Greetings! Sara here again.

OK, so I do know a thing or two about construction. I spent a great deal time before my sons went to preschool (they're now 4 and 3) cruising the city looking for construction sites. For some reason, Nels and Gabe are more construction-crazy than other kids, according to moms I know. I'd look for a crane and drive toward the base and park for hours while we watched the goings-on. Depending on the weather, we'd watch from inside the car or on the roof of the car with a picnic because sidewalk space is often limited and I was never successful at talking the GC into letting us into their little on-site trailer. I’m sure Turner and Crutcher-Lewis think of me as that crazy lady in the white station wagon.

Aside from my curiosity in the natural sciences (botany, geology, etc.), before kids I wasn’t much interested in things having to do with the physical world (civil and mechanical engineering, for example). I was more into theory, politics, and social science -- leave the building stuff to people who can’t handle the realm of ideas (how’s that for elitist!). Thanks to my sons, that has changed and I've learned a lot though their eyes. Here's a sample:

1) Demolition is the funnest to watch. Seeing huge excavators ripping apart buildings as if they were made of legos really pumps me up. I'll never forget those weeks a couple years ago when the Green Lake Albertsons was being demolished at the same time the Vita Milk Dairy facility was being torn down. Just blocks apart, we could spend all day watching the action, comparing the machines (and, for me, the cuteness of the crew, it being summer...), and videoing the spectacle to show Dad later.

It takes enormous talent to separate the rebar from wood from cement, especially on a small site. The skill of the driver -- her precision, her delicacy -- is beautiful to watch. (Like how I oh-so-subtly snuck in that female pronoun? Part of my gender-neutral parenting.)

It would be a lot easier and cheaper to just haul it all away to the landfill. But construction and demolition waste already makes up the biggest percentage of the mile-long train leaving Seattle every day to the landfill in Eastern Washington. Reducing that load would save garbage ratepayers money and decrease the emissions of its transport. Plus, there’s a lot of reusable stuff in torn-down buildings. So even though it’s a hassle, it’s worthwhile to separate the material and the City of Seattle is working with C&D companies to incentivize even more recycling. (For more info, search for Resolution 30990 at: www.seattle.gov)

2) During excavation, everything depends on the dump truck. Each section of those double dump trucks (called truck and trailers) can hold only 3 scoops of dirt from the Hitachi ZX650LC-3, 6 scoops total and that truck is off to Pacific Topsoil or where ever to dump its load, stuck in traffic like everyone else on I-5. I know that if there's not a line of dump trucks staged on the side of the site ready to assume receptive position once the previous truck is filled and gone, the action is going to be slow. Without the dump truck, the excavators and bulldozers just move dirt around into piles, which is important but not that exciting. Either that or the crew stands around and smokes, waiting for something to do.

Getting cars off the road by providing more mass transit would make it easier for dump trucks to get to and from the construction site. Ka-ching! This is one of many policy examples that negate the supposedly irreconcilable differences between enviros and Industry.

3) It's a big drag when they discover sediment that looks to be laced with a petroleum product or some other type of unexpected toxic substance. Then everything stops while the digger guy calls the foreperson over and they get out baggies and maps to take samples and note their location. For a single-issue neighborhood activist looking to appeal an EIS, this can be sexy but for a 2 year old -- boring. And for the dump truck driver, a nice smoke break.

4) If it's a small project, the time between excavation and concrete pouring is dull -- best to find a different site. For bigger projects, however, this is the time for pile driving which is awesome to watch. I guess I never realized how extensively we alter geology, stabilizing the ground by shoving giant I-beams of steel into deep holes. And that’s piddly compared to how people managed to construct giant edifices, like the pyramids, before they had gas-powered machines. Slavery and indentured servitude. Now we have unions and Caterpillar.

What does all this have to do with beer? Nothing, but give me a minute and I’ll think of something.

Win, Win.

2009-02-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry construction junkies, it’s Sara again so no detailed info on the construction progress except that concrete was poured into the drainage trenches yesterday, the cold room was delivered today – my birthday, btw.

Did anyone catch that guy on NPR a couple days ago talking about the recession-proofness of beer? What did I tell you? There seems to be a lot of talk about that these days. I wonder if the American Beer and Brewers Association (ABBA – if there isn’t such an organization, there oughta be. (That was a joke but my editor didn’t get it and told me to say the “Brewers Association” so it sounds like I know something.)) has launched some big public education campaign or something. But I digress. My point is simply to point out that I wasn’t just making that up in my last post.

Another thing I’m not making up is that, supposedly, the most robust recession-proof sector is green technology. Fremont Brewing Company is hopping on that band-wagon for sure – but for all the right reasons (not just to get federal/state stimulus money or small-business tax breaks or low-interest loans – not that we would turn those down or anything if offered…). I’ve already mentioned FBC’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and also use organic ingredients and you can read more about that stuff in the real sections of this website. The back story is that we’ve been like this since the 80’s and finally the circle has caught up to our way of thinking. But there’s a whole other aspect of green that I don’t think Matt has mentioned.

FBC is located in an 8,000 sq. ft warehouse in Fremont. Not needing that much space, Matt has sublet half of that space to Blue Marble Energy, a start-up that produces food flavorings out of algae and other biological matter and the by-product of the manufacturing process is gas (methane I think).

Blue Marble Energy is going to use Matt’s spent grain to make their product and power their and FBC’s operations with the gas. How cool is that? Once Blue Marble ramps up, they’ll sell extra energy back to the grid (I’m not really sure how that works). Matt could have sublet to a kite manufacturer or a juggler or whatever but he found this company by talking to everyone who would listen about this dream to zero out carbon emissions in a microbrewery and the connection was made.

This symbiotic relationship reduces carbon emissions because the spent grain (very heavy) will not be transported somewhere for disposal or composting. And Blue Marble’s production costs will be lower because part of their raw material is free (and right next door). And the “waste” will be used for energy, obviously better than funneling it into the atmosphere. Additionally, while we’re fortunate in the Northwest to have fairly clean hydropower thanks to the rivers running off our mountains, the electricity that we don’t use isn’t just sitting around. City Light sells it on the grid to other places that might have access only to coal-generated power – bad, bad, bad. So the energy that Seattleites don’t use because of conservation or the above-mentioned re-use of waste helps minimize the consumption of dirty electricity by freeing up more of the clean stuff for use in flat places without big rivers and lots of gravity.

What Recession?

2009-02-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

Hello. This is Matt's wife, Sara, blogging today (he's busy). Like you, I've been reading the blow-by-blow of the brewery construction: electricians, plumbers, trenches, drains, and next week - concrete pouring! Not that this isn't fascinating, but I thought you might be interested in something else. Hey, did you hear the economy shed almost 600,000 jobs in January. Good thing I didn't have one to lose. And by the way, don't you think the word "shedding" has a rather positive connotation, as in "shedding pounds"? Maybe they're trying to soften the blow; whatever happened to the old stand-by "lost"?

Just kidding. I know this isn't supposed to be about politics-it's about BEER and a sweet new brewery. But as a political junkie, I can tie anything to politics, broadly speaking, and the Fremont Brewing Company in particular provides lots of fodder for someone like me. So if you'll indulge me a minute, I'll give you some good news of political relevance-about beer:

1. Beer is recession proof, according to people who get to speak on NPR. It's not that Fremont's beer will convert Miller drinkers, but folks feeling the pinch will choose a frothy pint of Fremont's UniversAle over a $40 bottle of wine for a dinner gathering.

2. Once FBC ramps up, we will be hiring people, contributing to the economic upswing (that is sure to occur before I cave in and cash out all my nose-diving assets).

3. And speaking of assets, Fremont is a great place to park some cash if you're looking for something to invest in, since you're not going to buy that investment condo any time soon. You'll think it's cool to tell folks you sent your kids to college on beer money.

4. Fremont is going to contribute to less global warming than it could because of all the carbon-neutral processes and local, organic ingredient sourcing that Matt has put in place (see www.fremontbrewing.com). This makes for less guilty consumption.

5. In hard times, or any times, community-hanging out with friends, meeting new people, being part of something beyond your daily grind-makes life more fun. And nothing created community better that a local microbrewery. Fremont Brewing wants to lubricate Seattle's social life. In the end, all you need is love...and good, local beer.

I'll stop now. Don't worry, next time you'll get the construction updates you came here for-that is, if Matt isn't overwhelmed by requests for more of yours truly (see picture here because there are no pics of me yet on this blog. Hmm....).

Trench Drains

2009-02-03T09:32:00.001-08:00

As we inch closer to actually making beer, some construction projects are more exciting than others. Setting the trench drains gets our blood boiling down here at Fremont Brewing. Yes, it doesn't take much. This week, we'll set finish in the rough in of plumbing, receive our cold room (hopefully) and spend the weekend setting the trench drains. Next week, we'll set up the cold room and pour the concrete for the trench drains. Stay tuned...in the first picture, you can get a glimpse of the future tasting room in our mezzanine. From the windows, you can sip a cold beer (special Brewer's Series available only at the brewery), look at Mt. Rainier over Lake Union or turn around and watch us make beer. Good times.

Trench Drains

2009-02-03T09:32:00.000-08:00

Trench digging

2009-01-24T09:42:00.001-08:00

Will we ever make beer again? Yes. And we will have wonderful trench drains to help keep the brewery clean. Cutting over 300 feet of 6 inch concrete and digging into the hard, winter dirt of Seattle proves to be a very big job. And, what does every big job need? Bigger tools. We enjoyed the excavators and took 4 days to dig out the trenches. Now, we're ready to set the drains and prepare for the concrete to be poured back in.....closer to beer now.

Standing up the fermentation tanks

2009-01-24T09:37:00.001-08:00

After they arrived, the job of unloading the tanks consumes our full attention. Since the tanks were already damaged in transit, we were focused on making sure no more came to our new babies. Luckily, the unloading and standing up of the tanks went relatively smoothly. Note the newly painted walls....We look forward to putting our first batch of beer in the tanks soon.

Fermentation Tanks arrive!

2009-01-24T09:29:00.000-08:00

The two 3o BBL fermentation tanks are finally in the brewery. We got the tanks from the fine folks at Georgetown Brewing (darn tasty beer) and these pics show the loading and unloading process. Unfortunately, the tanks were damaged in transit. We are in the process of determining exactly how bad the damage is.

And so we paint...

2009-01-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

At this point in time, starting a brewery is beginning to seem more like a very large construction project than the art of making quality beer and the skill of running a business. Still, fun is had and in these photos we are painting the enormous wall we built and the ugly cement walls. Notice the first shipment of kegs arrived; now it begins to feel like the brewery!

Construction Begins

2008-11-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

It begins. Construction at the brewery officially kicked off this weekend with the wall dividing the brewery space and our tenant's space (Blue Marble Energy). The wall went up quicker than we thought and should be finished by the end of the week. A great Thanksgiving treat. Now, we move on to laying out the plumbing and electrical and start cutting the drains for the brewery, cleaning station and keg filler. We've posted some pictures of the wall construction to give a flavor of the space.

Random news:

A local artist and friend asked us to brew up some UniversAle (the flagship beer) for his gallery opening on December 6. The beer has happily finished primary fermentation and is now dryhopping and maturing in anticipation of its happy consumption. The first edition t-shirts and pint glasses have arrived and are available at the brewery. Please contact Matt at matt@fremontbrewing.com if you would like to grab one of the limited edition long-sleeve shirts or pint glasses.

We Have A Location

2008-11-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

Sweet, sweet day. We now have a place to call home. After searching in Seattle for just the right place, we came up with Lucky 7's and landed in Fremont, which has been part of our lives for 15 years. The opportunity to settle the brewery in Fremont and become part of the art and small business culture on the water was too good to pass up. So, to commemorate our new location, we have changed the name of the brewery to Fremont Brewing Company. Please visit our web site soon and we will begin to put up pictures of our construction.

Our address is 3409 Woodland Park Avenue North but don't come by just yet as we are not always there (yet).

Buying the Brewhouse

2008-10-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally located and purchased a brewhouse. Patience is truly a virtue when buying brewery equipment. The brewhouse is a gorgeous 15 BBL (that's 30 full-size kegs) system manufactured in Denver in 1996 and currently in use by Red Lodge Brewing Co near Yellowstone in Montana [www.redlodgeales.net]. The system is electrofinished stainless steel and looks like chrome. She shines up easily to a mirror finish and produces some fine brews for the guys and gals at Red Lodge. I took the whole family out to Montana for this trip and had a fine time touring the brewery, brewing with the team at Red Lodge and sampling the finished product...ah, starting a brewery is hard work sometimes. The only downside of the purchase is that we won't able to transport it here until March or April so we'll have to figure something out between January 2009 and April in order to produce and sell our beer. I've been talking to some Seattle brewers about the new contract brewing arrangement the Washington State Liquor Control Board recently allowed so we'll be able to offer beer in limited quantities prior to getting our new system installed. Stay tuned. Also, see the pics below for a preview. Now, it seems real...and then I have to figure out how to transport it.

Trip to Puterbaugh Farms

2008-10-07T16:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I lose blog points for not updating this in a long while. I pledge to improve. So, catching up on the last month or so, I took a trip to the brewery's hop supplier - Puterbaugh Farms - and was amazed by the complexity of the machinery and sheer manpower required to raise, harvest, process and package our beloved hops. To think we were paying such a lowly sum for these jewels a short time ago...Our host for the trip, Tyler, is one of the Puterbaugh family members and was extremely gracious with his time as we spent most of the day touring the hop harvesting, processing, packaging and storage facilities. Tyler and his family have been growing hops in the Yakima Valley area for four generations and grow some of the choicest hops in the world. We are extremely fortunate to have such an amazing resource in our state and to be able to use these hops in our beers. Thanks, Tyler. I've posted some pictures of the trip to give a flavor of the operation. We look forward to featuring the Puterbaugh Family hops in our beers.

Back To Brewing

2008-08-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

It's time to brew more beer. We're signing up more and more people who want to drink our beer (free pending our federal and state permits :) so it's time to brew more High Board IPA. I always enjoy brewing the IPA because the raw power of so many hops is intoxicating. Also, I'm going to Yakima, WA next week with another local brewer (check out www.twobeersbrewery.com) to visit our hops supplier and hope to come back with some fresh samples of the 2008 harvest. Look for some pictures of the trip plus a story or two along the way. Cheers.

The Brewhouse

2008-08-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

We've been spending an inordinate amount of time looking for a place to lease and for equipment. As any brewer will tell you, used brewing equipment is difficult to find and the prices are through the roof. Undeterred, we located a nice Bohemian Int'l Monobloc 10BBL brewhouse with a bunch of fermenters, pumps, a glycol chiller and various other gear at a nice price. So, we placed a bid on the equipment only to find out that the partner of the guy we had been dealing with took a down payment behind our back. So, now we wait to see if the brewery is sold over this coming Labor Day weekend. Our fingers are crossed.

On a side note, many thanks go out to the fine community at ProBrewer who quickly and thoroughly shared their experience and insight on the Bohemian systems.

The Names

2008-08-29T14:42:00.001-07:00

Things have been busy at the brewery but somewhere we found the time to settle on a couple names. They are:

Duck Island Pale Ale: Our flagship beer is named after Duck Island in Green Lake, Seattle's most popular park. Duck Island was created in 1936 as a bird refuge of native willows and cottonwood. The island is used by ducks, hawks, eagles and great blue herons as a roosting habitat year-round. Duck Island Pale Ale offers a distinctive twist on the classic pale ale, using a select blend of organic Gambrinus pale roasted malt and Old World malts balanced with classic Northwest hops to achieve a heavenly beer of rich malt flavor and subtle hop spice. Duck Island is a refuge of flavor for beer lovers everywhere.

High Board India Pale Ale: Each summer in Seattle, winter-weary residents emerge from their dens to revel in the sunny days and long Northwest nights. A favorite activity is swimming at Green Lake and each summer, you will find old and young kids lining up to dive into the warm waters of Green Lake from the low board and the high board. The adventurous swimmers find themselves staring into Seattle's summer from the High Board. Our High Board India Pale Ale offers the adventurous beer lover a warm embrace of organic Gambrinus roasted pale malt splashed with a hand-selected blend of flavor malts and filled with the rich spice of Columbus, Centennial and Cascade hops. Fear not, for the High Board India Pale Ale is a session beer, eminently drinkable throughout the year as a reminder of the endless summer days ahead.

The Logo is Born

2008-08-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

Well, our graphic designer, Dan Stuckey of Stuckey Designs, delivered the draft logo the other day and we fell in love. Even in the present draft stage, the design has all the elements we wanted; the fancy scrolling and banners, the great blue heron, and a real nice font to top it all off. The logo is hand drawn and shows the love that will go into each Green Lake beer.

Thanks, Dan. Be sure to check out his site at www.dstuck.com .

We welcome comments, suggestions, etc so fire away.

Green Lake Brewing Co - Virgin Post

2008-07-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Green Lake Brewing Company blog. Over the course of the next several months, we will post stories, laughs and gaffs along the road to establishing the microbrewery, brewing beer and selling the hallowed ale in good beer's backyard, Seattle. The Green Lake Brewing Company...because beer matters.

Beer Offerings: Pale Ale, Classic American Pilsner, India Pale Ale, Biere de Garde, Saison.

We're working on fancy, meaningful names for the beers as we speak but please do provide suggestions for names...we always like to have more information to ignore...um, consider.