Established in 2015. Renton’s first lager brewery.
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Our Story
During the government shut down of October 2013, Ross Hudspeth and an out of work government friend, decided to open a brewery. Originally, it was going to be part time and be run out the friend’s garage. Over time it became apparent that Ross’ goals were bigger than what the friend wanted to pursue. After a family meeting, we bought the friend out and decided to move forward. Part of the agreement was that both Ross and Mary, Ross’ mom, would quit their jobs, and we would look for a commercial space to run the brewery as a true business rather than a side gig. Mike, Ross’ dad and Mary’s husband, would continue with his job as an international FedEx pilot, but would help when he was home. We found our location and signed a lease September 2015. Over the next 10 months, we built out our space, ordered equipment, got licensed, and began brewing. We opened to the public in July 2016. At first, we were making the typical mix of beers for a small PNW brewery, and won a gold medal at our first Washington Beer Awards the following year for our English Bitter.
In the spring of 2017, Mary joined the Pink Boots Society, and learned about their annual Beer, Brats and Beyond trip that they did to Germany every year. As she and Mike had lived in Germany many years before when Mike was in the Air Force, she knew how special it was, and what a strong beer culture they had. After contacting the tour guide and finding out the trip wasn’t limited to women, the three of them signed up and went in the fall of 2017. There were 11 women on the trip, and Mike and Ross. We made some good friends and visited some wonderful breweries and towns that became very influential to our further development. While on the tour, we were part of the Spalt fresh hop beer release, we tried smoked beer for the first time, we walked a barefoot path through the woods, we stayed in a castle or castle wall, we made wurst with the Bavarian Wurst King, we drank beer while on a boat heading to the world’s oldest brewery, we met Sister Doris, the last brewing nun, and we had a wonderful time.
Drinking fresh German beer was an eye-opening experience for Ross. He fell in love with the clean, crisp flavors and the nuances that are brought out in well made lagers. On our way back to the states, he was already writing a Helles recipe to try. Over the next few years, Ross worked with our friend and R & D person, Nic, to develop more recipes. Mike brought home samples from his travels to Germany for work. One by one we kept adding biers to our menu that taste like they are made in Germany. In 2023, we took a team of seven of us to Germany for two weeks. We brought samples of our bier to try alongside of German biers in their place of origin. For example, Kolsch comes from Koln, Alt from Dusseldorf, Rauch from Bamberg. We tried and analyzed our bier along with fresh, local biers. Our goal isn’t to copy a specific bier, but have ours taste like it comes from another brewery just down the road. We have continued to refine and tweak our recipes while always striving for a clean, beautiful bier that you can enjoy. This year, we won a silver medal at the World Beer Cup for our Gose; a delightful sour, salty bier that tastes like it came from Leipzig.
Prost!
Our Staff
