Vice Beer smashes all the retro pop culture buttons of the 80’s and 90’s
Update 8/12/2022: Vice Beer is now open in SW Washington!
Vice Beer founders Michael Perozzo, Cameron Johnson, and chef/food truck owner Eldy Prado
VICE BEER founders Michael Perozzo and Cameron Johnson are beer nerds who grew up during the 80’s and 90’s and want to celebrate the pop cultural touchstones of that era in their new beer brand. In a world full of remakes, reboots, requels, and lega-sequels , the upcoming Vice Beer is more of a Stranger Things style homage of nostalgic callbacks to favorite movies, games, and heroes of the time. Earning a 1up second life on a recently closed Vancouver, Washington brewery, Vice Beer will officially launch this summer 2022 in the rebooted space, but not before a big debut at the Washington Brewers Festival and at the New School’s New Brewery & Cidery Showcase on Thurs. June 23rd.
“We’re honored and excited to be joining our friends in Vancouver’s award-winning craft beer scene,” Cameron told the New School. “We’ve worked side-by-side with these fine folks for several years now and could not ask for a more supportive and inspiring group. Vice Beer will find its niche naturally within this community over the coming months and years, but our desire is to be the de facto spot for envelope-pushing, bleeding edge style discoveries and experimental brewing.”
Cameron Johnson is a brewer from Whidbey Island, and has spent most of his life growing up in Washington State in the late 90s, but consumed a lot of 1980’s pop culture from afar after as he lived in Japan. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Washington State University, and was a homebrewer working on his Master’s when in 2016 he fell into an opportunity to help open The Steel Barrel Taproom and The Incubator Brewery in Spokane. Helping oversee the co-op brewery he launched his own brand Young Buck Brewing which was one of three breweries working out of the same space.
Vice Beer co-founder/brewer Cameron Johnson
It was at the Washington Brewers Festival in 2018 where Cameron was pouring at his Young Buck Brewing booth that he first met his future Vice Beer partner/co-founder.
Michael Perozzo is a life-long Washingtonian who discovered craft beer right around the same time he founded Zzoom Media in 2010 (now renamed Zzeppelin.) After studying business and marketing, he was able to merge his career with his love of beer by creating an agency who has designed labels, branding, and marketing services to over 30 breweries and taprooms including local clients like Vancouver’s Trap Door Brewing and Fortside, and Portland’s Von Ebert Brewing.
When he’s not ticking smoothie sours on untappd or waxing on about side pull lager faucets, slow pours, and Mlìko beers, then Michael Perozzo is scratching his FOMO at every beer event in the land. And when he sets down his phone every once in awhile he occasionally turns in an article for us at New School Beer as our North Bank of Washington beer scene correspondent. For all that work in and around the beer industry, Michael never wanted to open a brewery, and more recently concentrated efforts around co-founding The Juice Box in Centralia, WA.
“Many people have asked me when I'm going to open a brewery - until a few weeks ago, my answer was "never."“ says Michael. “I wouldn't have done this without Cameron. He was already there making great beer under the former brand on this system and he gave me the confidence to agree to be a part of this.”
When Michael first met Cameron in 2018, he was taken with his Mimosa Gose, a beer that left a lasting impression. They kept in touch, and Cameron moved to southwest Washington to design brewhouses with his engineering background but was craving more creative freedom with a desire to get back into brewing. At the time, Michael was working with Barlow’s Brewery and his wife and business partner Bria Perozzo was running the taproom. So when a brewing position opened up there he gave Cameron a call, and by February 2021 he was on the brew deck. It was there that they first hatched a business plan to open a beer bar, but COVID dashed those plans. When they heard that Barlow’s Brewery was up for sale they retooled their plan and made an offer that was accepted.
“My experience in marketing for breweries and taprooms all over the PNW gives me a unique perspective,” says Michael. “One thing I've committed myself to continuing is to remain involved in the industry outside of the brewery. This is a people business. Enjoying beer with people is where most of my ideas hatch.”
For the new startup Vice Beer they are mining a deep well of content to bring a Marvel vs Capcom (1996) style 2-player brewery to east Vancouver at the recently closed Barlow’s Brewery. But unlike those old quarter game arcade fighters where you could beat your opponent simply by smashing the buttons faster, winning in the craft beer industry is a game of skill that will take WarGames (1983) level finesse and planning - even when you already have all the cheat codes.
Vice Beer started with a carefully realized business plan to overhaul the failed Barlow’s Brewery, scrapping what didn’t work and exploiting the parts that did in the way that Sam Raimi did with Evil Dead (1981) and it’s sequel/remake Evil Dead 2 (1987). In that sense Cameron Johnson might be the new Bruce Campbell (or maybe they are both the Kids on Bikes), capable of having fun with beers like smoothie seltzer and serious classic style chops with a Czech style Lager.
“Having been on the system for the past year, I’ve seen what it’s capable of and am incredibly excited for the beers we’ll be pumping out this summer. There’s a lot of untapped potential, both on the brewery side and the taproom side, and we’re pumped to transform it into the awesome brewpub we know it can be,” says Cameron.
Cameron wants to to focus on cutting edge beer styles with the goal of releasing a new beer each and every week to the taproom to get the consumers feedback. The model is continual innovation based off one-off releases that they can test the waters with, then rinse, repeat and improve upon while learning new tricks. These will include fruited kettle sours, IPAs featuring new hop varietals and hopping techniques, classically executed lagers, and whatever is currently peeking their interest or being talked about in beer nerds groups.
“‘What’s new?’ is the operative phrase in craft beer these days, and this R&D program of weekly releases will mean we will always have something fresh and exciting to give you a reason to come back,” says Cameron.
While it may seem easy to write-off the Vice Beer brand as more of the overly used retro nostalgia that permeates the film industry these days. Michael Perozzo says there is a bit more to it. “The Vice brand is meant to be very flexible so as to frolic in a playground of nostalgia. Nostalgia is something that changes over time. What was cool 30 years ago comes back around, so Vice will ebb and flow with that as any brand should. I remember when I first heard Soundgarden on 105.9 The Brew as "classic rock." I was so pissed. That's the day I hit middle-age, I think. But now my favorite things of my childhood and teenage years are being watched, listened-to, and worn by people much younger than I.”
visual representation of the future Vice Beer taproom
Barlow’s Brewery was Vancouver, Washington’s last new brewery to open back in 2020, and one of the shorter lived as they closed about 2 years later. They had a host of problems, from retaining essential staff to staying relevant with their production. The small and bare bones taproom and production spot is neighbors with a self storage business, an auto body shop, repair, and detail shop, next to a car wash. The issues with the previous brewery have all been carefully considered by the Vice Beer founders and they think they have came up with solutions.
For starters, Vice Beer has partnered with Eldy Prado, currently a chef at the high-end Vancouver establishment The Hammond. Eldy has cooked at everything from chain restaurants to white table cloth seafood and steak joints, but he got sick of that style of food and his lack of control as an employee. Now he is pursuing his dream of opening up a taco truck called El Viejon which will be parked outside Vice Beer and open daily. Eldy is Mexican, and he’s excited to dive back into the casual Puerto Vallarta-style cuisine he grew up with like fish tacos, carnitas, birria, ceviche and more. Demonstrating his own investment to the project, Eldy has become a partner in the Vice Beer project and committed to it’s success.
Vice is also doing a lot of work to open up the old taproom space in an overhaul that will give it a creative and fun vibe. The design will emphasize a living room setting complete with a mini retro arcade, old school board games, and a wall-mounted rotary phone that works great for making prank calls. Additional throwback features like an area to gather around a giant pizza to pop in a VHS tape of a classic movie or play an NES game on an old school 16” TV set. They have also knocked down a back wall to open up a space into the brewery to enjoy a beer, and putting a window into their walk-in cooler so you can see the production from the bar, and an easy grab-and-go cooler for cans to-go.
What some perceive as negatives to the neighborhood they see as positives. For example the large parking lot shared between the businesses is actually convenient for free parking to their customers and lots of room for events and an outdoor patio. Vice wants to collaborate with the neighboring businesses on events like classic vehicle shows or cornhole tournaments instead of fighting against them.
“We're on Vancouver's busiest thoroughfare and we have tons of parking - those are two things a lot of breweries and taproom could benefit from,” says Michael. “When people find something unique and worth talking about, they venture off the beaten path. “
Vice Beer recently collaborated with Threshold Brewing on '“Y'all Ready For This” DDH Double Hazy IPA
The business plan revolves around ending the wholesale/distribution model that Barlow’s relied on and instead maximizing the taproom space by making it more inviting with regular events and customer rewards. Vice will self-distribute their beers carefully into prime accounts that best showcase the brand and drive growth. They are already eyeing adding a mezzanine level to the existing taproom, and looking for a larger brewpub with a kitchen and room for barrel-aging facility tentatively planned for 2026.
The brand name Vice Beer is much more than a Miami Vice (1984) reference according to Michael, “Our idea of VICE is the ‘spirit of wholesome indulgence’. Certainly we don't encourage binging or over-indulgence. That said, I'd have to say my guiltiest vice is that I play in somewhere between 19 and 23 fantasy football leagues every NFL season. Cameron's vice is brewing naked.”
“Actually!,” Cameron interjects, “My Vice’s are #1: re-runs of Star Trek (TNG preferred, but really anything except Bakula’s attempted murder of the franchise), and #2: Collecting old paperback sci-fi and fantasy novels in a misguided attempt to appear cultured,” argues Johnson before thinking for another moment and giving a third example of pairing classic 8-bit video gaming with craft beer. “You haven’t really experienced Duck Hunt until you turn it into a ‘clever’ drinking game…(come talk to me about the ruleset for this at our next festival).”
But even if they argue about the merits of the prequel trilogy (Michael is a Jar Jar Binks fan) versus who played Khan better (Ricardo Montalban or Benedict Cumberbatch) they both can agree Ron Howard’s masterpiece Willow (1988) was an underappreciated gem and are excited for the lega-sequel series debuting later this year on Disney +
“I’m already kind of disappointed that Val Kilmer isn’t reprising his role, so I’m trying to temper my excitement and not try to predict too much. After all, the bones tell me nothing…” opines Cameron.
Ahead of their Summer 2022 grand opening Vice Beer has brewed 4 beers with their friends and releasing them over the coming weeks. All 4 pouring at the Washington Brewers Fest on June 17th, while “Y'all Ready For This” Double Hazy IPA will release with a party this Friday, June 10th at Threshold Brewing. “Act Like Ya Know” will get tapped with a get together at Fortside Brewing on June 14.
Movin' To The Country - Super Fruited Peach Cobbler Smoothie Sour with Stemma Brewing
Stay Classy - San Diego Style IPA with Trap Door Brewing
Act Like Ya Know - Thiol Hazy IPA with Fortside Brewing
Y'all Ready For This - DDH Double Hazy IPA with Threshold Brewing & Blending
Meet the Vice Beer founders and try their beers at the new school’s New Brewery & Cidery Showcase at Imperial Bottle Shop & Taproom on Thursday, June 23rd.