The Most Exciting New and Upcoming Breweries in Washington
Washington’s vibrant craft beer scene has an exciting crop of newcomers, and a promising lineup of upcoming new brewery and taproom projects opening in 2023. Washington already boasts the 4th most breweries of any state in the nation according to 2021 statistics, and the new generation will boost diversity and broaden the already strong craft beer industry.
Breweries/Taprooms Coming Soon:
Bellingham, WA
Sam Milne was the co-head brewer at Bellingham, Washington’s Kulshan Brewing, a position he earned after 5 years at the company working his way up from keg washer to taproom manager before joining the brewing leadership. In 2018 he was awarded the prestigious Glen Hey Falconer brewing scholarship to attend the Siebel Institute in Chicago and World Brewing Academy at Doemens in Munich, Germany, an experience that changed his life. While in Germany he had the chance to tour European lager breweries in his study, and that lead to helping design, build, and launch Brick West Brewing in Spokane, Washington as their head brewer.
Milne moved back to Bellingham in 2021 and began working in a centrally located business park space at 4151 Meridian St, to open his passion project Larrabee Lager Co. and completely commit to that ethos of lager first.
“When it comes to beer I am a staunch proponent of a "less is more" mentality and I think that will show in our beers. Many brewers these days that are hyper focused on trends and brewing over the top creative beer styles sometime loose sight of the fact that base beer needs to be quality regardless of what secondary adjuncts are added,” says Milne.
Larrabee beers will be served in a European-style communal beer hall setting designed to encourage people to come together over each others company over sessionable liters of straw blonde helles and luscious golden pilsners. In their first year, Milne wants to stay laser focused on dialing in their core stable of lagers- Helles, Pils, Vienna or Maerzen, and Dunkel, and German-style ales like kolsch, gose, and weissbier. This will be accomplished on a purpuse build 20bbl lager brewhouse with decoction and kettle souring as well as conical fermentation vessels for primary fermentation and horizontal tanks for krauseing and maturation.
Larrabee Lager Co. aims to finish construction in May open to the public by late summer 2023.
Selah, WA
Coming soon to the outskirts of the hop capital Yakima, Washington is an impressive new brewpub by veterans of the hop innovation and culture sphere of the growing Yakima Valley. Outskirts Brewing was formed by local musician turned concert promoter Cody Bebee who founded his own talent booking service, and in 2012 launched the Chinook Fest that has brought national touring artists to town. On his first tour as a young musician, Bebee brought his good friends Ty Paxton and Joe Catron along for the ride and that is where they first began tasting and then falling in love with craft beer through IPA’s. Ty went on to start Single Hill Brewing and Joe went to Yakima Chief Ranches aka YCH Hops.
15 years later Joe and Cody are launching Outskirts Brewing in the quiet bedroom community suburb of Yakima known as Selah. The brewing company lucked out by finding the first piece of property you see as you enter Silah, an old family barn that they were able to purchase. To retrofit the barn to become a brewpub they had to completely take the structure apart in order to straighten the frame and still preserve the wood and vintage properties while freshening it up. The final construction will have a full restaurant serving steaks, salmon, halibut, bison burgers, and cocktails, while a second more intimate tasting room will focus solely on their housebrewed beers. The brewery grounds offer a breathtaking outdoor space with a huge paver patio, outdoor bar, and stage for live music. Joe has brought on YCH head R & D brewer (who helps develop and test new hop varietals) JT Wattenberg to serve as Outskirts head brewer. Wattenberg will brew hop forward first recipes based on years of prior experience at Silver City Brewery and Fremont Brewing, with a few lighter lagers thrown into the mix. Outskirts Brewing is eyeing a spring 2023 opening.
Olympia, WA
Washington’s capital city Olympia has a long and storied brewing history, but hasn’t had a new brewery in almost 5 years. Veteran brewer Pat Jansen helped start Three Magnets Brewing and Matchless Brewing as their original head brewers, after a handful of years out of the industry he is returning with Ilk Beer. Jansen has partnered with Abe Burt, who was the front of house manager at Three Magnets when they first met 7 years ago. With years of experience in bartending, sales and business management, Burt is the perfect foil to Jansen’s freewheeling approach to brewing.
Ilk Beer is now busy demo’ing the former Fish Tale Brewing production space for their own brewery. Fish Tale is Olympia’s oldest brewery, but it was sold some years back and while the brewpub is still in operation, they shut down the brewing side of the business in 2021. Ilk Beer is installing a new 3-vessel 15bbl brewhouse consisting of mash/lauter, kettle/mash mixer, and whirlpool, all without a brewdeck! They will use inline dosing vessels to accomplish what a brew deck would normally have, though they may need a small platform for the lauter tun to use sensors or a simple mirror to confirm boils. Jansen is excited to have the brewing control panel on the ground level instead of pointlessly being up a flight of stairs on the deck.
Ilk Beer will cater towards low ABV drinkers with a ton of hoppy but light beers like West Coast-style Pilsner. Down the line they want to delve into styles that are currently out of vogue like red, brown and black beers. Jansen is also big into mixed-culture barrel-aged beers. “For the moment, all of our "farmhouse" stuff will see stainless and be of the more drinkable side, think Saison or Belgian blonds that drink like a Pils. Anything really funky will be spontaneous beer only. As Allagash likes to call it, American Coolship Ale! Hahaah!” exclaims Jansen.
Washougal, WA
August “Gus” Everson loves the seemingly stark contrasts of nature and industry of the pacific northwest, that’s part of the reason he moved to Portland from Chicago to become a brewer. After leaving his tech job he trained at the prestigious Siebel brewing institute, and then got a job at Widmer Brothers. After working his way through the taxing graveyard shift, he landed a job at one of his favorite breweries in town - Wayfinder Beer. Meanwhile, the Port of Washougal was embarking on a waterfront adjacent redevelopment project to bring industry and court breweries to move or start their operations in a proposed “brewery district.” The opportunity to open at the port was the perfect fit for Everson who was drawn to the pacific northwest because of the stark contrasts between nature and industry that he finds beautiful. Though he wasn’t planning to open up his own brewery so soon, Everson says it was too good to pass up “It’s got views of a wildlife refuge, and it’s right at the mouth of the gorge. It’s what I love about the Northwest in general.” Recluse Brew Works will take up two 3,330-sq square-foot bays inside the brand new 50k sq. ft. Building 20 at the Port. The primarily production brewery has commissioned a 15bbl 3-vessel brewhouse from Specific Mechanical, and 30 bbl tanks, so that they can do proper step mashes and basic decoction to produce top notch lagers. Their beers will be distributed in cans, with a more industrial taproom that Everson wants to feel like a cellar, a little reminiscent of Upright Brewing’s original basement taproom that was almost in the middle of production and bottling.
Backwoods Brewing Party Acres Brewery Resort
Carson, WA
Carson, Washington’s Backwoods Brewing has found success in the gorge with their popular pizza brewpub in Carson, and in the slightly more upscale satellite tavern in northwest Portland’s pearl district. But the brewery’s biggest project yet is a new 19-acre resort property they plan to open this spring in Carson. The Backwoods Party Acres Brewery Resort will have cozy cabins in the woods with a disc golf course, zip line, and amphitheater. In the future, they will move the entire pub and brewery onsite to the party acres to create an even greater draw for visitors.
Vice Beer’s A Little Vice
Vancouver, WA
The newest brewery in craft beer rich Vancouver, Washington is Vice Beer, and they are already planning a second location downtown at 701 Main Street called “A Little Vice.” Envisioned as a casual pop-in style bar with a lineup of their beers on tap or to-go in cans, it will have outdoor seating and windows that open up to an indoor/outdoor bar top on the south wall. The interior will have a 4-player video game cabinet with over 1000 classic arcade games set to free play witha kegerator inside that will pour two of their nostalgic beers off the side of the box. Behind the bar they will have LUKR Czech side pull handles to pour their Czech-style Polotmavy 13° and Millie 11° Pilsner with guest taps from Swift Cider and Mela, and wine from Batteaux Cellars. Slow Fox Chili Parlor and Taproom is already open next door to the incoming A Little Vice, and the brewery is excited to team up with them for events in the neighboring Columbia Food Park this summer.
Now Open New Breweries:
Bellingham, WA
Gay and Mexican-owned El Sueñito is one of the most bright and colorful breweries to come to Washington in recent memory. The brewpub comes from the owners of 8-year-old Seattle founded business Frelard Tamales. Co-owners Dennis and Osbaldo believe tamales and beer are a perfect match, and have brought their Spanish and Mexican backgrounds into El Sueñito with both the food, beers, and art of the brewery which means “little dream” in Spanish. Osbaldo says “The name holds a lot of intentional meaning to us: it highlights our cultural connection to Spanish & Mexico and it speaks to our dream of creating this space for community in the PNW.”
Dennis Ramey was previously a Pediatric Cancer Research Scientist at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, before deciding to pursue a career as a brewer, obtaining a Master Brewer Certificare from UC Davis and starting his professional brewing career at Hellbent Brewing in Seattle. Osbaldo moved from Mexico to the U.S. when he was 11, it took him nine years to become a citizen after a long immigration process. His background is as a former High School teacher who taught in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas working in three different school districts with unhoused students. Both Osbaldo and Dennis share a love of the outdoors, love to bike, ski, camp and backpack.
El Sueñito opened their brewpub in February, with a beer list featuring familiar pacific northwest IPAs, Pale Ales, Stouts, etc. but with a significant balance of lighter beers influenced by flavors and culture of Mexico. For example, their flagship beer is Alebrijes Mexican Lager, “Alebrijes” is a mythical creature depicted in Mexican folk art that is often displayed in national museums and in people’s homes. On the dark beer side, they collaborated with Kulshan Brewing on a horchata milk stout with Mexican cinnamon, chocolate and vanilla.
“Not only did we envisioned a space where anyone in the community could call our brewery their favorite hang out spot but we also wanted to create a space that felt inviting for queer and BIPOC folks,” says Ramey. “As a biracial gay couple who love beer and hanging out at breweries, we noticed a lack of queer and BIPOC representation in the industry. We felt that we could help bring some of this representation to the industry and help create more spaces for people of all backgrounds to come together to build community around beer and food.”
Hildegard Ferments & Botanicals
Seattle, WA
Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood is one of the hippest areas in town, known for their brewery density with such well known stars as Reuben’s Brews, Stoup Brewing, Urban Family, and Great Notion to name just a few. The newest addition to that scene is the most unsuspecting and unusual of the bunch. Hildegard Ferments & Botanicals is an apothecary and brewery from
Co-owners Rosa Vissers and Howard Kuo who had planned to open a full-on brewpub before the pandemic scuttled the larger plans. Instead they settled on an even more special concept of an herbal retail workshop that sells balms, tinctures, hydrosols, and other wellness concoctions, with their own rustic small batch beers with old world roots filtered through a contemporary lens. Hildegard beers embrace seasonality, as they shift to utilize the local and organic ingredients that can be sustainably harvested at the time. Their ever changing lineup of beers in cans or bottles usually feature styles like botanical saisons, Belgian/French table beers, and barrel fermented wild ales, all of which can be purchased in their shop, online at their webstore, and in a few local beer bars and bottleshops.
Seattle, WA
The former Urban Family Brewing location in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood is the new home of a Bizarre brewery catering to brewers and families. and Colette Boilini and Derek Brown met in 2014 as both worked at Fremont Brewing, Boilini would go on to bartend at both Cloudburst Brewing locations before they ended up working together at Holy Mountain where Brown became head of barrel production. In October they opened Bizarre Brewing with a focus on low alcohol and esoteric beers that brewers and beer nerds who appreciate more subtle and nuanced beers flock to. On their taplist you aren’t likely to find a pastry stout, fruited sour, or even a hazy or west coast IPA. Instead it’s all about sessionable pale ales, German and English beers you can enjoy a few pints of, and find something interesting about. Outside of the classic lagers like Bavarian Helles, the Bizarre Brewing folks like to make strange versions of old school styles, like an English-style Mild ale with oats and honey, or a Kölsch-Weisse hybrid with lemon and coriander. The warehouse-like taproom has been brightened up with fun decor and colors, and features rotating food trucks. Though there is no kitchen, it’s a family friendly beer hall style establishment that welcomes the neighborhood in to settle down for a board game and some bizarre but tasty beers.
Seattle, WA
It took a long time to get to the Here Today, after a successful but long wefunder campaign to open this new Seattle waterfront brewpub steps from the Sculpture Garden and a short walk from Pike Place Market. While centrally located, you have to cross the rail road tracks or come down the hill to find Here Today on the lower level of an apartment complex squashed between creative work spaces and a crossfit gym. The neighborhood of higher end apartments and condos is discovering their lager-centric beer lineup and hip but strange taproom that mashes up vintage diner with pale but colorful hues out of an 80’s pop music video. Eater Seattle calls the vibe “‘90s mall food court meets a ‘70s skate rink with a Vaporwave design aesthetic,” and Here Today’s official PR describes it as “neo-tropical” which feels correct after we stopped in for their once-a-week Sunday brunch taco service.
Here Today’s three owners are splitting up the responsibilities running nearly every aspect of the business: Dave Riddile is the general manager and marketing pro who is also behind the branding. Chris Elford is the principal partner and CEO, he has been behind numerous award-winning bars like Navy Strengh and the late, lamented, and now closed No Anchor which deftly mixed cocktails and craft beer. And Mario Cortes is head brewer, who brewed at bay-area fixture Woods Beer, New England’s legacy brand Harpoon, and the Austin production facility of Oskar Blues Brewery, before a stint at Seattle’s Fair Isle Brewing. Cortes beers are slanted towards sessionable drinkers, but he isn’t afraid to rock a Double IPA either.
On a recent visit, Here Today was nearing status as a lager haus. Small horizontal serving tanks are stacked and on full display in the taproom, and the lineup showed off a wide selection of clean, sharply focused ales and lagers that each seemed to pinpoint a particular element such as a single hop variety like Talus, or an adjunct like rice. Here Today beers are now getting distribution around Seattle and in the Portland area via Upstanding Distribution.
Spokane, WA
Spokane natives Jonathan Sweatt, and brothers Ryan and Brandon Hare opened Uprise Brewing in August 2022. Sweatt is a well known local business owner behind Downriver Grill, Republic Pi, and The Flying Goat. The Hare brothers ran The Flying Goat and became major beer nerds in the process, after being set down that path at a Colorado beer festival. Sweatt credits the brothers for turning his places into beer geek destinations, and from the outset they had laid plain their intentions to open a brewery. Uprise Brewing is on the edge of the Kendall Yards and West Central neighborhoods in a new 6,500 sq. ft. building with a taproom designed by local architecture firm Uptic Studios. The brewpub is rife with features, like a dog friendly patio, televisions for catching games, a full liquor bar, a child friendly kids area, a dog friendly beer garden, and even an astroturf outdoor area designed for cornhole and other outdoor drinking games. Front and center is the food program from a fine dining chef who has put together an expansive and affordable menu with pub staples and vegan/vegetarian and gluten-free options. Perhaps most unique about Uprise Brewing Co. are the five fully furnished suites available on airbnb. These are suites inspired by the McMenamins breweries hotels that are outfitted with a kitchenette, a murphy bed, and are pet friendly, with a larger ground level ADA.
Uprise is not forgetting about the beer either, they have recruited formerly retired brewer Riley Elmer who was behind medal-winning beers from Spokane’s Perry Street Brewing. Elmer is brewing contemporary IPA’s and has horizontal lagering tanks to play with, coming off of a 10bbl brewhouse. Quoted in the Inlander paper, Ryan Hare says their beers are "Very lager driven, very new-school-IPA driven.”
Uprise opened their doors in August 2022 and released their first beers Pilsner, Bright Side IPA, Guava Gose and Static Glow Hazy IPA in 16oz cans in February 2023.
Bellingham, WA
Darach (Dar-rock pronunciation) is Gaelic for oak, and this new farmhouse-inspired brewery plans to focus on oak barrel-aging many of their beers with an ambitious program of wild ales and even spontaneous fermentations. The farmhouse feel extends to their space in Bellingham’s central district, with white walls, plants and artwork, along with our wood accents and an amazing oak round bartop. The Darach Brewing building has some nice history as well, it was formerly well known beer bar and music venue The Green Frog, which served as a touchstone for the local craft beer community in its early days.
Darach Brewing co-owner Shawn Vail is a Siebel Institute brewing school graduate from 2009, he started his career at Stone Brewing in Escondido, California in 2010. His career took him to Texas where he eventually became head brewer of Lakewood Brewing, he brewed in Denmark after that, and then landed in Washington state. Before starting Darach he worked at Fish Brewing, Chainline, Magnuson Park, and Garden Path fermentation, all in the evergreen state. Co-owner Emily Nichols started as a tour guide at RedHook Brewery in Woodinville, Washington in 2013. She moved on to become a front of house pro with a succession of jobs in Washington at Trails End Taphouse, Scrappy Punk Brewery, and Lost Canoe brewing in Snohomish between 2015 and 2020. She is now a Certified Cicerone, a recognized BJCP judge, and the Co-Lead for the Bellingham Chapter of Pink Boots Society. Emily and Shawn moved to Bellingham to work at Garden Path Fermentation, before opening Darach Brewing together in December.
Darach is a taproom focused brewery with limited local self-distribution. When they aren’t filling the draft lines with time intensive wild ales and oak-aged cellar beers, the lineup consists of dark beers, table beers, and IPA’s plus rotating guest beers, wines, and ciders from their friends. The taproom is kid and dog friendly with non-alcoholic options and hosts game nights and live music.
Seattle, WA
Longtime homebrewers Barry Kinter and Stephen Baxter were inspired by the density of breweries finding success in the Ballard brewery district to open their own brewery called Project 9. “As most homebrewers dream of eventually owning a brewery, it always felt like just a dream until 2019 when I was the runner up in Reuben’s Brew’s Hop Idol competition,” says Kinter. After scaling up his homebrew to production size with Reuben’s, he decided he just had to try to open his own spot and teamed up with Baxter to do so. They found an old auto body shop to become the brewery and taproom with 130 person capacity indoors, and purchased the residential unit next door to demolish it and turn it into their beer garden with seating for another 60. Sans a kitchen of their own, they partnered up with Portland chef Melissa McMilan to bring her popular restaurant Sammich to the brewery as a food truck.
Wisely realizing their time would be better suited for running the business, and that homebrewing does not necessarily correlate to producton brewing, Kinter and Baxter brought on head brewer Josh Yoker. With experience at Bend, Oregon’s Sunriver Brewing and Silver Moon Brewing, Yoker came to Seattle and helped open Lucky Envelope Brewing and most recently was at Stoup Brewing. Project 9’s beers lean on contemporary fruited sours, juicy IPA’s and pales, and light quenching beers. “We like using fun ingredients but we think that craft beer has hit peak weirdness, so we will focus on drinkability,” adds Kinter.
Project 9 Brewing opened on March 3rd, and already has a strong fanbase and their first beers in cans.
Bellingham, WA
Structures Brewing opened in Bellingham, Washington in 2015, immediately garnering attention as one of the first breweries in Washington state to make Northeast-style Hazy IPA a big part of their operation. Their combination of black metal and occult-themed vibes, and intimate but dark and warm taproom was the perfect place to enjoy more eccentric beers like their barrel-aged and mixed fermentation experiments. But the production has always been small, and their beer made to be seeked out. But when Chuckanut Brewing announced plans to relocate their production from Bellingham to Burlington, Structures Brewing jumped at the chance to snap up the waterfront space in Old Town Bellingham. Structures Brewing Old Town opened on March 11th as the brewery’s first new location since opening in 2015. It also marked a major shift for the brewery from tiny counter service taproom to full-service brewpub with a menu of diner-style burgers and sandwiches, with a real waterfront patio, and the room to put in a much larger production brewery down the line. Read our full story on Structures Old Town here.
Seattle, WA
Fast Fashion may be contemporary but it’s not new, the previously ghost brand from The Masonry pizza founder Matt Storm and Stillwater Artisanal Ales founder Brian Strumke launched during the COVID lockdown in 2020. But what once was meant as quarterly can only beer releases brewed at an off-site facility as an alternating proprietorship, has now blossomed into a full-time operation with eclectic tastes. Branching out from the super hazy NE-style IPA’s they became known for out of the gate, Fast Fashion now has their very own taproom to showcase a diverse lineup from dark lagers and farmhouse ales to heirloom lagers. The stark black taproom is minimalist, but punctuated by copper plated taps, a record player, couch and projector for Kraken games and the occasional karaoke party. Most appealingly, you can order and pick up one of The Masonry’s top notch wood-fired Neapolitan-style pies or spicy meatballs and walk it next door to the taproom. Fast Fashion also now has their own brewery in the SOMA district, where they will open another taproom later this year.