Recluse Brew Works comes out of hiding
The new Recluse Brew Works in Washougal, Washington is not named after the shy but venomous brown spider, but for brewer/owner August “Gus” Everson’s reclusive nature. Everson moved to Oregon from Chicago to pursue a brewing career, and keep out of the big city, preferring the Columbia River Gorge contrast between rural nature and industry. As a brewer at two of Portland’s bigger name breweries (Widmer Brothers and Wayfinder Beer), he learned the ins and outs of production on both massive and small scales, but each highly efficient, technical and science driven breweries with various levels of hands-on versus automation. Both of his last two gigs inform the lager and IPA driven, clear, concise and sharp beers he plans to specialize in at Recluse Brew Works as their first beers hit the marketplace next week.
Recluse Brew Works joins the slowly developing Washougal beer scene which already has the newish Trap Door Brewing location downtown, an outpost of Doomsday Brewing, under-the-radar Shoug Brewing, the well-known 5440 Brewing right around the corner, and soon the third location of Grains of Wrath Brewing which will share the same building as Recluse.
Everson majored in science economics, a fancy way of saying a degree in statistics. “I was pretty good at math, got out of school and started working in data and at tech startups,” he says. His career took him from Groupon, to ParkWhiz, and even an AD agency in Detroit. “I was pretty much a junkmail scientist, and I didn’t really love it.”
In his free time he was homebrewing and going to all of the local brewpubs, and then he realized the world-famous Siebel Institute of Brewing school was right there in Chicago, and he thought why the hell not enroll and see if it stuck. As soon as he graduated, Everson and his wife Wesley packed up to move to the northwest and he got his first brewing job at Widmer Brothers. Every new brewer there has to start out working nights on the graveyard shift, “which was a learning experience to say the least” but it was a little too corporate for him.
Everson had applied to Wayfinder more than once, and had missed out on a previous opportunity because he was too late to respond. The next time they posted a job he jumped on the chance and immediately reached out to the brewmaster at the time Kevin Davey, and got the job. He started doing cellar work and worked his way up to lead brewer at Wayfinder. “Kevin is very knowledgeable and is a great teacher,” says Everson of his time at Wayfinder, “But It got up to the point where I was like ‘I love this so much I want to do it for myself.”
Armed with savings from his previous career, his wife’s job at Adobe, as well as family investment, and SBA loans, Everson started casually poking around for a location to open his own brewery. His wife had the idea to make a list of the things they would want to find in the right type of brewery space in the next 2-3 years. The criteria was Everson wanted it to be in an industrial park, and close to the river. They thought they would simply keep an eye out and maybe something would come up. That’s when they heard about Port of Camas-Washougal business development’s plans to build out Building 20 in an industrial park next to Cottonwood Beach and the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge- and they were courting breweries. “When I saw the news on the building 20, I was like ‘I guess that’s my sign’” says Everson.
Pictured: Building 20 at the Port of Camas-Washougal
You don’t hear of too many brewers that dream to have a place in an industrial park, but that feature and the proximity to nature is what got Everson interested in the pacific northwest to begin with. He was attracted to the contrast between the beautiful untouched outdoors, and the industrial man-made, hands-on type of production that happens in an industrial park. The comparison echoes beer production, where on one hand you are dealing with natural farm grown and sourced ingredients and living yeast, quality water, etc. while at the same time you need to know science, math, electrical and work on machinery using propane or gas, with a lot of steel, pipes and fittings. “There is a lot of contradiction around craft beer, the one I like the most is like ‘let’s go have a beer and some food around a factory’” says Everson, who grew up on the great lakes, and loved the majestic waterways that Recluse will be adjacent to. “The beach is right there, summer activities, and a decent amount of migration coming out our way from the metro areas.”
Recluse Brew Works occupies two x 3,330-sq square-foot bays inside the 50,000 sq. ft. Building 20. About 1k sq ft will be devoted to the Recluse taproom, with no kitchen, and a casual industrial but stylish space that could provide space for food trucks or pop-ups. That leaves a pretty sizable amount of space for the brewing operations, for a startup without a lot of capital or name brand behind it you can still really see the ambition and money on the line. They are brewing on a 15bbl 3-vessel system from Specific Mechanical set up to do step mashes and basic decoction mashing. Recluse is starting out with 30bbl fermenters and brite tanks, enough capacity to get up to around 2k barrels per year, but with tons of extra room for expansion.
Recluse Brew Works will have a taproom, which is a little off the beaten path and hard to find like a needle in a haystack. Fitting for a reclusive nature like Everson himself, and also another contradiction that he loves. A watering hole by someone who doesn’t really like to go out to them that much himself. Which is not to say he doesn’t enjoy visiting local breweries, but he is particular about the vibes he wants to find at them. He mentions the old Upright Brewing tasting room when it was still in the basement of the Leftbank Project as an inspiration, he also calls out Heater Allen Brewing in McMinnville.
“I want you to feel kind of like a cellar dweller a little bit, I really want the tasting room to feel like you're in a factory (because you are), but I also like how close we are to the gorge and nature in Washougal,” says Everson.
Richard LaRue and August “Gus” Everson at their new Recluse Brew Works in Washougal, Washington
None of this means that Recluse Brew Works won’t be stylish, friendly and welcoming. They have hired Richard LaRue, former manager of Mayfly Taproom and Bottleshop in N. Portland, and brother of Oregon Brewers Guild director Christina LaRue, to run the taproom. It will be kid friendly, but don’t expect a play-area or kids menu, they will have packaged snacks, food truck pop-ups and some NA and cider options to go along with a full lineup of their own beers. Eventually the taproom will expand to the adjacent yard for outdoor seating closer to spring when they hope to get some traction with people visiting the river and gorge sights nearby.
The taproom is bright, mostly white, with high ceilings, and industrial but bubbly with hanging plants in the vein of Living Haus Beer Co. in Portland, and with mural art by Starkeep Studios which designed the aforementioned brand, and partnered with Modern Times Beer before them. Starkeep also designed Recluse’s cans, their first two beers RBW American-Style Lager Beer and Synthetic Folklore are already getting packaged this Friday and self-distribution will start in Southwest Washington next week. To begin with, they will be hitting Washington only, with the Portland-area coming next. They intend to sell as much themselves in their area as possible, but are exploring options for an Oregon distributor and Washington wholesaler that would cover other parts of the state.
Pictured: Putting the finishing touches on the Recluse Brew Works taproom hopefully opening by end of November
Recluse Brew Works plans to open with atleast 5 beers, they show off the drinkability that Everson is going for that really exemplifies the best characteristics of quaffability. “Clean beers with a relaxing atmosphere - that's what we're going for,” says Everson.
RBW Lager Beer
American-Style lager with a blend of American and German Malts and HopsSpecialni 13 - Czech-Style Amber Lager
A smooth and balanced amber lager brewed with bohemian ingredients.Bed Denim - Extra Pale Ale
A pale ale with a little bit extra. Fashioned with the classic notes of fruit, pine, and citrus.Synthetic Folklore - IPA
A bright, clean west coast IPA with notes of tropical fruit and mango.
Recluse will also have a Czech-Style 10 degree lager collaboration brewed with their upcoming new neighbors Grains of Wrath Brewing, who are opening their new production brewery and a future tasting room next door in the same Building 20 development. When it’s all completed, Recluse Brew Works will be just an 8 minute walk away from 5440 Brewing even though you can literally see each others buildings across an empty but fenced field.
Recluse Brew Works is awaiting a final inspection before opening their taproom, which could come any day now. When that happens they plan to be open Wednesday and Thursday 12-8, Friday and Saturday 11am-10pm, and Sunday 11am-6pm at 4035 Grant St Suite 102, Washougal, WA 98671. Follow their instagram @reclusebrewworks for updates.
