Human People Beer coming to Seattle waterfront from former Modern Times brewers, and Malt specialist
Former Modern Times Beer San Diego brewers Tim Kamolz and Andrew Schwartz, have teamed with supply industry veteran Mallorie King, to open Human People Beer in Seattle, Washington’s West Canal Yards development this summer. It is one of our most anticipated upcoming Oregon and Washington breweries scheduled to open in 2024.
Human People Beer is beer for the people by the people, not made of people ala Soylent Green. Easily one of the most exciting breweries to open in Washington in years, Human People has decades of experienced humans behind it and a desirable location on Seattle’s scenic and historic waterway. But how did a formerly California brew crew end up in Washington?
“We all have family up here and have been itching to move to the pacific northwest for some time,” says brewer/co-owner Andrew Schwartz. “Personally, I had my formative beer drinking years in Oregon and learned to love and appreciate the unique and ranged beer scene and that was 15 years ago! Since then, every brewery has evolved or changed in some way or another. Seattle has become one of my favorite and most uniquely characterful beer cities in America. We are extremely excited to be here and have felt only warm welcome since arriving. We hope to add something special to a nicely developed beer scene in Seattle.”
Mallorie King and Andrew Schwartz in Pellicle Mag
Schwartz has been a part of the pacific northwest beer industry since obtaining master of studies degree in microbiology at Oregon State University in 2011. From there he made his way to Ithaca Beer Co. in 2012 where he worked as a lab manager for 2 years. In 2014 he joined Modern Times Beer at their headquarters in San Diego where he held titles like “Commisioner of Flavor” over his 8 years with the brewery up until its sale to Maui Brewing when he joined the newly formed Craft ‘Ohana as Director of Product Innovation and Development. At Modern Times, Schwartz really developed the special mixed culture and fermentations, and in his spare time through the pandemic made just about every type of pizza and even created a pizza zine.
Mallorie King has perhaps the most diverse resume of the three Human People Beer founders. She started as a marketing intern, coordinator, events management, and media content editor, before she moved into craft food management and communications. In 2017 she was a Fulbright Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, where she examined cross-cultural economic concerns of the hop industry. In 2018 she dove into the craft beer industry full-time, first as a brewer and cellarperson at Temescal Brewing in the bay area where she was the recipient of the 2018 Barth-Haas Hops Academy scholarship. After that she entered the craft supply business as sales for Admiral Maltings, and a board member for the North American Craft Maltsters Guild. In 2019 she became the west coast sales manager for midwest based Hop Head Farms.
Mallorie King and Tim Kamolz
Kamolz used to be an audio engineer, and tour manager who worked with Childish Gambino, Delta Spirit, and various other touring groups running front of house. In 2013 he joined Modern Times as a brewer, working his way up to production manager, then head brewer. In 2018 he was promoted to Modern Times’ Director of Brewery Operations where he was in charge of both beer and coffee production teams across multiple facilities.
West Canal Yards developer rendering
The West Canal Yards are made up of two existing industrial seafood warehouses that were formerly the Ocean Beauty Seafood property. The property was sold to an associate of Unico Properties development called Waterway Investments LLC for $6.7 million dollars in 2019. The project site includes the adaptive reuse of a 109,000 sq ft fish processing plant on nine acres of Lake Washington Ship Canal waterfront located north of the Queen Anne neighborhood, and east of the Ballard Bridge.
The existing West Canal Yards buildings had very few windows and were more focused on the indoors rather than out. To brighten things up and emphasize the waterway, the buildings are getting skylights and new windows inserted into the concrete exteriors to provide views and capture daylight, while connecting to outdoor decks, landscaping, and the wharf. The design envisions a renovated, reinvigorated space that can be home to a mixture of small businesses, water-related makerspaces, and a university crew program.
The Human People Beer brewery and taproom will take up residence in 7,700 sq ft of the larger of the two west canal yards buildings at 1100 West Ewing St, Seattle, WA 98119. Developers are adding a second floor to the east portion of this building, formerly used as cold storage, increasing the existing structure’s square footage from 104,000 SF to 132,000 SF. The structural scope includes a complete seismic retrofit and structural support for new fenestration at the exterior walls, and new canopies, ramps, custom stairs, and a roof deck at the north end of the building.
The brewery will have a 3,300 sq ft tasting room that takes inspiration from communal spaces like “milk bars” and the all day cafes of European mountain towns to be cozy, welcoming, and friendly. Not to be confused with the Milk Bar bakery chains, or the English grocery/bodega type milk bar, Human People Beer’s taproom is inspired by the Polish milk bar, or bar mleczny. The first Polish milk bar was opened Warsaw in 1896 by a dairy farmer, and naturally had many dairy-centric items and traditional food, sort of like a cozy cafeteria. These days they function similar to a diner or cafe with soups, dumplings, potato pancakes, local meats, and signature drinks, similar to a public house that caters to wide demographics for quick and casual fare that still welcomes people to settle in.
Schwartz, Kamolz, and King have been actively developing and trialing recipes for Human People Beer for some time now. Their stated goal is to make infinitely drinkable and cosmically aromatic beers and drinks. Adeptly developed and precisely brewed lagers, ales, etc.
“Throughout all of our experiences at other breweries we were able to express those ideas only partially,” says Schwartz. “Now, with our own brewery, we can make beer however we want. Which means, making beers that express really very high quality ingredients. We have a number of techniques, yeast strains, and of course experience that we want to translate into simply good and delicious beer. Our first beers will feature fluffy mouthfeel, cloud-like foam and choice hops.”
Human People’s first beer “Flor de Muerto”, was a collaboration beer brewed with and at North Park Beer Co. Their second collaboration “Ethel” Hazy IPA with Living Haus Beer in Portland, was just released on Friday, January 26th. Their first beers brewed in Seattle should be available by this March, a Slovenian-inspired Pilsner and a Hoppy Ale. The brewery and tasting room awaits construction and redevelopment process completion, but they hope to be open in summer 2024 and are already selling merch!