Seattle, Washington’s popular full-time farmhouse and saison brewery Fair Isle has played with rustic versions of contemporary styles in the past, and is now fully embracing the resurgence of craft lagers. Since opening their Ballard barrel house and taproom in 2020, Fair Isle has focused solely on complex oak-aged saisons and tart and sour wild ales based on Belgian and French traditions, sometimes with local foraged ingredients and sourcing. In the past, the taproom has poured a lager guest tap from one of their fellow Washington or Oregon breweries, but now they are expanding their lineup to finally introduce the Fair Isle House Lager.

Brewed with 100% Washington malts from the fantastic Linc Malt, the main focus of the Fair Isle lager program is to place an emphasis on highly expressive, locally grown malts. After conversations and exploring grains with Brian of LINC Malts, Fair Isle brewers began to develop recipes based on classic lager traditions. Their first release is inspired by German-style Pilsner, using a combination of LINC’s Genie Pils and Baronesse Pils, and German Tettnanger hops sourced from Crosby Hops. For this batch, they used classic lager techniques like spunding (or naturally carbonating in the tank), slow crashing and extended lagering for 6 weeks to allow the yeast to express itself.

Fair Isle is approaching their production of lager the same as they approach brewing saisons: using time as a crucial component, and employing old world techniques with Washington ingredients. 

Fair Isle is eager to share their carefully crafted lagers with the public starting this Friday, March 17th at their Ballard taproom with a special pop-up by Beast & Cleaver.