In Memoriam of Washington Brewer Dean Mochizuki RIP
Being a brewer in the craft beer industry is not a career choice for those looking for an easy way through life. Making good beer can be time-consuming. It requires dedication and perseverance. It also helps if the brewer is even-tempered. It's even better if the brewer has a reputation for being one of the nicest humans and best colleagues in the trade, an opinion shared unanimously by his friends and peers. Such was the case with Dean Mochizuki, whose brewing background included more than a dozen years with Seattle's Pike Brewing, and more than four and a half years with Reuben's Brews in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, now dubbed the Ballard Brewery District.
Mochizuki joined Pike in 2002, and was promoted to the post of Head Brewer there in 2011. As was and still is typical on a Pike Brewing weekday, brewers there would gather at the bar for their shift beer after a hard day's labors in the brewery. Dean would be there with a friendly hello and quick smile, often offering a beer and inviting friends to join in with the brewers for conversation and pints of the beers that were part of his trade, well-crafted classics of Pacific Northwest craft brewing from a Seattle classic, in business now for more than three decades. He fit in well in Seattle's craft beer people, and it was often likely he'd be on hand for a promotional evening at a local pub, or representing at Denver's Great American Beer Festival.
In 2015, he was offered and took the position of Head Experimental Brewer at Reuben's Brews. Founder-owner-head brewer Adam Robbings was pleased with the hiring decision, writing, “We’re very excited to have someone with Dean’s experience and skill join our team. I’ve had a long list of beers I’ve wanted to brew, but just haven’t had the time or space to brew them. With the [then-] new brewery opening up in the next couple of months, we finally will. I can’t wait to turn Dean loose and see what he comes up with!”
Mochizuki rose to the challenge, saying at the time with typical style, modesty, and grace, “I truly enjoyed my years at Pike and am grateful to Charles and Rose Ann Finkel for all they’ve done for me. Joining the Reuben’s Brews team is a fantastic opportunity. It’s been exciting to watch them grow over the last two-and-a-half years. They consistently produce the highest quality beer in a variety of styles. I’m really looking forward to helping them push the boundaries and create new and exciting beers.” It was appropriate that both Pike and Reuben's, with their strong Seattle roots, would hire a born-and-raised Seattle native for positions of leadership in their breweries.
Dean was something of a renaissance man, too, educated at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, and very much a talented woodwind player, particularly saxophone, but also flute and clarinet; in the 1970s, he performed the Franklin Jazz Lab while still in school. (You've heard of Kenny G? Kenny Gorelick and Dean Mochizuki were bandmates back then.) He liked gardening and cooking, and took the opportunity to travel as time allowed. And as always, he was a singularly pleasant guy, someone with whom it was always a great time to sit down and have a beer.
Dean took up his brewing career a little later in life than some, and was still at Reuben's after he turned 60. He announced his retirement late in 2019, not long after his 64th birthday in November, but kept mum about the real reason until he was out the door. There was a hint in his social media feed, a donation to a fundraiser for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Then came the bad news: Dean had been diagnosed with cancer. He was undergoing treatment as late as January 2020, but ... well, but.
There's this old Yiddish word, "mensch," meaning "a person of integrity and honor." To have a beer and chat with Dean Mochizuki was to know a true mensch, widely liked and respected in and outside of Seattle's craft brewing world. Dean passed away on January 24th, 2020. Raise a glass please, preferably filled with a Pike or Reuben's beer of your choice, to one of craft brewing's best humans, and remember his friendly personality and characteristic modesty. Dean is already missed by many, and will be for some time to come.
"I was so sad to hear the news. As with everyone who knew Dean, I was shocked to hear of his sudden passing. Dean was so kind, honest, and so unlikely to self-promote."
- Jason Parker, former Pike head brewer now of Copperworks Distilling.
"We remember Dean, not only as a kind and talented co-work er at Pike Brewing Co. where he rose to the position of head brewer, but as a friend and travel companion. Along with fellow beer enthusiasts Vicki Mar, Bob Scroggs, and the two of us, Dean joined a beer lover’s dream trip, to attend the semi annual hop festival in Poperinge, Belgium in 2016. It was exciting to see Dean, normally very quite and reserved, so animated as we watched the parade of kids dressed as giant aphids, spider mites and other hop predators; marching bands; and antique beer wagons meander down the main street of this medieval Belgian hop capital, each business along the route festooned with bines of the noble beer plant. Deans love of food, fostered he told us by his mom’s mastery of the Japanese table, was evident when we supped on giant bowls of moule/frites washed down with Westmalle, Orval, and Rochefort while overlooking a picturesque canal below ancient building Gent; over a multi course gastronomic extravaganza, each course paired with local St Sixtus Abt, Pater, and Popringer Hummel (hop) beer at famous Restaurant Hommelhof on the charming town square in tiny Watou, and over an assortment of beers produced by Palm with local cheeses as we met with Belgian beer writer Ben Vinken at the then new Beer Experience in the center of romantic Bruges. Dean, a professional musician himself loved the arts. A high note of our trip was seeing and hearing Lady GaGa and Tony Bennet preform at the majestic Grand Place in Brussels. A visit to Lambic brewer Cantillon in Brussels was the climax of the trip. I remember Dean commenting about how spacious and efficient Pike’s multi story gravity flow brewery was by comparison. It was Dean’s first, and I believe, only trip to Belgium and was surely an inspiration for him for the remainder of his life, unfortunately cut short by his cancer, diagnosed only a few years later."
- Charles and Rose Ann Finkel, owners/founders of Pike Brewing
Dean was such a nice person, his passing is a big loss to the industry. I am in denial myself right now - I was planning on brewing a beer with him this summer after he won his fight. I had no doubt he would win, I can't believe that wasn't the case. Instead of brewing with him, we'll be brewing for him now.
I first "met" Dean virtually before Reuben's even opened - he responded to a BA forum post while we were a brewery in planning. He regularly came to the brewery for a beer in those early days, and joined our team back in 2015 when we were only a handful of people - he believed in what we were doing when we were still virtually unknown.- Adam Robbings, founder and owner of Reuben's Brews
