Washington Beer Talk

Week 2 of the Bellingham Brewery series, we’re at Boundary Bay, one of the oldest breweries I have ever visited! We chat with Janet Lightner who has been running the brewery since ‘97. That’s a long enough time to raise a family, and indeed she did! Now the gang helps run the brewery too! I didn’t expect to be crashing into a brewery with a family history but sho’ nuff here it is! Janet’s food expertise helped to host food and beer dinners and expand the restaurant half of the brewpub year over year!

This is part one of two. the second part is coming out next week to Patrons only! Go to Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to find out more.

For the next few weeks, we’ll be in Bellingham exploring the amazing scene over there. This time we’re at Bellingham Cider Co and chatting with Josh about some of the fun stuff they get up to! The cider industry is quite different than Beer and of course, brewing cider is a little bit simpler than beer, as Josh explains.

This is part one of two. the second part is coming out next week to Patrons only! Go to Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to find out more.

Austin Rood, the Board of Directors President of my favorite brewery, Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery up here in Greenwood, Seattle sits down with me to chat about Co-ops. He’s not a pro brewer and he only owns 1/2000th of a brewery. Just like me. And could be you too! We talk about what co-ops even are plus hang out with a couple of beers and chat about politics, pretentiousness in beer, capitalism and bud light. Flying Bike is a cooperative brewery which means it is owned by its members. On its surface, the $200 joining fee looks like a fancy mug club membership, but it isn’t! It’s so much more. But how do you express that in a world where phrases like “so much more than a mug club” are just marketing talk for “it’s just a mug club we want you to think is good.” How did we get here and how do we move forward? Give it a listen!

This is part one of two. the second part is coming out next week to Patrons only! Go to Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to find out more.

Josh Snyder and Tommy Brooks join up with the Cycling Certified Cicerone to talk about beer in a business that isnt just a brewery. These boys from Zeeks sit down at Reuben’s Brews to talk about how a pizza company can turn it’s beer program from a Dud Light to a Craftstronomical success!

This is part one of two. the second part is coming out next week to Patrons only! Go to Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to find out more.

Finally getting to check out a cult favorite brewery. With brews like Bad Light, Samoa Girl Scout Ale, and Habanero Amber, they have some of the most unique beers you can get your hands on in Ballard. Jason Shrum steps up to the plate today to tell the story of the brewery’s founding. This is part one of two. the second part is coming out next week to Patrons only! Go to Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to find out more.

Reuben’s Brews! What an exciting interview. I got to ask important questions like “Where did the name Reuben’s come from?” The answer might surprise you given that the co-founders are Adam and Grace Robbings. Jk it’s not all that great of a mystery, but you still have to listen to find out. This is part one of two. the second part is coming out next week to Patrons only! Go to Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to find out more.

Yikes! That was a bit of a hiatus. I probably coulda started episode up last week or maybe even one week before, but nothing could be done. Thanks to a non-cicerone related bike accident, I broke my collar bone. It set my schedule back a bit, but it was kinda nice to just relax for a while. Thankfully for me, I have plenty of episodes recorded and waiting to hit the editing room. Stoup is the first of those! So to all those waiting patiently, here we go!

Stoup is a fantastic brewery in Ballard, in the region of Lucky Envelope, Populux, and Reuben’s. Known for nailing a wide variety of styles including their German styles especially, they hit the ground running in 2013. The three founders, Robin, Brad, and Lara (who I spoke with today) came to the table with a good assortment of experience and skills and were relatively early to the scene, a hand of cards that has served them well as their brewery continues to grow rapidly. Give it a listen!

Thank you to Hans Peng, my newest Patreon member! He gets some stickers and coasters and will get to choose a question that will be asked in an upcoming episode all in addition to access to the real feed with every episode!

Washington Beer Talk has a Patreon! Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to select a rewards tier. Get access to extra and extended episodes and more!

I was on my way Beer Now, a conference in Great Falls, Montana for beer bloggers, when I decided to stop by Missoula for a quick pint. There, I found Greg Howard, one of the two brothers responsible for the creation of Great Burn Brewing. He and his brother decided to open up a brewery after the death of their fire fighting 3rd brother, and in a way created a memorial to him and his work as a fire fighter.

The Great Burn was a huge wild fire that devastated a huge swatch of Montana in 1910, a fitting event to inspire the a brewery! Hopefully nothing here ever catches fire like that!

We sat down in the noisy taproom to chat about Greg’s family and past and get the scoop on this 2014 brewery that has to compete with Montana power houses like Big Sky and Bayern. Be forewarned, my travel kit for recording is a little sparse, so please forgive some shoddy audio. I feel shame.

Washington Beer Talk has a Patreon! Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to select a rewards tier. Get access to extra and extended episodes and more!

Metier Brewing has taken the place of the old B-Side brewery. They have a focus on creating a strong community formed around damned good beer. In this episode, we talk with Rodney the CEO, Bob the Head Brewer, and Dreux the Manager about the business challenges they face. We talk about how to sell beer. Is it delivering a consistent, nostalgia inducing product, or does it have more to do with the values of your brewery?

Washington Beer Talk has a Patreon! Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to select a rewards tier. Get access to extra and extended episodes and more!

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I’m Andrew Bieber, the Cycling Certified Cicerone

Burke Gilman Brewery is a new brewery along the Burke Gilman Trail right smack dab in the middle of the Burke Gilman Beer desert where previously only Ravenna Brewery laid claim. Thanks to their mentors at Ravenna, Ty and Kenneth along with some other founders were able to make the home brewers dream come true. Since they are such a fresh brewery, the trials of opening a new brewery still sting, which makes for an exciting episode with tons of details on the hardships of opening a brewery that a well established place has long forgotten.

Washington Beer Talk has a Patreon! Patreon.com/CyclingCicerone to select a rewards tier. Get access to extra and extended episodes and more!