In Ballard, brewery boom keeps on booming

Hilliard’s has been making a name for itself by making good beer in a can. The team, from left to right: Adam Merkl, Ryan Hilliard, Todd Garrett

Photo by Jerry Gay

Wed, 03/27/2013

As they say, “All ships rise with the tide,” or maybe rather, “Rising suds lift all breweries.”

Such is the case in Ballard, where the list of breweries is fast becoming a lengthy one: Hale’s Ales (4301 Leary Way NW), Maritime Pacific Brewing Co. (1111 NW Ballard Way), Hilliard’s (1550 NW 49th St), Northwest Peaks Brewery (4912 17th Ave NW), Reuben’s Brews (1406 NW 53rd St #1a), Peddler Brewing Co. (1514 NW Leary Way), Populuxe Brewing (826 NW 49th St) and, soon, Bad Jimmy’s (826 NW 49th St). What’s more is that they are all within a one-mile radius.

So, it has begun to beg the question, can Ballard sustain all of these breweries?

On a recent sunny Saturday, it was a question that the Ballard News-Tribune sought to answer, by personally visiting several of the breweries.

“I haven’t thought about it,” said Adam Robbings, founder of Reuben’s Brews. “I’ve just been concentrating on making the best beer I can.”

Robbings did use the example of Portland, which has about 90 breweries within its metro area, the most in the nation. “I don’t hear people say, ‘Oh, another brewery is going to be too much,’” he said.

Fair enough. But what does Peter Charbonnier, one of the founders of Populuxe Brewing, have to say?

“The idea that there might be too many breweries in Ballard, it’s a foreign concept to me because it’s like saying there are too many wineries in Napa valley,” he said.

OK. But certainly someone must have had some kind of concern?

“It definitely was on my mind,” said Dave Keller, who opened up Peddler Brewing Co. with his friend Haley Woods. “When we set things in motion, there were three or four going to pop up. … It was tough opening up to realize there were a lot more people doing the exact same thing.”

Alright. But judging from the crowd last Saturday and his generally positive demeanor about the business, it seems those concerns fell by the wayside.

Brewery Haley Woods, left, and Dave Keller, right, opened up Peddler Brewing Co. to combine the two things they love most: beer and bicycling. (Photo by Zachariah Bryan)

So, why so many breweries in Ballard?

A lot of it has to do with location, location, location. Ballard is home to an industrial area, where the land zoning allows breweries, which sidles right up against a quickly densifying residential neighborhood.

“If you look at it, Ballard is perfect because there’s industrial zoning, affordable warehouses and it’s just surrounded by well-educated beer consumers,” Keller said.

Charbonnier agreed.

“It’s a simple equation: the residential areas of Ballard are getting more and more dense and the industrial areas are getting more and more scarce. … For a brewery, it just makes sense. You gotta be where the people are,” he said.

However, with a land use zoning study underway along the 15th Ave NW corridor, including a large section of the industrial Ballard that breweries have been popping up in, there may be some concern for the prospects of future breweries. The Department of Planning and Development will be studying the area to see if the restrictions in the area could be loosened up to allow other uses.

Robbings said if that happens, he’s concerned that a lot of the industrial may be knocked down by landlords and developers eager to make bigger bucks from installing apartments, office space and the like. For current tenants in the area, including the breweries, it could also mean higher rent, he said.

But completion of that study is still a ways away and the public still has a chance to voice their concerns. The Ballard News-Tribune will publish an article with more specifics about it in the coming weeks.

Brewery Adam Robbings of Reuben's Brews has won critical acclaim for his award-winning beers. (Photo by Zachariah Bryan)

As for the numbers question, there was a general consensus among the brewers that there were many benefits to several breweries opening up in the area.

For one, it makes Ballard a destination for beer fanatics. With so many breweries so close together, a kind of Ballard brewery tour is possible, either by car, by bicycle or even by foot. For example, Road Dogs Seattle Brewery Tour is capitalizing on the brewery boom in Seattle by offering bus tours, which offers a selection of stops in the Ballard neighborhood.

Ryan Hilliard, co-founder of Hilliard’s, said that the night Populuxe and Peddler Brewing Co. opened was their busiest in a long while. He said he had no concerns over really dividing up the demographic of beer lovers.

Secondly, most brewers in the area don’t experience competition so much as support from one another.

“It’s a really fun industry to be part of. Everyone’s really supportive and just excited about what’s happening,” Keller said.

“We all just push each other to improve,” Charbonnier said.

Robbings explained that the brewers look out for each other, sharing ideas and even equipment when it’s needed. Thus, the whole “Rising suds lift all breweries” idiom at the beginning of this article.

“You can see how the gravity, the density benefits in having colleagues and drawing people to the area. I don’t think it’s saturation (which will negatively impact breweries); it’s real estate,” he said.

Kevin Klein, owner of Northwest Peaks Brewery, said in an interview for a previous story (when we covered Populuxe) that the other Ballard brewers made it easier for him when he opened over two years ago.

“The brewing community is just a really good one to be a part of,” Klein said. “It’s good to have another contact in the area for collaboration and sharing materials and insights.”

Brewery Kevin Klein, founder and owner of NW Peaks Brewery, traded a post-doctorate research job for brewing beer. He names his beers after mountains he has climbed. (Photo by Anne-Marije Rook)

As far as the idea that breweries must succumb to some kind of niche to succeed, Ballard seems to be breaking that spell. While some breweries make a name for themselves by making off-the-map beers such as Belgians (Big Lantern in Phinney-Greenwood) or just plain outlandish beers (Epic Brewing or the appropriately named Outlander in Fremont), the focus in Ballard seems to be more on making good, drinkable beer.

“We’re sort of falling into what our brand is rather than managing it,” Robbings said.

“For us, our focus is just really on bringing people the best beer we can do … beer people just want to drink … Populuxe is definitely just people drinking,” Charbonnier said.

Of course, as brewers are wont to do, they are also constantly experimenting and trying to make new and better beers. Customers can expect to see a constantly rotating tap, usually matching up with the season and, as Charbonier says, “Really whatever strikes our fancy.”

Brewers interviewed for this article said consumers will figure out which breweries are their favorites and what kinds of beers they prefer, but overall, no one was really concerned that that would hurt their market.

Brewery The team at Populuxe are mostly concerned with making good beer. Also, they have cornhole. From left to right: Pete Charbonnier, Amy Besunder, Jiri Zatloukal, and Judy Scarcia. (Photo by Pete Trepinaris)