Chasing the perfect beer
April 23, 2008
By Ed Farrell
Local brewery adapts to changes in the market
Rande Reed ponders the question as the little washing machine engine-powered gristmill grinds grains of barley, and the aroma of beer in the making wafts throughout the spacious work area of the Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company.
“This is the third attempt,” Reed said of his efforts at getting his custom “Riverside Red” to achieve a darker hue.
“I’ve got the over-all flavor right,” Reed, the bearded 55-year-old head brewer said, “but the color wasn’t quite right.”
By carefully altering the mix of hops and barley, Reed hopes that in 10 days or so, his latest batch of “Riverside Red” will become a customer favorite in the adjoining 48-seat taproom, where it will be featured as a “Brewer’s Choice.”
Eventually, Reed, who has been crafting beer for 26 years - nearly half his life - returns back to the question.
“Why do I do this?” he echoes with a laugh. “It’s certainly not for the money, because there’s not a lot of money in it. This is a way of life … a way of thinking.”
One thing Reed, and brewery co-owner Pat Anderson, are certain of: The quest for the next perfect brew is as unquenchable as a beer-lover’s thirst.
Both men are quick to note that Reed has already crafted what they feel is the ultimate beer: “Copperhead Pale Ale”.
“It’s the finest pale ale out there,” a confident Reed asserted. “It’s made to my taste, and if I can’t please myself, what’s the point?”
It was the same desire to find the premiere potable that prompted Anderson to start up the brewery in 1997, located at 8032 Falls Ave., in a former Dairy Queen distribution center across the street from Anderson’s law offices.
Like Reed, Anderson started as a home brewer, at an age, he hinted, that was considerably earlier than he was legally allowed to do so.
The brewery’s little gristmill - a much larger commercial mill is located on the second floor - was once Anderson’s primary grinder. An old brewing vat, which Anderson said once served as a massive soup pot on a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and is still in use, also followed Anderson to the business he created with partners David McKibben, Dave Eiffert, LeRoy Gmazel and Tom Antone.
The brewery’s first beer was tapped on Dec. 20, 1997.
Anderson said the brewery produced 533 barrels in 1998, with each barrel containing 31.5 gallons, or two kegs worth of beer.
Production has gone up each year, Anderson said, reaching 2,775 barrels in 2007.
“Every year, we’ve had an increase in an industry that’s been pretty stagnant,” he said, noting that many small breweries fail before they reach the 10-year mark.
Initially only available at one Snoqualmie saloon, the locally produced beer can now be enjoyed as far away as northern Idaho.
“And we’ve just begun distributing in Oregon,” Anderson said.
While the facility has room to produce as many as 30,000 barrels a year, Anderson said he doesn’t envision that happening.
“I can see us at 15,000 to 20,000 a year,” he said.
The company began bottling beer in 2001, and recently acquired a bottling machine that allows the brewery to package in 22-ounce bottles enough beer in one day that used to take a crew three days to produce.
“The goal is a 50-50 split” between barrels and bottles, Anderson said of production capacity.
While “Copperhead Pale Ale” is the favorite between the founder and head brewer, “Wildcat IPA” (India Pale Ale) is the No. 1 commercial seller, Anderson said.
Other popular quaffs produced regularly include “Steam Train Porter,” “PGA,” - or Perfectly Great Amber, originally created for the Tournament Players Club at Snoqualmie Ridge - “Spring Fever,” “Summer Beer,” “Avalanche Winter Ale” and”Harvest Moon Festbier”.
Reed frequently exercises his creativity, however, like with the experimental “Riverside Red.”
Last week, brewer Kevin Gesell was spotted taking a gravity - a measure of density of the brewing beer compared to water - sample on a batch of “Haystack Hefenweizen.”
The brewing process varies for each line, which all ranges between 4 and 7 percent alcohol by volume.
Reed said he will normally only produce a limited number of kegs of cask-conditioned brew a month, and only for special customers or for sales in the taproom.
Those opportunities could become even more limited in the future, Anderson and Reed said, as new market demands put the squeeze on brewers large and small.
“The Chinese have discovered beer,” Anderson declared.
While beer has been around for thousands of years, including in China, the most populous nation on Earth has begun brewing beer on a previously unheard of scale.
And with virtually all of America’s hops - beer’s key ingredient - being grown in Washington, China’s growing thirst for beer is causing severe distress for local brewers.
“They’ve come in with buckets of cash and went straight to the growers,” Anderson said, with the end result being hops, that once went for $3.50 a pound, are now fetching $19 a pound or more.
And while the Chinese threat is enough to make Anderson belch with pain, a new domestic pressure has also made it harder to operate the brewery.
Many of the nation’s barley growers, Anderson said, have “ripped up their barley to plant corn for ethanol.”
Anderson said the brewery has been assured of a grain supply for the current year, but no promises are in place for next year.
And even then, success depends on more than just producing a brew the makers themselves enjoy.
“You can make the best beer in the world and not succeed,” Anderson said. “The market place doesn’t operate purely on the merits of the beer.”
All of which leads Anderson to proclaim the wisdom of establishing the Taproom, with its 12 taps that spew only local suds, in 2006.
There, diners can enjoy a variety of sandwiches, pizza and salads while sipping from a selection of the brewery’s wares.
“Right now, the Taproom is very important to us,” Anderson said, “and it was clear the community was ready for it.”
With a current capacity of 48 people, Anderson said he can envision expanding the restaurant, not by going out, but up by constructing a second-floor mezzanine, which could include seating over the brewery area itself.
It’s an option that will likely happen soon, he said.
“We will expand,” Anderson said, “we have to.”
Operating a small brewery, he said, in today’s business climate, means one must keep growing.
“It’s like a shark,” he said, “move forward or die.”
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