With quite the pedigreed staff too: http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/bu...cle_923c4f00-6b25-11e6-916e-8fc722e4bbc3.html Snipes Mountain sure seems to burn through some brewers. Just off the top of my head: Tony Savoy, now of Flyers, Chris Miller, now at Berryessa in CA, Chad Roberts, as mentioned here, and I think a couple more in between those names. Owner/management issues maybe?
Glad this is finally public info. I heard about this last Summer from a guy at Bale Breaker. Apparently they've got a mobile coolship and were doing some test batches out near Tieton last year.
When I had heard about it last year their plan was to be basically de Garde in Washinfton, but that appears to have changed somewhat.
I've long wondered why they go through so many, myself. I'm pretty sure their turnover rate has affected consistency over the years.
Seems like when they leave a brewer alone to brew, they put out some great beers. That's what makes me wonder if there's more meddling from above than a reasonable person can stand.
Having now read the article I'm struck by two things: 1. Apparently it's good to be a city councilwoman with a failed business. 2. Can a town like Sunnyside support two breweries (unless Snipes Mt. is in really poor shape)?
I would guess a few left because they didn't want to live there. Crime is pretty bad for a small town.
Sure. Make IPAs and easy drinkers for the locals, make wilds/saisons/whateverthingcomesnext in bottles for us nerd types. Probably get decent visitor traffic on weekends too.
A couple years ago I went over to Snipes for lunch and ended up hanging out with the brewers in the back for a while. Chad for sure and I think Chris too. Thanks Untappd!! Anyway, what they told me is that as long as they make the standard beers that the locals enjoy at the restaurant, the owner let them do whatever they wanted. And those "whatever" kegs mostly ended up coming to Seattle.
I've heard similar stories from some other former workers as well. I'm a fan of the brewery in general, so, whatever works I guess?
I'm guessing you've had recent stuff from them at festivals? I liked their stuff when I could find their bottles, but that hasn't happened in years. That, coupled with stories of brewers going elsewhere and rumors of perhaps related consistency issues, have led me to suspect they had fallen on hard times.
It's been at least a decade since I've seen them on-tap in and around Spokane, maybe longer. At the time their beers stopped showing up on shelves here, I asked the distributor about it and he told me they'd become too inconsistent for him to want to try to push them onto his accounts.
That's a bummer. The beers that Chad and Chris were doing at Snipes (IPAs, sours, saisons) were really good. Majority was draft only, with a few bottled offerings like a stout brewed with blueberries and saison yeast, and a peach sour.
haven't had anything from them recently. Like @distantmantra said, we used to get draft stuff fairly regularly, and the core IPA in sixers. Around the same time that Chris Miller left, the sales rep left, and they disappeared. After a few months, draft came back, but its faded since then. Now the only time we see any Snipes stuff is if there's a brewers night or other event. Which is too bad.
That was long after they disappeared from my area. It was just the standard English-inspired styles: porter, brown ale, IPA, pale, maybe a blonde.
