Much beloved breweries that have passed on!

Orchard Street Brewing in Bellingham. They've been gone over 15 years now, but I still Jones for their Stock Ale.

The brewery is still open, but, R.I.P. OG LaConner Brewing.

 

Being at The Commons (especially their original space) will always be great memories of mine. Loved hanging out and talking with Mike, Josh, and Travis. Also helped that they made fantastic beer.

 

It was 12 or 13 years ago, which was not long after I started getting into beer, but Baron Brewing in SoDo made some good beer and got me excited, doing nothing but German styles, and predominantly lagers at that. Perhaps they were too far ahead of the game for their own good at that time, but craft lagers apparently didn’t pay the bills, they rebranded, and then started churning out painfully pedestrian pales and IPAs with pirates on the packaging, as Three Skulls Ales.

Another brewery around that earlier time making interesting beers was Laughing Buddha, making exclusively Asian-themed beers with unconventional ingredients. Some hits and misses, but a name lawsuit had them change to Trade Route Brewing, and they seemed to lose that original focus they began with. Since then, they changed names again, and I think continue in some contract brewing capacity, at least as of a few years ago.

How much of this is just nostalgia and my probable “lower bar” for beer of a dozen years ago? A lot, probably. In a way, it reminds me of when I discover some awesome band whose first album blows me away with how original - and sometimes raw - it is, but each subsequent release renders their music more and more like music I’ve already heard, and hence less interesting to me. I still appreciate the good - and sometimes delicious - beers back then from Baron and Laughing Buddha that really got me more excited about our local beer scene.

I still think it’s cool that a dozen years ago Seattle had a German lager brewery and a brewery focusing on Asian flavors.

 

Baron did make good beers, you're memory is solid.

 

I liked Baron and Laughing Buddha as well, and frequently bought their beers. It made me sad to see them move away from their original concepts because at that time, they stood out in a city where almost all of the other breweries stuck to the same basic blonde/pale/IPA/amber/stout lineup.

Baron and Laughing Buddha were both located in the same industrial park in South Park, and for a while so was Schooner Exact, another favorite of mine a dozen years ago. Their beers would seem pedestrian by today's standards, but at the time I thought they were a cut above most of the others in town. Unfortunately, I think they tried to grow faster than the market would sustain and they ended up getting pushed out by a hard seltzer maker.

Speaking of Schooner, someone told me Matt and Heather McClung are now working at Hale's. Does anyone know anything about this?

 

I have to say without a doubt in my mind that the brewery that has passed on that I miss the most is Elysian.

 

I hadn't heard that, doesn't mean it's not true. I see Matt post on FB sometimes, usually about his jeep. I just looked at his profile, and it only says formerly of Schooner Brewing. Nothing about Hales.

 

The Commons comes to mind pretty much immediately.

They made sour beers that weren't too darn sour, and with great flavor.

They made a tasty pilsner and a delightful rauch helles.

They made excellent barrel-aged strong ales like Bourbon Little Brother and Brotherly Love.

The old location on Stephens Street had a unique industrial-yet-comfortable vibe. A great place to pop in for a rejuvenating glass of session-strength tart saison at the end of a bike ride. Or even at the beginning of a bike ride.

 

Wut? No love for Henry at Red Peaks?

 

Looking back through my old Facebook pictures, and found this "haul" from one of my first beer trips down to Portland (lived up in WA at the time). Good to know my beer tastes were still decent back then Still remember standing in that line of maybe 10 people at The Commons and wondering if I was a crazy person for getting to a brewery early to buy bottles..... Then I look back at the Hair of the Dog releases, and The Commons line was nothing.

 

Man, that is still a good haul. Do you remember what those Sole Compositions were?

 

Can't quite tell, but looks like de la Seven and Five when I zoom in.

 

I believe they were these two:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19866/80574/
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19866/80489/

 

Bert Grant's in Yakima-Grant's Scottish Ale
Hales Ale in Colville-Hales' Pale Ale, on cask at Rico's, Pullman
Northern Lights-Crystal Bitter. The current incarnation is, well, shall I say substandard.

 

Orchard St. had some great beers. So did LaConner when they were actually distributing this way. I paid them a visit in person about 10yrs ago and it was like they'd gone off a cliff. Frankly amazed they're still open.

 

I live in Spokane and haven't had a NoLi beer in years. There's just so much better beer being brewed here.

 

Only been to LaConner once, maybe about 10 years ago, and was pretty unimpressed.