Despite running a successful business — an award-winning craft brewery that is one of the fastest growing in Snohomish County — Aaron Wight and Sean Wallner weren’t sure if the city of Marysville even knew they existed.
Then the guys at Whitewall Brewing tried to expand. The proposed expansion wasn’t a smooth process and put the small brewery directly on the city’s radar.
But after a protracted battle to get the OK on their expansion, Wight and Wallner are glad they’ve decided to stay in Marysville, and look forward to being one of the city’s main watering holes for years to come. The city, meanwhile, asked them to brew a beer for its 125th birthday, so, yeah, the relationship is cool.
“One of the reasons we wanted to stay (in Marysville) and expand is because craft beer is really turning into a community based thing,” Wallner said. “We have the same 20 people who come in here week in and week out. Local breweries support the local economy, produce jobs, use local ingredients, help keep taxes here locally.”
Since opening in 2014, Whitewall has housed its production, service and dining area all in the same 2,000 square feet warehouse along Smokey Point Boulevard. It can tend to get a bit cramped. So when the brewery had the opportunity to move into the same size space behind their current space, they jumped on it.
The plan is simple: Move the production equipment into the new space, extend the bar and tap handles, and add a number of banquet-size tables in the space vacated by the brewing equipment. The move would allow Whitewall to double its production to 500 barrels over the next year, with hopes of continued growth over the next few years. That’s a year after the brewery doubled its production from Year 1.
“We like to say we’re doubling our footprint, tripling our cold storage and quadrupling fermentation … eventually,” Wight said.
There was one problem. Due to occupancy restrictions and fire codes, the city was going to force Whitewall to install sprinklers in the whole complex, making the expansion untenable financially. But city building official John Dorcas met with the fire marshall and came up with a solution: base the occupancy on the whole complex and allow the larger capacity without newly installed sprinklers.
“Any small business that comes to us with plans we try to take extra steps to work with them,” Dorcas said. “We want them to feel like they’re wanted.”
The city has given Whitewall preliminary approval for a capacity of 99 people, up from 49. There’s also the possibility of a beer garden in the building’s front parking area.
Leaving Marysville was a definite possibility for Wight and Wallner, who said they looked into the possibility of moving to Snohomish, Everett, Arlington and Silvana before expansion plans kicked into high gear.
But both brewers are glad they’re staying. So is the city.
“John really went to bat for us,” Wallner said. “He said, ‘We don’t want you guys to leave.’”
With prosperity comes growing pains, though, and some friendly disagreement. Last summer, Whitewall increased its brewing capacity with bigger equipment, including a 15-barrel mash tun and 7-barrel brite tank, brew kettle and fermenters. With the added space, the brewery has the potential to grow even more and Wight and Wallner agree that they want to add some 15-barrel fermenters and brite tanks … eventually.
The timing is where they disagree. One of the owners wants to take out a loan to buy the equipment now, while another wants to pay cash, which the brewery has prided itself on doing for all of its transactions so far. It’s a discussion because of the brewery’s success.
“It’s funny but before we couldn’t get a bank to call us back and now they’re banging down our door to lend us money,” Wight said.
Another sticking point is distribution and canning. Getting more attention for a brewery can be tough, especially if it doesn’t have packaging — in other words, bottles or cans. Wallner said he wants to start canning sooner than Wight, but that it’s a discussion they’ll be having as the brewery expands.
“Our distributor really wants packaging,” Wallner said of Vinum Importing, which distributes Whitewall’s beer. “I understand why people rush into it. It really gets your name out there.”
Whitewall Brewing has been earning praise around the state for its inventive and strong beers since it opened. Last summer, Whitewall took second place for its Irish red Sassy Lassie at the Washington Brewers Festival. Wight and Wallner point to that attention to quality and fearlessness for the brewery’s success.
“Quality is why we’ve grown so fast,” said Wight. “We’ve dumped at least three or four batches of beer because they didn’t meet our standards. We’ve always said if it’s a beer we won’t drink we won’t put it on tap.”
No matter how large Whitewall grows, Wight and Wallner are adamant about keeping the brewery’s aesthetic the same.
“We want to be cognizant of remaining what we are,” Wallner said. “It’s important for us to remember what got us here.”
Whitewall Brewing
14524 Smokey Point Blvd., Marysville; 360-454-0464; www.whitewallbrewing.com; 4-8 p.m. Thursday, 4-9 p.m. Friday and 1-9 p.m. Saturday.
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