MUKILTEO — Fifteen years ago, they were just two guys with a passion for beer.
Today, Bob Maphet and Brian Sollenberger’s Diamond Knot brews can be found throughout Western Washington and Oregon.
“It was the hobby that got out of control,” Maphet said.
Last week, Diamond Knot celebrated that out-of-control hobby — and its 15-year anniversary — with its customers, tapping kegs of its brews at its Mukilteo alehouse.
For its first two years, Diamond Knot’s only two employees were its founders. In 1996, the pair finally hired their first part-time employee. Fifteen years later, Diamond Knot employs 65 people between its brew pub, brewing facility and two restaurants.
In the early days, Maphet and Sollenberger put all the money they made back into the business, mostly buying new equipment.
The two held down full-time jobs at the Boeing Co. They delivered kegs after work and brewed and bottled beer on weekends.
Diamond Knot eventually added two new partners, Pat Ringe and Andy Easton, to head up brewing and retail respectively. Sollenberger still works at Boeing while Maphet retired from the aerospace company more than two years ago.
When Diamond Knot opened in 1994, it was the only brewery in the county and the first since Robert Kufner’s brewery closed in Monroe. Then, like today, the company’s flagship beer was its India Pale Ale.
Still, Snohomish County was a rough market initially, Maphet said. Residents didn’t yet appreciate the flavor of microbrews. The brewery’s main customer base was in King County.
But other microbreweries, including Scuttlebutt and Lazy Boy, soon opened after Diamond Knot. Despite an increasing number of small breweries in the region and around the country, Maphet doesn’t see other brewers as competition.
“Our competition is to educate people on craft beer,” he said.
Winning beer consumers away from mass distributors such as Coors and Budweiser is really Diamond Knot’s challenge.
“That’s where we have the most opportunity,” Maphet said. “It’s more about quality and real flavor.”
What’s also turned into a big opportunity for Diamond Knot is the company concentration not just on brewing but also on food.
The company added its stone-grill cooking in 2004. An Australian technique, superheated stones allow customers to cook each dish, even each bite, to suit their tastes. Stone grilling is offered both at Diamond Knot’s alehouse on the Mukilteo waterfront and at its Camano Island location, which opened in 2007.
Last year, Diamond Knot also opened a location on Lincoln Avenue in Mukilteo. That site mostly serves pizzas and calzones, as well as Diamond Knot beer.
“By improving our food, we increased beer sales, too,” Maphet said.
This May, Diamond Knot began bottling its beer in 22-ounce bottles. Until that point, the company had relied on keg sales to restaurants and bars as its main customer base.
“Bottling will open up more distribution,” Maphet said.
Maphet acknowledges that Diamond Knot’s recent expansion — its Camano and new Mukilteo sites — came at a bad time, just as the recession was settling in.
But he’s not worried just yet.
“It takes time to build up a business,” Maphet said.
And the alehouse has weathered the recession quite well. Diamond Knot’s original location likely will still see a 10 percent increase in sales over 2008.
“People will still drink their alcohol,” Maphet said.
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