Everett’s Crucible Brewing is throwing a large party on Saturday to celebrate its second birthday. So it’s fitting that earlier this month the owners inked the paperwork that will allow them to open their second taproom and brewing facility in Woodinville.
Crucible Brewing owners Dick Mergens and Shawn Dowling worked out an agreement to purchase the brewery assets of Woodinville’s Twelve Bars Brewing. That includes a taproom and a 15-barrel brewing system that will allow Crucible to brew a lot more beer.
“It was an ideal situation in that it’s really a turn-key brewery that we don’t have to do too much work on,” Mergens said.
Twelve Bars founder Kirk Hilse opened the brewery in 2012, but had been trying to find a buyer for the brewery for the past year. Throughout the process, Hilse had chatted with Mergens and Dowling about the possibility of expanding into his space, but they were non-committal. When a potential buyer recently fell through, though, the Crucible guys decided to step up and purchase the brewhouse, equipment and taproom.
Though the brewhouse needs little work, the taproom is a different story. Dowling said it is getting a total overhaul and will eventually have a similar aesthetic to Crucible’s south Everett location: industrial with lots of metal, clean lines, exposed wood.
The new taproom will not only help Crucible serve its beer directly to King County customers, but it will add 20 more taps and room for 40 more customers to its recently expanded Everett location. The taproom, which will be called The Forge, is scheduled to open later this year.
The brewhouse, which is made up of high-end DME Brewing Solutions equipment, is expected to be permitted and operational in mid-2018. Mergens, Crucible’s head brewer, plans to use the Woodinville brewhouse as a production brewery to brew high-volume beers like Wootz IPA and Pink Drink Raspberry Sour.
The brewery at the south Everett location, which was expanded from a three-barrel system to a seven-barrel system in June, will serve as a place for Mergens to brew more experimental, one-off and barrel-aged beers.
“The new brewhouse is exclusively about producing more beer,” said Mergens, who added that putting a 15-barrel system at the brewery’s Everett location is impossible because it’s set in a retail location and has limited space. “The Twelve Bars location is more commercial, so that size of a brewhouse just makes sense.”
Brewing on a 15-barrel system shouldn’t be too foreign for Mergens, who brewed commercial-size batches of beer when he worked at Mac &Jack’s and recently brewed a collaboration beer on Hi-Fi Brewing’s 15-barrel system.
When it opens its second taproom, Crucible Brewing will be entering a changing landscape in Woodinville beer. Twelve Bars Brewing, which was the first brewery to open in Woodinville, is one of three Woodinville breweries to close in the past year, with B-Side Brewing and Brickyard Brewing having shuttered their doors.
Mergens and Dowling said they have already talked with brewers from Woodinville breweries, such as 20 Corners Brewing, Sumerian Brewing and Triplehorn Brewing, about brewing collaboration beers in the future.
One of the biggest bonuses of the new space for Mergens and Dowling is the fact it’s so close to the Sammamish River Trail. The Crucible owners are part of the Washington Bikers and Beer Drinkers Group, and both love hitting the trail before cracking open a beer.
So in the coming months, don’t be surprised to see Crucible gear whiz by you on the bike trail in Woodinville. If it’s Mergens, he’s probably just rushing back to the brewery to brew more beer.
Crucible 2 Year Anniversary and Medieval Fair
Crucible Brewing is celebrating its second anniversary with a medieval fair from noon to midnight Sept. 30 at the Everett brewery, 909 SE Everett Mall Way. There will be multiple barrel-aged beer releases, an expanded outdoor beer garden, food trucks, giveaways and medieval games.
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