Meet four players in burgeoning Snohomish beer scene

Related: Snohomish has developed a major craft beer scene over past year

Snohomish brewers are a tight-knit bunch.

Early on, when Bryant Castle and David Jez of Haywire Brewing needed to borrow some ingredients, they turned to Scrappy Punk Brewing’s Greg Krsak, who was happy to help. Soon after, the Haywire guys returned the favor, helping Krsak with plumbing and gas work at his brewery.

“We all really try to help each other out,” Castle said. “We like working together.”

Seven breweries have opened in and around Snohomish over the past year, bringing the total to nine. Here are glimpses of four of them:

Haywire Brewing

Castle didn’t fall in love with craft beer in the hop-crazy Pacific Northwest. It happened in the South.

After honing his craft while living in Tennessee and Arkansas, Castle moved to the Northwest with his wife, who is originally from Bothell. There, he started brewing with his father-in-law, and eventually built a 10-gallon system in his house. Soon after, they decided to open Haywire Brewing.

While searching for equipment on Craigslist, Castle stumbled upon an old dairy farm off Old Snohomish-Monroe Road looking to house a brewery in one of its three barns. He took some beers to the interview and the owners of the Dairyland Farm signed off. The brewery and taproom are located in the farm’s former hay barn.

Haywire Brewing, which officially opened its doors in November, has a two-barrel system and keeps it busy, pouring at least eight beers at a time. Castle said they’re planning on working with Chateau Ste. Michelle and Snohomish’s Skip Rock Distilling to acquire some barrels for aging the brewery’s beers.

Haywire Brewing is at 12125 Treosti Road in Snohomish and is open 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Lost Canoe Brewing

The way John Carruthers figures, Lost Canoe Brewing is the only brewery in the state that has two women working as production brewers. Carruthers’ wife, Amy, and Emily Langkow do nearly all of the brewing for Lost Canoe, while Will Hezlep, a physician’s assistant at the Everett Clinic, is the recipe maker.

Having known each other since high school, Hezlep and John Carruthers decided to team up with Carruthers’ friend Adam Hayes to open a brewery. The three looked for a location to open the brewery for more than a year along Highway 9, from Lake Stevens to Clearview. They kept coming back to Snohomish.

When Snohomish Iron Works moved to the riverfront, its owner, Ryan Gagnon, offered his old space on 10th Street to the brewery. They jumped at the opportunity. Since then, Gagnon has built a steel staircase and mezzanine that will soon have seats for customers. The brewery space has an open warehouse feel and retains the metal fabrication aesthetic.

As for the beers, Lost Canoe is shooting for broad market appeal, Hayes said. Their flagship beers include a peanut butter porter, amber, pale ale and an American wheat. They also brew specialty beers, like the recently brewed Rhubarb Hefeweizen.

Lost Canoe Brewing is at 1208 10th St. in Snohomish and is open 4 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 2 to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Spada Farmhouse Brewery

John Spada has been obsessed with oak barrels for as long as he can remember. So, it’s no surprise that they’re now the canvas on which he makes his art.

Spada opened Spada Farmhouse Brewery out of a barn on his family’s 40-acre farm off Spada Road. He makes mostly farmhouse-style sour beers, using oak barrels and employing post-production fermentation and varying temperatures, along with select yeast strains, fruit and, most importantly, time to create beers that don’t taste like anything else.

Currently the brewery is just a brewhouse, but Spada, who got his start in the craft beer industry as a sales representative for Fort George Brewing, said he submitted paperwork two months ago to create a taproom on the property.

On the farm, Spada has planted all the fruit he’ll ever need to make beers, including plums, apricots, peaches, blueberries and black raspberries.

Spada Farmhouse Brewery is at 7825 Spada Road in Snohomish. It is currently not open to visitors.

Three Bull Brewing

The three men behind this new Snohomish brewery have been bow hunting elk together outside of Yakima for 25 years. So when they needed a name for the brewery they went with something that tied them all together.

Three Bull Brewing is named after Three Bull Road, which is near their hunting grounds, and refers to the trio, brothers Craig and Cary Pritzkau and friend Brian Felske, behind the brewery. Craig and Felske do most of the brewing, while Cary is in charge of the marketing and sales.

The brewery has grown quickly. Three Bull Brewing was actually the second licensed brewery in Snohomish after Sound to Summit, having acquired its license in 2013. The group didn’t do much with it, however, until Craig constructed a building on the property of the brothers’ parents near Blackman’s Lake. Fenske brought in much of the equipment, starting with a seven-barrel brewing system, before recently graduating to a pair of 15-barrel systems.

With the ability to brew large batches, the focus so far has been on distribution. Three Bull’s beer is in 25 bars and restaurants from Monroe to Seattle. Cary said the plan is to double that in the coming months.

Three Bull Brewing is at 809 19th St. in Snohomish. Diamond Knot Brewing is hosting the brewery from 6 to 8 p.m. June 21 for a brewer’s night.

Two more brewers

For more information on two other new Snohomish breweries, Prison Break Brewing and Scrappy Punk Brewing, visit www.heraldnet.com/hopsandsips.