He goes by Vegas, but he’s Snohomish through and through.
Vince “Vegas” Applin, who moved to the Pacific Northwest from Vegas nearly 20 years ago, is the brains behind the newly established Snoho Brew Tours, a behind-the-scenes, chauffeured tour of six Snohomish up-and-coming breweries. For one day a week, behind the wheel of a 12-passenger van, Applin is a tour guide of one of the fastest growing brewery scenes in the Northwest. The inaugural tour was last weekend.
“Traditionally, Snohomish is a town known for wine and antiques,” said Applin, whose day job is a sales representative for Snohomish’s Sound to Summit Brewing. “But that’s changing. We’re hoping to make this into the Woodinville for beer.”
Modeled after similar beer tours in larger metro areas like Vancouver Brewery Tours and Portland’s Brewvana Brewery Tours, Snoho Brew Tours is taking advantage of the fact that seven breweries have opened in the Snohomish area in the past year. Currently, Applin is touring six of the nine Snohomish breweries, with hopes to include Three Bull Brewing, Spada Farmhouse Brewing and Circle 7 Brew Works in the future when they have taprooms.
The tour is simple. For $80 per person, Applin will drive customers to each of the breweries on the day’s schedule for 40-minute visits each. While at the brewery, customers taste beers, chat with the owners and brewers, and tour the brewing facilities. In all, it’s about a four-hour tour.
“We want to educate people on the tour,” Applin said. “Let them learn about the beer, the brewing process, feel the grains and hops. We go from smaller operations like Scrappy Punk to larger breweries like Sound to Summit, and let people see the differences; what makes them unique.”
Applin said that Tim Taylor, a mug club member at many of the breweries on the current tour, was skeptical after receiving the tour as a gift from his wife for Father’s Day.
“Tim felt like he knew everything about these breweries already,” Applin said. “But even he came away surprised that he could learn new things about the breweries and brewers that he didn’t know. He was blown away.”
After starting at Sound to Summit, Scrappy Punk Brewing was the second stop for the group. Applin said the usually circumspect owner and head brewer at Scrappy Punk, Greg Krsak, was open and comfortable in front of the group, showing off his brewhouse and chatting about his creations.
“I think I heard him say more words in that 40 minutes than in the year I’ve known him,” Applin said. “I told each of the brewers that I’ll guide the tour, but it’s important they step up and share a lot (about) themselves and the brewery. It was awesome to see Greg come out of his shell.”
Krsak said the experience went well from his perspective and he sees promise in the weekly tour.
“If Vegas can keep the momentum going, based on what I saw, it could be a hit,” Krsak said.
After Scrappy Punk, the tour currently hits Haywire Brewing, Lost Canoe Brewing, SnoTown Brewing and Old Man Brewing at Collector’s Choice, before ultimately finishing up back at Sound to Summit. The stop at Collector’s Choice includes a food pairing meal prepared by chef Stephan Salinas.
In the future, Applin has plans to create more than just a Snohomish tour. He wants to expand the tours to the north, visiting Skookum Brewing, Whitewall Brewing and 5 Rights Brewing, which is opening a Lake Stevens taproom in September, and to the south, visiting Everett breweries, Crucible Brewing, Middleton Brews and At Large Brewing.
He’s also planning on creating themed tours, including dress like your favorite Will Ferrell character, white trash and redneck tour and an ’80s dress-up tour.
Safety and responsibility is one of the keys for Applin, who for an additional $20 per stop, offers door-to-door service for customers who want to be picked up.
“I want people to get home in a good condition where they remember the tour and the great time they had,” Applin said.
Applin credits his wife, Jennifer, for helping him create Snoho Brew Tours. In fact, the father of three said the theme of family fits perfectly with the whole Snohomish brewing community.
“You look at the breweries in Snohomish and you have husbands and wives starting breweries, fathers and son-in-laws and stay-at-home dads,” Applin said. “It’s literally families coming together to build businesses here. Being able to support Snohomish brewers in this way is great.”
Snoho Brew Tours
The tour of six unique Snohomish breweries starts 2 p.m. every Saturday at Sound to Summit Brewing, 1830 Bickford Ave., Snohomish. The tour costs $80 and includes beer tastings, brewery tours and food pairings. Door-to-door service is available within 15 miles of Sound to Summit for an additional $20 per stop. For more information and to sign up, go to snohobrewtours.com.
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