101, Everett, is hosting its 25th anniversary party July 30-31. What hasn’t changed in 25 years is Scuttlebutt’s devotion to quality, innovation and community. Like many breweries, Scuttlebutt went to 100% packaging soon after COVID-19 hit, but the draft percentage still lingers around 20% even now. Before the pandemic, Scuttlebutt packaged about 60% of its beer, with the other 40% kegged for distribution to bars, restaurants and the like. Fittingly, in another nod to change, Living Daylights took the place of Gale Force IPA, the brewery’s original Pacific Northwest-style IPA, in the brewery’s lineup.ĭistribution changed as well. 1 beer in sales by volume for decades, is no longer, recently supplanted by the brewery’s newest hazy IPA offering, Living Daylights. The pandemic altered customer’s tastes tremendously. I’m glad there are still people out there who love it.” That being said, we still brew our Amber - it’s 25 years old and there’s still a place for it. “There’s still some great classics out there, but there’s so much more to choose from now. Nord has taken that mantle and run with it, creating a wider variety of special and seasonal releases for craft-beer fans. If you are using all the same old recipes, the same hops, same yeast strain the same art, etc., as when you started then there’s really no reason to continue because the passion for it is probably gone.” If you aren’t then you might as well stop. In business you have to be constantly adapting, changing, growing and pushing yourselves.

“Those are the beers I get most excited about and I know that our staff feels the same,” Bannan Jr. A small batch system allowed the brewery to do more “one-off” beers that not only gave the taplist more variety, but also act as a farm team for future larger releases. Not only could you always find original lineup beers on tap at its restaurant, but only three head brewers have ever led the brewhouse: Doud, Matt Stromberg and Eric Nord.Īfter Stromberg took over the brewing duties in 2000, he moved the brewery toward more experimental beers, including barrel-aged. Over its 25 years, Scuttlebutt has been a picture of consistency. Scuttlebutt distribution extended across state lines and even across the Pacific and Atlantic ocean as opportunities opened up in Japan, South Korea and England, among others. Challenging for the business side, but great for beer drinkers all over.” “Now every area has their ‘own’ breweries to support and get behind. “Before, if you wanted to, you could pick a market and go, put in the effort and make it grow,” said Bannan Jr. supports more than 9,000 breweries - and that number continues to grow despite over-saturation worries. said he remembers thinking 2,000 breweries in the nation was a lot a decade ago. Since beginning to can a few years ago, Scuttlebutt now distributes about two-thirds of its lineup in cans instead of bottles.īannan Jr. Things have changed so much that not only is Scuttlebutt now coming up with cool names for its beers - Lightspeed Lager and Rollerbowl Kolsch are two recently released beers - but they’re moving away from bottles to what’s become the industry norm: cans. Hence Scuttlebutt’s Amber, Porter and Hefeweizen. The market was so barren, it was common to name beer simply after the style of beer. Scuttlebutt joined the likes of Elysian, Hale’s, Diamond Knot and Redhook in trying to convert Rainier and PBR drinkers over to a more elevated drinking experience. Microbreweries were a nascent idea, with only a few players even in Seattle. They no longer brew beer in their original location, having built a restaurant and taproom as part of the waterfront’s revitalization and a giant brewhouse in a warehouse on Cedar Street near downtown Everett.When Scuttlebutt began brewing beer 25 years ago, the craft-beer landscape was completely different. Since opening its doors along the Everett waterfront 25 years ago, Scuttlebutt has seen nearly everything change. As Scuttlebutt Sailing News approaches our 25th anniversary in 2022, we celebrate our beloved adversary in this report from the Daily Herald:Īs the grandad of local craft brewing, Scuttlebutt has seen it all. The early days were humbling in the search term world, but the climb was on and as we now sit atop searches for ‘scuttlebutt’, next on the list remains Scuttlebutt Brewery. When the Scuttlebutt website came along at the end of 2002, we realized how many ‘scuttlebutts’ there were on the internet, but at the top of the search rankings was Scuttlebutt Brewing in Everett, Washington. Scuttlebutt Sailing News was first launched in 1997 as a bare-bones email newsletter, originally focused on Southern California, but as interest in the publication grew both nationally and internationally, so did the content.

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