Black Raven Brewing Company

Washington is a beer-loving state and has a number of small breweries turning out high quality hand-crafted beer. And now we have a new player in the game—Black Raven Brewing Company has landed in Redmond.

Black Raven’s concept is to offer a neighborhood brewery with taproom. "We’re a neighborhood place," explains Head Brewer/Owner Beaux Bowman. "Because we’re small, we have the freedom to be creative and do one-off beers. And when people come in, there’s a very good chance they’ll be served by the brewer. They can ask questions and have a conversation about the beer. We’re striving for a high level of service and attention. It's a more personal experience."

The Black Raven name comes from a long history of ravens/crows ("cravens" according to Beaux) showing up in folklore and literature in many cultures. Ravens have also long been held in high esteem by brewers and are common in the North Cascades. "Ravens are known for being very smart and crafty. When we first moved in and started our build-out, a crow flew up and dropped a partially smashed paper cup at the front door. We took it as a sign that they were ready for their beer," laughs Beaux.

Like most brewers, Beaux started home brewing as a hobby. When he graduated from college in 1999, he knew he didn’t want to take the suit and tie route. What he was really interested in was beer (but not just in the way college guys are). He wanted to make it a career. Moving to Seattle in 2000, he started contacting breweries for work. He had been in quality control for Kodak and knew that the concepts/mindset of process control was similar in both industries ("but beer tastes better than developer"). In 2001, he started brewing at night for Mac & Jack’s and stayed for about 2-1/2 years. He then worked for Far West before becoming the head brewer at the University Village Ram, staying from 2005-2007. "After 6-7 years of brewing, I felt confident about starting my own business," says Beaux.

Naturally, not everything went according to plan. It took him and partner/girlfriend Kathryn Gillespie a year and a half to find the right location. They wanted to fill the void they saw in Redmond, plus they live in Redmond and hate to commute. "We’ve both always wanted to own our own business," explains Beaux. Kathryn works at Microsoft and will maintain that job while working part-time on the operations side of Black Raven. They hired brewer Andy Lapworth who just moved back to the area from Southern California. "Andy worked at the Tustin Brewing Company. We met at an American Brewers Guild course. When he moved here, it all worked for us to hire him," says Beaux. "He’s really into different types of beer. We like to say we’re putting the crafty into craft brewing—it’s the raven craftiness coming out. The unusual will definitely be making their appearances."

Photo: from bottom, Owner/Brewer Beaux Bowman, Owner Kathryn Gillespie, Brewer Andy Lapworth

Black Raven will open in two phases. First, the brewery will start producing and a small retail tasting room will open. Second, the tasting room will expand and a small kitchen will be added. "Before our kitchen opens, we’ll encourage people to either bring in their own food or support local places like Flying Saucer Pizza which is right by us and matches our hours," says Beaux. "We’ll have 2-3 products to start. Until we get all our beers ready, we’ll have guest handles in the tasting room. Those will all be Washington breweries." Down the road, the current offices will be remodeled into a larger room to be used as overflow in busy times or private event space for small groups (20-30). Beaux is estimating phase two will happen within a year. "We’ll be self-distributing in year 1 and will sell to restaurants, bars and pubs. But first we want to concentrate on dialing in what we’re doing here and building a base as a neighborhood brewery."

The tap room seats 32-34. People can sit, have a pint or enjoy a flight. Beaux has made flight trays that have a Northwest, rugged look and hold six samples. Wood tables sit in the tap room along with some high-tops and small two tops. The bar seats 7-8. There’s also plenty of free parking. For retail, they’ll offer kegs to go, growler (1/2 gallon jugs) refills and bottled products. By summer, they should have 750 ml specialty beers and 22 ounce bottles. They won’t sell six packs.

Black Raven will be a 15-barrel brewhouse (31 gallons in a barrel). Along with core beers, they’ll be working with bourbon barrels and blending beers. These will be released over the next year. Bottled beer, called the Corbeaux Series will be Belgian-inspired and wood-aged beers. "Raven in French is 'corbeau.' I had to add the ‘x’—it was just too close to my own name," laughs Beaux. They’ll offer seasonal beers as well.

Their Federal brewing license arrived on March 27 and they began brewing their first batches. They'll run a modified open schedule starting April 9 at 3 p.m. until their grand  opening the weekend of May 1. Check their website for hours.

When it comes to beer, it looks like Redmond is the hot new place and Raven is the new black.

Connie Adams/April 2009

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