Bellevue Brewing Company

In 2010, Scott Hansen (left) and John Robertson (right) formed the Bellevue Brewing Company, began concept and design work, and raised capital. Construction started in July 2012. On December 13, 2012, they opened the doors at their 12,000 square foot facility in the Bel-Red corridor: 6000 square feet of production brewery space and 6000 square feet of brewpub. The time they took to plan has paid off.

It's no surprise they planned well. John has worked in commercial real estate for the past 20 years: at Bank of America, then with his own firm, Robertson Capital. "His background was a huge advantage for us," says Scott. "We looked at every available piece of ground in Bellevue." Scott's background is food and beer. He and his wife ran a burger shop in Leavenworth for ten years. Scott got interested in making beer after a relative invited them to BridgePort Brewing in Portland. In 1991, he constructed a three-story building to house Leavenworth Brewing, the first brewery in north central Washington when only 13 craft breweries existed in the state. Outgrowing the location after 10 years, he sold the building to Visconti's Restaurant in 2001, and merged with Fish Brewing Company in Olympia; becoming president. Fish Brewing bought Spire Mountain Cider. "The cider business grew 25% a year with no promotion," recalls Scott. "Cider goes up and down in popularity, but it's here to stay now. We sell two ciders at Bellevue Brewing." In 2008, Fish was sold to Washington Wine and Beverage. Scott began to cast around for his next project.

John and Scott met at Leavenworth Brewing. A native Bellevue-ite, John feels that people misunderstand Bellevue. "I'd like to show people a different perspective of Bellevue. It has been tethered to Seattle economically for years. Once tolls begin on I90, and they will, the tether will start to dissolve. Eastsiders will demand more quality restaurants. The Spring District will be the next to develop. Wright Runstad has 36 acres; they've studied the Pearl District in Portland and are looking to do something similar. The Rockefellers are trying to get a variance on the maximum building height in Bellevue. Light rail is coming; demographics are changing. Pathways are being built along creeks, making it more pedestrian-friendly."

From the beginning, their plan was to make world class beer. "To do that, you have to find the best brewer," says Scott. "I watched Tony Powell (right) at Fish where he started at the bottom and worked his way to the top very quickly. He is very talented." Scott and John promised Tony the best ingredients and work environment. "Tony is very good at recipe formulation: all our beers are new recipes," says Scott.

"We picked our favorite styles of beer and gave Tony a few guidelines," says John. "Each beer needed a great nose; needed to be balanced; and had to be commercially viable." Scott adds, "We'll experiment, but at base, we just want a great beer. We also wanted food-friendly beer. Over-hopped beer doesn't work well with food."

"Our ESB is one of the best," says John. "It's a great balance of hoppiness and sweetness. It's our lightest beer at 5.6 ABV (alcohol by volume). Then we have our Oatmeal Stout at 5.8%. Our IPA is 7.2% and is very robust, but balanced and very drinkable. The Cascadian Dark Ale is 7.3, a black IPA with a whisper of cedar for that Northwest connection. Our Scotch Ale is 7.7%, and nicely malty to support the higher alcohol. The newest is a dry-hopped pale ale. About every six weeks, we'll rotate a brewer's reserve beer and a seasonal beer."

John and Scott also had parameters for Rick Lowell and Nick Springer in the kitchen. "Their challenge is that we don't have a deep fryer, microwave, or freezer. And the food has to work with beer," says Scott. "Everything is prepared fresh each day. We make soup from scratch, make our own pizza. We give our spent grain to Willapa Hills Cheese to feed the sheep. In return, they provide us with cheese." John adds, "We use local purveyors as much as possible. We do an adult ice cream with Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream that uses our Stout; people are also pouring our Stout over it." They agree that beer production and consumption is what they thought it would be, but food has taken off much faster, allowing them to start serving lunch sooner than anticipated.

Bellevue Brewing is wired within an inch of its life. Both John and Scott can control music and TVs from their phones. All three conference rooms have TVs (one room accommodates 35-40, the other two, 15). There's a 16 x 9 space over the kitchen that acts as a screen. They've begun trivia nights, movie nights and have live music. "Bellevue people are family people. We're happy to see families come in, sometimes several families together," says John.

A primary focus for both will be charitable activities. "We want to succeed, but it has to lead somewhere. We may not change the world, but we can change our corner of the world," says Scott. John's focus is on helping children today so they make the right decisions tomorrow. "If kids feel loved and nurtured and have opportunities, they can go out in the world with that sense of love; they'll make more balanced and thoughtful decisions. Once they're 16, they can work here or with one of our corporate partners."

Their beer is already in 22 locations on the Eastside and their distributor will help manage their growth with draught, bottles, and canned product. They want to expand thoughtfully so everyone has a consistently good experience. The plan is in place; all we need to do is sit back, enjoy the beer and food, and help them support local kids. It's an easy job.

Connie Adams/March 2013