Yakima Craft Brewing: history lesson

   From Buckley I drove over White Pass the next day to Yakima, to enjoy the new taproom at Yakima Craft Brewing Co.  They had changed from a production brewery only to on-premise consumption just a month or so before. 

The space has room for maybe a dozen to fifteen beer lovers--no food service, although peanuts and pretzels are provided.  The crowd was convivial on a Friday evening and the various distinctive brews each had partisans. There were two IPAs and two "monkeys"--Good Monkey, a Belgian-style golden and Bad Monkey, a Belgian dark ale. Their amber is called "1982", an homage to Bert Grant, a colorful Scot who came to this hops-growing center in the 70s after years working in brewing back east.  Grant started one of the first micros in the northwest, which is the same as saying one of the first micros period, in 1982. He sold his business some years later and this brewery started up recently after Yakima was without its own beer for a while. Some of Grant's original equipment is in use here.

The two fermentation tanks and the copper-clad mash tun are originals, says chief brewer Chris Swedin, who worked at Grant's before it closed in 2005.
(Visited 2/10/11)