Gig Harbor Brewing

If you’re looking for a family-friendly, hometown brewery, then you’ve found your new home at Gig Harbor Brewing.  With two locations to choose from: their waterfront taproom in Gig Harbor or the flagship brewery on S Tacoma Way, you’re in for a treat with hospitality. The trivia battles, bingo Wednesdays, party event spaces, and Seahawk/Sounders viewing parties all contribute to make this one special place. The owner, John Fosberg, is even responsible for the creation of the Gig Harbor Beer Festival which is entering it’s 12th year! This is an event that sells out each year and one you don’t want to miss. You can snag tickets at www.gigharborbeerfestival.com and if you want to be up to date on all beer related news, sign up for the mailing list at http://www.gigharborbrewing.com so you don’t miss out!

This week I was able to chat with the mighty trio who keep things moving down there. Owner John Fosberg, Brewer Jim Shoemake, and Sales Director Max Fosberg. They gave me a brief history of the founding, current beer philosophy and future plans, and how the communities, on both sides of the bridge, have embraced a wonderful beer maker.

Byron: So John, what was the inspiration or the initial thought with creating a brewery? Were you doing some home-brewing or did you just want to give back to the community in the best way possible? 

John: My company started producing the Gig harbor Beer Festival 12 years ago and I met a lot of brewers who seemed to be having a lot of fun! I was looking for something new to do so I put together a business plan and started shopping around for investors; and now seven years later, here we are. 

Byron: It seems like it’s been well received by the community in that time. I see all the posts on social media and you’re always hosting events and doing something here, how has the community engagement been in that time since opening? 

John: Well people first thought we were nuts to open “Gig Harbor Brewing” in Tacoma, but we just couldn’t find space, affordable warehouse space in Gig Harbor. Gig Harbor is a wonderful city, I’ve raised my children there, it’s a beautiful town, but it’s not a manufacturing city and we are a manufacturing company. At the time, all the available spaces were being snatched up by marijuana dispensaries and we were having a tough time finding a place. So we started looking outside Gig Harbor and found this space we’re currently in on South Tacoma Way. I think it turned out to be a great thing because we’re close to I-5 and if we found a smaller space, with the growth we’ve experienced in the last seven years, we would have been moving out of Gig Harbor anyway just to keep up with our growth. We thought about changing the name but the investors really liked the name and the brand so we kept it, and now that we have the second location and taproom in Gig Harbor, it makes more sense. 

Byron: You mentioned growth and I think a lot of that has to do with word of mouth; in Western Washington we love our beer, we all love great beer, and I think a lot of that has to do with Jim. Being the brewer, having your various recipes to work on, while you haven’t been here for the entire seven years, you make some damn fine beer. How much of some of the newer beers that are on, like the new ESB or others since your start time, are those your own ideas and how much freedom does John give you to get creative and wild? 

Jim: With the existing recipes I did some light tweaking, but not really recipe based, more process based. The recipes were very solid coming in just not exactly the way I do things. As far as the new beers go, we all, by committee, decide what’s going to be next, but those are my recipes. I develop them, I’ve processed them over the years and studied them and thought about them and here they come to life! 

Byron: Is there anything out there, not to spoil any secrets, but is there anything in the works right now or coming out shortly that you’re excited about? 

Jim: We don’t have any crazy stuff going on right now, but we do have a porter that we made a little bit of last time that we flavored some with chocolate and toffee from Gig Harbor Candy Co., but we kegged off some just straight porter and we’ll have that back on tap regularly. 

John: All of the fruit beers coming up in Springtime too. 

Jim: Yeah, we’ve got the entire Spring line essentially: the blood orange blonde, hefeweizen, we’ll do some wheat beers that we’ll flavor up. But honestly, I’m excited generally about every beer I make! It’s very rewarding work, it’s hard, but very rewarding and I work with a great crew. 

Byron: Similar question, but with a slight twist: Is there anything wild or crazy, and may never happen for whatever reason, sitting in your brewer’s mind that you’d love to be able to make? 

Jim: There’s a beer made by Noble Aleworks in Southern California that’s a blonde coffee milk stout on nitro.  

Byron: Oh! That’s quite the brew! 

Jim: There’s a whole lot going on there right!? It’s crazy because it tastes like a chocolate stout but it looks like a blond and it’s got the creamy head from the nitro. So, if I was going crazy and I had every access to everything I needed to do that, that would be the pinnacle for me. My own take on that, sort of as an homage.  

Byron: There is clearly quite the variety of beers on offer through Gig Harbor Brewing, Max, how are you finding other bars, restaurants, and locations responding to your beers? Are there any favorites or “must haves” from those you supply? Are they open to maybe some of the new releases as well? 

Max: Yeah, we have a lot of great relationships with different clientele in the restaurant and grocery business and definitely specific spots love and wait for specific beers. One of our best customers is Fondi Pizzeria in Gig Harbor and they consistently buy some of the same kegs on a weekly basis. They love the Racing Rooster Red and the Giggly Blonde, but also a lot of bars and restaurants are looking for new and exciting stuff and Jim is doing a great job of providing those kinds of beers for all the different places who want it. 

Byron: It seems like there’s always something no matter what your beer taste or preference is and I’m seeing the Gig Harbor Brewing Co logo more and more places, which is exciting. 

Max: Yeah, going into March this week we’re seeing an uptick in sales and we’re expecting a busy Spring and Summer. 

 Byron: Speaking of Spring and Summer and all the new beers and flavors and excitement, I know the Gig Harbor Beer Festival is coming up soon and is always something that I look forward to every year. Can you talk a bit more about that, John for maybe some of the folks who have not either been or maybe heard about? 

John: The 12th Annual Gig Harbor Beer Festival is the kick-off event for the new Gig Harbor Beer Week which runs from May 20th to the 27th in Gig Harbor. So we’re really excited about Beer Week in Gig Harbor and the Beer Festival being the kick-off event. It takes place in uptown Gig Harbor from 12p-5 and you can get tickets online at gigharborbeerfestival.com. 

Byron: Well, there ya go! I’ve been myself a number of times and I get excited every year for it. How many breweries do you have out there now? 

John: We’ve got about 25 vendors which are ciders, seltzers, and a lot of delicious craft beers mostly from local breweries in the South Sound. We also have live music on stage, usually about three or four bands. 

Byron: Jim, are you going to be doing anything special or a small-batch, one-off beer fest exclusive? 

Jim: Certainly, yes. I don’t know what that will be just yet. 

Byron: Surprises to come then! 

Jim: You bet.