Port Townsend Brewing Company

“We opened with paper cups and a homemade sign. There was no pavement, just dirt around us,” recalls Kim Sands, co-owner with husband Guy of Port Townsend Brewing Company. “It was Guy’s birthday, June 27, 1997. We called everyone we knew—and the Port Townsend Leader—and said, ‘We’re opening a brewery.’ The Leader said, ‘So what?’” she laughs.

Not so, their friends, who poured in to celebrate. And when Guy and Kim rang up their first customer on the old cash register they’d found at a garage sale, “We (Guy and Kim) looked at each other and started to cry,” Kim remembers. “It was finally happening. It took a year to open. We made $500 that day, selling two brands: a pale ale and a porter.”

Things have changed a bit since 1997. The brewery is three times larger with a marine-themed tasting room and outdoor beer garden; the brew selection has expanded to 14 plus guest beers and wine; there’s an unobtrusive TV in the tasting room, primarily for Seahawk games; local live music is available year-round; and the parking lot is paved. And, they almost always pull a crowd.

From the original two offerings, they now have 14 on tap and 10 in bottles that are sold from the San Juan Islands to Olympia. They range from Bitter End IPA, an India pale ale to Strait Stout and Port Townsend Porter, a full-bodied dark ale, to limited specialty ales: Yoda’s Green Tea Gold, Tangerine Moon IPA and Night Court Imperial Porter.

Their signature and best seller is Hop Diggidy IPA, a classic Northwest style IPA with a pale malt background and full-round hop profile.

Guy is the creator and recipe formulator of their brews. While he experiments with IPAs, 10 of his most popular ales spring from old tried and- true recipes.

“One reason that keeps customers coming back to the tasting room is the consistency in taste between bottles and taps,” Guy says. The live music and the beer garden don’t hurt either! Four days a week, from 5-8 in summer, and Saturdays only in winter, patrons congregate in the outdoor garden. “It’s an early crowd that doesn’t like staying out late,” Kim says. “They listen to music then go off to dinner.

Sometimes people bring their own food, picnic style. Food trucks, like Mo-Chili BBQ, are here, too.” Over the years, the crowd has changed from mostly local to include a fan base of tourists. “We’ve grown,” says Kim. “People come and go—fishing in Alaska in the winter and home in summer, snowbirds to the south—and we’re still here when they come home. They love it!

“We have quite a family of people here,” smiles Kim. “Like Cheers.” 

Port Townsend Brewing

330 10th Street Ste C
Port Townsend, WA 98368
360.385.9967
porttownsendbrewing.com