The Redhook Brewlab is the last physical vestige of Seattle’s “first microbrewery” (Image: Redhook)
In a summer of beer-soaked merger and acquisition on Capitol Hill, a deal with much larger implications than a neighborhood brewery is also going down.
Anheuser-Busch In-Bev is shedding a batch of its lesser “craft” beer brands including Capitol Hill’s Redhook Brewery in the wake of plummeting sales at the global beer giant amidst an ongoing anti-transgender backlash against its top-selling Bud Light.
“Leading global cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company” Tilray announced it is acquiring Redhook along with a collection of other AB In-Bev craft brands — Shock Top, Breckenridge Brewery, Blue Point Brewing Company, 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Widmer Brothers Brewing, Square Mile Cider Company, and HiBall Energy.
Analysts says the transaction is an $85 million deal and includes all of the companies’ existing employees and facilities.
It’s not clear what the future will be for Redhook and its small Capitol Hill brewery at the center of the Pike Motorworks mixed-use development but its new owner has shown a penchant for experimentation when it comes to cannabis and beverages.
(Image: Redhook)
CHS reported here in 2021 on the 40th anniversary of Seattle’s “first microbrewery” that was founded in Ballard and grew into an industry leader before fading. The E Pike Redhook Brewlab is the last brewery and pub in the Redhook line.
In 1994, Anheuser-Busch took a 25% stake in the company. In 2010, Redhook was merged with Widmer. The resulting company has been part of Anheuser-Busch’s Brewers Collective. Capitol Hill-born Elysian Brewing, also owned by the company, marked 25 years of Seattle beer also in 2021.
But Elysian and its E Pike brewing facility are staying part of AB In-Bev’s craft holdings. The Elysian brewery’s output has increased in recent years as the beer giant has invested more in promoting the brand in the wider region.
Redhook’s output is much smaller and the bottled and canned production has been happening down in Oregon — not on E Pike where the original plans for a ten-barrel system at the Capitol Hill BrewLab were downsized to a lower production eight-barrel system with a focus on experimentation, not bottling for retail.
Redhook called the project “a beer-focused working space” and “a test ground to experiment and create new small-batch beers primarily for the pub, and to develop recipes that will eventually come to life on a wider scale in Washington and beyond.”
The tightly packed brewing facility is perhaps the ultimate mixed-use, part of a major 260-unit apartment development built on the bones of the old E Pike BMW dealership and garages and now one of the largest apartment buildings on Capitol Hill.
It is surrounded by plenty of space for tables and a large patio formed by the building’s preservation of the old auto row facade from the showroom and garages that used to stand at the site. With a design by Graham Baba Architects, Redhook says Poquitos and Rhein Haus owners James Weimann and Deming Maclise — “who intentionally worked to emphasize the industrial features of the Pike Motorworks space while incorporating historic elements such as a 1930s bar salvaged from a Greyhound Bus Station in Soap Lake, Wash., and vintage lighting fixtures” — consulted on the look and feel of the pub and brewery.
(Image: Kōbo)
Last year, the Lab upgraded its food game with Kōbo, a new pizza project from Shota Nakajima who also operates his karaage fried chicken joint Taku in the Pike Motorworks complex.
The odd little BrewLab will soon be in the hands of Tilray, a rapidly growing company that has placed huge bets on the cannabis industry around the world. It has also worked with AB In-Bev on cannabis-based drinks and is already the owner of several craft beer brands including SweetWater Brewing Company, Montauk Brewing Company, Alpine Beer Company, and Green Flash Brewing Company. Tilray Brands also owns Breckenridge Distillery, “the award-winning spirits brand and the World’s Best Blended Whisky,” and Happy Flower CBD sparkling non-alcoholic cocktails.
Analysts says the newly announced deal will make Tilray the fifth-largest craft beer business in the country.
Meanwhile, another Capitol Hill beer merger and acquisition is playing out — on a much smaller, independent scale. CHS reported here on the agreement for Stoup Brewing to take over Capitol Hill’s Optimism Brewing and wind down the eight-year-old beer brand and moves into its sprawling Union and Broadway brewing facility and beer hall this month.
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