(Image: Outer Planet)

By Matt Dowell

Outer Planet Brewing’s next trip around the sun may be an interesting one.

As Capitol Hill’s smallest brewery marks its 10th anniversary this week, ownership has decided not to renew Outer Planet’s 12th Ave lease which is coming to an end this summer. The decision adds a wobble to the neighborhood beer community’s orbit.

“This place, from the start, has been a neighborhood spot. It’s small, it’s cozy, it’s unpretentious. People, especially within a few blocks radius, have been coming here since the beginning,” co-owner Gabriel Villenave said. “We have a very strong regular community. Some were here on opening day ten years ago.”

The ownership recipe at the Capitol Hill nanobrewery squeezed in a 12th Ave micro-apartment building has changed before with new owners joining co-founder Renato Martins over the years.

There are a few factors at play in the search for new brewers to captain the Outer Planet ship including one well known black hole.

“The pandemic really fucked things up,” said Martins.

“I don’t think it’s accurate to say it ruined us, but it ruined the plans we had and it changed the momentum in a way we have never been able to recover from,” co-owner Jeff Linse says.

“Since then it’s been very unpredictable,” Villenave said. “Old patterns are gone. We might have a very good Monday night and a very bad Saturday for no apparent reason.”

People are also drinking less. “The craft beer industry is contracting right now,” said Villenave. “We’re suffering because of that. We’re seeing decreased turnout and sales.”

Planet Capitol Hill can also be a challenge.

“[Linse] and I have been living in Cap Hill since 2011 and 2013. Year over year, the rent and cost of living keeps increasing,” said Villenave.

He said that rent for retail space is “even more insane.” “It impacts everything else – rent is so high, so prices go up, meanwhile people don’t make that much more money. You lose customers because they can’t afford your product anymore.”

“Places that have been here even longer – The Stumbling Monk, Captain Black’s, Linda’s – there are still a lot of people going there, people that want that and seek it out. There’s just a shortage of places that can do that because they get priced out,” Villenave said. “The same way that people who live here are priced out, businesses are too.”

Linse, Villenave, and Martins, all employees with local tech giants, were not unaware of the irony of their comments.

“For Gabriel and I, this is a side gig,” said Linse. “We both have day jobs that let us live. This is a passion project for us.”

Over the last year or so, more demands from personal lives and livelihoods have put a strain on the balance.

“I am burning myself out, end to end, day job and side job, on everything,” said Villenave. “I don’t know if I can keep this up that much longer”.

Linse: “We were all younger [when we bought the place]. We didn’t have the same obligations back then. I still love doing this as much as before but have to be realistic about what I’m capable of.”

Villenave: “[Back then] you did not have any cats.”

Outer Planet debuted in February 2015. Brewing at a commercial scale in the tight quarters required battling through new equipment and new processes. Ten barrels of beer ended up going down the drain as the little brewery found his bearings, CHS reported at the time. Today, the three barrels at a time production facility keeps the beer flowing.

(Image: Outer Planet)

Recent years have brought significant changes to Capitol Hill’s beer breweries. 2023 included both the acquisition of Broadway-born craft brewery Optimism by Stoup Brewing and the spinoff of the Anheuser-Busch-owned Redhook beer brand to “global cannabis-lifestyle” company Tilray in an $85 million deal. The tiny and compact E Pike Redhook Brewlab is the last brewery and pub remaining open in the Redhook line. The company produces many of its small batch and experimental creations on E Pike but turns to larger facilities in Oregon for the bulk of its bottled and canned products. Meanwhile, Elysian remains under AB’s wings as the beer giant announced a renewed focus on the E Pike brewery after shutting down its Georgetown facility earlier this year.

What will become of Capitol Hill’s tiniest brewery? By their account, the owners have succeeded in what they set out to do. They’ve had a successful run of an ethically-operated business that created a space for human connection and creative brews.

Villenave said he won’t think about it again until after this week’s anniversary celebrations.

The 10th Anniversary Celebration kicked off Monday with an Industry Night, and will roll on with nightly events. Come by for new glassware, new merch, and new beer, including the release of the 10th Anniversary special: A Black Forest cake imperial stout. The big party on Saturday the 22nd will feature food from ¡That’s-a-Molè! and live music from a neighbor who lives above the brewery.

“The ideal situation is for someone to assume ownership and keep the place going,” said Linse. “If we don’t find a buyer by a certain point, we’re going to have to call it and put everything up for auction.”

“Maybe another brewery is looking to expand to another place in a different neighborhood, maybe this place is a good fit for them,” added Villenave. “We’ve seen that with Stoup, Reuben’s.”

“It’s been an incredible journey, no matter what, zero regrets,” said Martins. “Tough times, yes, but tough times just make us tougher. I will cherish every single moment of this until the day I die.”

Outer Planet is located at 1812 12th Ave. Learn more at outerplanetbrewing.com/ten-years.

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