EDITOR’S NOTE — Port Townsend-based independent multimedia journalist and videographer Jack Olmsted is doing a series of videos on the Pourhouse. We ran the first installment on this website on Feb. 5 — http://tinyurl.com/78nrxp2 — paired with a video about another new Port Townsend business, Bob’s Bike. We’ve embedded Olmsted’s second installment on the Pourhouse in the article below. You can also link over from it to the first installment.
By JENNIFER JACKSON
Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND — The week before Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 5, Virginia Marston and Ned Herbert posted a notice on Facebook announcing a party at their place on game day.
The game promised to be a close one, but it wasn’t the point spread that interested them.
It was the pint spread.
While the New York Giants battled to a 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots on the big screen, the couple served 250 pints of beer to 100 customers at a non-dry run of their new Port Townsend business, the Pourhouse.
Officially open last Thursday, the Pourhouse is the latest trend in specialty beer— a taproom and bottle shop that takes beer drinking to a higher order than “the usual.”
“Every time we blow a keg, we put something new in its place,” Marston said.
The Pourhouse has 12 taps, but with craft breweries springing up everywhere, the owners have plenty of choices for future offerings.
Poulsbo has four new breweries alone, Herbert said, Bremerton and Oak Harbor each have one, and there’s Fathom and League Hop Yard in Sequim, Barhop in Port Angeles and Ed Peak’s expanded brewing operation near the Clallam County airport. (STORY CONTINUES BELOW THE VIDEO)
Craft-beer wagon
“We couldn’t have done this 25 years ago,” Herbert said of the speciality brew business. “The number of different beers that are around has been growing exponentially.”
The couple got on the craft-beer wagon eight years ago, Marston said, seeking out different brews wherever they traveled.
They decided two years ago that they would like to do something “beer-related” and felt it was a safe bet.
“It’s a growth industry,” Herbert said. “Craft beer sales were up 12 [percent] to 14 percent in the recession.”
They were initially leaning towards a bottle shop — a place that sells single bottles — with a few taps, but they saw a “for lease” sign on a waterfront building and were intrigued by the possibilities.
Leasing the space from owner Karen Erickson last June, they hired Brenden Piskula of Brahdy & Brahdy Custom, a Port Townsend construction company, to do the remodeling.
Piskula was a Port Townsend High School classmate of Marston’s brother, Ben.
Fred Klein, a college friend of Herbert’s from Fairhaven College in Bellingham, helped him build the picnic tables for the bayside beer garden.
Except for the tables and a few pieces of upholstered furniture, the Super Bowl party was standing-room only; the chairs and tables hadn’t arrived.
By the next Wednesday, the furniture was in place, complementing the corrugated metal and wood used for the bar.
“We have a vision of what it would look like, and it turned out just the way we imagined,” Marston said.
What they couldn’t see while the remodeling was still going on: where to put a large vintage sign originally marking the Port Townsend Motel.
The sign was purchased by a friend, Ruby Fitch, at KPTZ Radio’s first fundraiser.
“She knew we were starting a bar and called and said, ‘I think this would be perfect,’” Marston said.
The sign, which will be wired to light up, found a place overhead when dividing doors in the interior were removed.
Last week, Marston and Herbert were starting on another last-minute tweak, the loft area over the entry hall, where they plan to display a book-binding machine from their former business, Watermark.
Seed-winnowing screens from Abundant Life Seed Foundation — where Herbert, who has a background in organic farming, used to be farm manager — are another possibility.
“We’re bringing a part of our own history into it,” he said.
Other connections to the past: Skip Madsen, the former brewer at the Water Street Brewery, now works at American Brewery in Edmonds, the source of the American Blonde the Pourhouse has on tap.
Another brew, Dottie’s Lager, was made at Emerald City Brewery, located in the former Rainier Brewery in Seattle, Herbert said.
Other inaugural brews: Hop Chops, an IPA (India Pale Ale) from North Sound Brewery in Mount Vernon; Ridgetop Red from Silver City in Silverdale; 9 lb. Porter from Georgetown Brewery in Seattle; and an amber from Port Townsend Brewery.
“We have 5-ounce pours, 10-ounce pours and 16-ounce pours,” Marston said. “You’ve not committed to a pint. You can have a taster — the 5-ounce — and then choose.”
Beers on tap are priced to be affordable — pints start at $3.50 — and customers are welcome to bring takeout from the barbecue across the street or the Greek food truck in the next block.
The location of the taproom — near the boat haven, several large motels and the Larry Scott Trail — should provide walk-in customers, Herbert said.
For the Super Bowl party, four people rode their horses from Discovery Bay to the Pourhouse and tied the horses to the fence rail.
‘Waiting for them’
“I’ve been waiting for them to open,” said Lissie Andrews, who rode into town with Chrissy Bishop, Summer Martell and Javan Bishop.
Herbert and Marston said taprooms and bottle shops have proven to be a viable business model in other places, and with their business plan firmly in place, they expect income to cover expenses from the start.
The Pourhouse has two part-time employees, Victor Paz and Amanda Steuer, the resident wine expert.
For non-beer drinkers, the Pourhouse also carries sodas and hard cider; the current one is from Keith and Crystie Kisler’s Finnriver Farm in Chimacum.
Single bottles of beer, including gluten-free beer, are sold at a separate counter at the end of the entry hall, also the filling station for growlers.
The Pourhouse is open seven days a week, noon to 10 p.m., with extended hours on weekends.
It is located at 2231 Washington St., one block off Sims Way at Decatur Road.
Turn right on Decatur one block before the Kearney Street stoplight as you’re heading into town. Decatur goes straight into the Pourhouse parking lot on the waterfront.
For more information, phone 360-379-5586.
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Jennifer Jackson writes about Port Townsend and Jefferson County every Wednesday. To contact her with items for this column, phone 360-379-5688 or email jjackson@olypen.com.
