In April 2014, Mike and Lia Noreen formed a Washington State Corporation, and have worked for a year and a half to become a commercial micro-brewery. Dealing with Federal, State and County regulations; applications, background checks and official forms has seemed like a never-ending line of hoops to jump through, but we did it. We have been approved to brew beer commercially!
With the help of mostly Lopez investors, we have completed the necessary improvements to the brewery building. At this point we are producing beer, we are probably the smallest nano-brewery in Washington. We are brewing with a 1/3-barrel brew system (10 gallons per brew-day), producing sixty, 22-ounce bottles per batch. We wish to increase our capacity to a 10-barrel brew system, which is 230-gallons, or 14 full size kegs, per brew.
We envision an island-owned brewing company, with a tasting room in Lopez Village; creating jobs for island residents, and producing enough beer for all the stores and restaurants on Lopez, as well as events such as Tour de Lopez, wedding receptions and fund raisers. After that, we’ll offer our product to the other San Juan Islands, and then the mainland with awesome beer, putting Lopez Island on the brewing map.
Update as of March 1, 2020
Happy New Year! We hope this finds everyone in good health and looking forward to a great 2020!
Our update is very exciting!
Brewvado Tap Room was up and running as of July 1, 2019. We are planning to keep the tap room open through the winter and spring with somewhat reduced hours. We currently have hours of 3-7 Thursday and Friday and 1-7 Saturday and Sunday. We have been open for all the Seahawks and Huskies games, holding a potluck during the Seahawk games. This grew larger each week.
As some of you may know, the Galley Restaurant has been sold. The Galley's last open day was December 15. The new owners apparently plan a major over-haul of the building which will keep it closed at least until May and maybe beyond. In the meantime, we are seeing some additional customers who can no longer go to the Galley. This should help us through a very quiet time on Lopez.
Our business was quite good through Thanksgiving and the two week period between December 21 through December 31. We extended our hours during this period to be open December 30, 31 and January 1 from 1 - 7. It was a good strategy.
We have logo growlers, stacker glasses, stout/porter glasses and have recently added logo t-shirts with the Red Irish Lord bottle label on the back. So far, the t-shirts seem popular. We also have made gift certificates available. Besides our offering of about 12 taps of beer from around the Northwest, we also have wine, cider, orange juice, V-8 and Clamato. We encourage bringing food or snacks from the food trucks, the LVM deli, from your home, etc. to Brewvado Tap Room to enjoy with one of our beverages.
We just received our canning machine for 16 and 32 oz. cans. We need to order labels for the cans, however, we should have "to go" cans in the near future!
Mike has made very good progress on getting a number of items done on connecting the new 10 barrel brewery equipment to electricity, propane and plumbing. The grain mill is hooked up and tested great.
We are grateful for your continued support and look forward to your visiting the tap room! Cheers, Mike & Lia
With the help of mostly Lopez investors, we have completed the necessary improvements to the brewery building. At this point we are producing beer, we are probably the smallest nano-brewery in Washington. We are brewing with a 1/3-barrel brew system (10 gallons per brew-day), producing sixty, 22-ounce bottles per batch. We wish to increase our capacity to a 10-barrel brew system, which is 230-gallons, or 14 full size kegs, per brew.
We envision an island-owned brewing company, with a tasting room in Lopez Village; creating jobs for island residents, and producing enough beer for all the stores and restaurants on Lopez, as well as events such as Tour de Lopez, wedding receptions and fund raisers. After that, we’ll offer our product to the other San Juan Islands, and then the mainland with awesome beer, putting Lopez Island on the brewing map.
Update as of March 1, 2020
Happy New Year! We hope this finds everyone in good health and looking forward to a great 2020!
Our update is very exciting!
Brewvado Tap Room was up and running as of July 1, 2019. We are planning to keep the tap room open through the winter and spring with somewhat reduced hours. We currently have hours of 3-7 Thursday and Friday and 1-7 Saturday and Sunday. We have been open for all the Seahawks and Huskies games, holding a potluck during the Seahawk games. This grew larger each week.
As some of you may know, the Galley Restaurant has been sold. The Galley's last open day was December 15. The new owners apparently plan a major over-haul of the building which will keep it closed at least until May and maybe beyond. In the meantime, we are seeing some additional customers who can no longer go to the Galley. This should help us through a very quiet time on Lopez.
Our business was quite good through Thanksgiving and the two week period between December 21 through December 31. We extended our hours during this period to be open December 30, 31 and January 1 from 1 - 7. It was a good strategy.
We have logo growlers, stacker glasses, stout/porter glasses and have recently added logo t-shirts with the Red Irish Lord bottle label on the back. So far, the t-shirts seem popular. We also have made gift certificates available. Besides our offering of about 12 taps of beer from around the Northwest, we also have wine, cider, orange juice, V-8 and Clamato. We encourage bringing food or snacks from the food trucks, the LVM deli, from your home, etc. to Brewvado Tap Room to enjoy with one of our beverages.
We just received our canning machine for 16 and 32 oz. cans. We need to order labels for the cans, however, we should have "to go" cans in the near future!
Mike has made very good progress on getting a number of items done on connecting the new 10 barrel brewery equipment to electricity, propane and plumbing. The grain mill is hooked up and tested great.
We are grateful for your continued support and look forward to your visiting the tap room! Cheers, Mike & Lia