Event and beer release mark the occassion
Eleven years ago, Seattle’s Ghostfish Brewing opened its doors in the SoDo neighborhood with a simple but ambitious goal: make really good beer that just happens to be gluten-free. Pulling that off meant doing things differently—especially at a time when gluten-free beer was still very much finding its footing.
Instead of trying to mimic traditional brewing methods and then removing or reducing the gluten in an otherwise gluten-rich beer, Ghostfish leaned into naturally gluten-free grains like buckwheat, millet, and quinoa to replace barley. At the time, that kind of approach was pretty uncommon for a commercial-scale gluten-free brewery—though, to be fair, there weren’t many of those around anyway.
Brewing success
Turns out, it was the right call. Almost immediately, Ghostfish began picking up medals from respected competitions like the Great American Beer Festival, the New York International Beer Competition, the Best of Craft Beer Awards, and more. Just as important, the brewery’s taproom—complete with a full gluten-free food menu—became a welcoming haven for people who need (or choose) to eat and drink gluten-free.
Now, Ghostfish Brewing is celebrating another milestone with the release of its 11th anniversary beer, SODO Steel IPA. The brewery will officially debut the beer this Saturday, February 7, during an anniversary celebration at the taproom (event poster at the bottom of the post).
“Eleven years ago, we officially welcomed customers inside our taproom and kicked off the start of our new business,” explained Ghostfish Brewing Co-Founder/CEO, Brian Thiel. “Day one came with little fanfare, but it was a welcome change, generating a little revenue after many months of depleting funds and writing checks to vendors for helping us to get started.”
Traditionally, steel is the go-to gift for an eleventh anniversary, making the name SODO Steel a natural fit—especially when you consider just how much stainless steel surrounds you in a brewery. The name feels even more appropriate since Ghostfish recently acquired a new-to-them, much larger production facility where most of its beer will be brewed going forward. More tanks, more pipes, more steel.
“We felt the gift of steel was appropriate inspiration for the naming of our annual limited anniversary beer on the heels of closing the deal on the acquisition of our new 26,000 sq ft production brewery,” added Thiel. “We are proud to have carried forward the rich history of manufacturing that embodies the area of SODO over the past eleven years. The century-old building that houses our SODO-based brewery started as a steel foundry. All of these points of inspiration kept leading us back to SODO Steel.”
About SODO Steel IPA
You’ll find SODO Steel IPA on draft and in four-packs of 16-ounce cans at Ghostfish Brewing’s taproom. The brewery is also working with its distribution and retail partners to roll the beer out more broadly across the U.S. in the coming weeks.
The beer itself is a hop-forward celebration, featuring Mosaic, Mosaic Cryo, New Zealand Nectaron, and Citra Cryo hops. Brewed with premium gluten-free malts and fermented with Berkeley Tropics yeast for high thiol expression, this 6.4% IPA delivers pineapple and peach flavors, layered with tropical passionfruit and bright grapefruit notes—an anniversary beer that feels both celebratory and very Ghostfish.
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