Georgetown Brewing has big news: the Seattle brewery just purchased the building at 620 S. Brandon Street — directly across the street from its existing facility at 5200 Denver Avenue. Don’t worry, the beloved taproom isn’t going anywhere. The brewery is simply doubling down on its own neighborhood, significantly expanding its footprint. The new building adds 36,544 square feet to an operation that already spans more than 50,000 square feet, a substantial boost the brewery badly needs.
Why the need for more space? Blame Bodhizafa. “We need more production space and cold storage due to recent unexpected growth of Bodhizafa and Georgetown Tavern Beer,” co-founder Roger Bialous told the Puget Sound Business Journal. He expects the new building to be fully operational in about a year.
Ginger beer is also in the mix. As we reported in 2024, Georgetown acquired Timber Ginger Beer and is planning to grow that side of the business. If you haven’t yet, stop by the brewery and give some of those new creations a try. They’re good. That’s another reason the confines were starting to feel a little tight.
Behold the Power of Bodhi
Georgetown is the largest brewery in Washington by production volume and currently ranks 15th among the nation’s 9,000-plus craft breweries. Last year, it produced over 130,000 barrels of beer, with more than half of that (55%) being Bodhizafa IPA. If the brewery were to produce nothing but Bodhizafa IPA, Georgetown Brewing would still rank in the top 50 craft breweries in the U.S. in terms of production volume. Read that again slowly.
Bodhi’s reign began with a gold medal at the 2016 Great American Beer Festival, besting a very crowded field of IPAs. Once famous for the draft-only Manny’s Pale Ale, Georgetown has since become synonymous with those bright-orange Bodhi cans you see absolutely everywhere around Seattle and across the Pacific Northwest.
The newest addition to the lineup, Georgetown Tavern Beer, has been turning heads since its 2024 debut. Positioned as a spiritual successor to Rainier — once Seattle’s reigning beer — “Tav Beer” is now pouring on draft and in 16-ounce cans at a growing number of bars and restaurants around the city.
So there you have it: Bodhi’s booming, Tavern Beer is on the rise, ginger beer is joining the party, and Georgetown Brewing needed more room. The building across the street was right there waiting. Sometimes the best answer to a problem is the one staring you straight in the face.
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