Ghostfish Brewing Announces Expansion Plans in Seattle
Lately, good news is hard to find in the craft beer industry. Words like ‘expansion’ and ‘success’ aren’t heard as frequently as we’d like. However, Ghostfish Brewing Company is expanding and succeeding, driven by the demand for its award-winning, gluten-free beers.
Seattle’s Ghostfish Brewing has acquired Pike Brewing Company’s production facility. This development does not involve the historic Pike Pub and brewery at Pike Place Market. Today’s news concerns Pike Brewing’s 2023-built, state-of-the-art brewery, a production-only facility with no public tasting room. Events over the past couple of years left the brewery unused. Read more about that here.
The brewing and packaging equipment are housed in a 26,000-square-foot facility in the Georgetown neighborhood, about 2.5 miles south of Ghostfish Brewing’s current location in SoDo. The acquisition will allow Ghostfish Brewing to achieve a much-needed production increase and realize its expansion goals. The expansion will allow production to increase by up to 7 times.
“This expansion is a long time coming and a major milestone for us,” said Brian Thiel, co-founder/co-owner of Ghostfish Brewing. “We started a process of identifying and viewing potential vacant warehouses around the greater Seattle area with the intention to build out a new state-of-the-art brewery back in early 2024. After learning about the former Pike brewery opportunity from our friends at Fremont Brewing in late 2024, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that it checked most of the boxes we were planning to create on our own. The timing of acquiring the new production brewery aligns perfectly for us to meet the growing demand for Ghostfish beer.”
“Our goal, from the beginning, has been to make the highest quality dedicated gluten-free beer while providing an amazing experience for our customers,” Thiel added. “We’ve been oversold the past 3-4 years. The new production brewery provides us with the opportunity to achieve sales that we unfortunately haven’t been able to obtain out of our current production brewery. More importantly, we’ll be in a better position to expand our distribution footprint and finally get Ghostfish beer into the hands of more customers throughout North America who have been requesting it over the past ten years.”
The Current Location
In addition to brewing and distributing award-winning gluten-free beers, Ghostfish Brewing operates a popular taproom and restaurant at its current location in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood. Like the beer, the food is entirely gluten-free. Ultimately, once the new-to-them brewery is up and running in Georgetown, the current brewery space will transform into more kitchen, taproom, and restaurant space; however, they will continue to operate a small, 2-barrel brewing system at the SoDo location to make experimental, one-off beers.
“We have been busting at the seams for quite some time,” says Brian. “Our short-term plan is to keep production humming at our flagship brewery while we start up production in Georgetown. After determining things are going well at the G-town location and we have enough finished goods inventory on hand, we will cease production in Sodo and begin the process of moving usable tanks and our canning line to the Georgetown facility.”
“With equipment out of our production area, we will eventually be able to start the process of relocating our main taproom/bar to the former production area. This step will then allow us to double the size of our kitchen. There’s no set timeline for retail expansion, but it is possible that we could start moving on this before the end of 2026. The back part of our building that presently serves as our warehouse and packaging area will be converted into an event space for large group event rentals.”
To learn more about Ghostfish Brewing’s brewery expansion, distribution channels, taproom and restaurant options, or upcoming events, check out their website or follow them on Instagram (@ghostfishbrewco) and Facebook (@ghostfishbrewingcompany).
The Pike Brewing Backstory
Let’s get you up to speed. First, in 2021, Pike Brewing was acquired by Seattle Hospitality Group. Next, in 2023, Pike Brewing announced it was shutting down its brewing facility near Pike Place Market and relocating beer production to a new facility in the Georgetown neighborhood, though the Pike Pub remained open. In 2024, Seattle Hospitality Group acquired Fremont Brewing, becoming the owner of two breweries in Seattle. With that development came news that Pike Brewing’s beers would now be brewed at Fremont Brewing’s production facility in Ballard. Most recently, the venerable Pike Pub at Pike Place Market closed, but that’s not directly related to this story.
Inquiring minds wondered what would become of the just-built, state-of-the-art, but suddenly mothballed, Pike Brewing production facility in Georgetown. Now we know.
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About Ghostfish Brewing Company. Since 2015, the mission has been to be innovative by pushing the boundaries of craft beer and leading the way to be pioneers in the continuous development and improvement of beer for all craft beer drinkers. GBC is committed to brewing the highest quality dedicated gluten-free beer and providing exceptional service to its customers. Collaborating with artisan maltsters on the cutting edge of craft, GBC is one of the first breweries in the world to brew with a spectrum of malted gluten-free grains. GBC is the largest producer of dedicated gluten-free beer in North America and currently distributes in 21 states. Find us online at ghostfishbrewing.com and visit our brewery taproom and restaurant in Seattle, WA.
