Griffin Brewing now open in downtown Enumclaw

A new brewery opened recently in downtown Enumclaw, Washington. Griffin Brewing opened in early March 2022. After my recent report about the opening, brief though it was, someone from the brewery contacted me and offered to share more information. I asked Brian Coy, the head brewer, some questions and this is what I learned.

Who is behind the brewery? Where did y’all come from? 

The main owners are Ryan and Amy Lundeen. Both own small businesses in Enumclaw (Ryan, Stanley Patrick Striping; Amy, The Local Coffee House). Ryan and Amy used to be co-owners of The Historic Mint Restaurant & Alehouse. 

I am the head brewer (Brian Coy). Ryley Lundeen, Ryan and Amy’s son, is the assistant brewer. While I have no commercial history in the industry, I’ve been homebrewing for over a decade and have a couple of competition ribbons to my name. I completed the UW Craft Beer certificate program taught by Chris Smith and John Martigan from Lowercase and Heather McClung in 2020.

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

Does Griffin Brewing have any connections to the local community? 

Ryan, Amy, and Ryley live in Enumclaw and own other businesses in the city. I live in West Seattle [near] Best of Hands Brewing. My brother-in-law, who also lives in Enumclaw, is good friends with Ryan and Amy, which is how I connected with them.

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

---

sponsor

---

How many seats are in, how big is the taproom? 

The taproom is 384 sq ft. There are 32 seats. Two tables of 8, 8 seats at the bar and 8 seats (4 sitting, 4 standing) at the rail bar. There are currently two tables on the sidewalk with more sidewalk seating planned for the summer. 

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

Dog and/or kid-friendly? 

Both dog- and kid-friendly. Kids just can’t sit at the bar. 

Bring in your own food? Order it in?

Currently, you can bring in your own food or order from one of the many restaurants within walking distance. We will have our own kitchen in the next 3 to 4 weeks. We’ll be serving grilled sandwiches, salads, tacos, and various rice dishes among other offerings. 

Any particular styles you like to focus on, or that you’d like to be known for? 

Our house beers focus on classic-style ales. Our four house beers are an American Pale, a west coast IPA, an amber ale, and a stout. 

We are doing a rotating single hop series IPA and the first one is a hazy single malt single hop IPA with Maris Otter and Citra hops. We’re brewing the next variation today with Simcoe.

We just put a cream ale on tap yesterday that took the place of our German-style wheat. Those two will rotate with an American wheat.

With only six serving tanks/taps, we wanted to have more beers available so we offer a few blends. Our Amber and Stout can be blended into a brown ale. Our pale and stout blended into a Black and Tan. We also offer the opportunity to add mint or vanilla flavoring to our stout. I used to make the stout around the holidays each year for friends and family and, at bottling, I’d add mint extract for a bit of that Christmas flavor. 

Tell me about the brewing system.

We are brewing on a 2 bbl Blichmann brewhouse with four 2-barrel Stout fermenters. 

With only 384 sq ft we don’t have room to store kegs. We had to get creative and that’s where the Paul Mueller serving tanks come in. We have six 250-liter (66 gallons) serving tanks on a steel platform above the bar. The tanks are the same that Top Down Brewing in Sumner has, just smaller. We found out when we ordered our tanks from Mueller that they had sold some to Top Down as well. We made quick friends with them and they have been a tremendous help with any questions we’ve had about the tanks. 

Anything else you’d like to share?

We’re planning to expand into the vacant space next door to us, adding about 1,100 sq ft to our current footprint. This will allow us to add additional seating and more than double our brewing capacity. Construction on that space has started and additional fermenters and serving tanks have been ordered.

Follow Griffin Brewing on Instagram.

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor

sponsor