Bellingham, Washington continues its pursuit of the “Most Breweries per Capita” title. Not sure if they are even aware or interested in the fact that they’re in the hunt, but there it is. Today we learned that Otherlands Beer is now open in the city’s Sunnyland neighborhood at 2121 Humbolt Street. That means it is very near Twin Sisters Brewing and Kulshan Brewing (James St.) and quite near Wander Brewing.
The brewery and cafe is the realization of a dream for two brewing and service industry veterans, Karolina Lobrow and Ben Howe.
According to the company’s website, “Otherlands Beer is a small brewery and cafe dedicated to the pursuit of excellence, the exploration of the unknown and the celebration of the beautiful and the absurd. Offering rustic lagers and farmhouse ales alongside European inspired street foods in a cozy guesthouse tavern.”
Also from the website, “Drawing inspiration from the many odd and wonderful folks we’ve met in our travels we brew beers for curious palates using a variety of traditional and old-world techniques. Our lager beers are “decoction” mashed in our direct fired brew kettle, naturally carbonated, and cold conditioned in horizontal lagering tanks. Our farmhouse ales are brewed with an evolving house yeast culture and undergo a lengthy refermentation in the keg and bottle. Even our IPAs have a few strange tricks up their sleeves. We hope you enjoy drinking the rustic, folky, and funky beers we serve as much as we love brewing them. ”
Here’s a glimpse of the opening day draft lineup:
Some Soft Returning, Amber Lager, 4.7% ABV
Unfiltered Franconia-inspired amber kellerbier: smooth and malty with a very mellow carbonation. As they say in Bamberg, “ungespundet natürtrüb.”
A Spring Will Come, Wheat Saison, 4.4% ABV
A petite “grisette-style” farmhouse ale brewed with wheat, rye, and oats. Fruity, floral, and oh so thirst quenching. Like fluffy clouds on a sunny day.
Illumination, Hoppy Saison, 5.8% ABV
Dry-hopped saison brewed with Continental and American hops: bright, juicy, and fresh. An old favorite from a previous life.
Electric Kool-Aid, American Pale Ale, 4.6% ABV
Modern American Pale Ale brewed with oats, rye, and a Day-Glo-school-bus-load of classic northwest hops.
Wildflower IPA, American IPA, 5.7% ABV
Modern American IPA by way of New England and rural Denmark: floral, citrusy, and soft.
What a great addition to the Bellingham beer community. There’s definitely room for slightly off-kilter, creative beers that are also super drinkable. Alcohol content hovering around five or six percent means you can have a few and not tip over.
We stopped by yesterday and the owners are out front greeting and working the room. Outdoor seating is in place, so it’s Covid-proof as much as possible.
As far as the ” per capita” thing goes, Bellingham has a long way to go to catch up with Snohomish. Snohomish has at least 6 breweries, with a little over 10,000 people. Bellingham would have to have over 50 breweries to get to our per capita number. Just saying.
Love hitting the awesome breweries in Bellingham, though!
When determining a per capita ranking, you’ve got to establish perameters. Like, population. Or minimum number of breweries. Otherwise, little towns with one brewery are at the top. Odessa, WA has one brewery per 880 people. I’m sure there’s a smaller town somewhere that has a brewery.
Makes more sense if you only consider cities of a certain size. Number of breweries per capita for cities with a population greater than 50,000, for instance. Or, what’s the smallest city with at least 10 breweries.
In the end, Breweries Per Capita is just conversational.