by Casey McLain, South Sound Bureau Chief
Becoming an unstoppable force in Tacoma beer, Wingman Brewers commissioned their new seven-barrel brewhouse Saturday, inviting local brewers, bar owners, store owners, and media to tour the brewery.
Washington Beer Blog readers may recognize this as a plan come to full fruition, as Wingman planned this expansion for quite some time. (see our previous story.)
Already fermenting – and quite actively I might add – were batches of their flagship P-51 Porter and Ace IPA, which are also the two varieties you may find in cans if you’re lucky enough to live within their distribution radius.
Wingman’s intentions aren’t necessarily to immediately start distributing their product to all four corners of the United States, but rather to be able to fulfill a local demand which has proven insatiable with their former one-barrel system.
Anyone concerned that Wingman’s expansion would put a major damper on their creativity needed no more confirmation of the opposite than the Raspberry Berliner Weisse that made it’s debut on Saturday, and a Bourbon Barrel-aged Sour Cherry Stout that was also on tap.
Wingman has hired Colin Harvin to handle the wholesale side of their business – the side that will receive the greatest benefit from the expansion – as well as to help accommodate what figures to be growth in the business volume of Wingman’s taproom.
Harvin comes from North Georgia, though his military past, and his wife’s military present have afforded him five years experience in craft beer, running taprooms quite literally across the country.
At this time, the Wingman taproom will remain open only Thursday-Saturday, though that could eventually change as the landscape of taproom sales evolves.
Be sure to follow Wingman Brewers on Facebook and Twitter for more information.
Casey McLain is the founder of North and South of Royal Brougham, a replacement-level Seattle sports blog, and can be found tweeting about beer and sports @CaseyMcLain34.