Human People Beer: Real humans bring people-friendly beer to real human people. New Brewery coming to Seattle’s Ship Canal Neighborhood.
Beer-loving folks around Seattle will recognize the neighborhood along the southwestern banks of the Lake Washington Ship Canal as the home of Rooftop Brewing and one of Old Stove Brewing’s three taprooms. Another brewery, Human People Beer, plans to open in the neighborhood this summer, serving as one of the anchor tenants in the new West Canal Yards development at 1100 West Ewing Street in Seattle. I share more details about the people and the plan below, but first…
Meet Human People This Saturday
The humans behind Human People Beer say they hope to open this summer, with an optimistic eye focused on June or July, but they’re releasing a beer this Saturday at Chuck’s Hop Shop in Seattle (Central District). The beer, Ethel IPA, was brewed in collaboration with Portland’s Living Häus Beer Company.
At the event, which starts around 3:00 at Chuck’s CD, you’ll have a chance to preview the beer and meet the founders of Human People Beer: Andrew, Mal, and Tim. Not just a beer release, it’s a tie-dye party. They’ll have some shirts available, but you are encouraged to bring your own.
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About These People and Their Beer
The three partners in Human People Beer are no strangers to the beer industry or the city of Seattle. Their history in the beer and brewing industry was documented in a recent story on The New School. Collectively, their pedigree involves years of experience at Modern Times Beer, Admiral Maltings (a boutique maltster out of California), as well as some other stops along the way.
All three of the founders have family in the Seattle area, not to mention many friends in the local brewing community. They spent a lot of time here before deciding to open a brewery in Seattle. In fact, Andrew Schwartz told me, “From the time we decided to open a brewery, Seattle was always in the plan.”
Why Seattle? Andrew explained, “Seattle has one of the most diverse, interesting, and mature beer scenes in the nation. Breweries here are making unique and interesting beers, alongside other breweries making solid, more basic styles. People express themselves through beer. The quality is very high. Seattle people appreciate stuff from elsewhere, but the quality is very high here.”
He understands that if you’re going to make it on the Seattle beer scene, you need to come correct. Whether you’re focusing on straightforward beers and beer styles like IPAs and Porters, or wildly creative stuff like saisons and fruited sours, you need to do it very well.
“We’ve made a lot of friends in the industry–hop growers, yeast suppliers, malt suppliers, other brewers,” Andrew says. “We’ve established great relationships and we want to make beers that highlight those ingredients and relationships. Beers that are simple for people to enjoy, not overly complex, but also leverage those relationships and highlight the quality of ingredients. We want to create beers that have a sense of purpose.”
That ethos is reflected in the name. And yes, they realize the name is kind of quirky and weird. “It reflects who we want to make beer for, who we want to enjoy our beer,” said Andrew. “It speaks to our weirdness, and it speaks to the idea that we’ll be a welcoming space for all the many different types of human people.”
Human People Beer will take up about 7,700 square feet of the West Canal Yards development, dedicating about half of that to the taproom. When the taproom opens, Andrews says, “We want it to be a little different, cozy and comfortable, a place to spend some time and hang out. There’ll be a lot of wood and a lot of skylights. Cozy in the winter, bright and airy in the summer.”
The Patio space is expected to provide seating for about 25 guests, but beyond that, the West Canal Yards will offer more outdoor opportunities for Human People. The overall project is a mixed-use development featuring a combination of retail and office space. Primarily, retail on the ground level and offices above. The plan calls for the creation of a large plaza, or outdoor common space, which should provide Human People Beer with an opportunity to expand for special events. That still might be a couple years away, but it’s in the plan.
Although the brewery’s actual opening is still some months away, Human People Beer is considering finding local breweries with which to contract brew. Collaborations are great, but Andrew says they’d love to start introducing people to beers that are 100 percent Human People.
The Washington Beer Blog will track the progress and keep you informed of any changes in the expected opening date. And of course, we’ll make sure you know when that date is actually announced.
More About West Canal Yards
The West Canal Yards project is focused around a repurposed industrial building along the canal, the long-time home of Ocean Beauty Seafood. The reimagined space will total more than 173,000 square feet. Unico Properties is managing the development of the space, working with Graham Baba Architects.
Unico Properties is responsible for several similar property development projects, primarily in Seattle, Portland, and Denver. The West Canal Yards project’s scope involved repurposing a 109,000-square-foot fish processing plant and an adjacent 38,000-square-foot warehouse building on a nine-acre site along the ship canal.
Nice spot for a brewery and taproom, eh?
