Birds of a feather: Seattle brewery has lots of Davis connections
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SEATTLE – Yolo County beer lovers who visit the Pacific Northwest may find some familiar faces at a Seattle brewery. Three former Sudwerk employees run Seapine Brewing, a popular hangout that’s within walking distance of two professional sports stadiums.
The Seattle brewery is at 2959 Utah Ave. South, in an industrial area near the Starbuck’s Coffee headquarters. It fills up before and after Mariners games at T-Mobile Park. They also see fans from nearby Lumens Field, home to the Seahawks, Sounders FC and Reign FC.
Mike Hutson, former lead brewer at Sudwerk, is director of brewing operations at Seapine. He moved here a decade ago, after being recruited by Seapine lead owner Drew Colpitts, a former classmate of Hutson’s in the UC Davis Master Brewers Program. Today, Hutson is a part owner of Seapine. And he buys a lot of hops from Jay Prahl, his predecessor at Sudwerk, who sells prized Cascade hops from this region.
Brady Price, who was taproom manager at Sudwerk, kept in touch with Hutson after the brewer moved north. Price visited the area often because his dad lives up here. In 2017, he joined Seapine as the taproom manager. Today, he’s head of sales.
In recent years, they hired a distributor, so you can now buy Seapine beer in 17 Washington counties. They have a 15-barrel brewing capacity, “and we fill it to the brim every time,” Price said. They brew seven days a week – twice on weekdays. (A barrel is 31 gallons of beer.)
I got to know Price when I was one of the Soroptimist beer booth managers at the Davis Farmers Market’s Picnic in the Park. And I knew Hutson from writing news releases for Sudwerk when he was first promoted to head brewer. Based on a recipe developed by then-co-worker Brennan Flemming, Hutson produced what was the flagship beer for the Davis brewery in 2013, California Hoppy Lager, a crisp lager with a wonderful hoppy aroma and light bitter finish. Sadly, the beer was discontinued. I miss it.
I didn’t know Colpitts, Seapine’s lead owner, so I didn’t plan an interview with him. But once I was there, it was fun to learn of yet another Davis connection.
Though Washington is the land of hops, Hutson and Price say they still miss Davis, and their friends at Sudwerk. The Davis brewery is going strong, with its updated restaurant and frequent events. Live music is fun, and something Seapine doesn’t offer. They also miss the Davis Farmers Market, the collaborative Davis community, and teaming up with nonprofits for fundraisers.
“With that said … the (Seapine) tap room Monday through Friday is like very ‘Cheers’ like,” Price said. “Everybody knows each other.”
Seapine doesn’t have a university affiliation like Davis. “Baseball galvanizes us,” Hutson said. It’s fun to see the taproom filled with jerseys on a game day.
The UC Davis Master Brewing Program has a classroom above the Sudwerk brewery. Some of those grads end up working for Sudwerk, like Hutson and Colpitts. I’ve witnessed lifelong friendships cemented by their affiliation with Davis’ first brewery.
Flemming, owner and brewer at Dunloe Brewing in Davis, loved working with Hutson and Price at Sudwerk. He and Price goofed around a lot, and greeted each other with a “California hello” sign (which I will not display here). The gesture is shown on the can label of Dunloe’s California Hello beer.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without what I learned from Mike,” Flemming said. “Not just all the little things that help make good beer, but he showed me how to be humble, and willing to share my knowledge and passion for it all.”
Price noted some “Easter eggs” around the Seattle brewery that Davis residents might recognize, including the brewing science books by UCD brewing professors emeritus Michael Lewis and Charlie Bamforth, and binders with the UC Davis logo. And every time he visits from Davis, Flemming mysteriously hides some kind of bird figurine in a nook of the Seattle brewhouse. It’s an homage to “the bird” greeting he affectionately shares with Price.
Seapine makes a wide range of quality beers – from light to dark lagers, sours, pale ales and IPAs. My favorite is the Mosaic Pale Ale. Its summer seasonal is the Pool Dad lager with lemon, which my nephew, Seattle resident Owen Weitzel, loves.