Dick Mergens and Shawn Dowling knew they wanted to open a brewery before they ever brewed a batch of beer.
In October, that dream became a reality.
Located in a strip mall along Everett Mall Way, Mergens and Dowling, who grew up together in Pacific County near Raymond, opened Crucible Brewing on Oct. 2. It was the culmination of a long road, which started when the two would talk about opening their own brewery over beers.
“We were like ‘Wouldn’t this be cool if we could do this full time,’ ” Dowling said of brewing.
The two began brewing in 2010. Dowling, who worked as a system administrator for a software company in Portland, Oregon, would travel up to Mergens’ home in Lynnwood once a month and the two childhood buddies would brew.
Mergens, who is the head brewer for Crucible, decided to take it a step further. He quit his day job at Lowe’s and took a job at Redmond brewery Mac &Jack’s Brewery. He worked his way up to the brewhouse at Mac &Jack’s, before moving to another Redmond brewery, Hi-Fi Brewing. He later would take a job at Red Hook.
At Mac &Jack’s, Mergens worked with American Brewing head brewer Adam Frantz and learned how to be an efficient brewer in a commercial brewhouse.
“They call it the ‘Academy’ ” Mergens said of Mac &Jack’s. “They push their capacity to the extreme. You get worked to death over there but you learn a lot.”
While he was at Red Hook, Mergens won the prestigious Glen Hay Falconer scholarship, which is named after the influential Oregon brewer who died in an accident in 2002. The scholarship is open to all home and professional brewers and the winner gets to attend Siebel Institute’s World Brewing Academy in Chicago. Mergens attended in 2013.
Crucible’s double IPA is called Millenium Falconer for the hop blend, Falconer’s Flight, they use in it. The Falconer’s Flight hop blend is named after Falconer and proceeds from the sale go to scholarship foundation.
“It’s important to me to use that hop in large quantity,” Mergens said.
Mergens and Dowling, who moved to Everett earlier this year and still works remotely for the software company in Portland, incorporated the brewery this past December and had hopes to open in either Lynnwood or Shoreline, which has only one brewery between them (Lynnwood’s Big E Ales). But they found property managers more amenable in Everett and landed in their current building along Everett Mall Way, just a few steps from two other brewers, Lazy Boy Brewing and Middleton Brewing.
But that proximity has been anything but a competitive disadvantage for Crucible.
“We’ve found that our competitors are really our best friends,” Dowling said. “We’ve had so many great referrals from Shawn (Loring, owner of Lazy Boy) and Geoff Middleton over at Middleton.”
It took some time for Mergens to adjust going from the large barrel systems at Mac &Jack’s and Red Hook to the 3-barrel system at Crucible. He got an assist from friend and fellow brewer Beth Bechtel at Bear Island Brewing in Boise, Idaho. Before Crucible opened, Mergens traveled to Boise and brewed some batches on Bear Island’s 3-barrel system in order to dial in the recipes.
In March, Crucible plans to brew a collaboration beer, a dry Irish Potato Stout, with Bear Island, which is famous for its IPA, or Idaho Potato Ale.
Mergens and Dowling have been floored by the support they’ve received from local brewers. Loring allowed Crucible to borrow a pitch of yeast when the yeast in one of their batches went bad and Rich Neishem, of Woodinville’s Triplehorn Brewing, gave the two invaluable advice on the technical aspects of opening a brewery.
Mergens, who is being assisted in his brewing responsiblities by friend and former Mac &Jack’s colleague Jason Ward, has some exciting beers in the works. A big sour beer fan, Mergens wants to get some sours barreled as soon as possible and is hoping to have a kettle sour on tap soon. He also just put some of the brewery’s Russian Imperial Stout in bourbon barrels from J.P. Trodden.
Aaron Swaney: 425-339-3430; aswaney@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @swaney_aaron79. Follow the Hops and Sips blog at www.heraldnet.com/hopsandsips.
Crucible Brewing
909 SE Everett Mall Way, Everett, 425-374-7293, cruciblebrewing.com
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