From dishwasher to owner, Barry Galen has been working in the restaurant industry for more than 40 years. So when he decided to open a brewery in his restaurant, Snohomish’s Collector’s Choice, he approached it like a restaurateur and not a brewer.
“I’m in the food service industry,” Galen said. “I provide a finished product to the consumer. A lot the product I put on the plate I don’t personally go out and make it. The simple fact is, in my mind, when I hand you a glass of beer, it doesn’t matter how that beer got made if it’s a good quality product.”
Galen’s recently opened brewery, Old Man Brewing, is not your typical craft brewery. In fact, Galen admits he’s no brewer. The type of brewery Galen operates out of Collector’s Choice’s new sports and entertainment lounge is an automated brewing system called SmartBrew — the first of its kind in Washington.
Created by DME Manufacturing, a multinational brewing system manufacturer, SmartBrew divides the brewing and fermenting process.
Unlike most brewers, Galen will never have to dump malts and grains into a mash tun. Nor will he ever separate out the wort and then boil it. All of this is done off site, so all Galen has to do is add water, yeast, hops and any fruits, spices or herbs a particular recipe calls for, push a few buttons and let the beer ferment. The tanks even clean themselves with the push of a button.
“What appealed to me is that it’s easy to operate and anyone can do it,” Galen said from the cramped confines of his new, gleaming state-of-the-art brewery, just the fifth to open in the U.S. “I don’t have to be in here seven days a week or pay a brewmaster. I can teach my bartenders to run the system.”
Much of SmartBrew’s end product can be attributed to legendary New Zealand brewer Brian Watson. It took Watson two years to develop a high-quality wort that could be made in New Zealand and Germany, and then shipped to SmartBrew facilities around the globe. He also develops the recipes that SmartBrew brewers meticulously follow and is a phone call away for those who need help.
“Most of the people opening SmartBrew facilities are non-brewers,” Watson said. “They want to be involved but don’t know how. We’ve got online training and videos to help them reach their goal, which is to make good quality beer for their customers.”
Wanting to get in on the burgeoning craft beer industry, Galen discovered the SmartBrew system while attending the Nightclub and Bar Show in Las Vegas. The system costs $140,000, which included installation and technical help from SmartBrew.
The five different worts — pale, dark, wheat, bitter and pilsner — are created and then packaged into individual pods for shipment. They cost about $180 each and are sent around the world to SmartBrew facilities in Australia, Asia, Europe, Canada and the United States.
Galen admits he’s short-cutting the brewing process.
“Brewing my own beer wasn’t an option for me because I don’t have that kind of time,” Galen said. “It’s a lot more involved process. They’re working hard, cooking their wort and doing their mash, which is a lot longer process.”
But he contends it’s no different than what restaurateurs like himself have been doing for centuries. “At a restaurant with a good steak, do you ask them how they killed the cow?” Galen asked rhetorically.
Galen has received some flak from local craft brewers, who consider his brewing approach analogous to popping a coffee pod into a Keurig.
Steve Huskey, owner and head brewer at Monroe’s Dreadnought Brewing, doesn’t begrudge Galen’s effort, but he wonders how good one’s beer can be if it doesn’t go through the crucible of the entire brewing process.
“It’s like a race car. You can build a race car from scratch or from a kit, but it’s what you do when you run into problems that really makes the car special,” Huskey said. “I remember reading John Palmer’s book, “How to Brew,” and he basically started the book saying you’re not a brewer until something goes wrong.”
Though somewhat critical, Huskey said he wishes Galen success. “I hope he makes good beer because bad craft beer can destroy all of us. Bad beer can spoil the bunch.”
Watson loves the pushback.
“I stand by the product,” said Watson, adding that SmartBrew beers have won nearly 30 international medals since its inception. “Go in and try it, and tell me what we’re doing wrong. We’re going to live and die by the quality of our beer.”
So far Galen said customer feedback on his beers has been positive. Made up of four five-barrel tanks, Galen’s SmartBrew system has produced four different batches of beer, including a German-style hefeweizen and a peach IPA.
Currently, the only place to find Old Man Brewing beer is at Collector’s Choice. But Galen hasn’t ruled out distributing in the future.
“I wanted to make sure I had a good product first,” Galen said.
Old Man Brewing
Barry Galen’s SmartBrew brewing system is inside the recently opened Collector’s Choice Sports and Entertainment Lounge. The lounge, at 215 Cypress Ave., Snohomish, is open 7 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
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