Drop Anchor: Local craft brewery now open

“It takes a lot of practice to drink good beer,” Richard Erickson of Drop Anchor Brewery said.

All that practice brought Erickson, Steve Sharp and Andy Lea to where they are now, with doors wide open to the newly constructed brewery in the marina, 10 investors behind them, and dreams of contributing to the local community before them.

“We don’t expect to see a return for two or three years,” Erickson said. “We want to take everything and put it back in the brewery, but mostly we want to do it as a community project to bring people into town and help the downtown merchants. We want to bring people into the county and maybe sell some houses.

"And then in about three years if we can start taking some money out and break even, it would be fine. We’re treating it as a good investment in the community.

“Andy has been brewing for a long time,” Erickson continued. “He worked for Pyramid Breweries and would donate his own craft beer, which was so good, to different charities. Steve has been brewing for six years.”

One day when they were enjoying the fruits of their labors, Erickson suggested they do something with the beer.

“We should share it with the public,” he said.

After a few more beers, they decided it would be fun to open a brewery.

They had no idea what it would cost, but being doers, they agreed that Sharp would start pricing ingredients, Lea would find out about equipment, and Erickson would look for land and draw up a business plan.

“We hammered out the details over a period of two or three months and came up with a dollar amount,” Erickson said. “And then we doubled it because we knew we couldn’t do it for that.”

That’s when they began looking for investors. They found 10 such people, all with different talents, according to Erickson. Some are brewers themselves. Another will provide some of their ingredients.

“Rob Stockhouse is a farmer,” Erickson said. “He’s going to grow hops for us. He takes some of our spent grains and feeds his animals. He will be making beer bread for us to sell.”

Stockhouse isn’t the only one who will be feeding his animals the spent grain. Some of it is going to the new Skamokawa Creamery to feed their goats. Erickson is excited that some cheese will be coming their way in the bargain. The brewery would like to sell the beer bread, the goat cheese and maybe C&H smoked fish to visitors along with their beer.

However, Drop Anchor is not a pub. They will not be making food for customers. But Sharon’s Pizza is willing to deliver to patrons at the brewery, if people would like to eat pizza while they enjoy the beer.

Drop Anchor has been open for two weekends. The brewers and investors are starting to get a feel for the cash register and the credit card machine, as well as the handling of the tap and serving customers. The glass washing system is up and running and the beer and the glasses are the right temperature.

“All the details are very important,” Erickson said, “when you are serving a beer you are very proud of.

The brewers have three of their own beers on tap right now, as well as a guest beer, a raspberry wheat, from Ashtown Brewing of Longview. Drop Anchor has a Northwest pale ale called the Broken Hose, an India pale ale called Aye Aye and a Provocative Porter.

“The Broken Hose got its name from a hose that broke while Sharp was brewing it in a class competition, which he won,” Erickson said. “The IPA is popular and very hoppy. The younger crowd really seems to like it. The porter is dark with a coffee flavor. It’s not too sweet and has a really robust flavor.”

Eventually, Ashtown Brewing will return the favor and feature one of Drop Anchor’s craft beers at their brewery in Longview.

“We’re behind,” Erickson admitted. “There is a really unique brotherhood in brewers. When we were starting and thinking, we would visit a lot of breweries. They would invite us in, set us down, give us a beer and talk to us about it. Craft beer is only about 18 percent of the market.

"If any brewery teaches someone to like craft beer, we’re all for it. What we want to do is move people off the yellow fuzzy beer and into real tasty beer, freshly brewed craft beer. Everybody wants everybody to make it. It’s more of a love for beer than a love for profit.”

A date for a grand opening hasn’t been set yet.

Drop Anchor Brewery is open on Fridays and Saturdays from 4-8 p.m. and is located at the Cathlamet Marina.