Puyallup River Brewing – Opening Soon, Pouring Now

New Puyallup Brewery just weeks away (plus, Sarah learns some geography)

by North Seattle Sarah, North Seattle Bureau Chief

Eric Akeson was an excited man as he was sipping his beer last night at Naked City Brewery and Taphouse in Greenwood.  You see, after making his first homebrew 17 years ago, he’s finally going pro.  Puyallup River Brewing Company is just a few short weeks away from beginning production, pending final inspection approvals and sign-off.

To help Akeson launch, Don Webb of Naked City assisted him in brewing a batch of his Fryingpan Cascadian Red Ale, using Naked City’s equipment, so the public could get their first taste.  The launch went off incredibly well with a standing room only crowd tasting the beer in both cask and draught form.  Puyallup River Brewing already has a lot of ready fans, and many of them turned out to wish Eric luck and success.


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The brewery itself will be a small establishment on a one-barrel system, producing six to nine barrels per month.  Akeson plans to bottle a large amount of that for local distribution, but north Seattleites have no fear: Naked City has been promised the first keg of every beer to come out (because we’re special).  He also plans to attend many of the brewing festivals as soon as he’s up and running, so everyone will have a chance to get a taste.

Eric Akeson and Don Webb

As for the beers, there are four staples right now.  The Fryingpan Cascadian Red Ale is a hoppy, powerful red with a beautiful color.  The other beers include the Electron IPA, the Lahar Imperial IPA, and the Point Success Porter.  I asked Akeson where the names came from, and learned that they’re all connected in some way to the Puyallup River and Mount Rainier.  I’m probably most excited to try out the Lahar, after learning that a lahar is basically a giant deadly mudslide caused usually by a volcano.  Yes, that’s right, I learned something last night about geography.  Fryingpan is a glacier just east of Rainier, and Point Success is the second highest summit on the mountain.  Electron was the name of a mudflow from the mountain into the Puyallup River.  Alex Trebek, bring it.

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Despite all these hoppy varieties soon to be released, Akeson says his favorite style of beer to drink is a mellow, sessionable pale ale.  He reminisces often back to the craft beers of the mid-1990’s and pines for the no-longer-around Winthrop Outlaw Pale Ale.

Look for the first bottles and kegs of PRB (not to be confused with PBR) to be coming soon.  For those of you that are anxious for updates, Akeson shares his progress on the Puyallup River Brewing Facebook page, and tweets from @puyallupbrew.  Oh, and those of you in the south end, watch out for lahars.

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North Seattle Sarah is the Washington Beer Blog’s North Seattle Bureau Chief. Sarah is a regular contributor to the blog. Her blog, northseattlesarah.com, is a leading source of community and real estate information for Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood and beyond.

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