Elysian Brewing Company

Elysian Brewing Company

Location	Seattle, Washington, United States
Coordinates	47°36′50″N 122°18′57″W / 47.613988°N 122.315805°WCoordinates: 47°36′50″N 122°18′57″W / 47.613988°N 122.315805°W
Key people	Dick Cantwell (Founder), Joe Bisacca, (CEO/Head of Operations, Founder) Dave Buhler (Founder), Carlos Brito (ABInbev Ceo)
Website	www.elysianbrewing.com
Active beers
Name Type Superfuzz Blood Orange Pale Ale Dragonstooth Stout Oatmeal Stout Space Dust IPA Mens Room Original Red Dayglow IPA The Immortal American IPA Vahalla Red IPA Red IPA Wise ESB Extra Special/Strong Bitter (ESB) Zephyrus Pilsner German Pilsner
Seasonal beers
Name Type Bete Blanche Belgian-style Tripel Bifrost Winter Ale Winter Warmer Dark O’ The Moon Pumpkin Stout Great Pumpkin Ale Imperial Pumpkin Ale Night Owl Pumpkin Ale Pumpkin Ale Superfuzz Blood Orange Blood Orange Pale Ale

The Elysian Brewing Company is an American brewery that operates four pubs in Seattle. On January 23, 2015, it was announced that Elysian would be sold to Anheuser-Busch in a deal expected to close within three months.^[1] This deal means that Elysian Brewing Company will no longer meet the Brewers Association definition of a "craft brewery", since full ownership by Anheuser-Busch exceeds the definition's 25% maximum ownership by a non-craft brewery ^[2]

History

Elysian's Capitol Hill location.

Elysian was founded in 1995 by Dave Buhler, Joe Bisacca, and Dick Cantwell. Cantwell had been a homebrewer who gained a reputation at the Duwamps Cafe, the Pike Place Brewery, and Big Time Brewing.^[3] Buhler is a former spirits wholesaler and Bisacca was a vice president at Seafirst Bank. The original location was opened in 1996 in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Its capacity is 20 barrels.^[4]

The company operated a brewpub at the local GameWorks arcade between 1997 and 2002. In 2003, their pub and bistro, Tangletown, was opened near Green Lake.^[5] The largest location, Elysian Fields, was opened in 2006. It is a brewpub near CenturyLink Field that is often busy on gameday.^[6]

In 2011, Elysian expanded its operations with a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m²) production-only facility in the Georgetown neighborhood.^[7][8]

Beers

Night Owl Pumpkin Ale.

Beer	% ABV	IBU	Description
Avatar Jasmine IPA	6.3	45	IPA[9]
Dragonstooth Stout	8.0	60	Stout[9]
Loser Pale Ale	7.0	57	Pale ale[9]
Men's Room	5.6	33	Amber ale[9]
Perseus Porter	5.4	47	Porter[9]
Space Dust	8.2	73	IPA[9]
The Immortal IPA	6.3	54	IPA with new world hops[9]
Vahalla Red IPA	7.5	70
Wise ESB	5.9	60	Extra Special Bitter, Elysian's first brew[9]
Zephyrus Pilsner	7.5	80	Pilsner-style lager[9]

Seasonal

Seasonal beers include:

Beer	% ABV	IBU	Availability	Description
Bete Blanche	7.5	41	Spring
Bifrost Winter Ale	8.3	58	Winter
Dark O' The Moon	7.5	20	Fall
Great Pumpkin Ale	8.1	20	Fall	Pumpkin beer[9]
Night Owl Pumpkin Ale	6.7	18	Fall	Pumpkin beer[9]
Superfuzz Blood Orange	6.4	45	Summer	Ale brewed with blood orange[9]

Pub Specialities

Elysian Brewing Company brews many beers, which are only available at their brewpub and restaurant or are sometimes seasonally available on tap in some Seattle pubs. A short list of these includes The Golden Boot, brewed in honor of Seattle soccer. Haleakala named after Maui’s easterly volcano. Hombre, a Mexican-style lager, brewed as a house beer for a local Mexican restaurant. Xoxo is a nitrogen-infused, chocolate, chilli-spiced Irish-style stout often brewed around Valentine’s Day.^[10]

Brews

The Wise ESB was the first beer from the brewery. Elysian has won multiple awards for their beers. The Wise, Dragontooth stout, and Avatar Jasmine IPA have done well at the World Beer Cup.^[11] The brewery's beers earned it the Large Brewpub of the Year award at the Great American Beer Festival in 1999, 2003 and 2004. The Immortal IPA is also popular.^[12]

Elysian had a collaborative partnership with the New Belgium Brewing Company of Ft. Collins, Colorado.^[13] The brewery also partnered with The Men's Room (a program on the Seattle rock music radio station KISW) to produce a red ale that has become popular in the area.^[14]

References

1. Garnick, Coral, Seattle's Elysian Brewing Sold to Anheuser-Busch, Seattle Times, January 23, 2015.
2. "Craft Brewer Defined". brewersassociation.org.
3. Higgins, Patrick; Kilgore, Maura Kate; Hertlein, Paul (1998). Secrets from the Master Brewers: America's Top Professional Brewers Share Recipes and Tips for Great Homebrewing. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 56–58. ISBN 978-0-684-84190-8.
4. McFarland, Ben (2009). World's Best Beers: One Thousand Craft Brews from Cask to Glass. New York: Sterling Publishing Company. p. 186. ISBN 978-1-4027-6694-7.
5. Tice, Carol (December 21, 2003). "Acquisition nibble prompted the owners of Elysian Brewing Co. to rethink their plans". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
6. Morrison, Lisa M. (2011). Craft Beers of the Pacific Northwest: A Beer Lover's Guide to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Portland: Timber Press. pp. 98–99. ISBN 978-1-60469-089-7.
7. "Seattle's Elysian Brewing to Expand in Georgetown" (Press release). Seattle Beer News. January 24, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
8. Jones, Kendall; Borg, Shannon; Seattle Magazine Staff (October 2011). "Seattle's Macro Microbreweries". Seattle Magazine. Retrieved November 20, 2011.
9. "Elysian Beer". Elysian Brewing Company.
10. "Pub & Specialty Beers". Elysian Brewing Company.
11. "Washington brewers fare well at beer competition". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. April 21, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
12. Kaiser, Geoff (December 6, 2010). "Seattle Beer News, Top 10 Beer Spots #8: Elysian Capitol Hill". The Seattle Times. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
13. Ferrell, O.C.; Hartline, Michael (2010). Marketing Strategy (5th ed.). South-Western Cengage Learning. p. 471. ISBN 978-0-538-46738-4.
14. Seely, Mike (August 4, 2010). "Men's Room Red Tastes Better Than It Sounds". The Seattle Weekly. Retrieved November 19, 2011.

External links

• Elysian Brewing Company