A cidermaker and a craft brewer wanted to open a bar, so they founded a distillery.
It’s complicated, but it’s the origin story behind the Bale Breaker and Yonder Taproom, set to open this summer in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, thanks to a piece of legislation passed in 2020.
“In Washington state breweries and wineries, which is technically what the cidery is, cannot share tasting rooms,” Yonder co-founder and president Caitlin Braam told Brewbound. “However, the distillers guild in June of last year proposed and passed a bill that allowed distilleries to share their tasting rooms with breweries and wineries. So to allow us to be able to share, we — myself and then the founders of Bale Breaker — have started a distillery together.”
Both Yonder and Bale Breaker are based in central Washington, where the apples and hops they use grow — Bale Breaker in Yakima and Yonder in Wenatchee. Their new shared taproom is the former home of Populuxe Brewing, which closed in late December 2020.
“We love the potential for the space and the uniqueness of the brewery and cidery combo backed by two Eastern Washington brands looking to grow their presence in Western Washington, so it just all really made sense,” Bale Breaker co-owner and business manager Meghann Quinn told Brewbound.
For the combined brewery and cider taproom to be permissible under Washington law, the team established Wise Fool Spirits, a 50/50 joint venture between Braam and her husband, and three of Bale Breaker’s co-owners, Meghann and Kevin Quinn and Kevin Smith, Meghann Quinn explained. Wise Fool holds the lease and sublets space to Bale Breaker and Yonder, she explained.
According to the new law, “any domestic brewery, microbrewery, domestic winery, distillery or craft distillery” located in “direct physical proximity to one another may share a standing or seated tasting area for patrons to use.” All beer, cider and spirits must be stored separately and served in “distinctly marked glassware,” and all licensed producers involved must keep “separate financials.”
“We’ve got to be fools or completely wise to be doing this crazy project,” Braam said.
Wise Fool will operate strictly as a research-and-development enterprise, with the hope of distilling Yonder cider into apple-based spirits and Bale Breaker wash into whiskey or similar projects.
“We’re also excited to learn a whole other craft and to do it together,” Braam said.
Bale Breaker’s Yakima brewery and Yonder’s Wenatchee cidery will supply most of the beer and cider for the new 20-handle taproom, which has an on-site brewhouse for small batches. The building has 6,200 sq. ft. of outdoor space and firepits to keep patrons warm in colder weather.
Seattle is an important market for seven-year-old Bale Breaker, which has grown to become the state’s fourth largest independent craft brewery, according to its website.
“I think this will really help with our Seattle presence and hopefully getting people more familiar with our brand,” Quinn said. “We sell quite a bit of our beer over there, so this will help continue to get Bale Breaker more entrenched in that community. We’re really excited.”
Bale Breaker sells its offerings in Washington, Idaho and Oregon, but Quinn estimated the company’s Seattle wholesaler partner, NW Beverages, sells about 50% of the beer it produces for distribution.
“Our distributor is super pumped and excited about the possible halo effect that this will have over there, and really helping drive our brand even stronger in the Seattle market,” she added.
Yonder launched last summer, and although a Seattle taproom was always in Braam’s long-term plans, the COVID-19 pandemic-driven capacity restrictions for bars and restaurants scuttled that. Instead, Yonder Bar, a walk-up, to-go bar, was born in Braam’s garage.
“Yonder Bar was the most unexpected thing to come out of COVID for us,” Braam said. “We didn’t know what it was going to become.”
The bar was forced to close on February 15 due to its incompatibility with zoning laws, but Braam worked with Seattle’s City Council to develop a bill to permit small businesses to operate in residential zones during the pandemic. The bill, titled “Bringing Business Home, a Small Business Flexibility Bill,” was introduced on February 21, and would “adopt interim regulations to allow businesses greater flexibility to operate out of garages and residences,” according to a post on the council’s website.
If the bill passes, Braam hopes to have Yonder Bar reopened in the spring. The bar has helped introduce Yonder’s offerings to Seattle drinkers during a time when the traditional brand-building practices of on- and off-premise sampling have been impossible.
“We have seen not only more cider drinkers and people gravitate towards our brand, but we’ve also seen a community be created around Yonder Bar,” she said. “I think a lot of Yonder Bar’s success is dedicated to that — that community piece that it created during a time when there wasn’t a lot to do.
“You could go on an evening walk, or you could go for a bike ride with your kids on the weekend, and you’d stop and wave at the Yonder Bar bartender and pick up a 4-pack and say hi, and then go on your merry way,” she continued. “It was just something for people to discover, and I think they loved that.”