But it’s not moving far: a few blocks east to a former manufacturing building at 1111 NW Ballard Way, a block away from Trader Joe’s.
Owner George Hancock said the move to the 22,000-square-foot building will give them the space they need to meet growing demand, especially for bottled beer. At their current location (below), the staff can brew four batches of 16 barrels per day. At the new location, they’re putting in a brewhouse that can produce up to four batches of 40 barrels per day.
“We can’t make enough of the Imperial Pale. We can’t make enough Seattle Lager. We have a hard time keeping up bottling Imperial IPA,” Hancock said. With the additional capacity and a dedicated bottling room, he says they’ll be able to distribute other beers that rarely see the inside of a bottle – favorites like Salmon Bay ESB, Bosun’s Black Porter and Seattle Lager.
A new taproom will be about 30 seats larger than the current location, which tops out at 46. It will have a dozen parking spaces and plenty of on-street parking in the evenings. There’s no dedicated customer parking at the current location, and finding a spot on Leary Way can sometimes be a challenge.
While the business is getting bigger, Maritime Pacific still strives to be a neighborhood brewery. “A lot of times when people get bigger, they forget where they came from and who they started with. We’re not really changing anything, we’re just becoming bigger,” Hancock said. “We’re still in Ballard. We’re not going to leave Ballard. Ballard is our home.”
(Thanks Karlie for the tip!)
