Ballard Brewery District

The Ballard Brewery District is a business cluster of beer breweries south of Northwest Market Street and generally between 8th Avenue Northwest and 15th Avenue Northwest, in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. The neighborhood has more breweries than any other neighborhood in Seattle.[1]

History

Redhook Ale Brewery opened a production facility in Ballard in 1981 or 1982, becoming the first company to start producing beer in the neighborhood. It moved to nearby Fremont in 1989.[2]

The first brewery taproom that opened to the public in Ballard was Maritime Pacific, in 1990. By 2013, at least nine other breweries existed in the neighborhood, eight of which had opened since 2010. The breweries operate in coopetition with one another, distinguishing themselves by gimmicks and niche marketing.[3] Hale's Ales, originally founded in 1983, opened a location in Ballard in 1995;[4] it closed in 2022.[5] The Brewery District is notably dense; in 2022, one writer was able to visit nine breweries in a 0.54-mile (870 m) pub crawl.[6]

Reuben's Brews started operating a taproom in 2012; following its rapid rise in popularity, two more breweries opened nearby within the next eight months. By the summer of 2021, there were 11 breweries operating in the Brewery District, many with outdoor dining patios and food trucks, allowing them to remain open safely during local restrictions on indoor dining related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brewery District became a tourist attraction, featured in the New York Times.[7][8] TripAdvisor mentioned tours of the Brewery District in its 2018 article naming Ballard one of the United States' 14 "coolest hipster neighborhoods".[9][10]

As of May 2025, the Ballard Alliance, a local chamber of commerce, lists 14 breweries in the Brewery District, plus three tasting rooms for beer, hard cider, and wine, elsewhere in Ballard.[11]

References

  1. ^ Keeley, Sean (August 4, 2014). "Mapping the Ever-Growing Ballard Brewery District". Curbed Seattle. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  2. ^ Jones, Kendall (April 29, 2015). "A brief history of Redhook - Seattle's original craft brewery". The Washington Beer Blog. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  3. ^ McNichols, Joshua (September 4, 2013). "Ballard Brewery District Thrives By Balancing Cooperation And Competition". KUOW. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  4. ^ "Hale and hearty: a small Seattle brewery makes big British-style ales". Modern Brewery Age. 2003-03-03. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
  5. ^ Denkmann, Libby; Burrows, Jason (April 14, 2022). "It's the end of an era as Hale's Ales pulls their final pint". KUOW. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  6. ^ Alworth, Jeff (June 1, 2022). "Ballard's Nine-Brewery, Half-Mile Pub Crawl". Beervana. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  7. ^ Solomon, Christopher (July 21, 2021). "Exploring Seattle's Booming Beer Scene". The New York Times. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  8. ^ Walker, Meghan (July 22, 2021). "The New York Times highlights Ballard Brewery District in travel feature". My Ballard. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  9. ^ "14 Coolest Hipster Neighborhoods In The USA". TripAdvisor. July 25, 2018. Archived from the original on September 1, 2018. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  10. ^ Walker, Meghan (August 2, 2018). "Ballard named one of nation's 'Coolest Hipster Neighborhoods'". My Ballard. Retrieved May 9, 2025.
  11. ^ "Ballard Brewery District". Visit Ballard. Ballard Alliance.
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