The chess player who started a brewery
This is an all-too-familiar and comforting answer we hear often from brewers and owners, as opposed to something more Hollywood like, "After doing too many Jello shots with a mannequin named Steve, I realized I needed to get my life together. So I traded my damaging coke habit for a kegerator and a dream." Of course, if you ask anyone who works for or owns a brewery, they will definitely admit there's nothing Hollywood about a brewery, save for the occasional photo opp or request to sign something.
So taking a cue from Hollywood we zoom in on the town of Windsor, England, population 30,000, where the son of a baker evolves his love of Chess, football (or soccer as we call it in the United States), and the Commodore 64. Why the Commodore 64? Like many adolescents, a computer is something new and fun when weighed against a black and white checkered board or the delayed relief of a football goal. But it never replaced his current affection of chess. That is until someone put a racquet in his hand and asked him to hit a birdie over the net.
By his early teens, Scott was a regular participant in the sport of Badminton, serving drops and drive with ease - until his younger sister who also enjoyed the sport began beating him at matches. Eventually, he left the grass courts for the fairway, taking up golfing on an almost full-time basis.
Now in his mid-teens, Scott quickly lowered his handicap, a side-effect of hours spent on the driving range and several daily rounds of golf. Seemingly unchallenged, he strengthened his skills on the greens in the pursuit for a scholarship. It seemed that life and the limitations of the human body had other plans, as he was forced to exchange his dreams of the PGA for a life in finance and economics.
Fast forward five years into the future and we frame the shot around a Christmas tree, a young couple and their newborn son, as an overly enthusiastic man rips the wrapping paper off revealing a homebrew kit.
Once again, a hobby unlike anything he’s enjoyed is before him, offering an opportunity to replicate some of his favorite ales and lagers. It isn’t long before, with the urging of appreciative imbibers, he would start researching the means to open his own commercial brewery. Shortly after investing in courses at the University of California’s Davis extension, Adam Scott Robbings opened Reuben’s Brews in 2012, in the Seattle neighborhood of Ballard.
As you might have surmised, the brewery is named after Grace and Adam’s son Reuben. However, the story of Adam and Grace’s journey from England to Ballard isn’t over. In fact, as the phrase goes, it’s just beginning.
Since 2012, when Adam and Grace, along with Grace’s sister Liz and her husband Mike Pfeiffer, opened the brewery, Reuben’s Brews has continued to satisfy their fans with beer from Ballard to Bellevue and from Seattle to Portland. But to meet that demand the brewery has had to purchase larger and larger fermentation tanks as well as locate additional commercial space to accommodate not only the beer made but also those who wish to consume it in their taproom.
It’s 2018 and with the brewery at capacity requiring the leasing of an adjacent space, the brewery made the announcement they’ve secured a new location which will allow them to consolidate their brewery under one roof while concluding their lease of a nearby barrel warehouse. Of course, this writer took a moment to sit down with Adam Robbings to triage what he’s learned in 6 years as well as what he looks forward to.
As you might have guessed, the discussion starts over a couple beers, silhouetted by the sounds and smells of his ‘clean-side’ brewery (and taproom) at 5010 14th Avenue Northwest. Starting with a question not often asked of owners, I asked him if he sees himself (today) as a teacher or a manager. Before long Adams smiles, his grin complemented by a salt-and-pepper accented five o’clock shadow, that he sees himself as a teacher.
Expounding on the response he reflects back on the early years, when he worked fulltime in Factoria, Washington, while his brother-in-law performed double-duty in the brewery and taproom. On weekends, when the brewery was dormant, the brewery would host imbibers while Robbings managed not only the accounting but also the reputation of the brand on websites like Facebook and Twitter, and checking reviews on Yelp or Untappd.
This form of machinations, Adams managing the business and their reputation, continued into their 2nd location, until hiring someone to assist in the weekend taproom duties. Eventually, he would hire more staff including a taproom manager and several brewers, before slowly yielding tasks to staff newly promoted to brewing or sales.
Today, Adam is focused more on brewing. And unlike those early years at their first location, he no longer has the responsibility of working full time in Factoria while managing his business. Instead, he’s not only promoting the reputation of Reuben’s Brews at the taproom but also through ambassadorships at bars and alehouses throughout Washington and recently Oregon. This on top of the anticipated opening of their third location.
Soon to be opened, the fourth instance of Reuben’s Brews will consolidate several breweries, allowing Adam to focus on preserving the availability of beers like Crikey India Pale Ale, Summer India Pale Ale, and Gose on shelves and in fridges. In addition to maintaining the supply of familiar-named beers like Crush, Robbings also plans on releasing beers fermented with wild yeast strains, as well in the near future a monthly beer with a familiar name but with different ingredients with each release.
Our conversation, much like the pints of front of us, is nearly over as Adam smiles optimistically to what the future Reuben’s Brews brings. Not bad for a kid from Windsor, who is richer for having moved to the United States to start a family and a brewery.
