CARLSBORG — Tom Martin, maker of Mastodon Scotch Ale, believes his may be the smallest microbrewery in the world.
He brews just one barrel — 31 gallons — of beer at a time, and watches it disappear quite fast.
No, Martin doesn’t drink it all himself. He’s now the brewer behind Fathom & League Hop Yard Brewery, one of the Pacific Northwest’s newest commercial beer producers.
The only two places where Fathom & League ale is available are McPhee’s Parkway Grocery, 717 S. Race St., Port Angeles, and the Alder Wood Bistro, 139 W. Alder St., in Sequim.
Martin, his wife, Lisa, and their daughter, Astrid, now 10, moved six years ago from Kenmore to a little house in Carlsborg.
Brewing for nine years
At that point, he had already been a home brewer for about nine years.
Learning from friends and from books, he began winning awards at the Puyallup Fair for his home brew. He grew his own hops in Kenmore, though bugs were a problem there.
When the Martins came to the North Olympic Peninsula and found their house-to-be, he saw the detached garage and thought: That’s my brew house. And the small pasture beside it: There’s my hop yard.
Hops, Martin found, love it here. And bugs aren’t bugging them or him.
Then, one day last year, his neighbor, Gabriel Schuenemann, drove by Martin’s place and asked, “Whatcha growin’?”
Naturally, the explanation about his hops crop led to a beer tasting. And Martin’s brew mightily impressed Schuenemann, who with his wife, Jessica, owns and runs Sequim’s upscale, locavorious — as in specializing in locally grown ingredients — Alder Wood Bistro.
The men share a love for local food and drink and a reverence for the “slow food” ideal of cooking from scratch and enjoying the results at a leisurely pace.
Now, Martin has a day job. He’s a water engineer with the Clallam County Public Utilities District.
But he’s also a born brewer who loves to grow his own hops, smell the aromas of brew becoming beer — and learn about the connections between here-and-now brewers and those of oh, 228 years ago.
Martin has studied about the HMS Discovery, the ship that explored the Pacific Northwest coast, including Discovery Bay.
In early May 1792, the crew came ashore around Diamond Point, harvested some spruce tips and made beer with them, according to Martin’s research.
Dedicated to first brewers
Fathom & League Hop Yard Brewery is dedicated to the first brewers in the Pacific Northwest.
On May 5, 1792, they “enjoyed a day off from their exploration of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Salish Sea,” Martin writes on his Web site, www.FathomandLeagueBrewery.com.
“We are proud to carry on the tradition of brewing beer in this remarkable corner of the world.”
And, serendipitously, Martin made his home in Carlsborg, a place whose name is almost identical to the Danish town where Carlsberg beer is produced.
Martin, happy to work on a far smaller scale, got his commercial brewer’s license last December and brought one of his first kegs to the Beat the Blues Barn Dance, a February fundraiser for the Five Acre School in Dungeness.
That batch was a hit and led to the Alder Wood Bistro offering the amber-toned Mastodon ale on tap. McPhee’s, meanwhile had it in bottles, and at both places the beverage sold as fast as it pours.
“We get people wanting to tour the brewery,” said Lisa Martin, as she stood outside what her husband calls the “garagery.”
The brewhouse is tiny and Spartan, with room for Martin’s license and equipment, including a small kettle, fermenter and two fridges.
Other beers
His followup to the Mastodon Scotch Ale is F & L’s Carlsborg Lager, a beer the Martins describe as a “summery yellow pilsner with bright hops flavor and an unexpected, mellow maltiness.”
Fathom & League’s third flagship beer, Discovery Imperial Stout — the one that sold out at the barn dance — will be available this fall, they added.
Fathom & League specializes in “good, healthy beer, with local ingredients,” grown right outside, said Martin. “It’s not super-processed, so it has a lot of this big flavor.”
Meantime, the Schuenemanns, who encouraged Martin to go pro, are giving raves to his brew.
They don’t offer Fathom & League at the Alder Wood simply because Tom and Lisa are their friends and neighbors, Jessica said.
“It’s good beer. Really good beer,” she added.
“We ran out of the Mastodon ale in a splash; now we’re pouring the Carlsborg lager.”
Frank McPhee of McPhee’s Grocery was all out of Fathom & League on Monday.
He touted the ale and its maker, saying Martin is a careful crafter who didn’t get into brewing for money.
No rush
Martin, 52, isn’t rushing to produce more beer faster, even if demand exceeds supply.
“I’d like to expand slowly over time,” he said.
“If I could grow it into a larger business by the time my kid graduates,” that would be fine.
Astrid, a Greywolf Elementary student, is a good eight years away from her high school diploma.
Martin revels in naming his products for Sequim’s historical figures.
The Mastodon ale, a full-bodied, peaty beer, is of course a nod to the Manis mastodon, unearthed near Sequim in the late 1970s and the subject of an exhibit at the Museum & Arts Center at 175 W. Cedar St.
The Discovery Stout is named for the HMS Discovery, and Fathom & League is an ode to the measurements mariners use.
Another message on his labels: “Beer from the edge,” a paean to those who got out there into the Olympic Peninsula’s wilderness.
It’s about “the pioneering spirit and people who were willing to try new things and explore new places,” said Lisa.
Martin plans on a busy summer but said he can count on help from friends when it comes to brewing and to harvesting hops in August and September.
“This is still something I love to do,” he said. “I don’t pay myself a salary.”
At least not the paper kind.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.