Ghostfish Brewing takes over Pike Brewing site
Seattle’s Ghostfish Brewing Company, known for its gluten-free beers,. has revealed its expansion plans that include the acquisition of neighbouring beer business Pike Brewing Company’s production facility.
The move, which does not involve the historic Pike Pub and brewery at Pike Place Market, was revealed by the US-based Washington Beer Blog in a recent update on the ailing beer company.
Pike Brewing has faced a lot of upheaval over the past few years. For instance, back in 2021, Pike Brewing was acquired by Seattle Hospitality Group. Then, in 2023, the business was forced to close its brewing facility near Pike Place Market and relocate brewing to a facility in the Georgetown. Despite the turmoil, the business’s popular Pike Pub remained open. However, last year, the owners also acquired Fremont Brewing also in Seattle with plans afoot for brewing to move once again to Fremont’s production facility in Ballard.
What was left, according to local reports, was the 2023-built, state-of-the-art brewery, a production-only facility that was largely left unused.
An opportunity for expansion
Now there has been a turning of the tides for the brewing space. with brewing and packaging equipment now being housed in the 26,000-square-foot facility in the Georgetown neighbourhood, about 2.5 miles south of Ghostfish Brewing’s current location in SoDo.
According to reports, the acquisition will mean that Ghostfish Brewing will be able to achieve a boost in production as well as meet its expansion goals with the acquisition of the property essentially assisting in its beer production to increase by up to seven times its current output.
Partner Content
‘Major milestone’
Speaking about the acquisition, Ghostfish Brewing co-founder and co-owner Brian Thiel said: “This expansion is a long time coming and a major milestone for us. We started a process of identifying and viewing potential vacant warehouses around the greater Seattle area with the intention to build out a new state-of-the-art brewery back in early 2024. After learning about the former Pike brewery opportunity from our friends at Fremont Brewing in late 2024, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that it checked most of the boxes we were planning to create on our own. The timing of acquiring the new production brewery aligns perfectly for us to meet the growing demand for Ghostfish beer.”
High quality gluten-free beer for all
Describing how this will move things forwards, Thiel explained: “Our goal, from the beginning, has been to make the highest quality dedicated gluten-free beer while providing an amazing experience for our customers. We’ve been oversold the past three to four years. The new production brewery provides us with the opportunity to achieve sales that we unfortunately haven’t been able to obtain out of our current production brewery. More importantly, we’ll be in a better position to expand our distribution footprint and finally get Ghostfish beer into the hands of more customers throughout North America who have been requesting it over the past ten years.”
Ghostfish Brewing already operates a taproom and restaurant at its current location in Seattle’s SoDo neighbourhood amd has established a local reputation for offering both food and drink that is entirely gluten-free.
The brewery has hinted that, ultimately, once the new-to-them brewery is up and running in Georgetown, its current brewery space will then be transformed into more kitchen, taproom, and restaurant space; however, the team will continue to operate a small two–barrel brewing system at the SoDo location to make experimental, one-off beers part of its ongoing remit.
Determined
Thiel admitted: “We have been busting at the seams for quite some time. Our short-term plan is to keep production humming at our flagship brewery while we start up production in Georgetown. After determining things are going well at the G-town location and we have enough finished goods inventory on hand, we will cease production in Sodo and begin the process of moving usable tanks and our canning line to the Georgetown facility.”
He added: “With equipment out of our production area, we will eventually be able to start the process of relocating our main taproom/bar to the former production area. This step will then allow us to double the size of our kitchen. There’s no set timeline for retail expansion, but it is possible that we could start moving on this before the end of 2026. The back part of our building that presently serves as our warehouse and packaging area will be converted into an event space for large group event rentals.”
Related news
Butcombe Brewing Co sees surge in no and low alcohol sales
Japan's brewing giants halt gift beer sales after Asahi cyber-attack
