The long, unexpected road to some of Washington’s greatest ‘beer from here’

Story by ELIANA ALA’ILIMA-DALEY

Pam and Oliver Brulotte stumbled their way from being a poor farming family to successful brewery and restaurant owners.

In 2000, Pam Brulotte owned one dirndl.

A dirndl is an Alpine peasant costume consisting of a blouse, a full, wide skirt and an apron — and they’re an investment. An authentic one can run you upwards of $250, but it’s the price you pay to be a business owner in the Bavarian-style town of Leavenworth.

Pam put on her dirndl to walk the isles of Leavenworth’s famous Oktoberfest at the Leavenworth Festhalle with bags of kettle corn in hand, eager to sell them to tourists and scrape up any cash she could. With her 5 foot 10 inch stature, cheery smile and bright blonde hair, it wasn’t hard to spot her making her way through the crowd.

That was almost 20 years ago. Today, Pam and her husband, Oliver, have two successful businesses in Leavenworth: a brewery, and a sausage and beer garden. But Pam will be the first to tell you the path to success wasn’t always easy for them.

Pam first met Oliver when they were both students at Washington State University. Pam graduated with a degree in education; Oliver, in business. After graduation, they decided to move back to Oliver’s hometown of Prosser, Washington. A fifth-generation hop farmer, Oliver chose to stay in the family business for the time being while Pam stayed home with their three children and occasionally taught as a substitute teacher.

Pam had a few side hobbies, though. She was industrious.

“This was around the time when eBay was just starting to grow, so I would take the kids to yard sales and we would go to thrift stores and I would sell things on eBay,” she said. “I would also sell my kids’ baby clothes on there too, which shows that we were willing to do all kinds of different things at the time.”

After a while, Oliver decided he leave the family hop farming business.

“He loved farming with his family, but also felt that need and passion to do something on his own,” Pam said.

They turned their attention to Leavenworth. Today, the town is crowded with businesses, but back then there were still a few lots available. They bought two on Front Street. Then, the stock market crashed.

With a chunk of their finances wrapped up in now-worthless stocks, the Brulottes suddenly found themselves cash poor.

“We needed to do something quickly to generate some income at one of our properties,” Pam said. “We didn’t really have a business plan, we were just in survival mode.”

Unable to afford the cost of putting up an actual building, their idea was to just put up a tent on one of their properties and sell kettle corn. It seemed like the perfect plan, since kettle corn is cheap to make and of German origin. But that plan didn’t work out either, with regulations in Leavenworth barring vendors from selling food out of tents.

They had no choice but to build a very small building, which felt more like a small hut. It was all they could afford. But regardless of size, they opened in 2001 and named the stand Munchen Haus as a nod to the Bavarian-themed town. They were in business.

The Brulottes would spend the week farming hops and raising their children in Prosser, then drive an hour to Leavenworth to run the stand on weekends.

After making this drive every weekend for about four months, Pam and Oliver decided to sell their house and move to Leavenworth. They rented a house and, with the extra money, bought a sausage grill for Munchen Haus.

Initially, it was far from a hit.

“Oliver and I would take turns grilling, and we maybe sold ten sausages a day,” Pam said.

However, as Leavenworth started to attract more and more tourists every year, Munchen Haus became a favorite among tourists and locals.

Then, the Brulottes decided to add beer service. At first, it was just an accessory to the sausage stand. A year later, they built a beer garden, complete with a walk-in cooler and underground chilled beer lines.

They began exploring the idea of a brewery. At the time, Leavenworth didn’t have one, and Oliver, with his business degree, had always been fascinated with the idea of manufacturing a product.

In 2008, the family went to Germany to research breweries and beer styles.

Pam and Oliver had basic knowledge of beer because of what they had on tap at Munchen Haus, but they didn’t have much background in German beer styles — and with good reason. There are almost 20 different kinds of German beer, and a lot of them aren’t ones you often see in the United States, according to the German Beer Institute.

Pam appreciated how in Germany, each community seemed to have their own brewery. More than that, each community seemed to have so much pride in their local brewery.

Feeling inspired, the Brulottes returned home and began plans for their own brewery. Leavenworth’s tight-knit community, coupled with water from the Icicle River (which runs right through Leavenworth and has some of the best water to brew with, according to Pam), would provide the perfect experience. But there were problems. They needed a bigger building to house the brewing tanks, and the money to buy them. They also didn’t have a brewmaster.

Pam and Oliver knew a local man named Dean Priebe. He had been a homebrewer for about 20 years and had just won a pro-am for his homebrewed Porter. He also happened to be looking for a new career.

Dean was interested. He accepted Pam and Oliver’s job offer, and quickly began developing recipes, going to brew school and taking internships with other breweries to prepare himself.

With a brewmaster and a successful beer and sausage business under their belt, People’s Bank offered Pam and Oliver a loan, and they used it to build on one of the properties they owned on Front Street.

In 2010, the Brulottes opened the first brewery in Leavenworth. They named it Icicle Brewing Company.

Pam and Oliver have come a long way since their little kettle corn stand on Front Street. They now have over 75 employees, and Pam serves as the president of the Washington Brewers’ Guild.

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They’ve won awards for their beer all over the continent, taking home the gold at the 2017 Washington Beer Awards, the gold again at the 2018 Best of Craft Beer Awards and the silver at the 2018 North American Beer Awards. All told, the Brulottes’ beer has won 126 awards in 68 different competitions across the country.

Through it all, they have remained true to their original mission.

“We’ve always wanted to be a place where families could come and enjoy Leavenworth,” Pam said. “A lot of people have said, ‘you should add lattes, you should add french fries…’, but for us it’s always been important to stay simple.”

Still, a lot has changed for Pam in the last 20 years. While she used to substitute teach and sell items on eBay, Pam now focuses on beer education and community outreach for both her businesses. She enjoys advocating for Leavenworth, and serves on many different city boards.

Today, Pam Brulotte owns about 60 dirndls.