I got my start, like many other brewers, with a gift of the Mr. Beer home brewing kit.  When I got it, I honestly felt that it was to brewing what an Easy Bake Oven was to baking.  I felt it was a joke. Was I ever wrong! 

 

What the Mr. Beer kit did was it started a fire.  It didn't take long before I moved away from Mr. Beer and started doing my own extract brews with steeping grains and different hop additions.  Shortly after that I made the move to all-grain brewing.  My first all-grain beer was a recipe I wrote and brewed for a friend called "Red-Headed Step Child".  By the time I had been brewing for 5 months not only was I doing all-grain brew days, I was also kegging my beers instead of bottling.  

 

The Manfish Brewing name comes from a discussion with a couple friends in April of 2010.  We were joking about what I should name the 'brewery' and they suggested I name it after myself.  I didn't see the fun in that, so I combined one friend's name with the others nickname and we became, originally, "Dick's Manfish Brewing".  Not long after that it was pointed out to me that a local brewery, in Centralia, WA, wouldn't appreciate the name as it made it sound like something they would produce aka a name of one of their beers. Because of this, I changed it to the current name and it's been that ever since.

 

Over the next few years things came along nicely:  

In September of 2013, I opened the Manfish Brewing Man Cave, which had a 6 seat bar that I hand built myself and a 4 tap kegerator. 

In March 2015, I completed work on a new brew stand, that featured 3 keggles, banjo burners, 2 chugger pumps and a 30 plate wort chiller, to brew on.  It was such an awesome upgrade and a really fun project to work on. 

In April of 2016, I officially formed "Manfish Brewing, LLC" and then we stepped things up even more and moved from the keggle brewing system to a 1BBL brewing system.  We also started using 3 1BBL conicals to ferment in and a bunch of other really cool things that have helped make the brewing process easier and a lot more fun!  

In March of 2017, we moved the brewery to its current location in Issaquah, WA.   At this location we have been able to do things we just weren't able to at our previous location, like building a fermentation room as well as our walk-in cooler.  This allowed us to step up production drastically as we added 1 more 1BBL and 2 2BBL conicals. 
 

On August 3, 2017 we delivered our first keg, #IPA4Life, to The Dog & Pony Alehouse in Renton.  That keg blew in just 3 1/2 days.

On June 15, 2018 we won our first medal, a bronze, for "Red-Headed Step Child" in the American Amber Ale category at The Washington Beer Awards as part of the Washington Brewer's Festival. 

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Going forward, I am looking to share the many beers of Manfish with as many people as I can.  That is why I do this, because what is better than sharing a beer with friends, while watching a good ball game?

#ManfishUP

-- Ken Lee