Mike Runion and Travis Guterson take their beer seriously. So seriously, that the two 20-somethings decided to partner up about three years ago to bring a microbrewery to Gig Harbor. 7 Seas Brewing (www.7seasbrewing.com), not yet a year old, has been doing so well, it’s already expanded its brewing capacity. And in another month, the two entrepreneurs will charter new territory: 7 Seas will become the first microbrewery in Washington state to can its beer.
It hasn’t been a completely smooth road. Last year, the brewery was devastated by a fire. Located in downtown Gig Harbor at the time, 7 Seas lost as much as 80 percent of its equipment to the blaze. They were a day away from their building inspection and about six weeks away from starting production. Instead of contemplating what they’re going to do, the two partners rolled up their sleeves to start rebuilding their infrastructure, and found a new location, next to the Inn at Gig Harbor.
Runion was born and raised in Gig Harbor, and Guterson lived on Bainbridge at the time. “I wouldn’t have done it anywhere else,” Runion explains the decision to launch the business in the Harbor. “I knew the city needed something like this. A microbrewery was a good fit and I knew it.”
The brewery sold its first keg on July 9, about six months after the fire. Since then, the pair have added new styles of beer and new tanks, recently doubling their capacity.
A small part of the 3,000-square-feet space is dedicated to a 20-seat taproom, where customers can come to taste the beer, enjoy some snacks, and have their growlers filled. The taproom looks into the brewery so visitors can get a peek behind the scenes.
The fire was a blessing in disguise — the original facility would not have allowed for the retail space. The new location also has an adjacent 5,000 square feet of space that Runion and Guterson hope to use, a little at a time, for future growth. “We saw this location as having a great growth opportunity, we just didn’t know it would happen this quickly,” Runion says.
7 Seas Brewing currently sells its beer in kegs to several local establishments as well as filler growls at the tap room. The plan is to add more accounts in the Pierce/Kitsap county area, and to sell the canned beer at local stores. To prepare for the launch of the canned product, they’ve purchased 150,000 cans, and already have an agreement with a few retailers, including Gig Harbor’s Harbor Greens organic grocery store.
Runion, 25, and Guterson, 26, may be new at running an enterprise together but they bring a lot of business and beer-crafting savvy to the business. The pair actually met at Silver City Brewery in Silverdale, where Guterson was a brewer and Runion was doing an internship. Runion has a business degree in entrepreneurship and Guterson, who attended UW for a couple of years, has been brewing beer as a hobby for several years before taking it to the professional level for the past seven years.
“Our ambitions matched. We both wanted to do a production brewery,” Runion says.
They devoted the first one to two years to developing their business plan, securing funding and purchasing equipment. The two own about 90 percent of the business, and acknowledge that finding financing was discouraging at times. “We hit the streets and put a business plan together, and we approached many, many people,” Runion says. “We’re fortunate to find private investment.”
The process of crafting the beer itself is based on experimentation. According to Guterson, it’s all about four ingredients: water, hops, yeast and malted barley. From there, the variations are endless and the quality is impacted by various details, down to the quality of the water. “There is a purpose and reason behind every ingredient,” he says. “Brewers are very creative.”
The two partners say they will be purposefully controlling the growth of their company so they don’t impact the quality of their product. “Travis and I plan to do this for the rest of our lives but we’re not going to overextend ourselves,” Runion says.
With no family commitments to worry about at the moment, they can literally devote all their hours to their thriving enterprise. “What Mark and I have in common, we do enjoy working for ourselves,” Guterson says, “and that’s something we appreciate every day.”
