Cloudburst Brewing
Brewing on used equipment, often taking risks on process and ingredients, and playing around with new techniques, hops, or other ingredients, Cloudburst Brewing is turning out a spectrum of beers that are remembered for their bold names and the causes the
STEVE LUKE IS POURING
stouts in a colorful, industrial tasting room just a couple of block’s north of the iconic Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington. He’s sporting a warm beanie over his long blonde hair and a zip-up hoodie with a rainbow patch sewn on to it. Luke is the kind of guy who marches to his own beat, which—if not apparent from his funky brewery space and eclectic attire—becomes obvious when you get to know the beer at his Belltown neighborhood brewery, Cloudburst Brewing.
“This is the Dumpster Fire smoked oatmeal stout,” he proclaims. “We use two different types of smoked malt for this beer, cherry wood–smoked and a little bit of peated malt. It’s pretty mild, and it finishes fairly fruity. We didn’t want to overpower with smoke.”
Smoked beers don’t really sell well, Luke says, but he thought it would be fun to brew the style anyway. “It’s one of those labors of love,” he says.
Another one of those love labors is Cloudburst’s Pilsner, Happy Little Clouds. “We always reserve a fermentation tank for our horribly inefficient Pilsner that takes anywhere from eight to nine weeks from brew to package,” Luke says. “This beer is our bastardized German Pilsner.” “Bastardized” because it is brewed with Mosaic and other American hops in addition to a touch of noble hops, Luke explains. “We use Magnum, Saaz, Mandarina, Loral, and Mosaic— so some old German, some new German, and then a twist of New American hops. We definitely keep the Mosaic in check. We want to give the aroma a slightly fruity and tropical twist but not overwhelm the style.” In addition to going easy on the Mosaic, they also adjust the water slightly to give a touch more minerality and snap to the beer.
In case you were wondering, the name Happy Little Clouds is indeed a reference to Bob Ross’s The Joy of Painting show that ran on PBS from 1983 through 1994. “I grew up watching it, which usually resulted in screaming frustration as I could never master and replicate what Bob Ross made seem so easy,” Luke jokes. “And that perceived ease yet high degree of difficulty carries over to Pilsners—the best ones taste so effortless, but as brewers we know how difficult that style is to master.”
Happy Little Clouds is the only beer that Cloudburst tries to keep on tap year-round. “Both Brewer Zach Kornfeld and I have come from production brewing backgrounds [both most recently at Elysian Brewing]. Even though I think experimental brewing and recipe development are the most fun parts about brewing, there’s still a part of us that remembers the feeling and pride of repetition and perfecting recipes like a production brewery does,” he says. “We always get to revisit this Pilsner, to tweak it, figure out how to make it better.”
Next, Luke pours Batch #9 of the Market Fresh series, a saison brewed with plums and green cardamom. The beer is aromatically spicy with juicy sweetness. Every couple of months, Luke and Kornfeld shop at Seattle’s Pike Place Market for ingredients for their next Market Fresh Series. “We just go down to the market and grab some ingredients. We try not to think about it until the day-of.”