Our Story – Odell Brewing Co

Built From The Ground Up
Our Craft & Our Culture

BUILT FROM THE GROUND UP

Founded in 1989, Odell Brewing was started by Doug Odell, his wife Wynne, and his sister Corkie. Over thirty years later, the culture of family and collaboration still thrives, fostering a brewery full of beer-centric people. It is this passion for beer that inspires Odell Brewing to create quality, hand-crafted, innovative brews.

Innovation

We are in constant pursuit of our next great idea. The next beer that will make our brewers, and our fans, swoon. Whether it is experimental hops, progressive kettle souring techniques, or unique ingredients, we love exploring new flavor profiles as we stretch the bounds of what beer can be.

Independence

We have been proudly independent from the day we were founded in 1989 and this spirit lives throughout the brewery, motivating us to seek our own path every day, knowing that we alone control our own destiny.

Quality

Quality is a lynchpin of our success, and is the motivating force that makes us consider all facets of the brewing process from raw materials to finished packaging. We strive to make every beer better than the last, with a consistency you’ve grown to expect from Odell Brewing Company.

Evergreen

The 7 P’s of the Evergreen philosophy drive our daily thinking and centers us around a unified vision of the future. Our founders have provided a framework from which we can grow and prosper, and we aim to continue their legacy for decades to come.

Independent since 1989. 100% Employee Owned.

In 2015, the Odell family founders sold the majority of the company to its co-workers (now co-owners) in a combined management buyout and an Employee Stock Ownership Program. Since the beginning the people who helped build Odell Brewing Co have acted like owners. This just made it official.

Early Days

Late 1970s | It all Starts with Scrubbing
Doug Odell’s Passion for craft beer started in the 70’s with his first job at San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Company scrubbing the mash tun.
1981 | Becoming a Homebrewer
After his time at Anchor, Doug moved to Seattle where he continued to homebrew, perfected some recipes and met his wife Wynne.
1985 | From Honeymooning to Brewing Bliss
While honeymooning in the UK, Doug and Wynne were inspired by the many small breweries that were successfully selling flavorful real ale, and decided they wanted to take Doug’s passion commercial.
1989 | Building Roots
Doug and Wynne were looking for the perfect town to start their brewery. Doug’s sister Corkie was living in Fort Collins and sold them on the cozy college town, which unlike Seattle, didn’t have any other craft breweries. The three of them joined forces to open up the brewery in 1989.
Today
The original brewery was located in a 1915 grain elevator just a few blocks from where the current brewery sits. Their first commercial release was Odell’s Golden Ale brewed with all malt and a modest hop build. 90 Shilling came along soon after, and remains the brewery’s top selling flagship.

Sometimes we can’t believe it’s been 30 years. When you have something as good as we’ve had at our brewery, life just flows.

Doug, Wynne & CorkieCo Founders

The Art of Brewing

We take great pride in the pioneering advances we’ve made in developing innovative beer styles and brewing techniques. From the intensive study of hopping techniques to the comprehensive analysis of historic beer styles, we’ve identified the optimal assemblage of beer characteristics in each of our handcrafted brands.

Malting & Milling
Malted barley and wheat runs through the mill to be slightly crushed reveal the barley’s starchy endosperm, a converted fermentable. After milling, the grain is carried through an auger up into the mash tun.
Mashing
In the Mash Tun malt and water are mixed together in hot water for a half-hour, which causes the innermost sugars of the mash to spill out resulting in a sugar water called wort.
Lautering & Boil
The wort then goes into the Brew Kettle to be boiled for 90 minutes, while the spent grains go to a local dairy farm to serve as cattle feed. We add hops at different times during the boil to create a bitter mixture with a floral aroma.
Hop Back
When we’re making a beer that requires a little extra hoppy-ness, we turn to our infamous Hop Back. Here, the wort is strained through a bed of whole-flower hops. This adds the fresh, lively hop character you’ve come to enjoy in Odell IPA, Drumroll, Myercenary, and Mountain Standard.

Fermenting
Next the wort heads to the fermentor. We add a yeast that consumes the sugars to produce alcohol and CO2. After a week at 67°F we give the brew another two weeks at 34°F.
Dry Hopping
For beers that require a little something extra in the hop department we dry-hop them by shooting a cannon full of hop pellets right into the fermentor.
Filtering
Rather than filter our beers, we centrifuge them by spinning the beer at very high speeds. This removes the heaviest particles while leaving the essential hop oils and fine proteins to create a beer with better hop flavor, aroma, and improved mouth-feel and body.
Packaging
The finished beer is packaged into bottles, cans, and kegs. Every minute our packaging lines produce 2 kegs, 120 bottles, and 310 cans! This beer is kept cold in our off-site warehouse before it’s sent out for distribution.

Brewing Ideas into Life

All of our packaged beer is brewed on our 135 barrel, custom Braukon Brewhouse. However, many of these packaged beers started as just an idea on our 5 barrel Pilot System. Experimentation and innovation is at the heart of how we brew. Everyone at the brewery is invited to brew a beer on our Pilot System and share it with the locals at our taprooms,

See What’s on tap

Explore the Odell Impact