By Nicholas Johnson
When Patrick Raymond and Glenn Jansen were preparing to open Discovery Bay Brewing in 2018, they went to Levi Liberty’s homebrewing supply store in Port Angeles.
“They came in looking to make contacts to purchase equipment,” Liberty said, “and I put them in touch with the gentleman who had sold them their first brewing equipment.”
After six years and countless beers, the aging couple, who were nearing retirement, decided to step away from behind the bar and hand over the taps to a new brewer. Earlier this month, Liberty, 38, who has nearly 20 years of home brewing experience, reopened his doors at 948 N. Park Ave. under a new name: Social Fabric Brewing.
“We felt he was a good fit to continue the brewery,” said Raymond, who has already stopped by a few times to check out (and taste) the brews, both in the space itself and in Liberty’s seven-barrel system. “It’s a good atmosphere. Hopefully all of our old customers will come there and feel comfortable.”
While Liberty doesn’t plan to host live music nearly as often as Discovery Bay, he hopes to foster a similar sense of community by encouraging social connections with good beer.
“Let’s all sit at the same table, drink some social lubricant, put our phones down and have a conversation,” Liberty said.
“Bars and breweries were kind of the original social media, where you could overhear conversations and share the news of the day. I want this to be a place where we can go back to that.”
Derek Jonsson, one of three people Liberty hired to work as bartenders at the brewery, certainly felt the same way. Jonsson, who lives nearby, didn’t have to apply. Instead, he met Liberty by chance when he was walking past the brewery with his dog one day while Liberty was pebble-laying the brewery’s outdoor beer garden.
“I just started a conversation with him and here we are,” said Jonsson, who was also attracted by Liberty’s longstanding passion for brewing beer.
In fact, Liberty brewed his first beer as a child under the guidance of his uncle.
“He was brewing beer and I had a batch of root beer going at the same time,” Liberty said.
When Liberty was 19, his mother gave him a kettle and “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing” by Charlie Papazian.
“I read the book in about two days and started brewing right away,” he said. “I was kind of obsessed.”
His first brew? A clone of Sierra Nevada Brewing’s American Pale Ale.
“I heard it was good,” he said with a sarcastic grin, admitting that unlike most of his underage peers at the time, his favorite beers were not Bud Light and Natural Ice.
In his twenties, Liberty joined the North Olympic Brewers Guild, which grew out of the same home brewing supply store – Angeles Brewing Supplies – that he later purchased. He still owns that store in Port Angeles, where he lives with his wife and two children.
Since purchasing the fully intact brewery earlier this summer, Liberty has been taking full advantage of the shiny new tanks and other brewing equipment that Raymond and Jansen installed shortly before selling the company.
Currently, customers will find four IPAs, a Czech Pilsner and a fruity sour on tap at the bar, as well as several offerings from other local breweries, including a blond and a stout left over from Discovery Bay Brewing, a cider from FinnRiver Farm & Cidery and a saison from Propolis.
These IPAs include a Hazy and a West Coast style, as well as a version of each with added hop oil from a farm in New Zealand.
“It just brings out the flavors of the beer, gives it a nice smell and maybe a little more bitterness,” Liberty said.
Hop oil “is a pretty new thing,” he said, recalling how he first encountered it in April while drinking a beer at Superflux Beer Company in Victoria, B.C.
“I was like, ‘What the hell is this stuff?’ It smells incredible,” said Liberty, who went straight to the farmer who makes the oil and ordered some for his own beer.
He’s also brewing several new beers in the back room, including an aged Kölsch ale, another sour ale and another West Coast IPA, a brown ale with lactose and coffee additions, a German pilsner, an oatmeal stout and an imperial stout, various versions of which will include coconut, vanilla and coffee from Rainshadow Coffee Roasting in Sequim.
As autumn approaches, he also plans to brew, among other things, a dark Czech lager and a traditional festival beer.
In addition, Liberty has ordered 100 pounds each of freshly harvested Simcoe and Mosaic hops to brew some seasonal fresh hop beers.
“Once I have more supplies, I plan to offer some of these beers in other places around town,” Liberty said, noting that the only place outside of his brewery that currently serves his beer is Yodelin in Port Angeles, which serves his Czech Pilsner. “And I also want to partner with other businesses and nonprofits in the area on special beers.”
As for live music, Social Fabric plans to host Port Angeles-based alternative rock cover band Three Two Many on Saturday, August 31 at 6 p.m. In addition to occasional music, Liberty plans to host a regular trivia night and an Oktoberfest in the beer garden in October.
“I’m really open to anything and everything,” Liberty said, “and I’m really excited to grow with this community.”
