Our Story
The Why
Fremont Brewing was born of our love for our home and history as well as the desire to prove that beer made with the finest local ingredients – organic when possible --, is not the wave of the future but the doorway to beer's history. Starting a brewery in the midst of the Great Recession is clearly an act of passion. We invite you to come along with us and enjoy that passion -- because beer matters.
See our Sustainability page for more about us.
The Where
Known as the Center of the Universe, Fremont is industrial and sleekly postmodern -- home to artists, fisherpeople, tradespeople, technology geeks, and lots of beer lovers. And, for those who don't know, Washington state is home to the second largest hop growing region in the world.
The Who
Founder/Owner MATT LINCECUM is a long-time environmentalist, community organizer, and home brewer. But to make a living, he became an attorney and specialized in beverage and hospitality law. As fun as that sounds, Matt decided that instead of spending his time making other people’s dreams of owning a bar or restaurant or brewery come true, he should realize his own latent and undisclosed-to-his-wife desire to start a microbrewery.
Head Brewer MATT LINCOLN comes to us from a small planet on the outskirts of the the Nebula Galaxy. Rumored to be searching for Dilithium Crystals while aboard our planet, Matt has taken to brewing fermented beverages, keeping an eye on James, and collecting small glass fairies. Matt likes tummy rubs, fresh blood, and double tall, nonfat, mocha/blueberry lattes with whipped cream. Matt doesn't like sudden movements, directions to a destination, loud noises or anything by Cyndi Lauper.
Brewer JAMES MCDERMET comes to us by way of a trade in a fantasy brewing league...hatched in the basement of an industrial spice factory in Papau New Guinea, James was bred to sniff out impecfections in spice shipments, microbrewed beer and children's hand paintings. James likes scratches behind the ear, Malt-O-Meal with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar, being tucked in at night and fermentations that finish within .000000000001 of target. Please don't 1. turn your back on him, 2. ask him about Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits Album XVIII or 3. touch his tummy. Please do ask him about his Tom Selleck mustache imitation and his favorite meat dish.
Cellarman & Caskmaster SALAT TAWINWONG cooks copious amounts of delicious foods, has a honorary doctorate in toilet bowl brush handling from the University of Phoenix Online, and drives a very suspicious white van (complete with padlocked doors). All available evidence points to him being the unwitting love child of Vlad the Impaler and a hardy Siamese peasant. As this makes him only 1/2 vampire, his only evident powers are immortality and astounding facial hair, both of which he uses for good and not evil... most of the time. His only notable accomplishment prior to Fremont Brewing is the creation of a revolutionary musical instrument he called a "Tawinwonger" while interning at a Russian electronics lab in 1919. His mentor Léon Theremin stole the idea and the rest is history. Salat never forgave him.
The Sales Department LEILA STARWICH came to us following a 7 year stint in the "education" system. One "Master's" degree later, she decided she had a quench for a totally different thirst. As her curiosity for something new was getting larger and education budgets getting smaller, she thought all the world really needed was great beer and damn it, she was going to be a part of it. Leila’s passions include running, biking and swimming, albeit not all at once, but we would never put her to that challenge as that would make for one sweaty and tiring sales meeting.
Retail Dungeon Master THOR STODDARD ended up at Fremont Brewing after participating in a peyote ritual and discovering that his Spirit Animal is, in fact, Brewer's Yeast. Since then, Thor has committed himself to spreading the gospel of the yeast to as many people as possible, usually by giving people beer in exchange for money. He also refers to himself exclusively in the third person as the "George Washington Carver of yeast" and claims he is currently developing ways to manufacture yeast into rocket fuel, prophylactics, and flat screen televisions.
Chief Strategist SARA NELSON is Matt Lincecum’s aforementioned wife. A long-time do-gooder, she earned a Ph.D. in cultural Anthropology at UW in order to change the world through blowing students’ minds. Unwilling to consign herself to a life of poverty as an under-employed lecturer at small colleges in the middle of nowhere, she bailed from academia and found her true calling working in politics for several years. Working for her family business is the perfect expression of her interest in sustainability and community. And paying the mortgage.