BY WILLIAM DEAN
Seaside-based Sisu Brewing Co. is planning to expand into downtown Astoria with a brewpub and brewery.
Sisu has purchased the Astoria Food Hub building on Marine Drive, taking over space currently occupied by Buoy Beer as well as a large unfinished area facing the Columbia River.
The sale gives Sisu 28,000 total square feet, plus a large basement, according to Jim Beasley, marketing director for the brewery’s parent company, TD&M Enterprises/Damarkom Inc.
The brewery intends to install a 30-barrel brewhouse at the new location – roughly three times the size of its current system, according to brewer Nick Nelson.
“We’re very excited,” he said.
Sisu, which opened in Seaside’s historic Times Theatre in 2018, has serious growing pains.
The brewery is shoehorned into space at the theater, making beer on the stage behind the roll-down movie screen and in a cramped, elevated space off to the side. There is no room left in which to expand and zero space for canning or bottling.
That fact has limited Sisu to kegging beer for draft sales or offering customers to-go crowlers.
Sisu actually owns a canning line but has never used it because operating one in the theater proved to be too difficult.
Under the new plan, Sisu would continue to operate its current system in the 84-year-old theater with an emphasis on smaller, seasonal batches.
At the Food Hub, the brewery would finally be able to can its beer, paving the way for more expanded distribution. There would also be room for potential barrel-aging of special beers.
Sisu is owned by a local family that is proud of its Finnish roots. The name of the brewery is a Finnish word for a combination of grit, resilience and bravery.
Company president Mark Utti could not be immediately reached for comment.
While an expansion into Astoria is welcome news for beer fans, the biggest question is how the company intends to deal with the wastewater issue that has bedeviled other breweries, large and small alike.
The city of Astoria has mandated in essence that breweries collect and treat their wastewater separately, removing all solids, before releasing the treated water into the sewer system.
Fort George Brewery and Buoy both operate large on-site treatment facilities. Obelisk Beer, which operates an 11-barrel system at its Bond Street brewery, also had to build a collection system before it could start making beer on the premises.
Beasley said Sisu is working with the city and consulting with other breweries, including Fort George and Obelisk.
Buoy has been operating a brewpub with a full menu in the Food Hub, but the brewery recently announced that it will be leaving when its lease expires at the end of the year.
That cost-cutting move coincides with Buoy’s takeover of the former Reach Break Brewing patio/brewery space on Duane Street. That space allows Buoy to offer a taproom with additional room for a small pilot brewing system and distillery serving sister company Pilot House.
While Sisu is expected to start working on its new brewery early next year, there is no timeline for a public opening.
“We don’t want to rush it,” Beasley said. “We’re going slowly and methodically.”
Nelson said the brewery will be hiring additional staff once the Astoria location is open.
