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-by Kendall Jones, Washington Beer Blog -

Last weekend we visited Wander Brewing in Bellingham. They are inching closer and closer to brewing for real. In fact, they might be brewing right now. Whatever the case, they’ll be brewing soon.

As someone who has lived in Bellingham, still has friends there, and regularly visits “the other city by the bay,” it seems a stupid question. But, still, I asked it.

Chad and Colleen Kuehl admittedly are not from around here. He comes from a tiny town in the Midwest and she comes from a big city in the Midwest.

At some point, the couple decided to do some serious traveling on a shoestring budget. South America. Africa. Serious wandering. One night in Mozambique, it finally sunk in and these two vagabonds decided what it was that they were supposed to do with their lives: open a brewery.

The beginnings of a business plan were soon born and the couple found their way to Seattle. Chad went to school to learn about professional brewing and spent some time getting his boots wet at real breweries, like Hilliard’s Beer, for example. Chad and Colleen’s story wandered along.

Now the couple is on the cusp of opening a brewery in Bellingham. It’s a cool, old building located along Whatcom Creek in downtown Bellingham. About a ten minute wander across town from Boundary Bay Brewery. Wander down the creek trail to Chuckanut Brewery. Wander up the creek trail to Kulshan Brewing.

Wander Brewing will brew its first batch any day now. The taproom at the brewery should be open within a couple months.

The stupid question that I could not stop myself from asking, “Why Bellingham?”

The couple wandered around the Northwest checking out places where they might want to open a brewery. Like many people before them, they soon found themselves drawn to Bellingham. To some extent, it fits right between the tiny town that spawned Chad and the big city from which Colleen hails.

With Wander Brewing on the brink of opening, and Aslan Brewing under construction, Bellingham inches ever closer to become the Northwest’s next great beer destination. Look out, Bend. Bellingham is coming.

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