Brew Five Three Questions with Shane Johns of E9 Brewing
Shane Johns, the brewmaster at E9 Brewing Co. who went from a chef to making world-class mixed culture beers in Tacoma’s Historic Brewery District, will pour his beer at Tacoma Arts Live’s annual Brew Five Three Beer & Music Festival at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place Saturday, Aug. 10, during Tacoma Beer Week 2024. Shane and his E9 team will join 30 or so regional breweries and cideries on the giant lawn, as well as the delicious local restaurants and live entertainment — all against the stunning backdrop of the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains.
Hey Shane! Could you please answer these Brew Five Three questions. …
PEAKS & PINTS: What are you pouring at this year’s Brew Five Three?
SHANE JOHNS: We are bringing T-Dome Pils and our Tacoma Beer Week collaboration Harpua Stout we brewed with Emma Hibbs from the world-famous Browns Point Homebrew Club. We want to keep the focus on Emma’s beer, so we chose to just bring T-Dome as a refreshing secondary option. Emma will at our booth so please stop by and say hi and try her amazing beer.
PEAKS & PINTS: Brew Five Three benefits Tacoma Arts Live’s arts educational programs that serve 40,000+ students, teachers, and parents annually in the South Sound. How does art play into E9 Brewing’s culture?
JOHNS: Think a lot of people don’t know that our sales manager Donovan Stewart started out grinding on the brewery floor with me in 2014. Don is a musician and plays in several bands. When he was asked to move from production to sales it removed his artistic expression at the E9. Boom! The pandemic hits and it’s just Don and I working again. During that period, Don took classes on Illustrator and Photoshop. We never wanted to outsource our label art, so it was natural to have him start taking over the labels, which gives him the opportunity to still be part of the artistic expression of every beer we make. Guess that’s a long way of saying we are mostly influenced by musicians and not by visual arts though we do appreciate them.
PEAKS & PINTS: What’s on E9‘s brewing schedule?
JOHNS: For the next six weeks, we have four beers that excites me: a Fort George barrel-aged stout collaboration, a blend of our Sweetheart Aria and Adventures of Zelda that we’re tentatively calling “The Sisters”, Goldenberry Wild will be dropping after a multiple year absence, and our brewer Amber will be debuting her new IPA.
Brew Five Three is one of many events happening during Tacoma Beer Week 2024, which runs August 9-18.
LINK: Grit & Grain Podcast interviews Shane Johns
LINK: Peaks & Pints 2024 Tacoma Beer Week events
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
