From left, Cameron Raspet, Bryan Van Den Oever, and Simon Bee, co-owners of Red Bear Brewing (Photo courtesy of Red Bear Brewing)

When it opens in February, Red Bear Brewing Company will serve West Coast-style ales and other beers from 24 tap lines in a 7,000-square-foot space next to REI and La Colombe (209 M St. NE), according to Bryan Van Den Oever, co-founder and director of business development and marketing. It will also be D.C.’s only 100 percent gay-owned brewery.

The only other LGBTQ-majority owned brewery in the D.C. area is Silver Spring’s Denizens Brewing Company, which is partially owned by Julie Verratti and her wife Emily Bruno.

“I always get excited when I see diversity in ownership,” says Verratti, who also chairs the diversity committee for the Brewers Association. “They’re going to be a great addition to our community.”

“There’s a stigma that brewery culture is just straight white bearded guys,” says Van Den Oever who, like co-owner Cameron Raspet, is a military veteran. “That’s starting to change, and we’re part of that change.”

Co-owners Van Den Oever, Raspet, and Simon Bee are friends from Seattle. They were all ready to make changes in their lives. Van Den Oever worked in healthcare for many years. Bee worked in property management. Raspet was a flight test engineer for Boeing. They all quit their careers to move to D.C. and co-found Red Bear Brewing.

Simon Bee, director of brewing operations, was the catalyst for moving the group to D.C. He was dating someone long-distance in the District, and he wanted to be closer to his partner.

“I decided to take the plunge and move out here,” says Bee, who moved in March 2016. Van Den Oever followed in 2017 and Raspet arrived shortly after in March 2018.

Van Den Oever and Bee had been discussing their business plan to open a brewery for years. They knew they’d have to leave Seattle, which has more breweries than any other American city, according to a 2017 report released by Datafiniti.

“We felt like we had a greater opportunity here in Washington—bringing our West Coast style to the East Coast,” Van Den Oever says.

The logo and name for the brewery reference the group’s Northwest roots and their new D.C. home by featuring an ursine figure and Washington state’s Mount Rainier in front of D.C.’s stars and stripes. It also alludes to the owners’ identities as “gingers, red-haired, bearded guys,” says Van Den Oever.

Red Bear Brewing’s Guava-Beary Gose (Photo by Sam Nelson)

Bee says he plans to brew characteristically hoppy West Coast style IPAs and pale ales, but also wants to experiment with “brett strains, saisons, and different wild yeast strains.”

Some of the beers that Bee says he has tested and planned include a Northwest-style red ale with Cascade hops, a double IPA, and a wit beer-pale ale combo that features the “hop aspect of an American pale ale but with coriander and spices like a wit.”

Red Bear Brewing will be licensed as a brewpub instead of a craft brewery, meaning their bar can serve food. Van Den Oever says they’re still working on contracting a food vendor for the kitchen.

“[Beer] is one of the most diverse beverages there is,” Bee says. “It can be brewed in a very culinary way.”

Bee says he will brew a strawberry chocolate bock when the brewery opens in February—hopefully in time for Valentine’s Day. It is brewed like a traditional bock, but Bee will add cocoa nibs and strawberry puree late in the fermentation to give it sweetness and a fuller feel.

He’s also planning a rosemary saison and a cherry almond sour. The latter emulates the complex flavors of a maraschino cherry, Bee says, which gives off an almond flavor from the cherry’s pit.

“[It] tastes like an old-fashioned in a beer,” says Van Den Oever.

Though the brewpub doesn’t open until February, Red Bear Brewing has already been active in the D.C. beer scene. In August, the team collaborated with Hellbender Brewing Company to make Guava-Beary Gose, a kettle sour brewed with fruit puree, Norwegian yeasts and spices.

Bee plans to produce 30 barrels of beer a week. Red Bear Brewing purchased their brewing equipment, including a 10-barrel brewhouse and four fermenters, from ABS Commercial in Raleigh, North Carolina, according to Van Den Oever.

Van Den Oever says he likes the space because of how open it is. Construction has already started in the one open room, which will include a long u-shaped bar at its center. The team wants it to be a playful space, where people can play board games, drink with friends and strangers, and move freely around. Plans include a small stage in the corner for live music and events, but they still need to acquire proper permitting to proceed.

Van Den Oever says the brewpub will focus on engaging the local community and keeping “open doors” to everyone. Van Den Oever says he is learning American Sign Language and wants to train his staff in ASL to welcome people from the deaf community and students from Gallaudet University.

Van Den Oever and Bee both express that diversity, pride, and openness are important to the brewpub’s identity but that beer will remain their central focus.

“We are not shy to let people know we are proud to be who we are, but anybody is welcome, just come on in; we’ll show you a good time,” Van Den Oever says. “We definitely want to make sure that we are creating memorable experiences for people, that’s in entertainment we bring in, food we’re providing, and clearly in the beer we’re providing.”