Relevant Coffee owner Mitch Montgomery didn’t give much thought to naming his brewery next to his coffee shop.
“It couldn’t be any other name,” he said.
Irrelevant Beer will open a small tasting room in late August followed by an 1,800-square-foot taproom in the space formerly occupied by Body in Motion at 1703 Main St., next door to Relevant Coffee, by the end of the year.
“We plan on starting small with the tasting room, then the taproom. It’s a big project,” Montgomery said.
Tanks and brewing equipment have been installed in the space in between Relevant Coffee’s cafe and the future taproom. The brewing area is named Christinith, a nod to a character in “The Other Guys,” a 2010 buddy cop movie featuring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. A goofy but obscure movie reference fits the vision for a brewery that jokingly calls itself Irrelevant.
Montgomery is working with Sebastian Lynch, who brewed beer at Trap Door Brewing for five years. They hired Quin Tinling as head brewer. Tinling has over a decade of experience, including stints at Hopworks Brewery, Level Beer and lager-focused Wayfinder Beer. Recently the Dallas native returned to The Lone Star State and landed at Vector Brewing. His friend Lynch convinced him to come back to the Pacific Northwest to work for Irrelevant.
Lynch has already teamed up with Grains of Wrath for a West Coast India pale ale called Holy Hand Grenade and a West Coast pale ale collaboration with Ruse Brewing called Parallel Principles with Vista, Mosaic and Strata hops.
Irrelevant Beer will feature a variety of beer styles and use coffee concentrates from Relevant Coffee to flavor dark and light beers. One of the first offerings to hit Irrelevant’s tasting room in August will be a stout with cold brew concentrate and lactose to give it a sweet coffee-and-cream flavor.
The taproom, slated to open by the end of the year, features a full kitchen. The design will mesh with the breezy elegance of Relevant Coffee. The team at Irrelevant wants to give the taproom a more upscale feel than the typical Pacific Northwest woody-and-industrial design.
I’ve spent some time with coffee roasters and brewers. They speak the same language. When either group describes a particular product, the language gets very technical and brings back memories of chemistry class. In addition, local coffee roasters routinely team up with brewers to create beer. Will we see more coffee roasters and brewers trying out each other’s trades?
