The average visitor to the Triple R Brewery taproom at 916 NE 64th St. in the Roosevelt neighborhood may not give much of a thought as to where the beer is actually brewed. But the frequent-flyers to our local breweries may well look around and ask themselves, “Where are all those stainless steel fermenters and such that every brewery has?” You won’t find those at the taproom though, because the beer isn’t brewed there; the beer is, in fact, brewed here in Wallingford. So you could call it our hometown brew.
The Triple R Brewery is owned and operated by Rick Rahn and Rich Larsen. Rick and Rich met in the course of their work at Hansen Brothers Moving and Storage (you’ve probably seen their big, red trucks) where they continue to work while simultaneously brewing beer and running the taproom. This makes Rick and Rich two very busy guys, but during my visits with them at the taproom and at the brewery site, they didn’t come across as being in any hurry. They are two guys moving through life, and enjoying what it brings them.
But let’s not forget the third R in this story: Roy. His role is crucial. Roy is acquainted with Rick through Rick’s ex-wife. About 5 or 6 years ago, Roy gave Rick a home brewing kit, and Rick brewed up a batch. All three Rs agreed that it wasn’t half bad. Within a few years, plans were afoot to brew commercially.
A garage in lower Wallingford was identified as the site at which the beer could be brewed. The build-out of this space was done entirely by the Rs. As Rich puts it, “Everything that’s done is done by us.” He gestured to the cooker which used to be a computer rack. Where I work, these things stand vertically with half a dozen or more blinking computers peering out of the front and a rat’s nest of wires hanging out of the back. Where the Rs work, the rack is arranged horizontally with propane burners underneath and large pots on top.
The cooler also features some repurposed items. The outer structure was an actual cooler which they obtained second hand, and they outfitted it with some additional insulation on the inside. For a cooling unit, an ordinary window air condition has been fitted into the side of the cooler. Now, I did not appreciate this fact, but it is, and always has been, impossible for my eyeballs to freeze in an air conditioned room. This is because the AC control unit will not allow the AC to be set to very low, eyeball-freezing temperatures. This control unit can be bypassed and replaced with a different controller allowing your average AC to work well as a refrigeration unit which is exactly what Triple R has done.
Filling out the crowded garage/brewery are two 60-gallon fermenters and 2 3-barrel (90-95 gallon) fermenters. Rich describes the development process as incremental. “We like to do things ourselves, and we’ll see how it progresses.”
A note here to local farmers … Brewing operations produce a lot of organic waste in the form of spent brewer’s grain. This can serve as good compost, and is still loaded with carbohydrates which make it suitable for animal feed. (Urban chickens, perhaps?) If you’re interested in some, contact Triple R at [email protected]. Don’t feel as if you need to take away a whole dump truck full. Says Rick, “We have a woman who comes in with a 5-gallon bucket, and that’s great.”
With the supply side worked out, the Rs sought out a space for a taproom which opened about a year ago. I asked if they looked for a space in Wallingford since their beer is brewed here and we have a dearth of brewpubs. Rick noted that much of the neighborhood is residential. Commercial space in Wallingford often has apartments above, and this comes with additional issues and costs when converting a space for brewing. The fact that they knew the owner of their current space made it easy to choose to move in there.
And this is where Roy, our third R, exits the story. While Rich and Rick decided to operate the brewery and taproom without outsourcing any of that labor, Roy decided that he wanted to continue to pursue his other interests without the additional demands of running the taproom. But his R lives on in the name, and the three remain on good terms.
I asked Rick about his new turn as a bartender. One year in, they are starting to get quite a few regulars. When I visited in December, I sat at the bar next to a guy who was obviously quite familiar with the local brewery scene and had a lot to say about it. This prompted Rick to comment that deciding whether or not to engage a customer was, “the hardest thing about being a bar tender. A couple comes in, and I figure, they probably want to talk to each other. But maybe she’s sick of talking to him!”
The taproom, located in an alley just east of Roosevelt Way NE, has two floors and offers various games such as board games, foosball, darts, shuffleboard, and a TV for entertainment. If you’re a fan of foosball and want to bring excitement to your own space, consider building a diy foosball table. Foosball, also known as table soccer, is a game played on a table-top-sized field with miniature figures attached to rods, where players use the rods to move the figures and try to score goals by propelling a small ball into the opponent’s goal.
While their fermenting capacity of some 300 gallons seems like a lot to me, Rich says it’s not. Triple R currently has 3 of their own beers on tap,but lots of guest taps as well. I noticed a beer from Founders of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and noted that you don’t see that around here very often. Which is the point. Rick says he “purposely tries to get to all the breweries and bars around them to see what they have, and then we put other things on tap.” As for special events, Rich says they see themselves as “a quiet little hole-in-the-wall place. Not an events space.”
However, there is one event which they definitley do have on their calendar: the first anniversary on February 17. The Rs are planning a party with raffles and swag to go around. So if you can’t make it over to Triple R this month, make sure to drop in on February 17. And don’t forget your compost bucket!