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Two bottles of Fair Isle beer in green bottles on a wooden counter next to a glass of beer
Ballard’s Fair Isle Brewing specializes in saisons, farmhouse ales, and sours.
Fair Isle Brewing

16 Must-Try Breweries in Seattle

With balanced saisons, hoppy IPAs, dark stouts, and more

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Ballard’s Fair Isle Brewing specializes in saisons, farmhouse ales, and sours.
| Fair Isle Brewing

Seattle has breweries the way Italian cities have piazzas. They are gathering spaces, community hubs, landmarks, markers of civic pride. In summer, Seattleites head to one of their city’s 150-plus breweries after a bike ride or a hike, sprawling in that precious Northwest sun. In the winter, we hunker down with hearty IPAs and stouts, seeking refuge from the rain amid the brewing equipment. A handful of the more established breweries are widely distributed in shops and grocery stores, but you can always get a wider variety of beers at the taproom. Not all breweries have in-house food, but they’re popular spots for pop-ups and food trucks. And in a city where most bars don’t allow children, breweries can be a refuge when you’d like a beverage but don’t have a babysitter.

As usual, this list is not ranked; it’s organized geographically north to south. Know of a spot that should be on our radar? Send us a tip by emailing seattle@eater.com.

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Hellbent Brewing Company

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Lake City may not be one of Seattle’s main brewery hubs, but recent years have seen the largely residential neighborhood grow into a unique craft destination of its own. Open since 2015, Hellbent has long been one of the driving forces here. Adventurous beer lovers will find themselves right at home with a wide range of styles to choose from, including an annual experimental IPA with hops so new they’ve yet to be named. The spacious, wood-lined taproom only adds to the experience — we recommend kicking back on a couch in the upstairs loft with a tasting lineup and a snack from one of the food trucks normally parked outside.

An industrial-style brewery interior.
The Hellbent Brewing space
Hellbent

Halcyon Brewing Company

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Halcyon’s clever creations come highly recommended among Seattle brewhounds, but in 2023 its clout advanced to the national level with a Great American Beer Festival gold medal. The award was for the Only Good Vibes Session IPA, though this small, mural-decked brewery is adept at a diverse range of classic and experimental styles. The pilsner is a perfect example. With a trifecta of hops and lengthy conditioning to crisp perfection, this beer testifies that modern craft doesn’t have to be all about crazy flavors and high ABVs. A bonus? Halcyon’s food menu boasts a myriad of Asian inspirations woven into its hot dogs and chicken plates.

Project 9 Brewing Company

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This Maple Leaf brewery has only been open since the spring of 2023, but it’s already a proven itself an emerging Seattle staple. And no, it’s not just the massive back patio area drawing in fans. Here you’ll find an expansive and rotating draft lineup fit to compete with even the oldest local craft breweries. The pale ales are perhaps most prominent, ranging from crisp cold IPAs to juicy haze. Even so, things are still just getting started — the brewers say they “haven’t yet brewed anything twice.” 

Lucky Envelope Brewing

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Ballard is full of breweries, so it takes a lot for one to stand out. Lucky Envelope has more than met that challenge. Co-founders Ray Kwan and Barry Chan incorporate their Chinese ancestry into their craft, with full-flavored, culturally-inspired beers dotting the menu throughout the year. The Almond Pandan Milk Stout is a prime example, evoking flavors of the Chinese dessert. If large crowds of happy beer drinkers don’t deter you, try visiting Lucky Envelope during one of its famous Lunar New Year events, complete with special releases (yuzu pilsner, anyone?) and dim sum food trucks.

Fair Isle Brewing

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This Ballard brewery feels like its own world the moment you walk in the door. With its dark wood and exposed rafters that still somehow feel cozy, the taproom has the atmosphere of a high-end wine tasting room and serves an impressive array of naturally fermented farmhouse ales and fruit-forward tangy saisons. It also now has a Beast and Cleaver outpost inside serving some of the best burgers in Seattle.

Two bottles of Fair Isle beer in green bottles on a wooden counter next to a glass of beer
Fair Isle specializes in saisons, farmhouse ales, and sours.
Fair Isle Brewing

Bizarre Brewing

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In a “bizarre” twist that sets it apart from most of modern American craft beer, this Magnolia brewery is all about low ABVs. And that’s precisely what makes it so worth a stop. While nothing ventures above 6 percent, the small-batch brews here cover a wide range of territory and flavors, from German-style altiber and tropical hopfenweisse to a four-grain best bitter and multiple English milds in between.

Fremont Brewing's Urban Beer Garden

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Fremont Brewing is one of the city’s biggest craft brewers and its cans are available all over the city (and the West Coast). But while you can grab Fremont Lush at many a grocery store, the taproom is the only place to try the brewery’s more limited releases. From annual Dark Star Stouts to experimental sour ale batches, these beers are best savored by the indoor fire pit or surrounded by lush foliage in the spacious beer garden.

A glass of beer next to a can that reads, “non-alcoholic IPA.”
The NA IPA at Fremont Brewing
Harry Cheadle

Holy Mountain Brewing Company

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Holy Mountain now has a second location in Phinney Ridge that’s well worth visiting, but first-timers should start with the O.G. mainstay in Interbay. Tucked between some train tracks and busy Elliot Avenue, this spot is easy to speed past unless you know what you’re looking for. But awaiting inside is a bevy of old world–style sours, farmhouse ales, and quenching pale ales. Aside from a poster for the trippy 1973 movie Holy Mountain gets its name from, the decor is sparse and whitewashed, allowing for full concentration on the beers’ unique profiles. Chances are, you’ll be so captivated you won’t even notice the trains rumbling right past the open back door.

Cloudburst Brewing Company

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Belltown has a brewing scene? You betcha, thanks to Cloudburst. This is one of Seattle’s main destination breweries thanks to both its location near the northern end of Pike Place Market and its incredible lineup of hop bombs (plus some lighter fare). Operating out of what was once the loading zone of a 120-year-old building, Cloudburst features juicy and refreshing brews that explore the limits of hops sourced from around the Pacific Northwest and beyond. (It now has a second location in Ballard.)

Pike Brewing Company

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When Pike Brewing launched in 1989 (then called Pike Place Brewery), it was among one of only a handful of independent craft breweries in Seattle. The rest of the city has since caught up, but Pike is still going strong all these years later. Its cans are frequently spotted at stores around the city, but if you haven’t visited the labyrinthian brewery below street level next to the market yet, you need to. Check out the barrel-aged stouts for the real depths of this brewery’s prowess.

Standard Brewing

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This Central District brewery has been around for 10 years now, and if the frequent lines outside are any indicator, it’s sure made an impact. It brews some of the city’s best pale ales, porters, and oak-aged beer, and the taco-centric food menu pairs well with the beers on tap. Standard’s newer sibling brewery, Sovereign Brewing (just a few blocks south) focuses on the wilder side of brewing, with a mix of older-school methods and modern experimentation.

Perihelion Brewery

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The air always smells enticing in this Beacon Hill neighborhood gem. Co-owned by master brewer Les McAuliffe and talented chef Karin Paulsen, Perihelion brews memorable small-batch beers onsite, rounding them out with unique spices and aging techniques. The food menu is equally impressive, with house-made pickles and meats smoked with black cherrywood. Grab a sunny spot on the patio and pair the barbecue jackfruit sandwich with a fresh IPA or any one of the Belgian ales.

Ghostfish Brewing Company

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Ghostfish is a decorated SoDo brewery that proves leaving out grain proteins doesn’t mean skimping on quality. As Ghostfish Brewing co-founder Brian Thiel says, “You wouldn’t know any of (our beer or food items) are gluten-free unless we told you.” The brewery’s wide selection of beers — from stouts to lagers — have snagged national awards and drawn crowds in a city that’s normally obsessed with traditional gluten-packed beer recipes. Ghostfish has a full-service kitchen offering gluten-free dishes to match. When you’re washing down spicy chili fries with a delicious grapefruit IPA, it doesn’t feel like there’s anything missing here. 

Seapine Brewing Company

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Pre-pandemic, Seapine was known locally as a cool little brewery serving draft-only West Coast style beers out of a surprisingly cozy SoDo warehouse taproom. Fast-forward a few years, and the beer is now in cans with a strong national following. That time Tony Hawk was spotted sipping Rainbow Suspenders IPA may have helped, but Seapine’s rep comes primarily from the beer just being really well made. IPAs and lighter styles (pilsner and hefeweizen) are its bread and butter, evoking flavors of the Pacific Northwest with local hops and brewing techniques. Give the seasonal releases a chance at the brewery — the Sea Witch Milk Stout is luxurious.

Georgetown Brewing Co

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It’s tough to talk about Seattle beer at all without at least mentioning Georgetown. It’s the largest craft brewery in Washington state, and ordering a “Manny’s” or a “Bodhi” at a bar comes as naturally to Seattlites as walking in the rain without an umbrella. But the brewery is worth visiting for all the beers that never venture beyond the airy, industrial-style taproom. This is where Georgetown shines as a microbrewery, with a Northwest-style red ale, an ever-evolving funky Wild Golden Ale, and an award-winning coffee cream ale as toasty as the patio fire pit.

Future Primitive Brewing

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Launched in 2019 as a collaboration project between five master brewers and beer experts, this White Center brewery had clout right from the get-go. Years later, it’s on the destination checklist for visitors and locals alike. Future Primitive excels at beers across a range of styles at both its original taproom and newer bar on Alki Beach, featuring a regular selection of IPAs, stouts, Belgians, and lagers. The real treasures are the more experimental creations, however — oyster stout or smoked lager, anyone?

Hellbent Brewing Company

Lake City may not be one of Seattle’s main brewery hubs, but recent years have seen the largely residential neighborhood grow into a unique craft destination of its own. Open since 2015, Hellbent has long been one of the driving forces here. Adventurous beer lovers will find themselves right at home with a wide range of styles to choose from, including an annual experimental IPA with hops so new they’ve yet to be named. The spacious, wood-lined taproom only adds to the experience — we recommend kicking back on a couch in the upstairs loft with a tasting lineup and a snack from one of the food trucks normally parked outside.

An industrial-style brewery interior.
The Hellbent Brewing space
Hellbent

Halcyon Brewing Company

Halcyon’s clever creations come highly recommended among Seattle brewhounds, but in 2023 its clout advanced to the national level with a Great American Beer Festival gold medal. The award was for the Only Good Vibes Session IPA, though this small, mural-decked brewery is adept at a diverse range of classic and experimental styles. The pilsner is a perfect example. With a trifecta of hops and lengthy conditioning to crisp perfection, this beer testifies that modern craft doesn’t have to be all about crazy flavors and high ABVs. A bonus? Halcyon’s food menu boasts a myriad of Asian inspirations woven into its hot dogs and chicken plates.

Project 9 Brewing Company

This Maple Leaf brewery has only been open since the spring of 2023, but it’s already a proven itself an emerging Seattle staple. And no, it’s not just the massive back patio area drawing in fans. Here you’ll find an expansive and rotating draft lineup fit to compete with even the oldest local craft breweries. The pale ales are perhaps most prominent, ranging from crisp cold IPAs to juicy haze. Even so, things are still just getting started — the brewers say they “haven’t yet brewed anything twice.” 

Lucky Envelope Brewing

Ballard is full of breweries, so it takes a lot for one to stand out. Lucky Envelope has more than met that challenge. Co-founders Ray Kwan and Barry Chan incorporate their Chinese ancestry into their craft, with full-flavored, culturally-inspired beers dotting the menu throughout the year. The Almond Pandan Milk Stout is a prime example, evoking flavors of the Chinese dessert. If large crowds of happy beer drinkers don’t deter you, try visiting Lucky Envelope during one of its famous Lunar New Year events, complete with special releases (yuzu pilsner, anyone?) and dim sum food trucks.

Fair Isle Brewing

This Ballard brewery feels like its own world the moment you walk in the door. With its dark wood and exposed rafters that still somehow feel cozy, the taproom has the atmosphere of a high-end wine tasting room and serves an impressive array of naturally fermented farmhouse ales and fruit-forward tangy saisons. It also now has a Beast and Cleaver outpost inside serving some of the best burgers in Seattle.

Two bottles of Fair Isle beer in green bottles on a wooden counter next to a glass of beer
Fair Isle specializes in saisons, farmhouse ales, and sours.
Fair Isle Brewing

Bizarre Brewing

In a “bizarre” twist that sets it apart from most of modern American craft beer, this Magnolia brewery is all about low ABVs. And that’s precisely what makes it so worth a stop. While nothing ventures above 6 percent, the small-batch brews here cover a wide range of territory and flavors, from German-style altiber and tropical hopfenweisse to a four-grain best bitter and multiple English milds in between.

Fremont Brewing's Urban Beer Garden

Fremont Brewing is one of the city’s biggest craft brewers and its cans are available all over the city (and the West Coast). But while you can grab Fremont Lush at many a grocery store, the taproom is the only place to try the brewery’s more limited releases. From annual Dark Star Stouts to experimental sour ale batches, these beers are best savored by the indoor fire pit or surrounded by lush foliage in the spacious beer garden.

A glass of beer next to a can that reads, “non-alcoholic IPA.”
The NA IPA at Fremont Brewing
Harry Cheadle

Holy Mountain Brewing Company

Holy Mountain now has a second location in Phinney Ridge that’s well worth visiting, but first-timers should start with the O.G. mainstay in Interbay. Tucked between some train tracks and busy Elliot Avenue, this spot is easy to speed past unless you know what you’re looking for. But awaiting inside is a bevy of old world–style sours, farmhouse ales, and quenching pale ales. Aside from a poster for the trippy 1973 movie Holy Mountain gets its name from, the decor is sparse and whitewashed, allowing for full concentration on the beers’ unique profiles. Chances are, you’ll be so captivated you won’t even notice the trains rumbling right past the open back door.

Cloudburst Brewing Company

Belltown has a brewing scene? You betcha, thanks to Cloudburst. This is one of Seattle’s main destination breweries thanks to both its location near the northern end of Pike Place Market and its incredible lineup of hop bombs (plus some lighter fare). Operating out of what was once the loading zone of a 120-year-old building, Cloudburst features juicy and refreshing brews that explore the limits of hops sourced from around the Pacific Northwest and beyond. (It now has a second location in Ballard.)

Pike Brewing Company

When Pike Brewing launched in 1989 (then called Pike Place Brewery), it was among one of only a handful of independent craft breweries in Seattle. The rest of the city has since caught up, but Pike is still going strong all these years later. Its cans are frequently spotted at stores around the city, but if you haven’t visited the labyrinthian brewery below street level next to the market yet, you need to. Check out the barrel-aged stouts for the real depths of this brewery’s prowess.

Standard Brewing

This Central District brewery has been around for 10 years now, and if the frequent lines outside are any indicator, it’s sure made an impact. It brews some of the city’s best pale ales, porters, and oak-aged beer, and the taco-centric food menu pairs well with the beers on tap. Standard’s newer sibling brewery, Sovereign Brewing (just a few blocks south) focuses on the wilder side of brewing, with a mix of older-school methods and modern experimentation.

Perihelion Brewery

The air always smells enticing in this Beacon Hill neighborhood gem. Co-owned by master brewer Les McAuliffe and talented chef Karin Paulsen, Perihelion brews memorable small-batch beers onsite, rounding them out with unique spices and aging techniques. The food menu is equally impressive, with house-made pickles and meats smoked with black cherrywood. Grab a sunny spot on the patio and pair the barbecue jackfruit sandwich with a fresh IPA or any one of the Belgian ales.

Ghostfish Brewing Company

Ghostfish is a decorated SoDo brewery that proves leaving out grain proteins doesn’t mean skimping on quality. As Ghostfish Brewing co-founder Brian Thiel says, “You wouldn’t know any of (our beer or food items) are gluten-free unless we told you.” The brewery’s wide selection of beers — from stouts to lagers — have snagged national awards and drawn crowds in a city that’s normally obsessed with traditional gluten-packed beer recipes. Ghostfish has a full-service kitchen offering gluten-free dishes to match. When you’re washing down spicy chili fries with a delicious grapefruit IPA, it doesn’t feel like there’s anything missing here. 

Seapine Brewing Company

Pre-pandemic, Seapine was known locally as a cool little brewery serving draft-only West Coast style beers out of a surprisingly cozy SoDo warehouse taproom. Fast-forward a few years, and the beer is now in cans with a strong national following. That time Tony Hawk was spotted sipping Rainbow Suspenders IPA may have helped, but Seapine’s rep comes primarily from the beer just being really well made. IPAs and lighter styles (pilsner and hefeweizen) are its bread and butter, evoking flavors of the Pacific Northwest with local hops and brewing techniques. Give the seasonal releases a chance at the brewery — the Sea Witch Milk Stout is luxurious.

Georgetown Brewing Co

It’s tough to talk about Seattle beer at all without at least mentioning Georgetown. It’s the largest craft brewery in Washington state, and ordering a “Manny’s” or a “Bodhi” at a bar comes as naturally to Seattlites as walking in the rain without an umbrella. But the brewery is worth visiting for all the beers that never venture beyond the airy, industrial-style taproom. This is where Georgetown shines as a microbrewery, with a Northwest-style red ale, an ever-evolving funky Wild Golden Ale, and an award-winning coffee cream ale as toasty as the patio fire pit.

Related Maps

Future Primitive Brewing

Launched in 2019 as a collaboration project between five master brewers and beer experts, this White Center brewery had clout right from the get-go. Years later, it’s on the destination checklist for visitors and locals alike. Future Primitive excels at beers across a range of styles at both its original taproom and newer bar on Alki Beach, featuring a regular selection of IPAs, stouts, Belgians, and lagers. The real treasures are the more experimental creations, however — oyster stout or smoked lager, anyone?

Related Maps