USA, WA: Irrelevant Beer holds soft opening of its Vancouver taproom
Against a backdrop of post-pandemic closures buffeting the brewing industry, Sebastian Lynch and Mitch Montgomery are betting they have a combination of factors that will spell success, Oregon Live reported on September 14.
That’s why the business partners have launched Irrelevant Beer, a brewery that recently began production and this past weekend held a soft opening for a taproom in uptown Vancouver. Irrelevant is an offshoot of — and next door to — Relevant Coffee Roasters, a cafe and roasting company that Montgomery started in 2014.
For a number of reasons, their confidence may not be misplaced.
For starters, consider Irrelevant’s brewing pedigree. Lynch is a former lead brewer at Trap Door Brewing, an operation just down the street from Irrelevant that is renowned for its quality beers across styles — but especially some of the region’s best hazy IPAs. And head brewer Quin Tinling brings to Irrelevant a resume that includes, but isn’t limited to, brewing in Portland under Kevin Denny at Wayfinder Beer and as barrel program manager and research and development brewer at Level Beer.
Then there’s the flourishing beer scene in Vancouver. Downtown has recently seen the opening of a Vice Beer taproom and Brothers Cascadia Brewing pub, which joined longtime residents Heathen Brewing and Loowit Brewing. And Ruse Brewing a year and a half ago opened its Crust Collective Detroit-style pizzeria on the burgeoning Vancouver Waterfront mixed-use development. Irrelevant is opening just to the north in uptown’s Arnada neighborhood, home to a walkable strip of Main Street that includes Trap Door, Doomsday Brewing, Thirsty Sasquatch’s taproom and pizzeria, the Uptown Barrel Room and the long popular dive bar, Tip Top Tavern.
Add to that Irrelevant’s pairing with Relevant Coffee, a growing and locally popular brand whose distribution has spread into Oregon and is now found across New Seasons Market locations and a similar high-end grocer in Vancouver, Chuck’s Produce & Street Market.
“I’m super happy with the product we’ve been pushing out thus far — we’ve been getting really good feedback,” said Lynch, who is overseeing Irrelevant while Montgomery continues to run the coffee business. “So long as we focus on the quality of our product and push our brand out there as well as having packaged cans to provide to-go service, we’ve got a plan to help us stay small and just push the beer that we want to make and we know is going to sell.”
Lynch had risen to the Trap Door lead brewer position after starting as a bartender and assistant brewer there shortly after it opened. But he left during the first year of the pandemic, saying he was “needing something fresh, wanting to try something new.”
Lynch then landed at Relevant Coffee as a career reset pause and developed the roaster’s cold-brew program, building its production line in an adjacent space. The success of that program — Relevant just added a roaster and doubled distribution capacity — and his longing to return to beer brewing led him and Montgomery’s to decide to start the beer brand and add a beer brewery.
“One side of the brewhouse is coffee, the other side is beer,” said Tinling, who eventually relented after Lynch — his best friend for years — persisted that he come back from Round Rock, Texas, where he was working at Pinthouse Pizza’s brewery, and join the Irrelevant team.
“He he had given me the spiel about not working with my best friend,” Lynch said. “But after asking him a third time, he was like, alright.”
Tinling said the brewery will deliver a range of beer options but focus on clear and hazy hoppy beers, lagers and “neo-traditional” styles. Lynch added that a rotating coffee beer would be a regular feature — the first of which, a coffee stout, will be tapped in early October.
“We’ll have that to showcase the coffee side of things with our beer and mix our customer base,” he said. “But predominantly we want to do IPAs and always have one to two lagers available.”
The current Irrelevant taproom is temporary, as the co-owners are set to begin building a larger, 1,900-square-foot space in a vacant storefront adjacent to Relevant’s cafe. That space, Lynch said, will offer a mid-century decor vibe, outdoor seating with “beer garden-esque” tables along the sidewalk and a stand-up bar, and a permanent home for Vancouver smash burger pop-up Goon Burger, run by Jake Shaffer and Brian Pouppirt, veterans of downtown Vancouver taco hot spot Little Conejo.
But until then, the crew will focus solely on building the beer brand. Lynch said Irrelevant would be brewing a beer for the 15th anniversary of North Portland beer bar Saraveza, and he expected Oregon permitting next week that would allow keg distribution into bottle shops, pubs and restaurants. Cans and packaging will follow later in the fall — a distribution arm that the co-founders plan to combine with their own taproom sales to create success.
“I think uptown has a ton of potential,” Lynch said. “With us coming in where we’re located, I feel like it’s going to build a better path for more foot traffic through the area, especially with the late night crowd.”
Opening Irrelevant has checked off the first box of a long-time dream for Lynch.
“This was a goal I had in mind shortly after I got into beer,” he said, adding that teaming with Tinling has made it even sweeter.
“I’ve been super stoked with all of his brews over the years,” Lynch said. “I know he’s capable of making a phenomenal product, and with building out this brewery, I get this opportunity to work with and support my friend as well.”
15 September, 2023
