Brewing up new markets Sno Falls Brewing Co. expands presence

Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company’s bottled products have quietly become more of a presence in supermarkets and other bottle outlets around Washington and Oregon in the past year.

Snoqualmie’s bottle sales have increased by 22 percent through the first half of 2008, and the company anticipates continued growth into the third quarter as it unveils a completely redesigned series of bottle labels.

Redesigned labels are more colorful and visually appealing, said David Siegel, sales manager for the brewing company. Plus, the labels give the consumer more information about each beer.

“The old labels got us going with our bottled products, but the new labels are a quantum leap forward,” he said.

The brewery is also launching a new bottled product as the first release with the newly redesigned labels. Haystack Hefeweizen, previously available only on tap, was released for the first time in 22-ounce bottles on Sept. 15.

The downtown company opened in 1997 and released its first bottled products in 2001, using a small three-head bottle filler designed for brewpub use. Last January, the company acquired a new state of the art computer-controlled Meheen Manufacturing “Merlin” bottle filler to keep up with steadily increasing demand.

The new filler is faster and more reliable.

“It’s also a lot more consistent and helps us put out a higher quality product,” said Janelle Pritchard, the brewery’s general manager and assistant brewer. The new machine can fill up to 1,600 bottles an hour.

Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company produces a full range of year-round and seasonal beers in 22-ounce bottles. Snoqualmie products are distributed by Columbia Distributing of Seattle in Western Washington, Lynch Distributing in Central Washington, Great Micros in Spokane and northern Idaho, and Point Blank Distributing in Oregon.

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