Morgan Alexander Founder And Brewmaster, Tacoma Brewing Company

Tacoma Brewing Company was born as a side project out of a Tacoma, Wash., coffee shop, where owner Morgan Alexander sold his ales alongside his coffee. After 5 years of running the brewery like a commercialized homebrew venture and sweating out 10-gallon batches, Alexander moved into a new, larger space in May 2017. From the city’s historic Brewery District, he now has the fermentation capacity to satisfy demand for his bold, flavorful IPAs, and the elbow room to brew more of his sought-after Stouts and barrel-aged ales. “It’s definitely a labor of love,” says Alexander. “I like a good challenge. I’m stubborn. I don’t like giving up. For me, this has been all about the journey, and the people you meet along the way.”

- Paul McMorrow

1 Go modern

The first time Alexander tried home brewing, nearly three decades ago, the hobby didn’t stick. “The craft beer wasn’t like it is today,” he explains. So he fell out of touch with beer for years. The rise of citrusy and fruity hops, however, turned it all around for him. He remembers tasting a Simcoe-heavy IPA from Seattle’s Georgetown Brewing Company that tweaked his palate in an exciting new way, and that one pint spiraled into a serious home brewing habit that led him down the path to a commercial brewery.

2 Prove it

Before Alexander was a pro brewer, he was a coffee shop owner with a serious home brewing habit. He initially moved his brewing equipment out of his house and into the back of the coffee shop to gain some elbow room. But once he started sharing the stuff that came out of the storeroom carboys, he says, “There was a lot more interest in the beer than there was in the coffee, and I decided to make the switch.” For the first year, Alexander ran Tacoma Brewing as a hybrid nano brewery and coffee shop. “I’m cautious by nature,” he admits, “and I wanted to have a proof of concept that this could work.”

3 Work for it