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For many business owners in East Lewis County, the “shoulder season” between summer when visitors flock to the area to camp, hike, hunt and fish, and winter when White Pass Ski Area opens drawing skiers and snowboarders, is the hardest to get through as less visitors means less business.
Longmire Springs Brewing in Packwood is no exception to this, which is why, in an effort to boost business during the shoulder season, the microbrewery now has a new addition to its brewing equipment — a brand new Alpha Brewing Operations canning system.
The Chronicle visited the microbrewery on Tuesday, Dec. 16, for a demonstration of the canning system and to learn more about the canning system’s purchase from Longmire Springs Brewing co-owner Peter Charbonnier.
“What we like to actually call our shoulder season is the fall. After the kids go back to school, tourists going up to the mountain (Mount Rainier), to the park, kind of dry up. And then it’s a waiting game until ski season when you get another rush of tourists,” Charbonnier said. “Well, our shoulder season now is extending well into December when it should have really been over around Thanksgiving.”
According to the White Pass Ski Area’s website, the winter resort typically opens in the first week of December.
While late-November storms did dump snow on White Pass, an unseasonably warm atmospheric river event brought temperatures in the 40s and rain to White Pass over the first two weeks of December.
This has delayed the ski season’s start this year, on top of putting a dent in Longmire Springs Brewing’s business, hence the canning system’s acquisition.
“Just doing this gives us another option, for if something like this happens and we don’t have butts in seats here in the brewery drinking pints, we can still get beer out. If the beer drinkers aren’t coming out to us, then we can bring the beer to where the drinkers are,” Charbonnier said. “And right now they’re not coming to us because there’s no snow.”
Charbonnier runs the brewery together with his wife, Amy Besunder. They officially opened Longmire Springs Brewing in June of 2023 after several years of preparation and previously founding and running Populuxe Brewing in Ballard in 2012.
They purchased the canning system from Alpha Brewing Operations, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based business, around two months ago, and have been working with Alpha Brewing Operations technicians to get the canning system properly calibrated and installed. Tuesday’s canning run was actually the first run they were doing on their own.
While Longmire Springs Brewing has already been selling its beer in cans, the canning operation was contracted out to a mobile canning business.
Charbonnier stated it wasn’t exactly cost effective for that business to come all the way out to Packwood to can their beer. If something happened to the canning system or a spare part was needed, long delays in the canning process were a part of life.
“Us being out here in Packwood means all of their profit margins were getting eaten up in gasoline,” Charbonnier added. “I knew they didn’t like coming out here, so I knew a canning system was going to be in our future.”
Now, that future is here, and Longmire Springs Brewing is finally canning its own beer.
Those looking to purchase canned beer from Longmire Springs Brewing will be able to find it at “finer retailers county-wide,” including Blanton’s Market in Packwood and many of the gas stations lining U.S. Highway 12 running through Lewis County.
The beer being canned on Tuesday was Longmire Springs Brewing’s Double IPA, which The Chronicle sampled and found to be delightfully hoppy.
Longmire Springs Brewing is located at 112 Norman Way in Packwood. For more information including dates of upcoming events and live music, follow the microbrewery on Facebook or Instagram, or visit its website at https://www.longmiresprings.com/.
