Bluebird Grain Farms

Many chefs and restauranteurs speak fondly of childhoods spent in the kitchen with mom or grandma, of baking yeast bread or hand-rolling pasta as teenagers, and of lives in which the preparation of food plays a central role. But not Old Schoolhouse Brewery owners Laura and Casey Ruud. When asked about their backgrounds in cooking, Laura answers readily, “Zero!” She clarifies, “[Before buying the brewery] we had no experience in cooking. We did, however, have strong backgrounds in project management and personnel management. When we bought the brewery we applied those skills to this project.”

“This project” was the culmination of a vision that began simply as a desire for a river venue for family gatherings. Back when the pub was called the Winthrop Brewing Company, the Ruuds used to spend evenings there, sketching cabin designs on paper napkins. After building (and living in) several of these cabins, the Ruuds’ interest in transitioning out of the building business coincided serendipitously with the pub owner’s desire to sell the brewery. “We had a sentimental attachment to the place,” Casey says wistfully. “We’d always had a dream of having a big place on the river where friends and family could get together—and suddenly there it was.”

With no restaurant background and neither cooking nor brewing experience, the Ruuds took a bit of a plunge in buying the pub. When asked about their motivation for entering the restaurant business, Casey’s answer is unequivocal: “Because I’m married to a crazy woman.”

Crazy perhaps, but there is a method to the madness. “Our philosophy and operating policy was to offer simple and good quality food on our menu—things we could cook ourselves if we needed to,” Laura explains. “We’re lucky enough to have a head cook who has worked here for almost 20 years now,” she says, “but for one whole winter Casey and I did it ourselves. We just bought the best ingredients we could and we prepared them very simply.”

The ability to apply relevant skills apparently runs in the family, as evidenced by the Ruud’s installation of their son Blaze as the head brewer. “Blaze’s educational background is in physics, chemistry, and math,” Casey says. “He had no experience with brewing beer.” But Blaze understood the science behind brewing and simply figured it out; within a year of his first batch he was winning awards for his beer, in what soon became a trend that continues unabated. “Blaze is unusually gifted in his ability to make beer,” adds Laura.

With a mixture of pride and exasperation in his voice, Casey describes his son. “Blaze is the least adventuresome person on the planet. He’s a disciplined, rigid-thinking person, that’s why his beer is consistent and consistently good. He doesn’t have a lot of failures.”

“It’s a real challenge to get him to explore,” Casey continues. Casey, on the other hand, is very creative and bold, trying his hand at unusual craft beers whenever Blaze lets him into the brewery. “The Coconut Beer was my idea. I also made a Blueberry Cream Ale. It was spectacular. When we served it we put fresh blueberries in the glass and they would float to the top. It was so gimmicky. People loved it. Blaze thought it was blasphemy,” says Casey. “I’ve been fired by Blaze twice,” he admits cheerfully.

Laura’s analysis of the dynamic is more diplomatic. “Casey and I are spontaneous, Blaze is more methodical and pragmatic. It’s a good balance. We push things forward, he keeps us grounded. It means we move forward in a responsible way.”

Moving forward for the brewery currently means a gradual shift to healthier choices. “We’re a pub, so we have to have burgers, fries, and other regular pub items,” Laura explains, “but each year we’re trying to pare down our less healthy items and fill our menu with foods that are more local, more organic, more healthy and fresh.” Customers’ palates are shifting in this direction, too, says Laura, as a result of a nationwide movement toward healthy, local fresh foods that is increasingly subscribed to in the Methow Valley. “When you visit the valley you don’t want to be bogged down by heavy food,” says Laura. “You want to have a beer, have a veggie wrap or a homemade black bean burger, and get back out on the trails.”

In their quest to incorporate as many locally grown and produced foods as possible into their menu, the Ruuds encountered Bluebird Grain Farms. “We have such a great Emmer Farro salad,” says Laura. “I think it’s basically one of the recipes Bluebird has on its website, but it has our tangy-sweet sauce made with Rocking Horse Bakery’s spicy mustard and some secret ingredients,” she adds mysteriously.

Other locally-produced and sourced foods on the pub’s menu include organic chevre cheese from Sunny Pine Farm, Alaskan halibut from Hank’s Market, and fair trade organic coffee from Backcountry Coffee Roasters, whose cold-pressed espresso is also used in the Backcountry Stout.

For the Ruuds, one of many unexpected joys of owning and operating Old Schoolhouse Brewery has been the roots it has established for them in the valley. With two Ruud kids brewing beer and another working in the restaurant, as well as several long-term staff, the pub truly has become a family operation. Other connections have been formed within the community, particularly with the local vendors the Ruuds rely on. “We live in Pine Forest and every day we drive past Moccasin Lake Ranch, and there is Sam [Lucy] toiling in the fields,” says Laura. “We see him growing the emmer farro that will be on the table at the pub and we are reminded that we’re a part of this network of community resources. We’re forming these connections that are so much more important than how many burgers we sell.”

Casey says “Everything we’re doing is because we value our family, our connections with our community, and our relationships with friends. The pub is simply the stage we’re on while we’re living our lives.”

Learn more about Old Schoolhouse Brewery by visiting their website.