Echoes Brewing: A Brewer’s Resurrection

Echoes Brewmaster J Mark Hood

In looking through past posts in The Pour Fool, I was astonished to find that the last time I did a post about Echoes Brewing, of tiny Poulsbo, Washington, was 2021. December 27th of 2021, in fact. At the time, Echoes was pretty much brand new and brand new breweries, as a rule, take some time to get cranked up. But around here – here being the greater Seattle area – that crank-up period has been sharply abbreviated by the fact of brewers with a TON of experience being the owners of brand new breweries. Adam Robbings, a wonky and gifted home-brewer, opened Reuben’s Brews in 2012 and it took off like a scared antelope into a level of brewing skill rarely seen, well, anywhere. Colin Lenfesty, a veteran brewer at several places around the area, opened Holy Mountain Brewing and spawned jaw-dropping ales from Day One.

It happens…but not very often.

But when J Mark Hood, brewmaster at the now-defunct Sound Brewery, Washington’s first and best specialists in Belgian-style ales, lost Sound after a client placed a mammoth order of an Imperial Stout and then stiffed him, he found new owners among his own client base and moved just across the street, into an old auto shop building. Nobody who had ever tried Sound beers was surprised when Echoes just, basically, kept right on producing at the same level. Washington’s truly iconic Belgian Abbey-style ale, Monk’s Indiscretion, was born at Sound and adopted by Echoes…but it grew up a bit in transition. The reason: Mark finally had back all the time he used to put into being Sound’s administrator and got back to brewing. His ideas evolved. His skills had already evolved when Echoes first opened. And in the years since, I contend and will continue to say, Echoes Brewing – right now, not someday down the road – is one of the best and most significant breweries in the Pacific Northwest.

Monk’s has undergone not so much of an evolution as a readjustment. Mark’s original recipe called for a different grain bill than what his assistant at Sound wound up “improving” it to. The hops changed just slightly but came more to the forefront. The net result is that the Echoes Monk’s is to the Sound Monk’s what a finished house is to framing. Monk’s sings. It’s spicy and a touch sweet and prettily bitter and, for Belgian ale fans, a shockingly authentic ale, at the same time. I’ve been calling it one of the PNW’s iconic beers for a decade because it just IS.

The biggest difference between Sound and Echoes is Monk’s new supporting cast.

I could go on and on about what I find when I do a tasting at Echoes but my real goal, here, is to encourage anyone who reads this and ever visits the Seattle area for a beercation to get the hell OUT of Seattle, once in a while, so that they don’t miss many of the best Western Washington has to offer. When visiting Echoes, there are more Must Trys than almost any other two or three other breweries:

“Nun’s Bad Habit“: A near-perfect Belgian-style IPA, which I MAY have had a had in getting made, as I suspect Mark may have gotten tired of reading my constant whining on Facebook about how nobody’s making Belgian IPAs, anymore. Well, he did make one and it beats the mortal HELL out of my old standby: 60% Boneyard IPA and 40% Blue Moon. Currently it is NOT in can for carry-out…damnit.

“Dubbel Entendre”: 7.8% ABV. 20 IBU. Authentic enough for Euro-snots but twisted in a distinctly Northwest-y direction, with a distinct hops pop but gorgeous roasted notes and a velvety dark color that lives up to its promise.

“M.O.A.T.” Mother Of All Triples“: A towering rethinking of the classic Belgian Tripel, a strong ale style that throws a crafty change-up from the far darker and maltier Belgian Dubbel, with a crisp golden clarity and brawny ABV and hops backbone. This is an ale you approach with caution because it doesn’t taste that high-octane but it will produce knee-wobbles, quick-like.

Kölsch: A dead-on authentic German-style Kölsch, right down to the natural minerality and roughly 50ppm saltiness of the famous Cologne refresher. This is one of the cleanest US Kölsch beers I’ve ever found and its use of ale yeast to ferment a lager lends some different and intriguing grace notes.

“The Ripple”, Echoes’ basic IPA.
“The Wave”, a BIG, fresh, hops-forward Imperial IPA that stands out in the tsunami of IIPAs in the West for its complexity and flat refusal to just be “dank”.
“Oktoberfest”: As far as I am concerned, THE single best American Märzen/Octoberfest beer made by anyone, anywhere.
Micro Mocha Milk Stout: 4% ABV! FOUR PERCENT. And yet it tastes like it should be about 8-9% and has muscle that never shows up in low-ABV beers. This is made with cacao husks, pounds of ’em, and the chocolate is soft but emphatic.
Poundage Porter: (Or, as their website says “Poter”, which MAY be deliberate.)
“Echouator” Dopplebock
“Tsumani“ “Triple IPA
“Pākehā” New Zealand Pilsner(!)
“The Rice is Light!” Rice Lager
Rauchbier: Again, near-perfect!

And so on. There is NO beer at Echoes that even sinks to “average”.

In keeping with the newly slimmed-down Pour Fool, what I ask from you is to Get Outside The Box. (The “box” being Seattle, in this state) By ALL means DO visit Portland and Seattle. Visit Hood River and Bend and Bellingham and Vancouver and Spokane and Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, too. BUT…DO NOT miss the smaller places, like Stevenson, Washington, and the titanic Walking Man Brewing, or east of Yakima, WA, for a stop at Bale Breaker Brewing, or TINY Winthrop, waaay up there in the central mountains of WA State, where the stunning Old Schoolhouse Brewing rules the beer roost…or a MANDATORY stop in picturebook Astoria, Oregon, at the mouth of the mighty Columbia, home to the TOWERING Fort George Brewing (and THE best fish & chips you will EVER find, from Bowpickers!)..and certainly DO not miss that little slice of Norway that fell off and rolled into the far corner of America: Poulso, Washington, where you’ll find Rainy Daze Brewing and the EPICALLY experimental, often-brilliant Slippery Pig Brewing, or the northern version of Bend’s iconic Boneyard, Valholl Brewing, or the rock solid, crowd pleasing Western Red Brewing…and especially do NOT miss – even if you have to make a BIG side-trip, Echoes Brewing Company of Poulsbo, Washington…one of the truly great breweries in all of the American West.