Bud Ransom grew up in Bellingham, WA before moving to Seattle to attend Cornish College as a music composition major. Through college and after graduating he worked as a craft cocktail bartender, until 2016 when he founded Ravenna Brewing Company with his sister and brother-in-law. As owner and operations manager he’s guided their growth from a tiny nanobrewery into the award-winning distribution microbrewery and taproom they are today.
Key Points Summary by Michelle Lee
Bud did bartending while going to Cornish College. He and his sister, Elise, had been thinking about starting some sort of eatery like a café, while his brother-in-law, Tommy, was a home brewer accumulating recipes and winning awards…… thus the three of them founded a brewery.
They found a location in the Ravenna neighborhood. The space was in rough condition and no plumbing, but it was cheap. They did not have any cash flow and basically did the tenant improvement themselves through watching YouTube videos. Bud and his dad did the drawing themselves with an architectural scale ruler to apply for permit. During construction, Bud made sure he would stop and talk to anybody who came by, showed them the progress and talked about what beer were being brewed. This interrupted the progress but helped build neighborhood support that growlers were filled even before the official opening.
Thanks to a post on Seattle Reddit, the line went out the door and around the block on the grand opening date April 15, 2016. The brewery only opened from Thursday to Sunday in the beginning, then added Wednesday in August and then had its first trivia Tuesday in January 2017. After the first year build out and six months in operation, Bud, Elise and Tommy finally got their first paychecks.
In mid-2018, their landlord told them the next door space was available. They might not be ready to expand and they also knew that they had to take over the space which might not be available again. The extra space could also help solve the capacity problem, they could not brew fast enough especially for the very busy summer. In August 2019, their expansion was completed. Their fermentation capacity increased almost 3 times from 868 gallons to 2,263 gallons. They thought that they would have a smooth and easy summer in 2020.
Then it same the pandemic shutdown on March 15, 2020. They knew that they needed to continue the momentum and served their customers. They did not shut down for one day and kept working on the growler machine. With the loyal neighborhood support, they had beer-to-go. To survive the pandemic, they did not rest and stayed aggressive. In August and October 2020, they further increased their fermentation capacity to 3,441 gallons and added automatic canning line to meet the pandemic induced demand for to-go beer and diversify to wholesale.
Again in November 2020, during the second big wave of pandemic, another next door space became available for sale, they knew that they needed to make it happen. The additional space will serve as a brewing space, a private party space and office space, so that Bud and Elise do not need to work from their backpack anymore. The fermentation capacity will be 5,983 gallon, almost 7 times the original capacity, when this expansion is completed in August 2021.
Why it worked:
- Service at the forefront of everything – Bud is sensitive in cultivating a warm and welcoming atmosphere and in building the community.
- Partnership with opposing strengths, but equal drive – Tommy and Bud are different people, “without Tommy, they could not open the brewery; without Bud and Elise, the brewery would have been burnt down by now”.
- Hire the person, not the resume – only 3 people quit in their 5-year history due to moving to Colorado or finding a full time job for what they went to college for.
- Don’t be afraid to be trendy – they brew what people want and have not repeated a recipe.
- Empower, reward, and retain talent – employee are allowed to have flexible working hours to go back to school or part time, can move to operation management or distribution if interested.
According to one review on Yelp:
Excellent beer, excellent people. This neighborhood brewery worked hard to spruce up a small shop into a great place to enjoy some beer. As of opening weekend they have come out with some inventive brews such as a Jalapeño Kölsch, a Peach Hefeweizen, and a Bourbon Vanilla Porter. Don’t let the fancy names scare you off though. Clean, balanced flavors and reasonable prices rule here; they pour both 16oz pints (around $5-6) and 5oz tasters (around $2-2.5). Growler fills coming soon; their supply needs to catch up with their overwhelming opening weekend demand.
While they don’t have a kitchen, they have partnered with food trucks who park right outside and serve their wares.
Come by, say hello, have a beer, and enjoy!
