Local ingredients, native yeast, subtlety, balance, & nuance in NW WA

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Garden Path Fermentation is looking for a hard-working, creative, organized, and inspired individual to join our team in Skagit Valley, Washington, where we make beer, wine, cider, mead, and other fermented beverages using hyperlocal ingredients and 100% native yeast, and operate an onsite tasting room and bottle shop.

We’re a very small company (there are currently 7 of us), where we all work together to achieve our collective mission to capture the unique flavor and terroir of what’s around us and of each passing season while also striving to maintain a sense of subtlety, balance, and nuance. We all help out in a variety of different areas, placing a high value on community, cooperation, and inclusiveness, and genuinely enjoy spending time together both in and outside of work.

Qualified applicants should also feel a deep, personal connection to our mission, contribute positively toward our team dynamic, have a strong passion for the type of products that we make and sell, and have extensive experience and expertise in multiple areas listed below:

• Trade Sales & Representation
• Service / Front-of-house / Retail Wine & Beer
• Website / Online Store
• Event Organization
• Tasting Room Management / Scheduling / Operations
• Marketing / Social Media / Communication
• Building & Fixing Things
• Business Operations / Bookkeeping / Finance
• Distribution
• Assisting with:
  • Packaging / Cellar Operations
  • Orchard / Vineyard Maintenance
  • Production

We know this sounds like a lot, but these are all things split among the team right now, and we could use some more help. We’re looking for someone who’s excited about working in a close-knit team setting and carving out their own unique role based on their passions and talents in a small but multifaceted business. Title, specific job responsibilities, and compensation will all be determined based on qualifications and interests.

The events of the last year have forced us to make a number of changes to how we operate and to reconsider some of our plans for the future. We’re looking for someone who can help us to make that transition and prepare for what’s next as we work to move beyond the current crisis. If this all sounds exciting and you think you might be the right fit, please send a cover letter and current resume to jobs@gardenpathwa.com.

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A few more details about us...

Our facility is located at the Port of Skagit, adjacent to Skagit Regional Airport in an agri-business park containing 477 acres of protected wetlands and 10 miles of hiking/biking trails. Skagit Valley Malting, where we source 100% of our malt, Chuckanut Brewery’s South Nut Brewery and Taproom, Skagit Valley College’s Cardinal Craft Brew Academy, the Washington State University Bread Lab, which also serves as home to the King Arthur Baking School, Cairnspring Mills, a new casual farm-to-table restaurant, and a new artisan bakery are all less than 1/2 mile away.

Skagit is a rural, largely agricultural county of 130,000 people, stretching from the Salish Sea to the Cascade Mountains. We’re situated approximately 65 miles north of Seattle and 50 miles south of the Canadian border. Bellingham, a lively, small city of 90,000 and home of Western Washington University, is 25 miles away.

In addition to our on-site activities, we also help to care for the WSU Mount Vernon Research Orchard and a small private vineyard in exchange for access to the fruit, and work closely with a number of local farmers to source our ingredients. We’re also actively seeking opportunities to create an on-farm site where we can offer a true seed-to-glass experience, and a possible future in-town tasting room and bottle shop.

Up to now, we have been producing the majority of our wort at Chuckanut Brewery’s South Nut location, 1/4 mile down the road, and transporting it back to our facility for fermentation with our native house culture and/or airborne yeast, making only small pilot batches entirely in-house. We will soon be adding a 12bbl on-site brewhouse, however, which will offer us a number of new opportunities on the brewing front. Though our current search is not production-specific, we will be also be looking for an experienced brewer to join our team in a few months time, as on-site brewing operations continue to scale up and our current lead brewer prepares to launch his own project.