Seattle-born Josh Pfriem started like so many Pacific Northwest hop romantics do — hunched over a kettle in his early 20s at Western Washington University, steam in his glasses, ambition in the air. Then came the ski-bum chapter in Utah, because of course it did: snow, elevation, and shifts at Utah Brewers Cooperative, where fermentation met mountain altitude and the résumé quietly leveled up.
He boomeranged back to Bellingham to brew at Chuckanut Brewery, polishing lagers until they gleamed and helping the team snag Great American Beer Festival Small Brewpub of the Year in 2009 — a tidy little flex for a brewery obsessed with doing things the right way, not the loud way. Hood River called next. A stint at Full Sail. And then, in December 2011, the leap: striking out to build something bearing his own slightly rebellious lowercase “p.” By August 2012, pFriem Family Brewers stood across the highway from Full Sail, posted along the Columbia River like it had always meant to be there — wind, water, and world-class beer in constant conversation.
Fast forward through a decade of refinement, expansion, and quiet domination, and pFriem has tuned up the brewery yet again — upgraded the guts, polished the gears, made room for the hiss and click of canning lines. And today, the first pFriem cans — IPA and Pilsner — land at Peaks & Pints, bright cylinders of river-forged intention.
Naturally, we celebrate accordingly. Craft Beer Crosscut 3.1.19: A Flight of pFriem Now In Cans — because sometimes evolution sounds like a can cracking open, crisp as Columbia Gorge wind.
Craft Beer Crosscut 3.1.19: A Flight of pFriem Now In Cans
pFriem Bosbessen
6% ABV, 6 IBU
pFriem’s brewers dump 1,000 pounds of fresh Draper blueberries into their Lambic-style base beer to create Bosbessen, which is more blueberries than last year. Using a malt bill that consists of 60 percent malted barley and 40 percent wheat, the brewers use aged hops but without a coolship. Instead they used a heat exchanger to chill the wort before inoculating with a lambic mixed culture of yeast and bacteria. pFriem brewers then mature the base lambic-style in French oak barrels for six months before adding the blueberries from Graves Orchards at an amazing 2.7 pounds per gallon. The beer ages and fermented on the fruit for another nine months for flavors of blueberries, funk, some wood, jam and a nice, tart finish.
pFriem Pilsner
4.9% ABV, 38 IBU
Visually, the pFriem Pilsner may be the lightest beer we’ve ever seen. It pours with a delicate green tint, a fluffy white head, and a crystal-clear complexion. Pastoral aromas of flowers and meadow grains combined nicely with a typical maltiness pilsner scent. The taste is the best part, though, with a deep dryness at the back of the mouth and the faint minerality that’s so crucial to a pilsner. Though it’s a term with varying meaning, pFriem Pilsner highly “drinkable,” and perhaps dangerously so — with its lovely front-end and low carbonation, pFriem’s Pilsner goes down easy as a breeze. pFriem Pilsner is now in cans with a $10.99 six-pack price.
pFriem Citrus Zest IPA
6.3% ABV, 45 IBU
pFriem’s no dummy. They know the combination of hops and the fresh citrus zest creates bright and refreshing flavors. They figured out that a malt bill of Rahr Pale, Simpsons Caramalt, and Simpsons Crystal Dark, plus Chinook, Mosaic, and Citra hops, plus American Ale yeast plus citrus zest from tangelo and grapefruit produces flavors of tangelo, melon, papaya, and ripe fruit with a zesty, bright, and refreshing finish.
pFriem Scotch Barrel Aged Imperial Brown
12.3% ABV, 45 IBU
An imperial brown ale lives in a similar realm as an imperial stout, but more malt focused, full, strong, and balanced. pFriem uses heritage malt varieties such as Marris Otter and Golden Promise to drive this complex and luscious ale. Then, they take this round beer and age it for one year in barrels that previously housed Macallan Single Malt Scotch Whiskey. These whiskey barrels had an additional life before the Scotch. They were also home to sherry from Spain. The result is an alluring beer that is complex and dynamic that hits the nose with toffee and nutmeg, followed by bold flavors of creamy vanilla bean, Scotch, dried fruit, and cinnamon. Finishes with a touch of sherry and wood smoke, round, and warm.
pFriem IPA
7.2% ABV, 65 IBU
pFriem’s IPA is more of a Northwest IPA than West Coast IPA meaning its hazy and aromatic with assertive bitterness rather than lighter in body and brighter that is typically associated with West Coast style. pFriem’s IPA is brewed with Gambrinus Canadian Pilsner, Simpsons Caramalt, Simpsons Crystal Light and Simpsons Crystal Dark grains with Chinook, Mosaic, Citra, and Warrior hops before it ferments with American ale yeast for strong citrus character along with some tropical fruit aroma. Grapefruit and passion fruit dominate with a slight pithy/woody quality too. The malt aromas are heavily masked by the hops, but grainy sweetness and a touch of caramel come through. It’s a big, hoppy delight. pFriem IPA is now in cans with an $11.99 six-pack price.
