Our Story

In 1996, Charlie received a Mr. Beer kit and that was when the hobby of making beer started happening. He played around and made a pilsner, pale ale, and a porter. He realized beer is a trial and error process. As time went on and Charlie and Debbie were living in Vancouver, WA almost every Saturday afternoon his friends Mark and Neil would come over to help make the beer and of course, drink it too. With encouragement from Debbie and his friends, Charlie entered the Stumpblower IPA, in an amateur beer competition in Vancouver. His talent was clearly noticed because he won first in the IPA section and fourth overall. Charlie then had motivation and fire under him to really make this happen. He started listening to Podcasts, taking beer classes, reading books, being apart of a homebrewing club and read everything there was to know about brewing. Essentially this was a hobby that got out of hand. Since Debbie wasn’t a beer drinker but loved berries, she told Charlie that if he could make a beer that she loved--then this whole opening a brewery thing could really happen. That was then when the “Buzz on Blackberry” was born. 

Charlie and Debbie decided to open the brewery in Ellensburg, Washington as they had everything pointing in this direction. Their youngest daughter lived there and Charlie had family there as well. Debbie moved to Ellensburg in 2014 and Charlie was living in Forks and didn’t move until November 2015. Charlie was working fulltime as a logger during the week and would drive to Ellensburg on Friday nights after work and spend all weekend putting work into the Taproom. Charlie’s brother Rob and “handy man” Jeff Grimness were a huge asset to opening up Whipsaw, Rob helped Charlie and Debbie during this whole process and is the creator of the unique tap handles. Whipsaw is a logging term, a two-person saw that requires a lot of teamwork. They chose this name to stick to the roots of who they are and those roots are crafted from 35-years of logging.

In February of 2015, Debbie and Charlie found the building where the taproom is now located. There were struggles but Debbie and Charlie kept working on the brewery preparations but they just kept “one foot in front of another.” After getting their licenses in hand, the grand opening of Whipsaw Brewing was February 12th, 2016. They had debuted in the Ellensburg Winterhop Brewfest in January 2016 and that is how they got their name around town for the first time. When they opened, on tap in the taproom was only the Buzz on Blackberry, Smashed blonde, Hoot Owl Stout, and the Stumpblower IPA. They received an overwhelming response when getting positive feedback from their fans and their friends. Now in year four of Whipsaw being open--both Charlie and Debbie still can’t believe where they are at today. They are most blown away by the community support because they wanted to create a place where people could walk through the doors and forget what is happening in the outside world. Charlie and Debbie are so thankful for their fans and support and are very happy to be here.

Charlie and Debbie hit their 5-year goals during year three. They started the taproom with only four tap handles and now have 13 and a production facility. They just recently started distributing cans of the Buzz on Blackberry and Stumpblower IPA. They are still learning the process and as Charlie says “Hurry up and fail, come to decisions slowly, then change it fast.” Through the whole process they remind themselves to not make it all about work, but to take a moment to enjoy the journey. Whipsaw is going places, it is just a matter of getting there.

“With dedication to the quality of our craft and commitment to our community, we strive to produce extraordinary beer with an old-school mentality” -Charlie Tierney