Tag Archives: liquor and cannabis board

Poulsbo has a lot of breweries, but it’s not quite ‘Brew City USA’

blog.valhollPoulsbo is about to get a fourth brewery.

As we reported last week, Silverdale’s Rainy Daze Brewing will move north late this summer to take over Sound Brewery‘s original tasting room on Bovela Lane. (Sound is moving its tasting room to the current Campana’s Italian Restaurant building on Viking Avenue.)

B0013216035--291405Rainy Daze will join Sound, Slippery Pig Brewery and Valholl Brewing in Little Norway.

With four breweries in a city of less than 10,000 residents, Poulsbo will certainly have an embarrassment of malty riches. So it’s fun to wonder where Poulsbo rates among craft beer crazy towns.

There are all kinds of ways to rank cities and states based on beer. Which has the most breweries? The most breweries relative to population? What city produces the most barrels or consumes the most beer? And which has the “best” breweries?

When it comes to breweries per capita at least, Poulsbo isn’t ready to claim the title of “Brew City USA,” as it was recently dubbed in the North Kitsap Herald.

There are a number of cities here in Washington with higher ratios of breweries to people. After all, we live in a state with more than 300 licensed breweries and a lot of very small cities.

Using a database of licensed breweries from 2015 provided by the Liquor and Cannabis Board, and the state’s official population estimates, I put together a quick list of Washington cities blessed with high brewery-to-population ratios. I ignored breweries that didn’t report any production in 2015 and stuck with incorporated cities.

Poulsbo
Population: 9,950
Breweries: 4 (once Rainy Daze opens)
Ratio: 1 brewery per 2,488 residents

Westport
Population: 2,110
Breweries: 3
Ratio: 1 brewery per 703 residents

Stevenson
Population: 1,530
Breweries: 2
Ratio: 1 brewery per 765 residents

Roslyn
Population: 890
Breweries: 1
Ratio: 1 brewery per 890 residents

La Conner
Population: 895
Breweries: 1
Ratio: 1 brewery per 895 residents

White Salmon
Population: 2,420
Breweries: 1
Ratio: 1 brewery per 2,420 residents.

Based on a quick scan, it does appear Poulsbo could become the smallest city in the state with four or more breweries. That by itself would be an accolade worth toasting.

Marijuana grow licensed in North Kitsap

The Liquor and Cannabis board approved a recreational marijuana business last week for a space at Twelve Trees Business Park in North Kitsap.

The new producer/processor is called Sound Extracts.

It’s the twelfth marijuana production company licensed in the county. Unlike retail licenses, there is no cap on the number of producer and processor licenses the state will approve.

Port Orchard area now has six marijuana stores

po.potThe Liquor and Cannabis Board approved two recreational marijuana stores off Mile Hill Drive this month, bringing the Port Orchard area’s total to six.

Both new retailers appear to be just outside city limits. (Click on the image at right to see all six locations.)

A store called Fillabong was approved March 10 for a space at 4978 SE Mile Hill Drive. Fillabong also had a Silverdale location licensed in February.

This week, the board approved a shop at 1762 Village Lane SE, in the South Park Village retail center. Its name: A Recreational Marijuana Store.

The addition of the Port Orchard Fillabong and A Recreational Marijuana Store raise Kitsap’s count of marijuana retailers to 13.

Four Port Orchard stores are already operating along the Bethel Road corridor (though one is currently suspended).

The state will allow a total of 20 marijuana retail outlets in Kitsap, meaning there are seven licenses still up for grabs, including five in the county at large.

About 40 applicants are vying for the remaining slots. An application period for retail licenses closes March 31.

How are Kitsap’s existing marijuana shops faring? Here’s an updated look at sales trends:

37 vying for final retail marijuana licenses

The state has nine marijuana licenses left to issue in Kitsap County and nearly 40 applicants are vying to receive them.

The Liquor and Cannabis Board opened a new application period for retail licenses in October, as the state laid the ground work for rolling the medical marijuana industry into the recreational system.

The board announced Monday it would stop taking applications at the end of March.

As of Tuesday, 37 retail applications were pending in Kitsap (see map above). The state will allow 20 total retail outlets in the county. Eleven licenses have already been issued, leaving nine to dole out.

Here’s a breakdown of applications and license allotments by jurisdiction:

Applications are being processed under three priority tiers, according to a Liquor and Cannabis Board release:

  • Priority 1: Applicants who applied for a marijuana retail license prior to July 1, 2014, operated (or were employed by) a collective garden prior to January 1, 2013, have maintained a state and local business license and have a history of paying state taxes and fees.
  • Priority 2: Applicants who operated (or were employed by) a collective garden prior to January 1, 2013, have maintained a state and local business license and have a history of paying state taxes and fees.
  • Priority 3: applicants are those who do not meet priority 1 or 2 criteria.

Since October, the board has received 162 priority 1 applications, 63 priority 2 applications and 879 priority 3 applications with 166 still awaiting prioritization, according to the release.

I corrected the license allocation graphic in this post to reflect a second Bainbridge Island application. Both island applications are for the same Miller Bay Road address.

Silverdale gets a marijuana store

A recreational marijuana store is finally coming to Kitsap’s commercial hub.

The state Liquor and Cannabis Board has approved a Silverdale store called Fillabong, located at 2839 NW Kitsap Place, just east of the mall. It’s the first recreational store approved in Central Kitsap, though there are a few medical dispensaries in the area.

The addition of Fillabong brings Kitsap’s count of licensed pot stores to 11 (not counting the Suquamish Tribe’s Agate Dreams). The state plans to issue 20 retail licenses in the county.

Another 11 marijuana producers and processors are licensed in Kitsap.

Port Townsend marijuana processor moving to Kingston

A marijuana processor established in Port Townsend is moving to Kingston.

The state Liquor and Cannabis Board approved a location change for processor THC Express on Wednesday.

THC Express was located off Highway 20, just south of Port Townsend. It will shift its operation to a business park at  26121 Calvary Lane, off Bond Road.

 

THC Express is the 22nd recreational marijuana business in Kitsap, joining the county’s 10 established producer/processors and 11 retailers. It’s the first in the county to hold only a processor license. Other processors in Kitsap are also licensed as producers (growers).

In other cannabis news, retail sales of recreational marijuana dipped slightly in January, according to state records.

Click here for more marijuana industry posts.

Marijuana store approved in Gorst

Marijuana shops keep sprouting in the south end of Kitsap County.

Thursday the state Liquor and Cannabis Board approved a license for a recreational marijuana retailer called GreenX3, located at 4235 Olympic Drive W in Gorst.

Just last week a shop called Legal Marijuana Superstore got the green light on Bethel Road. 

The addition of GreenX3 brings Kitsap’s count of legal retailers to 10 (not including a tribal store in Suquamish). The state plans to issue up to 20 retail licenses in the county.

There are another 10 licensed producers/processors in the county.

Zoom in on the map above to see all the county’s licensed marijuana businesses.

Kitsap marijuana sales rebounded in December

crockpot18_7542038_ver1.0_640_480Kitsap County’s first slump in legal marijuana sales proved short lived.

Revenue from licensed recreational marijuana stores rebounded in December, after dipping in November for the first time since the launch of the fledgling industry.

Statewide sales followed a similar trend, according to stats released this month by the state Liquor and Cannabis Board.

In Kitsap, eight shops reported a combined $1,439,266 in gross sales in December, marking a 10 percent gain from November. The county finished the calendar year with about $11.71 million in retail marijuana sales.


Like stats? Check out my big page of embeddable Kitsap County infographics.

How a Bremerton Safeway got its liquor license suspended

Customers who stopped to grab a six-pack last weekend at the Callow Avenue Safeway left empty handed.

CMZqmCzVEAIP-BlShoppers found the alcohol aisle shrouded in black plastic. An orange sign warned the store’s liquor license had been suspended from Aug. 13 through Aug. 18.

How did one of Bremerton’s busiest grocery stores get its liquor license temporarily pulled?

Through a series of missteps, according to a spokesman for the state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board.

It began in June, when the Safeway was cited for selling alcohol to a minor during a routine compliance check.

Because it was the store’s first citation in the past two years, management was given the choice of a $500 fine or five-day suspension (repeat offenders are automatically suspended).

Naturally, the store chose to pay the fine.

The problem, according to the Liquor and Cannabis spokesman, was Safeway failed to deliver a check to the board within the 20 days allotted for payment. Missing the deadline triggered a five-day suspension and the orange signs went up.

How unusual is it for a store to get its liquor license suspended? Pretty unusual, it turns out.

In the past 12 months the Callow Safeway was the only store in Kitsap County to have a suspension handed down.