Beermaker, bar owner team to bring new brewery to Camas

CAMAS — Camas has undergone a transition from mill town to picturesque small city throughout the last few decades, and Mike Hunsaker, who has gone through some changes himself, is looking to bring some edge to the city.

This summer, most likely in July or August, Hunsaker said he will open Grains of Wrath in the city at 425 N.E. Birch St. It is a metal- and punk-themed brewery that he said he hopes will have a ” ‘take no prisoners, make no apology’ kind of attitude.”

Before he tore the former Lemon-Aid Automotive warehouse down to its bones to build a modern, industrial-looking brewery, Hunsaker was a self-described “suit.”

“I was an account executive hating life in a cubicle,” he said.

The Washougal resident also worked as a sales director for a company that rented linens for events. Bored with all that, his friends dared him to quit to drive a truck, so he did that for about six years while living in his native Chicago. By that point, he started home brewing thanks to an affinity for beer and chemistry. He was encouraged to try to find a job in the industry, so he walked into a brewery in Virginia Beach, Va., and was hired.

“I was a suit for years in an office,” he said. “I didn’t know (what I wanted to do). I was just kind of floating, hoping at some point to get into the brewing industry. I had no idea how until I walked into that brewery one day. It was a big accident. A nice accident, but a big accident.”

Hunsaker left that Virginia brewery to take a job with Fat Head’s Brewery in Cleveland, Ohio, and after two years, he was hired as head of brewing for Fat Head’s new brewery in Portland, where residents weren’t always the most welcoming to Hunsaker and his Fat Head’s partners.

“It was a tough market for us at first,” he said. “Nobody wanted an outsider from Ohio out here.”

Hunsaker turned Fat Head’s into a respected brewery in Portland and decided it was time to move on. Now, he’s looking to figure out how to fit into Camas. He said he thinks the brewery will be a welcome addition while maybe throwing some people off in Camas, where he previously lived before moving to Washougal.

“I think a lot of these guys who live up the hill listened to music when they were younger,” Hunsaker said. “This will be a place where they can bring their families and it’ll be a little edgier, which makes a lot of the guys feel a little better about coming home from their 9-5. They can have a place to listen to music, drink some good beer and have great food.”

While living in Camas, Hunsaker struck up a friendship with Brendan Greenen, owner of Caps N’ Taps, 337 N.E. Fourth Ave., Camas. The two talked for a few years about opening a spot together, and got serious about it 12 to 14 months ago, Greenen said. They partnered with Shawn Parker and Brendan Ford, owners of Fuel Medical, 314 N.E. Birch St., Camas, and found the roughly 7,500-square-foot space, which has an outdoor patio to be used for seating with some fire pits and an addition on the building with high ceilings that Hunsaker said was “begging for a brewery.”

“They didn’t know they were building a brewery way back then,” Greenen said.

Greenen, who opened Caps N’ Taps more than three years ago, said the reaction to Grains has been mostly positive.

“It’s definitely different for Camas, but that’s our goal,” he said. “That was one of our main requirements for what we were going to do. It has to be outside of the box. It has to push the limits. Part of what we’re trying to do is we’re going to bring a younger demographic down here, which is needed.”

There will be a family seating area, and Fabiola Ponce-Wyatt was brought on as executive chef, Hunsaker said. The menu is expected to be seasonal, with rotating items during different parts of the year.

The playlist will be metal and punk heavy with some classic hip-hop thrown in, Hunsaker said, adding that guests should expect to eat and drink while enjoying some “Mot?rhead, Iron Maiden, Tool, Pelican, Metallica, Pantera, everything from Bad Brains to the Buzzcocks to all sorts of punk.”

The beer menu will feature a lot of India pale ales, Hunsaker said, adding that he expects to run the gamut a bit and have some “German-style lagers, Belgiums and a small-barrel program.”

“My true calling, I want to make a really nice Pilsner,” he said. “People think it’s boring, but that’s what I want to do.”

Doing what he wants is how Hunsaker got to this point, so he’s not going to stop now. He said he aims to “be unapologetic.”

“We’re going to do what we do: make beer, make great food, listen to great music, and they’ll get used to it,” he said.

When it comes to the people of Camas, he’s not expecting it to take too long.

“This is a cool little town,” Hunsaker said. Regarding the perception that people outside of Camas might have about the city, Hunsaker added: “It’s got a bad stigma from years of that mill, but I don’t think people realize what’s here. People want Portland-style restaurants and breweries here, and it’s time we started having more.”