Our Story
Optimism drives everything we do—how we work, engage with our customers and treat our employees. We want to promote optimism and celebrate optimists, because they are the ones who improve the world. Plus, optimists have more fun.
Founder’s Story
Optimism Brewing Company was founded in 2013 by husband and wife, Troy Hakala and Gay Gilmore. As long-time Capitol Hill residents, Troy and Gay were determined to build the brewery in their beloved neighborhood because of its rich culture and diversity. While building an enormous 16,000 sq. ft. brewery in the middle of one of Seattle’s most sought-after neighborhoods was certainly not an inexpensive endeavor, Troy and Gay had their hearts and minds set on raising their brewery in the same place they raised their children.
After over a year of location scouting and another two years of construction and rehabilitation of the 100-year old warehouse upon which we built the brewery’s foundation, we officially opened our doors and served our first beers on December 5, 2015: the anniversary of the Repeal of Prohibition.
What Optimism
Means to Us
We believe a company should personify the ideals and personalities of its founders and that its culture should be built around their values. Like anyone taking on a new challenge—such as starting and running a business—we make a lot of mistakes, get hit with bad luck, struggle, and fail far more often than we succeed. But when we fail, our optimism helps us fail forward by giving us the humility to embrace the failure, the patience to learn from it, and the will to try again.
Our optimism also helps us succeed by allowing us to always look on the bright side of things and believe in ourselves despite the odds stacked against us. Optimism makes challenging things seem possible. It’s the will to challenge yourself, to embrace and learn from failure, and to stay positive in the process.
