Tap Handle #286: Planet Orca - Killer Ale

There are two versions of this tap, and this one is the older style. I was lucky enough to make contact with Doug Bison, one of the owners of Planet Orca, who filled me in on much of the information I was missing regarding this tap, as well as the brewery. As an artist and sculptor, Bison created the original “Spy Hopping” Orca as a model for the tap.  The handles were manufactured by a tap maker in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, Washington. It is a great tap, really beautiful and detailed.

Planet Orca was founded by Doug Bison and Ken Jacobson in the 1990s in Friday Harbor, Washington on San Juan Island ("the orca capital of the world"). The primary mission of Planet Orca was to advance the public's awareness of orca issues in their natural habitat through education, research, publicity and promotion, while involving government, industry, universities, tribes, environmental organizations and the public. Planet Orca served as a for-profit marketing, merchandising and fundraising partnership for the non-profit Team Orca organization, whose members contributed through resources, education and/or participation in orca projects planet wide. Their motto was: "Planet Orca: where man teams with nature and both thrive."

Planet Orca produced dozens of items from clothing, hats, apparel and merchandise to toys and orca awareness material that was distributed nationwide. Killer Ale was one of their products, and it was produced and distributed throughout the Northwest by the Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Company. Eventually Planet Orca ceased brewing Killer Ale. Bison still owns the Killer Ale brand name for beer production in the U.S., and is interested in getting back into production someday, possibly through contract brewing.

There is no entry for Killer Ale or Planet Orca on ratebeer.com.

There is no website link for this tap.