Tap Handle #765: Heavy Metal Brewing - Metal Meltdown American IPA

December 21, 2020

Tap Handle #765: Heavy Metal Brewing - Metal Meltdown American IPA

Tap size: 8.75"

Rarity: less than 10 seen, small scale

Mounting: standard 3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

Many thanks to Dave of Heavy Metal Brewing for selling me one of his taps for entry into the Museum and giving me a sit down interview for this post. It's one of the few times I've been able to walk into a brewery, talk to the owner, and walk out with a tap. Although it's a bit on the smaller side, the tap makes up for it with detail and character. This guitar-playing wooden tiki with a flaming head is sitting on his knees, while shredding a v-neck guitar. He wears a grass skirt and grass anklets and wristbands. A sign displaying the name of the brewery rests just below the guitar, and the tiki character is actually kneeling on top of a loudspeaker stack. On each side of the loudspeakers is a place to put a label for the beer variety. But one of the most awesome features of the tap is that the tiki character is a bobblehead. It's fun to just give the bobblehead a little push and watch this guy rock out! Speaking of the tiki character, Dave was able to provide me with more details about the design. A local musician named Jason Raines, who plays in an Iron Maiden tribute band and is an established artist involved in Hollywood set building, worked with Dave to come up with the character concept. Dave wanted a tiki character because his wife was from Hawaii, but it also needed to have some heavy metal elements. The character (who does not have a name...yet) became a blend of a tiki, Groot, and due to Raines's Iron Maiden influence, a little bit of Eddie (an iconic Iron Maiden character). The "Flying V" guitar and loudspeakers further solidify the heavy metal ties.

If you've been following the site closely, you will know that in this post, Heavy Metal Brewing's tiki tap won 2 ATH (Amazing Tap Handle) awards, including the highest honor, 2020 Tap of the Year.

Click through to read more about Heavy Metal Brewing, their Metal Meltdown American IPA, and to see more photos of this head banging tap...

Heavy Metal Brewing Company was founded in 2015 in Vancouver, Washington by Dave Miner and Todd Anderson. As an accomplished homebrewer for 10 years who loved 80's rock music and played in a band, Miner decided to start a brewery using his love of that music as the driving theme. Taking over a 3000 square foot space that had once accommodated a convenience store in what was called the Tower Mall area of Vancouver, Miner left all of the convenience store's coolers in place, while building out a spot for the brewing equipment. When the brewpub opened its doors in 2015, only two other breweries in the area were getting started, Fortside and Heathen. For the first year, Heavy Metal was a bottle and pizza shop as the brewery was being built. Miner contracted with Doomsday Brewing of nearby Washougal to brew their core beer, Metal Meltdown American IPA.

Miner installed a 7 barrel system and began brewing beer on site in 2016. About 6 months, Anderson decided to move on, leaving Miner and his wife as the sole owners. The brewery is a family friendly establishment that features a long bar next to the long wall of coolers, which have been loaded with a huge volume of bottles from various breweries. A stage sits against the far wall with lighting rigs to accommodate live performances from local bands and artists of varying music genres, and a big screen TV is on the wall behind it, playing rock concert videos. The brewery has 25 taps, with 12-18 of their own core beers and small batch beers on tap at any one time, and the remainder being guest beers and ciders. Heavy Metal serves 95% of all their beers in house, with limited local distribution, including some small scale bottling for select accounts. Miner considers his crew as "family", with a work environment that is like a family atmosphere.