Cloudburst Brewing

Seven people in a loading zone off Western Avenue won Brewery and Brewer of the Year at the 2021 GABF. Bale Breaker bought the place in May 2026 and Steve Luke moved to New Zealand.

Why go

Luke left Elysian and opened Cloudburst in Belltown in 2016.2 He kept it small on purpose. Seven full-time staff, about 95 percent of the beer sold inside Seattle city limits, and a production room and tasting bar in a 120-year-old building north of Pike Place.1 3 In 2021 that won the small brewery Brewery and Brewer of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival, and the judges named Luke and his lead brewer Zach Kornfeld.1 Tan Vinh's line on the aftermath is the one to picture: the celebration was short-lived, because Luke and his staff had to scramble to Yakima that week to pick up hops for the fresh brews.1 In May 2026 Bale Breaker acquired the business outright and Luke moved to Mangawhai Heads in New Zealand.2

Order this / avoid

Order: a fresh-hop beer if you are here in autumn. They sell out fast and always did.1
Order: Happy Little Clouds, the pilsner that took GABF silver in 2021.1
Order: Entschuldigung! if the kellerbier is on. It won gold the same year.1
Avoid: bringing kids to this door. Western Ave is 21 and over; the Ballard beer garden on Shilshole is all ages.3

What locals & experts say

Jeff Alworth, Beervana, on the IPAs (written 2020, re-quoted 22 May 2026): Cloudburst IPAs feature balance and harmony amid intensity, saturated juicy flavors, appreciable (but far from violent) bitterness, and a spectacular quenching dryness that make them dangerously drinkable. Writing again in 2026 he said he might have added that a Cloudburst IPA was immediately recognizable, which is one of the highest compliments I can pay a brewery.2
The Infatuation, on the Western Ave room: the tasting room reads like a narrow garage with beer in it, and the house pick is any of the IPAs or the Happy Little Clouds pilsner.4
Great American Beer Festival, 2021: Brewery and Brewer of the Year, small brewery category, defined in the Seattle Times report as 1,001 to 2,000 barrels a year.1
Steve Luke on hearing about it (Seattle Times, 2021): It was a shock. It's something you always dream of, but it's so hard to get.1

Good to know

New owners, May 2026. Bale Breaker bought the brewery outright, Luke emigrated, and Alworth writes that the brand is surviving. Every published word on the beer here predates the sale.2
Which door: this entry is 2116 Western Ave, the production room and tasting bar. The Ballard site at 5456 Shilshole Ave NW is a heated beer garden with a food truck.3
Hygiene: King County inspected Western Ave on 20 March 2026 at 5 violation points, rolling grade Excellent.5

Verdict

should-visit — A national competition put this brewery and its brewer top of the small-brewery class in 2021, and two of its beers medalled the same year, gold for the kellerbier and silver for the pilsner. That is about as hard as beer evidence gets. Jeff Alworth writes about beer for a living and his note names a mechanism, a quenching dryness under saturated hop flavor, so it is a judgment and not a listing. Every published word on this beer, his included, predates May 2026, when the founder sold to Bale Breaker and left for New Zealand. The rung rests on what the house did win and the confidence rests on nobody having tasted what the new owners pour.

Cloudburst Brewing.