Colette Boilini and Derek Brown
Bizarre Brewing | Seattle, WA
December 2025
At 19, Derek Brown quit his job at a custom orthotics factory in Snohomish, Washington and moved to Seattle. Brown, who had developed an interest in beer and home brewing after reading John J. Palmer’s How to Brew, got his first industry job at Jillian’s, where he got a sense for hospitality and service before taking over the beer program and connecting with local breweries in the area. In 2011, Brown joined the team at The Wurst Place, where he dove into the bar’s imported and craft beer selections. After a stint at The Beer Junction, he started bartending at Fremont Brewing before transitioning to their large scale production team. Over the next two years, he grew into a more creative role—experimenting with cask, nitro, and manipulated finished beers—and met his future partner, Colette Boilini. In 2016, Brown started brewing full time at Holy Mountain Brewing, where he refined his skills as a brewer and explored a wide range of techniques, processes, ingredients, and styles over the next five years.
Boilini, on the other hand, got her start at a breakfast spot in Indiana when she was 16 years old. After college, she moved to Wisconsin and started working at Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co., launching a passion for and career in the beer industry. Boilini moved back home to help her brother run a craft cocktail bar before joining the team at Wicked Weed Brewing in Asheville, North Carolina, absorbing as much as she could from the city’s thriving beer scene and reading about the craft in her spare time. In 2014, she moved out to Seattle and started at Fremont Brewing, where she met Brown and gained experience working around large scale production and operations. Boilini left in 2016 and spent the next six years working at Rising Stars alum Steve Luke’s Cloudburst Brewing.
In December 2022, Boilini and Brown opened Bizarre Brewing, bringing to life a project they had spent years developing together. Drawing on their experiences at breweries across the country, the couple is keen on educating guests and creating an approachable, inviting space for all. With an eclectic, rotating list featuring lagers, kölsches, pale ales, English stouts, and more, Bizarre Brewing is brewing beer that speaks to the history and regionality of different styles and techniques while personalizing them with seasonal ingredients from the Pacific Northwest.
