Newest Bellingham brewery aiming for quality beer at a neighborhood hangout

Stemma Brewing Co. may have just opened, but it’s been a nearly decade long dream for Jason Harper.

Harper and his wife, Kim, opened the brewery on June 29 at 2039 Moore St., near Interstate 5 and Iowa Street. It currently offers five Stemma beers and two locally made ciders on tap. A food truck called Mr. Frank’s “The Bus” is expected to open there in coming weeks.

Jason Harper has been home brewing since 2010. While at Western Washington University he wrote a business plan on a brewery for one of his classes in 2011, a time when Boundary Bay Brewery and Chuckanut Brewery were the main local breweries in Bellingham. After graduating from Western he needed to make some money for his brewery idea to happen, so he landed a job at Dickerson Distributors.