Bill Jenkins (middle) with Dick Cantwell (left) and Kim Jordan (right).

All good things come to an end. Bill Jenkins has been Head Brewer at Big Time Brewery since 2004, but he will soon be leaving his position to spend more time with his family. Bill is well-known in the local beer scene and has continuously churned out quality beer from the small brewpub in the Udistrct.

Bill plans to hang out with the kids, work on the house, and just enjoy life for a while. But, he won’t stay away from brewing forever. When asked if he’ll ever get back into brewing, Bill responded: “Yeah, I definitely will. Brewing is what I like to do, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Big Time does not have a replacement for Bill solidified at this point, but they are working on it and may name a successor at the end of the week.

There will more than likely be some sort of going away party for Bill, where he says they may have to pull some gems he has been saving out of the basement. Stay tuned for more information on that.

Good luck to Bill. Big Time is one of my favorite breweries in Seattle, and it’s hard to imagine not seeing him back there brewing when I sit down at the bar for a beer.

Here is a profile of Bill’s brewing career from the Big Time web page:

Bill Jenkins, seen here admiring a glass of Old Sol, has a long and illustrious brewing career.

Bill first began home brewing in Seattle in 1990. His first Brewing job was at the original Pike Place Brewing in 1991. In 1995 he became the assistant brewer at Big Time and moved up to Head Brewer in 1996. In 1997 he moved to Ireland and helped start up a brewery in Dublin.

Bill moved back to Seattle and back to Pike brewing in 1998. He was briefly back at Big Time as an assistant brewer before moving on to Hales Brewery were he spent 3 years brewing the open fermentation. Finally, in January of 2004 Bill came back to Big Time as Head Brewer.

Bill also found time to get married and have 2 sons.