Gus Everson had a great career going.

Armed with an Eastern Michigan University degree in actuarial science and economics — that’s statistics, to you and me — Everson set out on a succession of jobs. Having been a math whiz and puzzle solver in high school, he rode that into success doing data analytics at places like ad agencies and Groupon, finally landing at an e-parking tech startup called ParkWiz.

Managing data sets and providing consumer insights were his thing, and they were lucrative. There was just one … little … problem.

Gus Everson was miserable.

“I was moving up that corporate ladder and unhappy at every step,” Everson says. “I finally got to my last job, and I had an amazing manager. It was a great company. I was getting paid well. And I was still super unhappy.”

The problem? He couldn’t get his mind off that batch of home brew scattered across he and his wife’s 750-square-foot Chicago apartment, “filling up the kitchenette, out on the fire escape, under the bed — anywhere and everywhere I could fit it,” he says.

“I realized, oh, it’s not the job. I’m the issue here,” he says during an interview this week with The Oregonian/OregonLive. “It was homebrewing. I was loving it. And I was like, maybe I should just be a brewer, give it a shot at the very least.”

Everson gave it a shot. And now, seven years later, the 31-year-old is set to open Recluse Brew Works in southwest Washington, the newest brewery to try its hand in the competitive Portland-Vancouver area. On Saturday, Recluse holds its grand opening, showcasing its shiny new brewhouse and sleek taproom in an industrial complex at the Port of Washougal.

Everson, whose résumé has taken a dramatic shift to now include brewer at Widmer Brothers Brewing and lead brewer at renowned Wayfinder Beer, will offer an initial line of beers that includes Bed Denim Extra Pale Ale, Lager Beer, Speciální 13 Czech-style amber lager, and Synthetic Folklore West Coast IPA.

Those styles — with variations here and there, such as Moose Man Porter, which will also be on tap — will be the focus at Recluse.

“A lot of focus on lagers, rotating pale ales and IPAs,” he says. “The one we’re going to push out there a lot is a pre-prohibition style, a blend of American and German malts and hops. I think it’s really fantastic. So often in these lager beers, it’s German or Czech malt, which are fantastic, but American malt can be good too.”

Running the taproom is Richard LaRue, a Northwest brewing industry veteran who has managed operations including The Good Society Brewery & Public House in West Seattle and Lady Justice Brewing in Denver. In Portland, he has worked the front of the house at Breakside Brewery and Migration Brewing and was the manager and events planner at North Portland’s Mayfly Taproom & Bottle Shop. He sees Recluse as a gathering space and respite for residents of Washougal and nearby Camas as well as hikers and adventurers leaving the nearby Columbia River Gorge, Captain William Clark Regional Park and Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

“We’re called Recluse, but it’s a community space,” LaRue says. “We want everyone to feel welcome here. We’re nice. We’re not beer snobs. We’ll try to have something for you.

“We’re making lagers and we think our lagers are exceptional, but if you only like IPAs and you don’t want to try our lagers, that’s OK.”

WEST COAST BOUND

With the door closed on his previous career and his eye on professional brewing, Everson was accepted into the brewing program at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago. On the day he graduated, the lease was up on the apartment. Weary of Chicago winters and the density, and with family in the Pacific Northwest, he and wife Wesley Everson put data analytics and the Midwest in the rearview mirror.

They made a home in North Portland, and he applied for and got a job working the night shift in the nearby Widmer brewhouse. Everson credits the experience with teaching him large-scale production brewing.

But with children in the future, the night shifts weren’t going to work. So after a couple of years, he applied to Wayfinder and got a job, starting out as a cellarman and delivery driver. He worked his way onto the brew deck, learning from brewmaster Kevin Denny, a renowned lager specialist, and eventually became lead brewer.

“I loved it there so much,” Everson says. “When I was in data analytics, I always wanted to start a business, but there was no passion there. So when I got into homebrewing, it was like, I would love to be a brewer. I’d love to own a brewery.

“And at Wayfinder, it was just years of loving it. I was really confident with it, and I was like, let’s put a business plan together. I’d already been working on one just like pie in the sky, but I told my wife and she does a lot of corporate coaching, and she put me through this rigorous course for figuring out exactly what I want.”

They spent a weekend in Bellingham and hammered out a plan.

“I was like, sweet, this is awesome,” Everson says. “This has all my criteria. It’s going to be two or three more years, and we’re gonna find a spot where you start building a brewery. But one of the criteria was finding a warehouse in an industrial park that’s close to the river, closer to the gorge than Portland. Then you have to press go on this.”

Three months later, the perfect spot came open. It was in an industrial park near the Columbia River near the gorge. And the price was right.

They pressed go.

RECLUSE EMERGES

Despite how many times he’s been asked, the brewery is not named for the Brown recluse spider. Instead, Everson says, it’s a self-descriptive moniker.

“I guess the name is super narcissistic of me, because I’m a bit of a recluse,” says Everson, who calls himself an introvert. “I like being around people, but I definitely get more energy being alone.”

And the “brew works” is an homage to his family, which had a boat-building business in the early 20th century called Lyman Boat Works in Sandusky, Ohio. Plus he just likes the way RBW rolls off the tongue.

He couldn’t pass up the location because it brought so many things together for him. Everson connects with the hard, hands-on work done in factories, but he’s also an outdoorsman. He likes being part of a team, but he loves solitude and large bodies of water, having grown up on Lake Erie.

“I love this area and the Pacific Northwest because it’s industry nestled in nature, and I think that’s so special,” he says.

Those thoughts led to Recluse’s eye-catching logo, as well. Everson employed StarKeep Studio of Portland for a design. After dabbling around with various animal themes, the studio’s founders, who formerly worked in design for Modern Times Beer and now do graphics for breweries such as Living Häus and Societe Brewing, eventually came up with a left hand — Everson is left-handed — with an eye peeking out through it.

“They put the hand in front of me, and it just felt right,” he says. “I think it really captures the reluctantly gregarious nature of the brand, and it’s also kind of a contradiction, because it’s like somebody who wants to see everybody but doesn’t want to be seen themselves.”

StarKeep also designed the taproom, creatively splashing color and dynamic murals across a minimalist space that nods at a mid-century modern vibe.

Everson has spent the past year preparing for Saturday. A gleaming, new, 15-barrel brewhouse occupies one side of the warehouse, and he’s been busy making beer since the beginning of October. About the same time, he and Wesley hired LaRue, who has the taproom ready to go and has also been selling kegs and cans of Recluse beer to local retailers — soon including self-distributing across the river in Oregon. A collaboration with Grains of Wrath Brewing of Camas produced a beer, Baba Yaga Czech Lager, that will also be served at the grand opening.

Grains of Wrath will soon be building a production brewery in the same complex as Recluse, with a possible taproom in the future, as well. Along with nearby 54 40 Beer, Trap Door Brewing, Shoug Brewing and Doomsday Brewing, Everson sees a cluster of beer options that could create a destination for beer lovers, along with locals.

With other food options around, the team hasn’t built Recluse as an eating-centric place. It will serve snacks and bring in occasional food trucks on weekends and for other events.

Everson knows he’s entering a competitive market in a difficult time, but he is financing the venture mostly on his own and with some Small Business Administration loans. He has no investors to worry about.

“I’m nervous, yeah, but I’ve got faith in our brand,” he says. “I’ve got faith in the product that we’re putting out. We’re walking lightly and not trying to grow super quick right away. And I think we have a really responsible business plan and really responsible growth plan.

“And, you know, it seems like people like the liquid already,” he says. “And I think … I think I just want to make people happy.”

IF YOU GO

What: Recluse Brew Works grand opening

Where: Building #20, 4035 N. Grant St., Suite 102, Washougal

When: Noon-10 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2

Details: The grand opening will feature food from Razo’s Tacos Mexican street food, with a DJ set by Whysopod

Normal hours:

• Wednesday and Thursday: noon-6 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday: noon-10 p.m.
• Sunday: noon-6 p.m.
• Monday and Tuesday: closed

Other beverages: Swift Cider on draft, various canned wines from Maker Wine, soda, apple juice, Topo Chico

Instagram: @reclusebrewworks

— Andre Meunier; sign up for my weekly newsletter Oregon Brews and News, and follow me on Instagram, where I’m @oregonianbeerguy.