by Tim Steury
The Cheese Evangelist
Kurt Dammeier ’82 is a cheese evangelist. He traces the roots
of his passion and faith to discovering Cougar Gold during his days
at Washington State University. In November, his Beecher’s
Handmade Cheese celebrates a year of business at Seattle’s
Pike Place Market with the release of its aged Flagship cheese, which
is inspired by Cougar Gold.
Even though it is only seven months old, Dammeier gives me a slice
and waits expectantly as I taste it. And yes, it reminds me of Cougar
Gold. A cheddar style, but with a creamy finish rather than the normal
sharp finish of a cheddar. But it is different. A little denser.
A little creamier. It is fabulous.
Dammeier is pleased by my response, but not surprised. He knows
how good it is.
The butterfat is higher than in Cougar Gold, he explains. The milk
Beecher’s uses contains 3.9 percent butterfat. “We’d
like to get to 4.2 percent.” Cougar Gold uses milk that contains
3.8 percent butterfat. This translates to about 35 percent butterfat
in the cheese.
The milk that makes Cougar Gold comes from the University’s
135 Holstein cows. Beecher’s buys its milk exclusively from
Cherry Valley, a small dairy farm outside of Duvall. Their cows are
primarily Jersey and Brown Swiss, lovely breeds that have largely
disappeared from American dairies, because even though they produce
a higher-fat milk, they are not so prolific as the Holsteins. In
order to boost the fat, Beecher’s itself bought an additional
40 Jerseys to add to the herd.
When he noticed one morning that Molbak’s garden store at
Pike Place was closing, Dammeier suddenly realized what route his
cheese quest would take. His initial foray had reached an apparent
dead end. He recalls consulting with former WSU Creamery manager
Marc Bates ’70, ’76 and an agricultural economist when
he was still contemplating making a farmstead cheese.
“They thought I was really naïve,” says Dammeier. ”They
tried to talk me out of it.”
What Bates and the economist had not considered was that Dammeier
is, as he calls himself, a marketing guy.
Dammeier’s Sugar Mountain Capital owns Pasta & Co. and
holds a major share of Pyramid Breweries.
“The usual problem,” he says, “is you know what
you want to make, but don’t know how to sell it.
“I knew how to sell it. I didn’t know how to make it.”
So he hired Brad Sinko as his cheese maker. Sinko had been creating
artisan cheeses for his family’s Bandon Cheese Company in Oregon
until Tillamook bought it. Now at Beecher’s, Sinko makes the
cheese. Dammeier sells it. They’re a great pair.
Beecher’s cheese is made on site, the production area enclosed
by glass. “You can always tell when little kids have been here,” says
Sinko, “because there’s lip and nose marks everywhere.”
Beecher’s makes and sells a number of cheeses other than
the forthcoming Flagship and also features a small café, serving
assorted cheese-based dishes, including what Dammeier calls the world’s
best macaroni and cheese.
The store also sells cheese by a number of cheese makers throughout
the Northwest. And it’s here, when talking about other people’s
cheese, that Dammeier’s true evangelism shines.
Continued 
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