Brewing At A Glacial Pace
The name comes from the circular gouges glaciers carved into mountainsides thousands of years ago.
The brewing process comes from a method favored by Bavarian and Bohemian brewers hundreds of years ago.
The beer comes from a small industrial park in Prosser, Wash., starting seven months ago.
Cirque, now available in Spokane, is the creation of Kyle Roberson, a 44-year-old former Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories researcher.
It’s truly a labor of love, and requires ample amounts of both.
Or, as Roberson puts it: “It went from a hobby to a full-time baby dinosaur.”
For starters, Cirque beers are lighter, crisper lagers, not heavier, fruitier ales. Lagers need to condition for a couple of months, as opposed to a couple of weeks for ales, to achieve their smooth, clean character - something most microbrewers don’t want to mess with. Roberson, who toured Europe as part of his brewing research, takes that another step by using a traditional, but even less common brewing method called decoction.
Instead of just steeping malted barley in hot water for an hour or two to produce the basic liquid that becomes beer (a process known as “mashing”), parts of the mixture are pumped into another tank, brought to a boil, and returned to the mash to gradually raise the temperature.
So far, Roberson’s shortest brewing day has lasted 16 hours. And the longest?
“See that mattress?” says Roberson’s wife and business partner, Kaye, pointing to his lab. “It’s there for a reason.”
“It’s a pain in the butt,” Roberson says of decoction. “Nobody wants to do it anymore.”
He does it because it coaxes more color and flavor from the grain, a result clearly evidenced by the three Cirque beers.
The lightest, Triple Mash Nine, is only 3 percent alcohol by volume - about half of most microbrews - but still flavorful. Triple Mash Golden, modeled after the original Czechoslovakian Budweiser, has more malt body and some spicy hoppiness.
Triple Mash Dark, a Bavarian-style dunkel, is particularly impressive, with rich, complex flavor in what remains a relatively light-bodied, drinkable brew.
Look for them in bottles at Jim’s Home Brew Supply, Huckleberry’s Fresh Markets and the Vino wine shop.
Tri, Tri again
Cirque is part of a microbrewing mini-boom in the Tri-Cities area, better known for its wine production, over the past couple of years.
“Instead of just being something additional for the wine tourists to do, we’re becoming an attraction ourselves,” says John-Paul Estey of Whitstran Brewing Co., two doors down from Cirque in the Port of Benton Industrial Park.
Whitstran specializes in big, flavorful ales. Some are sweet and malty, like the fruity/spicy Belgian Style Brown Ale and the brawny Highlander Scottish Style Ale. Others are heavy on the hops, like the unabashedly bitter 11th Hour Pale Ale.
Hops are kept to a minimum in the more mainstream ales from Ice Harbor Brewing Co. in Pasco, operated by a pair of former Hanford employees, engineer Bill Jaquish and chemist Mike Hall.
“A lot of micros are big and hoppy, but there’s a whole range of people who want drinkable beers,” Jaquish says. “That’s who we’re targeted to.”
Year-round bottled beers include the golden Harvest Pale Ale, with some herbal hop character in the finish; the smooth Runaway Red, and a sweetish, slightly roasty Sternwheeler Stout. But the biggest seller lately has been a lighter, somewhat spicy Kolsch, a summer seasonal that Ice Harbor plans to begin bottling.
The area’s only two brewpubs both opened in Richland earlier this year, but the similarities stop there.
Rattlesnake Mountain, a stylish restaurant overlooking the Columbia River, is run by another former Hanford worker, Steve Metzger.
“When I started homebrewing, I knew I wanted to do a brewpub right off the bat,” Metzger says. “I brewed a lot. I drove my wife crazy, and I gave away a lot of beer.”
A smoked porter was the most distinctive offering among a rather routine group of beers on tap when I visited, but a honey red ale and oatmeal stout I tasted out of the conditioning tanks showed more promise.
The Atomic Ale Brewpub & Eatery is the funky incarnation of a former A&W drive-in, where the rollerskating carhops once included ill-fated actress Sharon Tate.
While cleverly named - Half-life Hefeweizen, Proton Pale, Plutonium Porter - the beers are unremarkable. But it’s tough to beat the wood-fired pizzas (and the soft pretzels made from the pizza dough), or the historic Hanford reservation photos and memorabilia scattered around the room.
“A lot of people are afraid of the history of this area,” says owner/brewer Aaron Burks. “I think it’s unique, and I don’t think it should be forgotten.”
Welcome to the pub club
Closer to home, C.I. Shenanigan’s in downtown Spokane has started serving its own house-made ales.
The beers are similar to the lineup at Shenanigan’s sister restaurant, the Ram, including the tasty Total Disorder Porter - which has been dubbed Pothole Porter at C.I.’s, in honor of Spokane’s streets.
Deutsch treats
In keeping with the season’s Oktoberfest celebrations, the Huckleberry’s Fresh Market at 926 S. Monroe is hosting a German beer tasting, featuring Ayinger beers, Thursday at 7 p.m. Cost is $6, which includes six samples; call 624-1349 for information.
G.A.B.F.D.
Cirque and Whitstran were among the area breweries participating in the high-profile Great American Beer Festival in Denver a couple of weekends ago, along with Pend Oreille and T.W. Fisher’s.
Unfortunately, none brought home any medals in a year that saw relatively few awards go to Northwest breweries.
Among the more familiar regional winners, BridgePort’s India Pale Ale captured the gold medal for classic English-style pale ales; Redhook’s Double Black Stout (brewed with Starbuck’s coffee) was the silver medalist in the specialty category, and Pike Pale took the bronze medal for English-Style (Extra Special) Strong Bitter.
, DataTimes MEMO: On Tap is a monthly feature of IN Food. Write to: On Tap, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446, fax 459-5098 or e-mail to rickb@spokesman.com