No-Li putting it in cans, with help from Orlison

Spokane’s two biggest breweries have joined forces to launch a new canned beer.

No-Li Brewhouse’s Born & Raised IPA has started shipping to stores in six-packs of 12-ounce cans, produced and packaged at Orlison Brewing in Airway Heights. There’s a release party at 5 p.m. Friday at the No-Li pub.

The move allows No-Li to grow without having to create a new production brewery, which it had been exploring, and Orlison to capitalize on its excess brewing capacity. No-Li brewers are making the beer there with their own malt, hops and yeast.

“We’re literally cooking Thanksgiving dinner at somebody else’s house,” said No-Li owner John Bryant. “We’re showing up with our turkey and stuffing and using their oven.”

No-Li simply has run out of room in its own kitchen. It will brew roughly 10,000 barrels of beer this year, easily the most of any local brewery, but doesn’t have the capacity to produce more.

It’s been looking for a location for a bigger brewery, but finding an existing building that could be converted has proved difficult, and new construction is costly.

Orlison, on the other hand, has a 30-barrel brewhouse – the biggest in town – and enough fermenters to turn out more than 6,000 barrels a year. But sales haven’t grown as quickly as hoped; it will produce about 2,000 barrels in 2015.

The only Spokane-area brewery to can its beer until now, Orlison also has its own canning line, which Bryant said is top-notch.

“We wanted to bring our flagship beer to Spokane in cans,” he said of the Born & Raised six-packs, which will replace the four-packs of 12-ounce bottles. “It gives the customer another package size that’s portable and convenient that we’re not offering them now.

“Our goal is still to expand and build a brewery, but this essentially buys us a little bit of time to get a stronger balance sheet and stay independent.”

It’s the sort of cooperation that makes sense in the still-developing local craft beer business, said Orlison co-owner Orlin Reinbold.

“It allows both breweries to expand and puts us both on more solid ground going forward,” Reinbold said. “The consumer ends up with two stronger breweries.”

And the benefits of working together go beyond the financial, he added: “I think we’re going to learn from each other, too.”

The agreement brings things full circle, Reinbold noted, since No-Li’s predecessor, Northern Lights, launched in Airway Heights in November 1993 just two blocks from Orlison’s current location. It moved to the former Bayou Brewing space along the Spokane River in 2002, and it rebranded as No-Li, with a revamped product line, after craft beer marketing veteran Bryant arrived in the spring of 2012.

Orlison was born the following summer when Reinbold and another investor took charge of the former Golden Hills Brewing and embarked on their own ambitious growth plans.

“I think the market is maturing enough to have a large production brewery here,” Reinbold said. “We started out with a lot of smaller breweries, but we’re going to have a large brewery in this market, whether that’s No-Li or Orlison.”

Hopping around

The new Growler Guys in Coeur d’Alene is on track for a grand opening Nov. 20-21 at 225 W. Appleway, just off Highway 95. Along with growler fills – including a drive-through window – it will offer beer by the glass and a limited food menu of pizza, wings and breadsticks.

Fred Meyer in Coeur d’Alene is the latest store in the Northwest chain to add a growler fill station, with 10 taps serving eight beers and two craft ciders.

Enoteca fine wine and beer has reopened in Post Falls at 702 N. Spokane St., around the corner from its former location on Seltice Way. The retail bottle shop adjoins a Drinks lounge with 12 rotating beer and cider taps.

Newman Lake’s Whistle Punk Brewing (formerly Hanson Brothers) has begun distributing kegs to select accounts while looking for a location to establish its taproom.

Freshly tapped

Orlison’s seasonal Roast House Stout lager (5.5 percent alcohol by volume, 62 International Bitterness Units), brewed with coffee from that local company as well as vanilla, has returned on draft and now in 22-ounce bottles.

Also back for the season is River City’s Midnight Marmot imperial stout (7.8, 87), full of espresso, chocolate and dark fruit flavors with a dry, roasty finish.

The latest releases at Perry Street are an Export Stout (5.5, 30) and a German-style Altbier (5.5) with a nutty, toasty character from several specialty malts along with some yeast fruitiness.

The Station 7 Winter Warmer (7.5) from Bennidito’s Brewpub, named after the neighborhood fire station, is a strong red ale spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, allspice and orange peel.

Trickster’s Dark Side of the Hipster (5.9, 65) is a Cascadian dark ale with citrusy hop notes balanced by a lightly roasted character.

Black Label is pouring a single-malt, single-hop (Tomahawk) Lands Council Pale Ale (5.1, 43), with a portion of proceeds benefiting the local environmental group.

The Blackeyed Wheat (6, 14) at Cheney’s New Boundary is brewed with Oregon Coast blackberries for a fruity flavor and aroma with a slightly tart finish.

Save the date

Downdraft will introduce two surprise seasonal beers at its first anniversary party Saturday from 1 to 10 p.m., with live music and food service starting at 6.

At least a dozen barrel-aged beers will pour at Twelve String’s second annual Barrelfest, Sunday from noon to 5.

The 11 new breweries on the Inland Northwest Ale Trail – 238, Bale Breaker, Badass Backyard, Bellwether, Bennidito’s, English Setter, Ice Harbor, New Boundary, St. Brigid’s, Downdraft and Ten Pin – will be featured in Yelp’s Beertopia, Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Black Diamond in Spokane Valley (Yelp member RSVP required).

More than 20 craft breweries, cideries and meaderies will pour at this year’s PowderKeg festival, Nov. 20-21 at the Spokane Convention Center as part of the Snowlander Expo.

Send beer news, comments and questions to senior correspondent Rick Bonino at boninobeer@comcast.net.