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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

On Tap: Spokane brings home medals from Washington Brewers Festival

Led by No-Li, local breweries made a strong showing at last weekend’s Washington Brewers Festival.

No-Li took home Large Brewery of the Year honors in this year’s Washington Beer Awards along with individual medals for five beers. River City, Waddell’s and Big Barn were the other Spokane-area winners in the results announced at the festival in Redmond.

And Pullman’s Paradise Creek poured the second-most beers during the three-day event, behind Woodinville’s trendy Triplehorn. Iron Goat was eighth in the token count while Twelve String finished ninth out of the 114 participating breweries and cideries.

“I’m overwhelmed with excitement that Spokane represented so well, and we’re bringing back over the mountains the Brewery of the Year for the city,” said No-Li owner John Bryant.

“I’m just super, super proud of everybody. The respect brewers out of Spokane get as a collective team is pretty awesome.”

There were 950 entries from 139 brewers statewide in the fourth annual Washington Beer Awards, which was professionally judged earlier in the month.

No-Li took gold for Poser in the American-style pale category, silvers for Spin Cycle Red, Born & Raised IPA and Crony brown, and bronze for Oyster Stout. River City won gold for its Huckleberry Ale, silver for Congratulator Doppelbock and bronze for Wine Barrel-Aged Huckleberry Ale.

Waddell’s received a silver for its Scottish ale and bronze for Alligator Stout, while Big Barn earned bronze for Mt. Smoke Porter.

Among the other Eastern Washington winners, Clarkston’s Riverport took gold for Bambalam black IPA and silver for Barrel Two Batch One sour blonde, Republic Brewing a silver for Ramblin Rye Ale, and Paradise Creek bronze for Invective Stout.

Moses Lake’s Ten Pin, which won four individual awards, was named Small Brewery of the Year. For a full list of medalists, see www.wabeerawards.com/winners.

Freshly tapped

Waddell’s Brewpub has a release party Saturday from 2 to 5 p.m. for Kaniksu Gold Belgian Blonde, the people’s choice winner at last year’s local Battle of the Homebrews. Its creators, Scott and Kevin White of Priest River, got to brew a batch on Waddell’s commercial system as their prize.

The hopheads at Post Falls Brewing have released a sweet, malty Obligatory Amber (6 percent alcohol by volume, 29 International Bitterness Units).

Bennidito’s easy-drinking RPA Amber (4.8, 29) is named after fellow East Sprague business Ross Printing.

Daft Badger continues its penchant for big beers with a hearty hefeweizen (7, 25) that has a delicate banana and clove nose.

Lager specialist Orlison’s latest full-production ale is an Orangelicious Golden (5.2, 15) brewed with lactose and conditioned with vanilla and fresh orange zest.

Save the date

No-Li, Wallace Brewing, Bale Breaker and Payette are pouring for the second annual Hopfest at Hoopfest beer garden, starting at 9 p.m. Friday after the Alumni Game featuring former Gonzaga University players at the Spokane Convention Center. Admission is $10 ($15 including game ticket), through TicketsWest.

The Steel Barrel taproom and Zona Blanca ceviche restaurant have their grand opening celebration Thursday at the downtown brewery incubator, 154 S. Madison St. Both businesses are open in the meantime Wednesday through Sunday starting at 3 p.m.

A community pint night at Bellwether on Thursday from 3 to 9 p.m. benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Inland Northwest.

All five of Payette Brewing’s specialty Ales of No Return series will be featured in a tap takeover Thursday at Beerocracy, 911 W. Garland Ave.

Beer by the book

“Washington Beer: A Heady History of Evergreen State Brewing,” the latest in a series of state-by-state beer books from Arcadia Publishing, is now available in stores and online ($21.99 suggested retail).

The 190-page book by Skagit County beer podcaster Michael F. Rizzo is an exhaustive chronological blow-by-blow of Washington brewing lore from Henry Weinhard’s arrival in Vancouver in the 1850s to the current burgeoning craft beer scene.

While not a particularly captivating read, it’s certainly full of information, much of it culled directly from a variety of media sources (including this column and our On Tap blog).

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