Fruit Beers Are Ripe With Possibilities

In 1995, local brewers want you to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Like apricots, and huckleberries, and raspberries, and peaches - probably even kumquats, if somebody can figure out how to ferment them.

Fruit beers, the bane of “serious” beer drinkers but a boon to seasonal suds sippers and novices seeking easy entree into the microbrew world, appear to be the biggest trend on tap for the new year.

Supply is simply following demand. This summer, stocks of such popular products as Kemper’s Weizen Berry and Pyramid’s Apricot Ale seemed to sell out as fast as they were shipped.

“There’s a definite niche for fruit beers in Spokane,” says Mark Irvin, whose Northern Lights Brewing Co. in Airway Heights just finished its first year of operation.

Irvin is experimenting with a few different fruit flavors to add to his Creme Ale, although he sounds somewhat partial to “peaches and creme.”

He’s also putting the finishing touches on a long-anticipated pale ale, lighter-bodied than his reddish Crystal Bitter. Look for both beers by the end of February (draft only, like all Northern Lights brews).

Spokane’s Birkebeiner Brewery is again offering an apricot beer, along with a more traditional winter specialty - a barley wine that goes by the name of “Old Grungy Bastard” (or “Old Grungy” for short).

T.W. Fisher’s in Coeur d’Alene, which scored a holiday hit with its Cherry Porter, is planning a huckleberry beer for summer.

“We did a test batch last year, and it went over so well we decided to do it again,” says head brewer Laurie Kraus.

Also by popular demand, Kraus says Fisher’s Nut Brown Ale, formerly a summer seasonal, will be brewed year-round starting this spring.

And at Hale’s Ales in Spokane, the warm-weather menu will include a limited quantity of raspberry-tinged Razzleberry Ale. That’s been brewed before at Hale’s Seattle area plant, but not here.

While Hale’s doesn’t bottle, all of its seasonal specialties - including the upcoming Irish Ale and a superb summertime India Pale Ale - are available in 2.25-gallon micro kegs, along with the regular Pale Ale, Honey Wheat and Moss Bay Amber.

Pub crawls: The biggest Hale’s news is west of the Cascades, where the steadily expanding microbrewery is moving into larger quarters, likely in Seattle’s Fremont area (already home to Redhook).

Plans call for three times the production capacity of the current Kirkland operation, along with Hale’s first-ever brewpub.

“It will really be great to have a place where we can entertain our guests, do it the way we think it should be done,” says founder Mike Hale.

Following tradition, Hale hopes for the first brew in the new building on July 4 - the same date he kicked off both the Kirkland facility and his original Colville brewery.

Hart Brewing, which produces the Pyramid and Kemper labels, is creating a new brewery and brewpub out of an old brick railroad warehouse near the Kingdome.

“It’s got that Seattle feel to it - old timbers, sort of a wharf look,” says spokesman Pete Pedersen.

Two new winter seasonals are also in the works: a Thomas Kemper Dark Lager and a Pyramid Porter, due later this month.

Work in progress: Post Falls will have its first brewpub before long, if Kent Roberts has his way.

An assistant brewer with T.W. Fisher, Roberts is trying to finalize financing for his Milltown Brewing Co. and Casey’s Brew Pub. He’s talking 12 to 18 beers on tap, including four to six of his own.

“I figured I’d better jump on it before someone else does,” Roberts says.

Sip and sup: While Hill’s Someplace Else restaurant and pub in Spokane doesn’t make its own beer, it does the next best thing: bringing in Northwest brewmasters for special dinners showcasing their wares.

Next up is a Redhook dinner in early February (details to be announced), with a nostalgic note. “We’ve been promised a caskconditioned Winterhook,” says chef Dave Hill.

That, of course, is Redhook’s holiday beer. And until it’s gone, can Christmas really be over?

Not the gloved one: It’s a little late for stocking stuffers (which is how I acquired mine), but beer aficionados will want to check out Michael Jackson’s new “Pocket Guide to Beer” (Simon and Schuster).

In 192 pint-sized pages, the British beer expert discusses the brewing process and rates more than 1,500 beers from around the world, emphasizing North America’s microbreweries.

Whether you agree with him or not, it’s a fun read - even if Jackson places Moscow, Idaho, in the Midwest and says Hale’s has brewpubs in both Seattle and Spokane. (We wish.)

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