Microbrewer Taps Into Mainstream

When I first saw bottles of hefeweizen and amber ale with Bert Grant’s name on them a few months ago, I wondered whether he was selling out.

A 52-year industry veteran whose Yakima Brewing Co. was one of the nation’s first microbreweries, a man who made his mark with highly hopped beers in relatively obscure styles, putting out products in the two of the most generic, mass-market categories around?

Actually, Grant has sold out, in a business sense. Yakima Brewing is now controlled by Stimson Lane Vineyards and Estates, part of a huge corporate chain topped by UST Inc., the parent company of U.S. Tobacco.

But Grant, who continues as brewmaster, says he’s still making quality beers “to please the most demanding palate I have ever encountered: my own.”

The Scottish-born, Canadian-bred Grant, 68, began honing that palate at age 16, when he went to work for Canadian Breweries Ltd. (now Carling). His brewing career led to jobs in the hops supply business, which brought him to the heart of Washington’s hop country in Yakima, where he opened a tiny brewery in 1982.

“The brewery was doing well, but not spectacularly,” Grant says. “All the stuff I liked doing product development, quality control - was being diluted horribly by all the worries about financing and marketing.”

Stimson Lane, he adds, “came to us out of the clear blue sky, with an offer we couldn’t refuse.”

“We were interested in expanding into this (microbrew) category, and it was a good fit,” explains Katie Sims, a Stimson Lane spokeswoman. “He’s a pioneer with a great story to tell and some fantastic products he was already making.”

The beers that built Grant’s reputation remain part of his product line today: a boldly bitter, hoppy India pale ale, a 19th-century style Grant is credited with reviving; a Scottish ale, typically fruity and malty but with plenty of American hop character; and a big, black Imperial stout, its rich roastiness balanced by some sweetness from honey.

There’s also his humbly named Perfect Porter, introduced in 1994, which was Grant’s newest beer until the arrival of the hefe and amber last fall. Standardized labels for all six beers appeared at the same time.

Grant’s crisp, tart, Berlin-style weis (“white,” in German) wheat beer was discontinued to make room for the hefeweizen. He continues to brew the low-alcohol Celtic ale (actually more of a British mild) and a ciderlike apple-honey ale on occasion, but both have been dropped from the regular lineup.

Given the widespread popularity of hefeweizens and amber ales, Sims says, “It made sense to develop a broader scope.”

Grant deems his hefeweizen hoppier than his competition’s, particularly in aroma, and calls his amber the maltiest on the market.

To my taste, they’re decent but undistinguished beers that should help bring more mainstream drinkers into the Grant’s fold (and make enough money to keep the IPA and Scottish on solid footing).

And while I’ve heard kind comments about the new labels, I sort of miss the old ones, with their more extensive commentary. For example, the former Perfect Porter neck ring described it as “a giant step forward in porter flavor, with a rich ‘chocolatey’ body from the complex malts used: roasted, caramelized and hi-dried. Ideal levels of late hops and dry hopping using traditional English varieties complete the wonderful flavor profile.”

All we learn from the new label is that it’s “a dark, deeply complex porter made with only barley malt, hops, water and yeast.”

However, there’s plenty of information for us beer geeks at Grant’s spiffy new World Wide Web site (www.grants.com)- one perk of the Stimson Lane cash infusion.

More importantly, Grant has been able to double his production capacity, to an annual 40,000 barrels. And he’s talking about building breweries in other parts of the country to expand his market, as Seattle’s Redhook and Pyramid have done.

Plans are in the works to bring Grant to Spokane for some sort of special event this spring. We’ll keep you posted.

Bigfoot sighting

Wildlife lovers, rejoice: Sierra Nevada’s legendary Bigfoot barley wine, which didn’t make it up our way at all last year, has arrived in Spokane.

An expansion project allowed the Chico, Calif., brewery to again ship Bigfoot beyond its immediate area. But be forewarned - supplies still are limited. Look for it, fast, in bottles at Jim’s Home Brew and Huckleberry’s and on draft at such spots as The Viking.

Pub hopping

Spring is bock beer season and the Birkebeiner Brewing Co. is back with its rich, chocolaty Hamarbock, a higher-octane version of the downtown Spokane brewpub’s popular Doppelbock.

The Hamarbock is among an ambitious 15 house-brewed beers on tap at Birkebeiner, a number that owner James Gimurtu plans to maintain. (And despite any rumors you may have heard, Gimurtu insists the pub is not for sale.)

Meanwhile, over at Casey’s Pub in Post Falls, they’re celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this weekend with an Irish Red (sorry, no green), along with Irish food specials.

Bottle stations

Following my exploration of Belgian brews in last month’s column, I was intrigued to find a new abbey-style ale in the stores from Blue Moon, Coors’ specialty beer subsidiary. The results are about what you’d expect from one of the big boys; it hints at the distinctive fruitiness of a true Belgian abbey ale but is basically a pale imitation (then again, so is the price tag).

More pleasing to my palate is the Mirror Pond Pale Ale from Deschutes, the latest of the Bend, Ore., brewery’s beers to show up in bottles. Loaded with plenty of Cascade hops, it fits in beautifully between the brewery’s hoppy but more malt-balanced Bachelor Bitter and the hoppy but lighter-bodied Cascade Golden.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

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

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rick Bonino The Spokesman-Review