Your Own, Away From Home
Think of it as home brewing - in someone else’s home.
Custom Brewing of Spokane is the city’s first “brew on premise” (BOP for short) where people can come in and make beer. Its owners hope to receive final licensing approval and open this week.
“Spokane is in for a new experience,” says majority owner Bob Gress, a Pullman nurse anesthetist and beer lover.
The BOP movement began in Canada as a way to avoid excessively high liquor taxes. There are about 60 BOPs in the United States; most opened in the past year or two.
Gress, 50, a former Spokane resident, always enjoyed drinking good beer. He began brewing a couple of years ago when a friend who had moved to Idaho introduced him to the Brewworks, a BOP in Boise. Early this year, he and partner Mark Steffan, 45, a Spokane home builder, decided to give the business a try themselves.
They’ve created a cozy space in the Riverwalk complex, a few doors down from Bayou Brewing Co., with brick walls, a high, open-beamed ceiling and six copper-clad, 12.5-gallon brew kettles in the front window.
Customers can choose from more than 70 beer recipes (you can use one of your own, too, but the results won’t be guaranteed). Depending on the recipe, it will cost around $85 to $90 (plus another $10 or so in federal and state taxes) to brew a keg-sized batch, the equivalent of 132 12-ounce beers - which works out to about 75 cents per beer. (Bottles cost another $30, but can be re-used.)
While that’s cheaper than store-bought microbrews, “We’re really pushing the adventure more than the price,” Steffan says.
Custom Brewing’s brochure suggests customers can bring in food and sample house-made beers while they’re brewing, although the samples are legally limited to four 2-ounce tastes per person. The business also can sell beer by the glass, but that will be limited, too, Gress says: “I’m not going to encourage people to sit around here drinking a lot of beer.”
Brewing the beer takes about two hours. It then ferments and conditions for a couple of weeks, after which the customer returns to bottle it - and label it, creating personalized labels on the store’s computer.
If you really want convenience, Custom Brewing will make the beer for you and have it ready to pick up for an extra $20 or so. Beer also will be available to take out in smaller quantities.
Gress plans to sell some beer to taverns and restaurants, starting with private-label brews for Pullman establishments.
But the bottom line is finding a lot of people who want to come in and make big batches of beer.
“If we can get 6,000 people once a year, or 3,000 people twice a year, or 2,000 people three times a year, we’re going to be real happy,” Gress says.
While hard-core home brewers tend to look down on BOPs, Gress hopes to attract some of those folks, too. The equipment is state-of-the-art, he says, such as steam-jacketed brew kettles that keep consistent temperatures.
Perhaps more importantly, you don’t have to clean up after yourself when you’re done. Says Steffan: “Their wives will probably be driving them down here so they don’t mess up the kitchen.”
For more information, call 482-0786.
Bitter bottle
Northern Lights’ first bottled beer, its flagship Crystal Bitter, has started showing up on local shelves. The complex, caramel-accented ale from the Airway Heights brewery is just as satisfying from the bottle as it is on draft; look for the 22-ounce bottles at Jim’s Home Brew, Harry O’s, Huckleberry’s and Hallett Farms.
And in Sandpoint, Pend Oreille Brewing is preparing to begin bottling its award-winning Idaho Pale Ale, City Beach Blonde pilsner and HooDoo Porter, and eventually its strong Scottish ale, in 12-ounce bottles. Distribution in Idaho should start by November, with Washington following a few months later.
At the hops
The annual Yakima Valley hop harvest is in full swing, and some area brewers are celebrating in style.
Hale’s is back with its perennial Harvest Ale, this year featuring fresh Centennial and Target hops and a bigger body than previous vintages. (By the way, Hale’s has also beefed up its regular amber ale, making it fuller and sweeter, as any of you who sampled it at the Pig Out in the Park beer garden may have noticed.)
Cascade is the hop variety of choice for the new fall seasonal Fresh Hop Ale from hophead emeritus Bert Grant, which brewery spokesman Ben Myers likes to call their “Beer-jolais Noveau.” It’s scheduled to reach Spokane next week in both bottles and draft.
And over at the Birkebeiner brewpub in downtown Spokane, they’re making room for the new hop crop by dumping most of the hops already on hand into a new edition of Red Venom, which owner James Gimurtu deems more bitter than ever.
Fest sellers
September also marks the arrival of Oktoberfest beers. Traditional strong, malty amber lagers are (or soon will be) on tap at Pend Oreille, T.W. Fisher in Coeur d’Alene, Casey’s Pub in Post Falls and the Ram, Bayou Brewing Co. and Solicitor’s Corner in Spokane. And the Fort Spokane Brewery’s altbier interpretation, heavy on the Saaz hops, returns following a year’s absence.
Casey’s will host a German-style Oktoberfest bash Sept. 26 as part of its weeklong first anniversary celebration, while the annual daylong street party at T.W. Fisher will be Oct. 4.
Party time
Speaking of festivals, events showcasing several of the area’s breweries will take place in both Coeur d’Alene and Spokane on the final two Saturdays in September.
The second annual Inland Northwest Brewtopia is Sept. 20 from noon to 8 p.m. at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds. Tickets are $8 (12 and under free; under 21 must be accompanied by an adult).
And the Great American Microbrew and Wine Festival, to benefit the Martin Luther King Center, is Sept. 27 from noon to 11 p.m. at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds. Tickets (adults only) are $10 in advance at G&B outlets, or $12 at the door.
, 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