Countdown to Avista: Beer minus four

If you’ve managed to find this blog, you probably know that the Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival returns Friday and Saturday at a new location: Avista Stadium, home of the Spokane Indians.

And with 35 teams, er, breweries in the field, it’s hard to keep all the players straight without a scorecard. So all week leading up to the festival, we’re going to take a look at some of the heaviest hitters in the 120-beer lineup, starting today with pumpkin beers and other fall seasonals.

Pumpkin beers

There are more and more of these popular seasonals each year, and they keep arriving earlier and earlier.

Seattle’s Elysian, one of the leaders in the style with several versions, is bringing its original Night Owl (5.9 percent alcohol by volume), made with pumpkin in the mash, boil and fermenter along with both green and roasted pumpkin seeds and several pie-type spices.

Other renditions are coming from the Steam Plant in Spokane and Seattle’s Two Beers (5.2). Big Barn’s Golden Pumpkin Ale, made with caramelized gourds from the Green Bluff farm, is on the stronger side (6.6 ABV), as is the roasty Hoodoojuju from Bale Breaker in Yakima (7 ).

Iron Goat will have its rich, lightly spiced Punkid (7.1) aged in Dry Fly triticale whiskey barrels, while No-Li Brewhouse gets a jump on Thanksgiving with its big cranberry/pumpkin Krumpkin (8.6).

On the darker side are pumpkin-infused versions of the Postal Porter (5.9) from Paradise Creek in Pullman ; Orlison’s Underground stout lager (6.2 ABV, 43 International Bitterness Units); and the always-popular Dark Star imperial oatmeal stout from Fremont Brewing (a whopping 11, 50) aged in bourbon barrels.

Oktoberfests

At an event formerly called Spokane Oktoberfest, it’s not surprising to see several examples of the traditional malty German lager style.

It doesn’t get much more traditional than the version from Alpine Brewing in Oroville, operated by German immigrant Bart Traubeck. Other Eastern Washington interpretations include Dirtyface from Icicle Brewing in Leavenworth, Whippersnapper from Northern Ales in Kettle Falls, Golden Lilly from Republic Brewing and hometown offerings from Waddell’s and the Steam Plant. Bellingham’s Boundary Bay joins in as well.

Republic also is bringing a bigger German-style lager, the ruby-red Falling Bockwards bock (7.6 ABV) – which has been aging for more than a year – while Clarkston’s Riverport Brewing has a similarly strong Bedrock Bock (8).

More seasonals

Other fall-themed offerings include Twelve String’s Roundabout Confusion, made this year with fruity Nelson Sauvin hops (7.5, 51); Hopped Up’s Cloud Sweeper ESB (6.1, 61), lightly sweet with spicy Hallertauer hops; and a Hallertauer-finished Fog Bank (5.8, 25) from Diamond Knot in Mukilteo.

Meanwhile, Fremont pushes the calendar with its Bonfire winter seasonal (6.0, 40), an easy-drinking yet complex concoction using light and dark wheat along with chocolate, rye and smoked malts.