Your weekly roundup

A few further reports from the past week in local beer, and beyond:

– Steady Flow Growler House has announced its grand opening for Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4-6 at 328 N. Sullivan Road in the Spokane Valley. Free growlers will be given away to the first 100 people through the door each day, and local brewers will be on hand.

Its 39 taps will be filled with local, regional and national beers as well as cider, wine, root beer and cold-pressed coffee. Pint and half-pint pours will be available along with growler fills. In the meantime, check out the informative website .

– Kudos to Valleyfest for adding local beer to this year’s celebration. Valley breweries English Setter and Hopped Up will be pouring in the beer garden for the Sept. 26 event.

– Congratulations also to Spokane’s Ely Johnson (above left) for being named New Belgium’s “Ultimate Ranger” for 2015.

More than 200 of the Colorado brewery’s Beer Rangers (sales representatives) nationwide competed for the coveted belt, starting last spring at divisional meetings with sensory analysis, sales presentations and beer pouring and quality.

That continued with a written test to pick 12 finalists at this week’s summer Pow-Wow at the brewery, followed by a live showdown with “Jeopardy”-style questions, more sensory analysis and a sales pitch for November’s upcoming Ben & Jerry’s collaboration .

Johnson, who’s been with New Belgium for almost four years, is the area manager for Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Eastern Washington.

– Like Dan Patrick before him (Redhook’s Audible Ale), controversial sports commentator Colin Cowherd is getting his own Northwest beer: Blunt N’ Bitter, an ESB brewed by Oregon’s Rogue.

Cowherd, a minor local celebrity of sorts for having attended Eastern Washington University in the mid-1980s, parted ways with ESPN last month amid criticism of his remarks regarding Dominican baseball players and has moved to Fox Sports.