Your year in review

Clockwise, from top left: Black Label, one of the year’s nine new local breweries, helped add to downtown Spokane’s craft appeal; Iron Goat released a small-batch beer each Wednesday all year long; Spokane Valley’s Steady Flow joined the wave of new growler fill outlets; the Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival set another attendance record at Avista Stadium.

When it comes to local craft beer, our stockings are crammed full this Christmas.

Looking back through the first full year of posts on this blog brings a dizzying array of new breweries, new beers and new places to drink them. Among the highlights:

By the numbers: Nine new breweries came on line in Spokane and Kootenai Counties, boosting the total to 27 – a 50 percent increase.

Newcomers included Black Label, Bennidito’s and Bellwether in Spokane, Badass Backyard in Spokane Valley, 238 on Green Bluff, New Boundary in Cheney and Daft Badger in Coeur d’Alene.

Also in the Valley, Arbor Crest Wine Cellars launched its in-house Square Wheel Brewing and Whistle Punk began limited distribution out of its home operation in Newman Lake while looking for a taproom location. (On the flip side, Ramblin’ Road became the first local brewery closure since BiPlane in 2011.)

More are in the works for the new year, including Young Buck and Little Spokane as part of a downtown brewery incubator cooperative, Sun Mountain in Greenacres, Post Falls Brewing and Bombastic in Hayden.

Hail the alehouses: Along with more breweries, there are more places pouring their products. Among this year’s many new craft-focused bars and restaurants were three spinoffs of established leaders:  The Blackbird, from the owners of Manito Tap House; Republic Pi, the Flying Goat’s South Hill sister; and Coeur d’Alene’s Mid City Pub, an offshoot of the Capone’s chain.

The Onion Bar & Grill owners copied their expansive Area 51 Taphouse concept from the North Division restaurant to the original downtown location, and downtown’s Nectar wine bar launched Nectar Wine and Beer in Kendall Yards.

Heart of the city: Downtown Spokane continues to become a craft beer destination. Along with the likes of the Onion, Black Label and the brewery cooperative project, Orlison opened a downtown taproom to complement its Airway Heights brewery and Iron Goat announced plans to move to its larger new location at Second and Adams early next year.

On the move: In the Valley, Twelve String bought a bigger building on Pines north of Sprague for its eventual new home. It and several other breweries boosted production capacity at their current locations during the year, including brewhouse expansions at MickDuff’s in Sandpoint (from seven barrels to 20) and Mad Bomber in Hayden (from a single-barrel system to seven).

And breweries continue to broaden their distribution areas to move that extra beer. Twelve String and Waddell’s recently started selling in North Idaho, while in Post Falls, Downdraft signed with a Spokane distributor and Selkirk Abbey began brewing lower-alcohol beers for planned distribution in Utah.

Brothers in beer: They may compete for customers, but the cooperative spirit among area brewers remains strong. Six collaborative beers by a dozen local breweries (plus one from Perry Street and Manito Tap House) were the focus of the first official Spokane Craft Beer Week in May, while the Steam Plant and Big Barn released a joint fresh hop beer in October.

And No-Li reached an agreement to brew and package its first canned beer, Born & Raised IPA, using excess capacity at Orlison’s production facility.

Call to bottle: More local breweries began bottling their beers in 2015. Iron Goat launched a line of 22-ouncers in February, Big Barn and English Setter recently joined in on a more limited basis and Trickster’s and Twelve String plan to release their own bombers this spring.

Fill ‘er up: Growler fill outlets also multiplied with the addition of The Filling Station on 5th and a Growler Guys in Coeur d’Alene, while Steady Flow opened in Spokane Valley and Bottles expanded its tap count to 18. Following a growing trend, all serve beer by the pint as well as to go.

Festival front: The Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival set another attendance record in its second year at Avista Stadium, leading an array of local events that regularly filled the calendar. No-Li invited seven breweries from throughout the West to its initial ‘KAN JamBEERee, while the wildly popular Hoopfest basketball tournament added a Hopfest featuring eight local brewers.

Pushing the envelope: Area brewers continued to experiment with new styles and techniques. No-Li, River City, Hopped Up and Trickster’s released their first sours, and barrel-aging has become commonplace, paced by Twelve String, which celebrated its second annual BarrelFest last month.

Tiny Bellwether broadened the boundaries with a series of Old World-inspired offerings, including hopless, herbed gruits and heather ale, as well as a honeyed beer-mead hybrid, braggot.

And several breweries started releasing regular weekly small-batch specialties – including Daft Badger and Slate Creek on Wednesdays in Coeur d’Alene, and No-Li for its new Brewsday Tuesdays – following the lead of Iron Goat, which has done one every Wednesday since January in honor of the Chinese Year of the Goat. (Fortunately for those busy brewers, it doesn’t come around again until 2027.)