The year in beer

Above: Sunset over September’s Inland NW Craft Brew Festival at Avista Stadium (Michelle Pingree photo).

Now that the holiday dust has settled, let’s take a look back, and ahead, at the year in local beer:

New breweries: For a second straight year, the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area added five breweries in 2014. The arrivals of Ramblin’ Road and English Setter in February, and Zythum and Perry Street in March, brought the Spokane County total to 14. And in November, Downdraft in Post Falls made it five for Kootenai County.

No one is talking about the bubble bursting anytime soon. Black Label in downtown Spokane, 238 on Green Bluff and Daft Badger in Coeur d’Alene all could be open within the month, while Bennidito’s Brew Pub on East Sprague, the brewery incubator at the old Spokane Public Market and New Boundary in Cheney are shooting for spring.

On a regional scale, the Inland Northwest Ale Trail launched its second year with 27 stops on the map, up from the previous 16.

Brewery expansions: Meanwhile, existing breweries continued to grow their capacity. Big Barn fired up a 7-barrel brewhouse in place of its previously tiny 10-gallon setup and started distributing year-round, while Slate Creek added a 15-barrel system to its 2-barrel and also began distribution.

After relocating its brewery operations in 2013, MickDuff’s in Sandpoint opened a Beer Hall in addition to the original pub and is planning further expansion. Mad Bomber is scheduled to replace its 1-barrel system with a 7-barrel next month, while Iron Goat , No-Li and Twelve String are mulling growth that could involve new locations.

Feeling the draft: Taphouses kept popping up pouring wide selections of local and other craft beers, including Crafted in Coeur d’Alene – which matched Manito Tap House ’s 50 handles – and more recently Area 51 at the North Spokane Onion, which one-upped them both.

And for home consumption, the Oregon-based Growler Guys chain opened its first two Spokane locations.

Package deals: More area beers began showing up in bottles and cans. No-Li added Born & Raised IPA, Rise & Grind stout and Mosh Pit Tart Cherry Ale to its line of 12-ounce four-packs, Pilsner 37 joined Orlison ’s canned offerings and Northern Ales in Kettle Falls started canning its session lager, The Grouch.

Iron Goat and Twelve String plan to bottle some of their most popular styles soon in 22-ounce bombers. Ramblin’ Road and River City also are looking at bottles, while Trickster’s and Slate Creek are considering cans.

Cooperative spirit: Collaboration brews, a growing nationwide trend, blossomed here in 2014 with Iron Goat leading the way. It jointly produced a wheat India session ale with No-Li for Craft Beer Week, and teamed with two prominent Oregon breweries: Ninkasi for a triple IPA dubbed Goatorhead, and Breakside for a gin barrel-aged release expected this spring. River City and Waddell’s also combined for a pair of fresh-hop ales.

Barrels and sours: Two more hot national trends also took solid root locally. Ramblin’ Road and River City joined No-Li, Iron Goat and Twelve String in producing a variety of barrel-aged beers, with Trickster’s also starting to get in on the action.

No-Li released a pair in bottles: Blackfill, a whiskey barrel imperial stout, and Van Lambert, a wine barrel cherry sour. Its two small batch beer festivals featured several barrel-aged and other specialties, and Twelve String celebrated a dozen of its concoctions in its first Barrelfest.

Sours, a red-hot style nationwide, also arrived. In addition to Van Lambert, Ramblin’ Road released a Sour Cherry Saison and a fruity, Brett-fermented Sour Red, Iron Goat debuted its Apricot Blackberrry Sour and Twelve String continued to sour several of its beers in naturally infected barrels.

Randall handles: A quicker, easier way to produce distinctive flavors – the Randall , a device that infuses beer with various ingredients as it’s poured – also caught on, with River City and Ramblin’ Road using theirs weekly, and Iron Goat and No-Li on occasion.

Medal rounds: On the competitive front, No-Li brought home three awards each from Belgium’s Brussels Beer Challenge and the Great International Beer & Cider Competition in Rhode Island and swept the first-place people’s choice awards at Seattle’s Washington Winter Beer Fest, with Orlison scoring a third.

Kootenai River captured a bronze at the nation’s biggest beer event, the Great American Beer Festival, and also placed in Idaho’s North American Beer Awards along with Selkirk Abbey , Laughing Dog and Paradise Creek .

Washington Beer Awards winners included Iron Goat, River City, Hopped Up , Paradise Creek, Republic and Riverport .

Best fest: The Inland NW Craft Beer Festival (formerly Spokane Oktoberfest) turned a profit for the first time for the sponsoring Washington Beer Commission after relocating from Riverfront Park to Avista Stadium, minor league baseball home of the Spokane Indians.

The festival will be back at Avista next September, but the commission hasn’t yet bit on local brewers’ proposal for a second event over the winter.

Oh, and another little development took place in conjunction with the Avista festival: the launch of this blog. We’ve learned a lot in these first few months, and we hope you have, too. Thanks for reading, and let’s continue the journey in 2015.