Your weekly roundup
Some odds and ends from the past week in craft beer, both local and beyond:
– Moscow Brewing is for sale , with owner/brewer Lucas Rate moving out of the area. Check out his elaborate YouTube video to entice potential buyers for the one-barrel nanobrewery.
Meanwhile, Moscow’s budding brewery disctrict continues to take shape. Hunga Dunga is in the final phases of permitting for its 15-barrel production brewery, while Rants & Raves , already open as a restaurant/pub, is awaiting federal approval to begin brewing on its seven-barrel system; all three breweries are within a block or two of each other.
– English Setter has joined the ranks of local breweries pouring flavor-infused beers through a Randall, with a new offering every Friday from 5 to 8 p.m.
– On the growler fill front, Twelve String has lowered its prices to $9, $10 and $12, depending on the beer, while Budge Brothers , which had offered $5 fills since September, is back to its previous $6 ($7 for seasonals).
– Orlison announced that its downtown taproom will now be closed on Sundays until spring.
– Sierra Nevada has revealed the six collaboration beers for this year’s Beer Camp Across America mixed pack, including an IPA with five Northwest breweries led by Yakima’s Bale Breaker. Also look for a red rye ale from Northern California, an American stout from the Southwest, an imperial brown from the Midwest, an East Coast pale and a Southern table beer from the Southeast.
– Regional brewers are tending to the lighter side with their new releases following the wave of winter beers. Ninkasi is adding both a Helles Belles lager and session Easy Way IPA to its year-round lineup, while a hefeweizen is joining Full Sail’s Session series.
– Finally, market researcher IRI Worldwide reports that craft beer sales were up 19 percent by volume and 23 percent in dollar value in 2015, while big-beer numbers remained flat.
You have to wonder a bit, though, about the definition of both “craft” and “beer”; the top seller was Not Your Father’s Root Beer , produced by a company co-owned by Pabst.
* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "On Tap." Read all stories from this blog