Year of the Badger

After its first year in business, Daft Badger is celebrating success in ways both big and small.

The Coeur d’Alene brewpub, which opened one year ago today, is marking the occasion with $3 pints all day, including the newly returned bourbon stout and this week’s small-batch offering, an Irish red.

“I don’t think I could be any happier with the way things went,” says owner Darrell Dlouhy, noting that 2015 sales numbers were toward the upper end of his projections.

While the easy-drinking Final Mile golden ale is its biggest seller, Daft Badger has become known for higher-gravity offerings like Josiah’s Revenge imperial stout (9.9 percent alcohol by volume) and its bourbon version, Scotchy Scotch Scotch wee heavy (8.8) and the Badger’s Bounty and Summer’s Envy IPAs (both at around 8 percent).

“Our beers are big-bodied, and we’re OK with that,” Dlouhy says. “We like them.”

The brewing equipment is sizable as well, a nifty 10-barrel JV Northwest system that’s semi-automated for more reliable results.

But some of the most interesting offerings come from the weekly Wednesday small-batch series, made 5 to 7 gallons at a time. Today’s release, the malt-forward Kari’s Irish Red (6.8 ABV, 28 International Bitterness Units) is named after brewer Keith Bertram’s wife, who helped develop the recipe.

The series both satisfies regular customers’ thirst for something new, and allows the Badger brewers to experiment with new styles and yeast strains. “It’s a chance for us to explore,” says Dlouhy.

While today’s festivities are relatively low-key, he plans a bigger party this spring to celebrate both the anniversary and the upcoming release of the Summer’s Envy and Josiah’s Revenge in 22-ounce bottles.

Those will only be available at the brewery. “We’re trying to create a mystique – if you like Daft Badger, you need to get it here,” Dlouhy says.

Draft distribution also will remain limited, mainly to the Growler Guys in Coeur d’Alene and eventually Spokane.

“We’re really happy and proud to be a brewpub,” Dlouhy says. “That doesn’t allow for a lot of distribution.”

The bottom line, he says:  “We just want to get better. We’re going to keep working as hard as we have been. We’ve got a long way to go.”