On Tap: Badass moves beyond their own backyard

Badass Backyard Brewing is moving away from home.

The beer still will be brewed in a detached shed at Charlene Honcik and Kendra Wiiest’s house in Millwood. But it will be served in a new taproom at 1415 N. Argonne Road, next to Chan’s Bistro in the Argonne Mission Center.

A grand opening is scheduled Saturday from noon to 8, pending final inspections (follow on Facebook or badassbackyardbeer.com for updates). Regular hours will be Thursday through Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m.

Badass, which opened in August 2015, didn’t plan on an external taproom quite this soon. But the business faced costly improvements to bring its original home-based taproom up to code, and had limited parking – which is plentiful at the new location, just a block south of Interstate 90.

With their clientele growing, Wiiest said, “We just realized it was time to go somewhere where we could accommodate more customers and be open more often.”

The new space, a former Good Feet store, is styled after the home taproom, which was only open on Saturdays. Corrugated metal fronts the long, winding bar, the wall behind is done up in brick, and an opposite wall is covered with wood from pallets at the old place.

“One of the biggest requests from our customers is that we have the same atmosphere,” Wiiest said.

Along with the six standard beers – Daring Diva Razzberry Wheat, Not Your Average Blonde, 50/50 Amber, Adrenaline Seeker IPA, Board Breaker Brown and Big Air Black Stout – Wiiest has been brewing several small-batch specialties that will be on tap for the opening.

Those include a pilsner, pumpkin ale, an IPA made with locally produced Palouse Pint malt, a fresh-hop double IPA with homegrown Willamette and Centennial, a huckleberry session stout and a bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout. Cider and wine also will be served.

“I’ve been brewing like crazy,” Wiiest said. “Every single keg we have is completely full.”

She’s been making the main beers on a borrowed one-barrel (30-gallon) system, which almost doubles the previous capacity but still is tiny. Plans call for further expansion as the taproom business grows.

“We’re still focused on building from the ground up,” Wiiest said, without bank loans. “Everything we’re putting into this, we’re doing ourselves.”

Brewery watch

A mile to the north at 2302 N. Argonne Road, V Twin Brewing has its grand opening set for Oct. 21; we’ll follow up in the next On Tap in two weeks.

A third brewery is coming on board at the downtown incubator. TT’s Old Iron, named after the vintage cars that brewer Travis Thosath collects, hopes to have its licensing completed around the end of the year. It will join original tenants Little Spokane and Young Buck.

No-Li is extending its small-batch beer festival series into the winter season. The Frost Fest on Dec. 10 will again feature 10 or more infused and barrel-aged specialties, served in heated tents on the patio. Advance tickets are $15, which includes a souvenir T-shirt, pint glass and five drink tickets (4-ounce pours for one ticket, 10 ounces for two).

Locals score at GABF

Perry Street Brewing won a gold medal and Kootenai River took its second bronze in three years at last weekend’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver, the nation’s largest beer event.

Perry Street topped 51 other entries in the session beer category with its IPL (India pale lager). Kootenai River, from Bonners Ferry, finished third among 46 Scottish ale entries with its McGreagor, duplicating its 2014 showing.

Those were only the fifth and sixth medals earned by area breweries since the competition started 30 years ago. No-Li took gold and Laughing Dog bronze in 2012, and the former Coeur d’Alene Brewing won a gold in 1988.

Another Avista success

Last month’s Inland Northwest Craft Beer festival set another attendance record with 3,272 paid admissions over two days, up 14 percent from last year. While cold, rainy weather dampened Friday night’s activities on Sept. 23, business rebounded under sunny skies the next day, when children were allowed to attend with their parents for the first time.

Freshly tapped

The season’s fresh-hop beers continue to roll out, most recently River City’s Amarillo-hopped Funkadelicious (5.8 percent alcohol by volume, 60 International Bitterness Units); Perry Street’s The Freshness (5.5, IBU not available), a lager brewed with fresh Amarillos and powdered Simcoe; Twelve String’s maltier Mosaic Fresh Hop Red IPA (6.6, 75); and Iron Goat’s Citra Mosaic IPA (6.6, NA) and annual SpoHop (6.3, NA), with a variety of hops contributed by customers.

The Steam Plant is pouring both its light, lightly spiced seasonal Pumpkin Ale (4.5, 7) and a crisp, citrusy Boiler 6 India pale lager (5.9, 48) made with Palouse Pint malt.

Back for the fall at English Setter is Open Season Apple (5.5, 56), brewed with fresh, unpasteurized cider from Green Bluff.

Coming soon, Hopped Up’s sessionable new Palouse IPA (5.3, 45) also uses Palouse Pint malt and is hopped with Ahtanum and Cascade.

Save the date

Fresh hop beers from more than two dozen local and regional breweries are pouring at The Lantern Tap House’s Freshtival, in the outdoor tent Oct. 21 from 4 to 10 p.m. and Oct. 22 from 2 to 10. For $10, you get a tasting glass and five drink tokens (6-ounce pour for two tokens, full pint for five); extra tokens are $1 each. (The festival originally was scheduled this weekend, but was pushed back because of high winds in the forecast.)

Also hosting fresh-hop festivals this weekend are Coeur d’Alene’s Filling Station on 5th, Friday from 5 p.m. to close and Saturday from 11 a.m. to close, and Sandpoint’s 219 Lounge, Saturday from 1 to 7.

A five-course beer dinner Monday at Prohibition Gastropub features beers from River City and Ninkasi. Cost is $65; call (509) 474-9040.

The fourth annual Craft Beer and Cookie Fest, Oct. 22 at the Girl Scouts program center, 1404 N. Ash, will pair beers from Badass, Black Label, English Setter, Iron Goat, New Boundary, River City, Waddell’s, Alaskan and Lagunitas with assorted Girl Scout cookies. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door, which includes three beer and cookie samples plus a sausage sandwich.

Send beer news, comments and questions to senior correspondent Rick Bonino at boninobeer@comcast.net