Black Saturday

Black Label may be celebrating its second anniversary Saturday, but the operative number is three – as in $3 pints of the dozen-odd beers on its board.

“It’s our way of saying thank you,” co-owner/brewer Dan Dvorak says. “We can’t do it all of the time, but we can do it once a year.”

The party from 4 to 10 will also feature live music by singer/songwriter Andy Rumsey and merchandise raffles for $2 a ticket (in keeping with the completion of year two).

Dvorak and partners Steve Wells and Josh Fox had hoped to have their Monstrosity IPA back on tap for the event, but the beast is taking more time than expected to ferment. It should return soon bigger than ever, at upwards of 11 percent ABV.

There’s also a new Coffee Cream Ale on the way being brewed exclusively for neighboring Saranac Public House. Black Label will host a release party on Feb. 4, with $5, five-ounce flights of that and its other two beers that use locally roasted Indaba coffee: Coffee Amber Stout and Indaba Stout.

Also in the pipeline is their first doppelbock – “It smelled like a candy bar when we were brewing it,” Wells says – followed by a reprise of last year’s relatively lighter Maibock, which Dvorak calls his favorite.

The big hit continues to be the fruity Tropical Thunder IPA, which was introduced for the first anniversary.  “We haven’t been able to take that beer off the menu,” Dvorak says.

Black Label produced some 220 barrels in 2016, up from around 180 the year before. Its four-barrel brewing system is crammed into the compact space behind the taproom in the Saranac Commons building on Main just east of Division.

The primary goal for 2017 is increasing outside distribution beyond the current dozen-plus accounts to build name recognition. Regular customers include chef friend Jeremy Hansen’s Butcher Bar (adjoining his Sante restaurant) and new Hogwash Whiskey Den, along with the downtown Tomato Street, both Onions and the 1898 Public House at the Kalispel Golf and Country Club.

“That’s the next step,” Dvorak says, “getting more and more of our beer out there, and getting more and more people in here. Once we get people in this place, they like it.”

While the brewing operation may move to a larger location in the next couple of years if all goes well, Black Label is keen to keep its taproom in the airy, repurposed Saranac Commons space it shares with several other small businesses. Those include Hansen’s Common Crumb bakery, the Mediterrano restaurant and Caffe Affogato coffee shop, Parrish & Grove gardening store and upcoming Native American art shop Modern Tipi.

“We’ve got (workers) over at the bakery, Mediterrano, Saranac wearing Black Label hats, hoodies and shirts. They’re excited to have us around,” says Wells.

Still, he says, “The coolest part is walking down the street and seeing somebody in a Black Label shirt.”