Roll out the anniversary

The Steel Barrel this weekend celebrates two brewery birthdays and welcomes a newborn.

The first anniversary party Thursday through Saturday at the downtown taproom will feature special beers from original in-house breweries Little Spokane and Young Buck , and the initial release from newcomer TT’s Old Iron .

Little Spokane will pour its Dark & Lovely oatmeal stout through a Randall of morita chilies, smoked at the adjoining Zona Blanca eatery. Young Buck will have its orange-spiked Mimosa Gose tart wheat beer and Cab-Savvy barrel-aged sour blend. And the vintage auto-themed TT’s will introduce its Ruckstell Rye IPA (named after a Model T axle).

Patio parties all three days will feature Zona Blanca’s pozole carnitas tostadas on Thursday beginning at 5 p.m., with live music at 7 by Haley Young & The Bossame followed by The Holy Broke; beer pong on Friday at 5 along with Mexican street corn, and pineapple habanero margaritas plus pork rib al pastor tostadas on Saturday starting at 2.

It all caps what Little Spokane’s Joe Potter and Young Buck’s Cameron Johnson call a successful first year for the unique brewery incubator operation, designed for up to five beginning commercial brewers to share a seven-barrel brewing system.

Each has four rotating beers on tap in the Steel Barrel – which fills the rest of its 30 handles with guest beers and ciders, and serves specialty cocktails and wine – and also distributes to outside accounts.

“The first year we were trying to get our feet underneath us, get squared away with the brewery and the taproom,” Johnson says. “Now I can focus more on the Young Buck side of things and barrel-aged sours, get more unique stuff out there.”

Potter, whose output has centered around more mainstream styles, says he’s ”ready to do some fun stuff, do some big beers and get some barrels back there.”

During year one, he says, “I’ve learned a lot about what craft beer drinkers want, what general beer drinkers want, what accounts want and how to balance all of that. How much do you spread your wings and experiment a little, versus giving someone a lineup of quality beers that they can hang their hat on? That’s something I’m still figuring out.”

Not surprisingly, his biggest seller by far has been his bright, citrusy Sun Child IPA. But he’s particularly proud of his fruity, peppery, slightly tart Mi Reina saison: “For me to step into saison territory and have it come out being such a good beer, I’m pretty excited about that.”

He’s continued to push the envelope with his latest release, Pampalouse, a Belgian-style witbier with locally produced Palouse Pint triticale malt in place of the traditional wheat.

Next up is a hoppy, sessionable Knothead Red for summer (4.8 percent alcohol by volume). And Potter promises “something in the gigantic territory that will be ready for fall,” either an imperial stout or barleywine.

Johnson’s go-to beer has been his regular gose, a 3.5 percent easy-drinker brewed with coriander and Himalayan pink salt.

“It’s been lot of fun perfecting that here on the big system,” he says. “It’s pretty much the same beer that I’ve made many times at home.”

And, he adds, “Now that local breweries are making more sours, the public is getting more used to the idea.”

His real passion is for the more time-consuming barrel-aged sours, which can take several months or more to mature.

Johnson has released two of those so far: Farmhouse Funk, a Belgian-style golden ale aged in chardonnay barrels on apricots, and the Cab-Savvy, a blend of Funk with 30 percent tart saison aged in cabernet sauvignon barrels. Those will be available in 750-milliliter bottles at the brewery in a couple of months.

Long-range, Johnson says, ”I’m looking toward eventually being 60 to 70 percent barrel-aged sours, maybe more. I’m working on carving out a niche as Spokane’s sour brewery, or at least one of them.”

His other focus is on IPAs, to help pay the bills and indulge in some hop-centered creativity. There have been two releases so far in the experimental Warp series, which explores different hop combinations and grain bills, with a third on the way.

Both Johnson and Potter have begun scoping out commercial real estate with an eye toward opening their own stand-alone breweries, which is the incubator program’s goal. But they’re in no hurry.

“I’m not going to just find a space and try to fit what I’m doing into it,” Potter says. “I need to find the right location.”