On Tap: Perry Street celebrates anniversary with Golden Growler raffle, firkins and more

Perry Street Brewing is only 3 years old, but it’s celebrating a golden anniversary of sorts this weekend.

The headline for 2016 was winning a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival – only the third time an Inland Northwest brewery has done so in the renowned competition’s 30-year history.

And as part of the anniversary celebration Friday and Saturday, it’s again raffling a Golden Growler, good for a free fill and a pint each week for the coming year.

In its second year of entries, Perry Street captured GABF gold for its Session IPL (India pale lager), a former seasonal that since has been added to the year-round lineup. Previous local winners were No-Li in 2012 and the now-defunct Coeur d’Alene Brewing back in 1988.

While he received positive feedback from judges the previous year, owner/brewer Ben Lukes said, “You never expect to go down there and win. The competition is so tough. It validates all of our hard work, obviously.”

Lukes also won the inaugural IPA Showdown at last spring’s Spokane Craft Beer Week with his regular India pale ale. “We just love where it is,” he said.

Perry Street is the first Spokane brewery to experiment with lupulin powder, a concentrated form of the oils and resins in hops. That’s a fixture in the Citra Dust Double IPA, the taproom’s top seller despite its hefty 9 percent alcohol by volume.

And it last week launched the first in a planned yearlong series of hazy, juicy New England-style IPAs, a hot trend that’s spreading nationwide (for more on that, see spokane7.com/blog/2017/mar/03/glory-haze/).

The initial offering (6.7 percent alcohol by volume, 60 International Bitterness Units), a bright but opaque golden, is soft and aromatic with juicy pineapple and peach flavors. “If this is any indicator, I’m excited about where we’re going,” Lukes said.

But beer innovations and awards aside, he said, the major achievement of year three was adding an in-house food menu featuring small plates, sandwiches and salads, under the guidance of chef Alisha Van Guilder.

“What she’s been able to accomplish out of an 8-by-11 kitchen is pretty outrageous,” Lukes said. “We wanted to get awesome craft food into our brewery, and people have really responded.”

This weekend’s anniversary activities include the tapping of two firkins Friday – IPA aged on tangelos, and tart saison on Meyer lemon and coriander – with 20-ounce pours of all beers at regular pint prices. That drops to $4 on Saturday, along with live and DJ music and the raffle of a stand up paddle board to benefit neighborhood Grant Elementary School in addition to the Golden Growler.

Perry Street produces a modest 500 barrels of beer per year, almost all of which is sold in the taproom, at 1025 S. Perry St. After the GABF win, Lukes said he considered adding tanks and bottling or canning the Session IPL, but hasn’t yet pulled the trigger.

“We’re still planning on some growth, but we don’t know what that’s going to be,” he said. “At some point, we’re going to max out this building, and we’ll need to make some choices.”

Whatever happens, he said, “We’re so much about the neighborhood. We want to serve the people in the Perry District.”

Down by the river

The second annual Riverwalk from River City Brewing, Numerica Credit Union and the Spokane Riverkeeper runs through March at participating downtown-area bars and restaurants: The Blackbird, Borracho, Central Food, David’s Pizza, Fast Eddies, Nectar Wine and Beer, Ripples, Spencer’s, Steelhead and Veraci Pizza.

Stop at five of them for a pint of this year’s Riverkeeper IPA and/or a meal and receive a souvenir glass (with Numerica making a $5 donation to the Riverkeeper program). Hit all 10 to be entered in a drawing for a Spokane River rafting trip.

Honor roll

Manito Tap House was voted Washington’s best beer bar in an online reader poll by Craftbeer.com, the consumer website of the national Brewers Association. It was recognized for its 50 taps and 70 bottled offerings, trained staff and environmental standing as a four-star Certified Green Restaurant.

River City has won another regional award from the United States Beer Tasting Championship, this time for an orange-anise version of its Midnight Marmot imperial stout. The brewery previously received six medals in Northwest/Pacific judging of the twice-annual competition over the past two years.

Freshly tapped

This year’s Spring Reverb Xtra Pale from Twelve String (5.8 percent alcohol by volume, 50 International Bitterness Units) is single-hopped with fruity Amarillo.

The 2017 version of River City’s Riverkeeper IPA (6.5, 70) is designed to be more aromatic and drinkable from a leaner malt body and dry-hopping with Cascade, Citra, Simcoe and Mandarina Bavaria. A portion of sales supports the Spokane Riverkeeper water protection program.

A piney Ponderosa IPA at Bennidito’s Brewpub (7.3, 80), hopped with Chinook, Simcoe and Summit, is on the dry side with a lingering bitter finish.

Daft Badger is pouring a big-batch version of its former small-batch Blood Orange IPA (7.3, 65).

Joining Perry Street in trying their hand at hazy New England-style IPAs are Orlison with its cloudier “Any” NE IPA (6, 45), Iron Goat with its richer, darker Back East IPA (7.8, 71) and Daft Badger with its sessionable Unclear Objective (5.5, 50).

Iron Goat also has brought back its spring seasonal Irish Kate imperial red (7.7, 95).

Save the date

Slate Creek celebrates its fourth anniversary Friday with live music and $3 pints including the return of Dead Fall Barley Wine and a new imperial red.

Coeur d’Alene’s post-parade Pint o’Gold St. Patrick’s Pub Crawl on Saturday starting at 4:30 includes several local breweries pouring in the Resort Plaza Shops along with stops at downtown bars and restaurants. Get a souvenir pint glass and six drink tickets for $15.

Pints Alehouse in north Spokane marks its fifth anniversary March 17-18 with an array of specialty beers from the cellar.

An 11th anniversary party March 18 at MickDuff’s in Sandpoint will include live music, brewery tours and the return of Shillelagh organic IPA.

Some rare sours will be on tap for the ’70s-themed Fill the Funk party March 23 at The Filling Station on 5th in Coeur d’Alene, plus a period costume contest.

The Steel Barrel is hosting a five-course beer dinner featuring pFriem<cq> on March 29, with food from Zona Blanca chef Chad White; tickets are $80.

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