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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nano no more

Rick Bonino

Beer is beginning to flow in a big way at Slate Creek.

The Coeur d’Alene brewery this week brewed the first batch on its brand-new, 15-barrel brewhouse – a huge step up from the previous 2-barrel system.

“One batch on this makes as much as we brewed in a month before,” said co-owner/brewer Jason Wing (pictured above, with his pride and joy).

The popular Norse Nectar, a Scandinavian-style pale ale made with juniper berries and rye, is the inaugural recipe to go into the new tanks. The initial brew day on Tuesday lasted until 12:30 a.m., Wing said, while they were getting everything dialed in.

“We’re pretty excited to see how it turns out,” he said. “Having a large volume of that is probably the easiest thing to readily distribute, though it also happens to be one of our most difficult beers to make.”

Increased production will allow Slate Creek to distribute more of its beer around town, something that so far has been done only on a limited basis. Long-range plans also call for canning late this winter or early spring.

There also will be more beer available for the taproom, which has seen occasional shortages under the smaller system – a particular issue of late. Losing brewing time while installing the new equipment, plus participating in some recent festivals, “kind of created a perfect storm for running short on beer,” Wing said.

The taproom was closed Wednesday because the beer supply ran out, but reopened today with three offerings: Norse Nectar, Harper’s Stout and the long-absent Wingnut Brown. Those were brewed on the 2-barrel system, which will remain in operation for seasonals and specialties.

The new system was built by LaBreck Stainless Works in Hayden, Idaho, which also is doing tanks for breweries including Mad Bomber in Hayden, MickDuff’s in Sandpoint and the upcoming incubator project in downtown Spokane.

So what will be the next brew on Slate Creek’s big boy?

“We haven’t decided yet,” said Wing. “We’re going to poll our audience.”