Their Nilla’s now your Nilla

Above: Derek Harbaugh and Josh Day brew their prize-winning My Nilla vanilla bourbon oatmeal stout at Waddell's Brewpub. (Battle of the Homebrews photo)

 

Local homebrew will get its due on Friday at Waddell’s Brewpub.

My Nilla, a vanilla bourbon oatmeal stout based on the winning recipe at last May’s inaugural Battle of the Homebrews in Post Falls, will be tapped at a release party starting at 7 p.m.

As part of their prize, Josh Day and Derek Harbaugh (aka The Yeasty Boiz) got to spend a day with the brewers at Waddell’s cooking up a commercial version of their creation.

“It’s pretty cool, especially for a couple of new guys,” says Harbaugh, who has been brewing with Day for a little over a year.

Both big fans of stouts, their inspiration for My Nilla was Ninkasi’s Vanilla Oatis.

“We wanted to make our own vanilla oatmeal stout, and we decided a little bourbon wouldn’t hurt, either,” Harbaugh says.

The Waddell’s version (8.5 percent alcohol by volume, 25 International Bitterness Units) was brewed with a homemade extract using Maker's Mark and Madagascar vanilla beans.

“You can taste the vanilla, smell that it’s in there, but it’s not overpowering,” says Waddell’s brewer Bryan Utigard. “You can taste the oatmeal stout behind it quite well. I think it’s great.”

The beer will be served at both Waddell’s Brewpub and its sister Waddell’s Neighborhood Pub on the South Hill and may show up at a few other accounts around town, Utigard said.

Harbaugh, who hasn’t had a chance to try the finished product yet, is eagerly looking forward to Friday, and thankful to Waddell’s for the experience.

“Doing it in a garage and doing it in a brewery are two different worlds,” he says. “We took a lot of what they taught us just in that one day and transferred it over to what we’re doing in the garage. It’s made a big difference.”

He and Day will be back to defend their title at the second Battle of the Homebrews, scheduled May 16 at a new location, the Spokane County Fair and Expo Center.

And this time around, plans call for winners in both the people’s choice voting and the new professional judging category to be brewed commercially.