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

Good beginning for Badass

Rick Bonino

Badass Backyard Brewing's Charlene Honcik (right) and Kendra Wiiest with their automated brewstand.

You might not expect the badass behind Badass Backyard Brewing to be a woman – much less one with a hot pink brew stand.

Charlene Honcik officially launches the nanobrewery at her Spokane Valley home Saturday from 2 to 8 p.m. along with her roommate and Spokane County co-worker, Kendra Wiiest.

She plans to open the first Saturday of each month for starters, and add more days as her production capacity and work schedule allow (growlers are filled by appointment at other times).

Several beers will be on tap based on feedback from a soft opening on July 4, including a blonde, raspberry wheat, brown (both regular and conditioned over hickory chips), black and, of course, an IPA (“I don’t care for them, but it was a big hit,” Honcik says).

Honcik and Wiiest converted a detached shop on the property into a 20-gallon brewery operation and bare-bones taproom, relying on donated and salvaged materials. The bar top was fashioned from a handrail from the old floating dock in Coeur d’Alene, while the metal along the front was scrap from a siding job.    

“I wasn’t really looking for a house with a shop when I moved here,” Honcik says. “It just kind of all happened, like it was meant to be.”

And after receiving a warm reception from other brewers around the area, she says, “When I found out the brotherhood that exists, I thought, this is the place for me.”

The Hayden-born Honcik, who just turned 30, started homebrewing about five years ago when she was bartending in Coeur d’Alene and some customers invited her over to check out their setup. She got into all-grain brewing through a friend after moving to Millwood three years ago.

Brewing and hanging out with friends became a stress reliever from their jobs as 911 emergency operators, Honcik and Wiiest say. Along the way, Honcik says, people started telling her, “You really need to start selling this somehow.”

So she went through the licensing process with the help of English Setter’s Jeff Bendio, who also started with a garage operation before opening his Valley brewpub. She originally planned on only selling growlers and kegs to go, but learned that her shop was zoned commercial, allowing for a taproom.

The brewery name is a nod to Honcik herself, an only child who grew up camping and fishing with her father and riding motorcycles.

When she was brainstorming names, she says, “One of my buddies said, You’re such a badass. I thought, that’s it.”

While the brewery is a sideline for now, Honcik is taking it seriously. She attended April’s national Craft Brewers Conference in Portland, and has signed up to pour at the Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival at Avista Stadium in October.

She’s pricing microscopes to set up a lab for quality control. “I’m all about quality – not quantity, obviously,” she jokes.

Honcik hopes to soon upgrade to a two-barrel (60-gallon) system (there’s a fundraising campaign through Rally.org), and dreams of a 10-barrel operation with an offsite pub.

In the meantime, she says, “All I want it to do is support itself, and I’ll be happy.”