SCBW: Day 1

The first official Spokane Craft Beer Week is getting out of the gate with a bang.

The week’s centerpiece is six special collaboration beers by a dozen area breweries, and four already are on tap today for your drinking pleasure:

Jazzywag: When you hear that hopheads Terry Hackler of Twelve String and Fred Colby of Laughing Dog are combining on a beer, you probably expect some sort of gnarly IPA.

That was discussed, Hackler acknowledges, but Colby concluded, “If we’re going to do this, we need to do something completely out of character for both of us.”

A Laughing Dog assistant offered an idea he’d been wanting to try: a Belgian golden strong ale with lavender and sweet orange. At 8.2 percent alcohol by volume and 50 International Bitterness Units, the result is big but easy-drinking.

“The lavender aroma really comes through – I wish could get that kind of aroma with hops,” Hackler says. But both the lavender and orange flavors are fairly subtle, he assures, as is the fruity/spicy Belgian yeast character.

It’s on today at Twelve String, with a successor of sorts on the way as well. Hackler used some of the same yeast to make a strong dark ale that’s headed into bourbon barrels for aging.

Barn City Flower Power: Lavender also takes center stage in this collaboration between Green Bluff’s Big Barn and River City, which debuts the beer today at its downtown tasting room.

It was inspired by Big Barn’s previous Miss Maggie’s Lavender IPA, which also was hopped with Amarillo and used lavender from a neighbor on the bluff, Fleur de Provence, operated by Stan and Maggie Smith. But there’s a twist this time with the addition of rye, says Big Barn’s Craig Deitz.

While the original concept from River City’s Moose Sanders and Todd Grove was a session IPA, he says, it ended up a hefty 6.6 percent ABV along with a more modest 40 IBU.

“It’s not a session in terms of alcohol content, but hopefully in terms of balance,” Deitz says.