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

Waddell out the barrels

Rick Bonino

Waddell’s is the latest local brewery to join the barrel brigade, and it’s getting ready to roll out the results.

The Five Mile brewpub recently acquired four second-use Dry Fly wheat whiskey barrels and has been putting them to good use. Three barrel-aged creations will debut at a release party Friday: Fireman’s Amber, Shattered Glass Imperial IPA and an imperial version of the Alligator Oatmeal Stout.

The biggest beer, the stout (10 percent alcohol by volume), has been in barrels the longest, four weeks. Head brewer Bryan Utigard says it should be just about ready by party time.

“You can definitely taste the barrel,” he says. “I’m not trying to get it extremely oaky.”

After three weeks, he says, the Shattered Glass (9.5 percent) has “quite a bit of oak in it.” The lower-alcohol amber (5.5) only took two weeks to acquire the proper character.

“We wanted to do something lighter in a barrel, so people can drink more of it,” Utigard says.

There also will be a non-barrel version of the stout served through a nitro tap, and a cask-conditioned firkin of Waddell’s new-look Left Hook IPA dry-hopped with Centennial and Columbus.

Centennial has replaced Summit in that beer’s revised recipe, along with Columbus, Nugget and Cascade. Utigard says the result is more citrusy and less pungent.

All will be poured in 12-ounce tulips on the enclosed patio at Waddell’s starting at 6 p.m. Admission is $10 (cash only; $5 for Brew Crew members), which includes your first drink ticket, snacks (sliders and such) and a raffle ticket toward gift certificates and merchandise.

Additional drink tickets are $5 each, or five for $20. Along with the beers, you can use those for Dry Fly cocktails; the crew from the local distillery also will be on hand.

“It should be a fun night of beer drinking and hanging out with some cool people,” Utigard says.