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

More Marmots on the menu

Rick Bonino

River City’s brewers took a trip to the kitchen for this year’s International Midnight Marmot Festival.

While last year’s lineup centered on the seasonal imperial stout conditioned over oak chips soaked in various spirits, Saturday’s second annual event focuses on flavors from around the world, from Indian curry to Mexican chipotle peppers to Chinese star anise.

For $25 in advance ($30 at the door) you get 2-ounce samples of regular Marmot and nine variations, plus a pint of your favorite and a souvenir snifter (while supplies last). You also can buy one growler fill for an additional $10. 

Nick’s Shameless Sausages food truck will be on hand for the event from 3 to 8 p.m., and the Afternoon IPA, Girlfriend Golden and house root beer also will be pouring.

“We wanted to take a more culinary approach,” head brewer Todd Grove says of this year’s offerings. “You get a lot of food flavors from Marmot: dark fruit, cocoa, caramel, a nutty quality.”

He and assistant brewer Christopher Anderson, an avid cook, came up with a pair of complementary spice additions. The curry, they say, brings out the perceived sweetness in the beer, while the chipotle version echoes the chocolaty, smoky, nutty flavors of a Mexican mole.

With the Chinese orange and star anise, they say, the orange balances the Marmot’s fruitiness, leaving the licorice-like anise to accentuate its alcohol bite – “but not in a hot way,” Anderson assures.

“When you put together two things that have the same character, something else rises to the forefront,” Grove explains. “They almost cancel each other out.”

For example, he says, when a sweeter stout is paired with chocolate cake, “it’s easier to detect the cinnamon in the cake, and the bitterness in the stout.”

There’s also a Mediterranean pomegranate version of the Marmot, and another incorporating Madagascar vanilla and locally roasted Vessel coffee.

Since the fruitier, English-influenced Marmot isn’t as roasty as many American-style imperial stouts, Grove says, “When you add coffee, it doesn’t feel like it’s hitting you over the head with more roast.”

That also made it a good partner for an After-Midnight black IPA blend, he says, since there’s less roastiness to clash with the hops. While he and Anderson considered using Riverkeeper IPA, which has a fruitier hop character, they found that the sessionable Afternoon IPA worked better with its pinier, more resiny notes.

Other offerings include a reserve 2014 Marmot, an Oako-Coco Nitro aged on oak chips and cacao nibs and a complex Grand Cru blend of regular, curried and coffee/vanilla Marmot along with more that was aged on raspberries and oak chips, plus some of the anniversary Congratulator doppelbock from last January.

Adding the doppelbock, a dark, strong lager, “lightened it up and made the beer a little bit brighter,” Anderson says. Grove says he gets suggestions of port wine.

While the Congratulator has been River City’s anniversary beer the past two years, it’s being replaced by a big Baltic porter – another strong lager that falls somewhere between doppelbock and imperial stout – for the brewery’s fourth birthday party. That’s coming up Jan. 27, so hoist a Marmot and mark your calendars.