A puppy’s progress

It turns out a two-year-old dog can definitely learn some new tricks.

English Setter celebrates its second anniversary Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. with $1 off pints, half-price appetizers, merchandise giveaways on the hour and live music in the evening.

It caps what owner/brewer Jeff Bendio deems a successful second year, with sales growth of 35 percent.

“We’ve had some great times with some great customers,” he says. “It’s just been a ton of fun.”

Year two marked several firsts for the Spokane Valley brewery, including:

– Its first collaboration beer, Steam Setter Red IPA, in conjunction with the Steam Plant for Spokane Craft Beer Week.

– Its first medal, in its first competition, a silver for Field Point Brown at last summer’s Washington Beer Awards.

– Its first bottled beers, which debuted at Christmas time. Bendio continues to bottle whatever’s on tap in limited quantities of 22-ounce bombers, available only at the brewery.

– Last month’s installation of a Randall, dubbed Fran, for flavor-infused beers on Frandall Friday each week. There’s a special one for Saturday’s celebration: ButterButt Birthday Beer, the Wiggly Butt IPA through butterscotch candies.

Also still pouring are the fall seasonal Open Season Apple amber brewed with fresh Green Bluff cider, the orange-chocolate Puppy for Christmas porter and the latest release, a vanilla-bourbon Break Off the Line Stout that Bendio says has “just been huge.”

Those will be gone soon, with the return of the spring seasonal  Citrus Setter orange/grapefruit pale on the way. Bendio, who likes to rotate at least two versions of each style, also would like to have a second amber and a second brown, though he figures the Field Point is a tough act to follow.

It lost to a black IPA at the Washington awards in a combined American Brown and Black Ales category. “So in my mind, we had the best brown ale in the state,” Bendio says.

English Setter will continue its participation in events like Epicurian Delight, Valleyfest and the Girl Scouts’ Craft Beer & Cookie Fest, with fundraisers for the Humane Society and SCRAPS under discussion.

“Because of our name, it fits with what they do, and we could bring our own English setters to the events,” says Bendio.

And some sort of expansion also is on the horizon, he says: “We’re debating whether to, in the next year, build a bigger brewery or open a second one.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do yet. We need to take the next step, and we don’t really want to get into distribution.”

Whatever happens, he says, “We’ve made it two years, and had some good growth. We’ll see what the third year does, and keep it going.”