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

More breweries in the mill

Rick Bonino

Millwood is at the center of the new brewery scene for 2016.

Just before Christmas, the newest name in the mix, V Twin, signed a lease for strip mall space at 2302 N. Argonne Road, just south of Montgomery.

A half-mile to the north, Mill Towne Brewery is starting to take shape in the former Cunningham photo studio at 9005 E. Frederick, just west of Argonne.

They’ll join four-year-old fixture Twelve String (though it plans to move to a new location on Pines south of Sprague) and tiny, more recent Badass Backyard Brewing (now open every Saturday, not just twice a month).

Here’s more on those and the other new breweries in progress:

V TWIN

Motorcycle-themed V Twin (a type of engine) is the project of longtime homebrewer Barry Black and his wife, Kim.

When they were younger, Barry says, they considered opening an espresso stand. “We hemmed and hawed about it, but we didn’t do it,” he says. “We thought it was a fad. We’ve just kept kicking ourselves, if we only would have done it.”

Now, with the brewery, he says, “We kind of went, here’s our second chance, let’s do it.”

It all started when Black took a liqueur-making class at a local homebrew store some 10 years ago. “I went there with no idea of homebrewing, but it just kind of fascinated me,” he says.

Kim got him a beer-making kit that Christmas, and he quickly progressed to all-grain. Black took fourth place at the Battle of the Homebrews last year with his Vanilla Porter, and third this year for his IPA.

After serving for a First Friday event by his employer, Numerica Credit Union, he was invited to pour alongside Orlison and Black Label at the Dental Society’s Pop a Cork for a Cause last February, and will return next month. “I was a little intimidated,” he says of last year, “but it went very well.”

Around the same time, the Blacks started scouting locations for a commercial brewery and finally found a 1,600-square-foot space just north of the McDonald’s on Argonne.

It will house a 3.5-barrel electric brewing system with the capability of producing double batches. Like the brewery, the beers will have motorcycle-related names.

“I’ve got a few people I go and ride with all the time,” Black says. “It’s about riding bikes and having a beer, for the people who work hard, put their blood and sweat into it – it’s something for them.”

Black, who hopes to open sometime this summer, is raising money through GoFundMe as well as a business loan. Other breweries have been supportive of his plans, he says, including Black Label and Budge Brothers.

“I’ve just been going around and checking everybody out,” he says. “Anybody who’s willing to offer help and insight along the way, I’ll eat it up.”