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

Best of the fest

Rick Bonino

Local brewers are putting some of their best beers forward for this weekend’s Washington Brewers Festival at Marymoor Park in Redmond.

The annual event will feature more than 500 beers from 111 breweries statewide, several of those from the Inland Northwest.

No-Li is pouring an all-specialty lineup including three variations on the recently released Big Juicy IPA – raspberry/blackberry Berry Merry BJ (Friday only), vanilla/orange BJ Cream Dream (Saturday) and passion fruit Passionate BJ (Sunday) – along with Summertime McLovin’ strawberry/lemon kettle sour (Saturday/Sunday), sour-dosed Winter Rewind winter warmer aged in Malbec barrels (Saturday) and whiskey barrel-aged, coffee-infused Wrecking Ball imperial stout (Sunday).

Barrels also are big with other area brewers:

– Orlison is serving barrel-aged Roast House Stout (Friday), Toasted Dragon and 2 Finger Pour.

– Twelve String will have rum barrel-aged Imperial Coconut Porter, cognac barrel-aged Grapefruit Sour and a rotating tap with barrel-aged Volume 3 imperial red, Volume 4 barleywine and 2013 Electric Slide imperial IPA.

– Along with its familiar whiskey barrel-aged Goatnik imperial stout and Cap’n Kidd Scotch, Iron Goat is pulling out some of its rare, superb gin barrel-aged Head Butt IPA.

– Pullman’s Paradise Creek is bringing a tequila barrel-aged Belgian quad, and Clarkston’s Riverport its Barrel Two Batch One sour blonde.

The Steam Plant rounds out the local list with a lineup including its Centennial Barley Wine on Friday.

Of course, folks traveling from these parts might be more interested in checking out some of the breweries they don’t usually get to sample. Among the more interesting offerings:

– In addition to those Big Juicy tweaks, other infused IPAs include Fremont’s The Sister imperial with lime and basil, Slippery Pig’s rhubarb version, Strong Arm’s sessionable Tenderfoot Hibiscus and Ten Pin’s Alpha Brett.

– Among several takes on the increasingly popular gose tart wheat beer style are fruit-infused versions from Wingman (lime) and Postdoc (blackberry, and Brett barrel-aged with plum).  

– Honey makes an appearance in Pike’s Hive Five, Yakima Craft’s Scottish with honey and heather and Slippery Pig’s burly (12 percent ABV) Hogsbreath Honey Wheat.

– If you’re in a Thanksgiving sort of mood, Flying Lion has a Sweet Potato Porter aged on hickory and white ash (Friday), Foggy Noggin its seasonal Cranberry Frost English Golden Strong (Saturday) and Schooner Exact its barrel-aged Whiskey Dick Cantwell imperial pumpkin (which we remember, barely, from last fall’s Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival in Spokane).

– Other heavy hitters include Sound’s Old 88 Wheat Wine, Geaux’s barrel-aged, fruit-infused Geaux Naked Barleywine (Friday), Strong Arm’s Denunciation triple IPA (Friday), 192’s barrel-aged Shticky Blonde Shtrong (Friday) and Fremont’s rotating tap featuring variations on its barrel-aged Abominable winter ale (B-Bomb) and Dark Star imperial stout.

– A slew of tasty-sounding rotating selections too numerous to list also are on the menus at Postdoc, Reuben’s, Silver City and Triplehorn. You’ll just have to go see for yourself.