Craft Beer Week: Monday

Christmas comes in May starting today for local beer lovers with the kickoff of Spokane (and American) Craft Beer Week.

Here’s a rundown of today’s beer-related activities around the area. Look for more of the same here each day during the week.

(Because of the sheer volume of events, we aren’t doing our usual Monday look-ahead at the entire week. But you can still see what’s coming up by clicking on the “Events” calendar in the upper right corner of this page.)

– Twelve String and Trickster’s release their Craft Beer Week collaboration – a single-hop Cascadian dark ale brewed with four different forms of Simcoe (leaf, pellets, extract and dust) – at Twelve String from 3 to 9 p.m., with the Bite Me food truck.

– Variations on a cream ale jointly brewed by six downtown breweries will pour at River City from 3 to 9, including the host’s ginger version; the Steam Plant’s horchata take, with cinnamon, sugar and vanilla; Black Label’s Honey Spiced, with cardamom and homegrown honey; a cucumber-infused offering from Little Spokane; Orange Creamsicle from Young Buck, plus an Orlison offering. Get a four-ounce pour of each plus a pint of your favorite for $12.

– Perry Street presents a kickoff party co-sponsored by Spokane7 and this blog from 5 to 8, with brewery tours, beer specials and raffle tickets with each pint purchased toward On Tap and local brewery merchandise (plus the opportunity to talk beer with yours truly).

– No-Li offers its commemorative Mead neighborhood pint glass for $5 (free with a pint purchase of Switch Hitter Golden Ale) in its weekly LocALE Monday from 5 to 8.

– Limited-release No-Li beers will be featured in a tap takeover at Republic Pi from 6 to 8.

– Nectar Wine and Beer has a Prairie Artisan Ales tasting from 6 to 8 with the Oklahoma brewery’s Standard farmhouse ale, Flare gose, Funky Gold Simcoe dry-hopped sour, Phantasmagoria double IPA and Bomb! stout (on draft; the others are bottled). Get a flight of all five for $10.

– Manito Tap House hosts a daylong Fremont tap takeover, with two small-keg specailties.

– Firestone Walker’s 2015 Stickee Monkee bourbon barrel-aged Belgian-style quad is the daily specialty at The Blackbird.

– The Lantern Tap House features 2014 vintage Stone Double Bastard. 

– Dogfish Head's 120 Minute IPA is pouring at The Flying Goat.

– The Area 51 taphouses at both the downtown and North Side Onion Bar & Grill are holding a local IPA competition all week, with voting on blind taste-test samplers of entries by Bellwether, Big Barn, Orlison, Perry Street, River City, Waddell’s, Wallace and Whistle Punk.

– Orange You Glad We Said Chocolate orange/chocolate porter collaboration between the Steam Plant and Waddell's Brewpub goes on tap at both places today (look for beer specials all week at the Steam Plant, and a beer-infused fresh sheet menu at Waddell's).

– Black Label is doing $4 pints of SpoBock, plus $10 growler fills on most other beers.

– Steady Flow Growler House has a weeklong local tap takeover.