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

Avista preview: For hopheads

Rick Bonino

This is the second in a series of posts exploring the beer lineup for this weekend’s Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival.

Given the continuing popularity of the style, it’s no surprise that IPAs account for about one-fourth of the almost 180 beers on tap for this weekend’s Inland Northwest Craft Beer Festival.

Here’s a closer look at the hoppier selections pouring Friday and Saturday at Avista Stadium, including this fall’s crop of fresh hop beers:

– Seattle crowd favorite Fremont is serving its new Citrado, featuring fruity Citra and El Dorado hops over a pilsner and honey malt base, and an infused ginger/lime Moscow Mule version of its standard Interurban.

Other less familiar offerings from outside the area include Boundary Bay’s four-hop Cedar Dust, Island Hoppin’s Elwha Rock (Chinook/Centennial/Zeus), Two Beers’ Wonderland Trail (Amarillo/Citra/Mosaic/Cascade) and Wingman’s rye/rosemary Shin Cracker.

– Locally, Whistle Punk has a hazy, juicy New England-inspired Coast to Coast with Mosaic and Citra, and Bennidito’s is bringing its new, malt-forward single-hop Red Citra.

And on the lager side, the Steam Plant debuts its Boiler 6 India pale lager with locally produced Palouse Pint malt, while Orlison has its dry-hopped IPL.

– Among the more usual suspects from around the area, look for Black Label’s Tropical Thunder, Hopped Up’s Mad Hopper, Iron Goat’s Head Butt, Northern’s Flume Creek, Top Frog’s Whistling Frog and Twelve String’s Batch 201 and C#7#5.

More far-flung favorites include 7 Seas’ Rude Parrot, Bale Breaker’s Topcutter, Everybody’s Country Boy, Georgetown’s Bodhizafa, Icicle’s Bootjack, Schooner Exact’s Hopvine and Ten Pin’s Head Pin.

– Heavier hitters are coming in the form of Bale Breaker’s big Bottomcutter, Bennidito’s Good Karma, Diamond Knot’s Industrial , Elysian’s Space Dust, Daft Badger Badger’s Bounty, Everybody’s Hoppy AF, Fremont’s The Brother, Iron Goat’s Impaler, Rants & Raves’  Anonymous, Schooner Exact’s Truancy and Twelve String’s Electric Slide.

No-Li has a supercharged (11.5 percent ABV), dry-hopped StarKiller version of its Jet Star imperial; Bellwether its big, braggot-style Honey Hop and a smoky, experimental Perle-hopped For Peat’s Sake (tapping Saturday at 5 p.m.); Island Hoppin’ an Old Madrona Imperial Red; and Fish its 10-hop, 100-IBU, 10-ABV 10 Squared (tapping Saturday at 6 p.m.)

– On the more sessionable side, look for Ten Pin’s Shrunken Head Pin (4.5 percent ABV), River City’s Afternoon (4.6), Orlison’s Shin Splints (5.3), Waddell’s Hop Comet (5.3) and Silver City’s Nice Day (5.5).

– Fremont leads the fresh hop parade with its beloved organic Cowiche Canyon blend, along with the first two entries in its new single-hop Field to Ferment series, starring Centennial and Simcoe.

Centennial is the centerpiece of Two Beers’ rendition, while Whistle Punk uses homegrown Centennial and Cascade.  Other Simcoe offerings come from Perry Street, Paradise Creek and Iron Goat (an unusual soured version).

There’s also an Amarillo from Schooner Exact, a Squeezed Wheat from Top Frog with fresh homegrown Mosaic and the Frazier’s Fresh Hop Harvest Ale from Republic Brewing using an assortment of locally collected hops.