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

Posting a year-end gain

Rick Bonino

The return of two familiar offerings and a brand new heavy hitter highlight the lineup for Post Falls Brewing’s first anniversary party this weekend.

The brewery is bringing back slightly tweaked versions of its OPC Hefeweizen – brewed with orange peel and coriander – and its original imperial IPA, Ssssick and Rowdy.

And there’s a peach-infused, small-batch beer that started out as a double IPA, but kept on going.  “The gravity got a little higher than we expected, so it’s basically a barleywine,” co-owner Alex Sylvain says.

All beers will be a dollar off both Saturday and Sunday. The live music lineup features Karrie O’Neill on Saturday at 1 followed by Devon Wade at 7, with Echo Elysium on Sunday at 2.

Food-wise, there will be smoked fare from Heritage Meats and wood-fired pizza from Mangia Catering on Saturday, and the Tacos Los Panchos truck on Sunday. Also look for outdoor games if the weather cooperates.

It all caps a busy first year that Sylvain and co-owner Dan Stokes say exceeded their expectations. “We’ve learned a lot,” says Stokes. “It’s been a challenge.”

“It’s been neat to hear feedback from our customers, seeing them get engaged with the different types of beers on the menu,” Sylvain adds. “We’ve been trying to branch out beyond just the beers we like.”

They plan to add eight more tap handles, bringing the total to 20. That will allow for more imperial styles, which Stokes and Sylvain favor, not that they’re in short supply; five of the 11 beers on tap this week topped 7.5 percent alcohol by volume.

That includes a pair of imperial IPAs, both at 8.5 ABV: the more bitter, Galaxy-hopped Intergalactic (at a calculated 138 International Bitterness Units) and the newer, mellower Supa-Flii (60 IBU), which relies on late additions of Simcoe, El Dorado, Columbus and Amarillo.

On the milder side, the latest arrival, Permanent Vacation pale (5.3, 32), gets its deep amber hue and light sweetness from caramel and Munich malts, and a spicy, floral finish from dry-hopping with Crystal.

The longtime session favorite, Cheap Prick (4.5, 10), will get a bit crisper by being reinvented as a kolsch, an ale/lager hybrid.

While the taproom (open daily from noon to 10) will remain the focus for year two, there will be increased emphasis on outside distribution. The brewery was initially designed for that, with a sizable 15-barrel brewhouse and four 30-barrel fermenters.

That will continue to center around North Idaho (though the occasional keg shows up at Steady Flow Growler House in Spokane Valley) and will be handled in-house for the foreseeable future instead of hiring a distributor. “We want to see how much we can do on our own,” Stokes says.