Roll out the anniversary
The Steel Barrel this weekend celebrates two brewery birthdays and welcomes a newborn.
The first anniversary party Thursday through Saturday at the downtown taproom will feature special beers from original in-house breweries Little Spokane and Young Buck, and the initial release from newcomer TT’s Old Iron.
Little Spokane will pour its Dark & Lovely oatmeal stout through a Randall of morita chilies, smoked at the adjoining Zona Blanca eatery. Young Buck will have its orange-spiked Mimosa Gose tart wheat beer and Cab-Savvy barrel-aged sour blend. And the vintage auto-themed TT’s will introduce its Ruckstell Rye IPA (named after a Model T axle).
Patio parties all three days will feature Zona Blanca’s pozole carnitas tostadas on Thursday beginning at 5 p.m., with live music at 7 by Haley Young & The Bossame followed by The Holy Broke; beer pong on Friday at 5 along with Mexican street corn, and pineapple habanero margaritas plus pork rib al pastor tostadas on Saturday starting at 2.
It all caps what Little Spokane’s Joe Potter and Young Buck’s Cameron Johnson call a successful first year for the unique brewery incubator operation, designed for up to five beginning commercial brewers to share a seven-barrel brewing system.
Each has four rotating beers on tap in the Steel Barrel – which fills the rest of its 30 handles with guest beers and ciders, and serves specialty cocktails and wine – and also distributes to outside accounts.
“The first year we were trying to get our feet underneath us, get squared away with the brewery and the taproom,” Johnson says. “Now I can focus more on the Young Buck side of things and barrel-aged sours, get more unique stuff out there.”
Potter, whose output has centered around more mainstream styles, says he’s ”ready to do some fun stuff, do some big beers and get some barrels back there.”