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

Your weekly roundup

Rick Bonino

Catching up with more news from the week in local craft beer:

• The Hidden Mother is beginning to birth some ambitious beers.

The recent Liberty Lake startup, which plans to specialize in wild ales and other adventurous offerings, so far has distributed creative takes on mainstream styles to more than 20 accounts around the area.

On Friday, it ran wort through a hollowed-out, 17-foot section of Ponderosa pine as part of the brewing process for a Pink Peppercorn Saison.

"It has just the right amount of pitch, I can tell," said owner/brewer Mike Detar. "It's going to be awesome."

Look for it to debut May 14 for a Spokane Craft Beer Week event at The Lantern Tap House (right around the corner from our On Tap kickoff party at Perry Street that evening). Other beers pouring will include a morel mushroom-infused version of the already released Smoked Red.

• The Spokane Brewers Festival will return for its third year in the Spokane Arena parking lot as a one-day event Aug. 4; stay tuned for more details.

• Steady Flow Growler House is preparing to open a second location in the former River City taproom downtown this summer.

• Selkirk Abbey is opening on Sundays for the summer starting this weekend and continuing through Labor Day.

• Mad Bomber has begun selling beer to go in custom-filled 19.2-ounce cans out of the Hayden taproom. 

River City Youth Ops is May's designated nonprofit at Community Pint. The organization receives a portion of Bellwether tap sales at the pub all month, and $1 from all beers served at a Pints for Community Night next Thursday.