It may have taken Spokane, Washington, longer than many of its northwest neighbors to embrace craft beer, but once it did, it took only a few short years to carve out a name as a beer destination.
Long gone, the Birkebeiner Brewery which sprung up in the 1990s was clearly ahead of its time. The funky joint once located on east Main street would fit in perfectly today with the wide range of breweries now populating the region. From Orlison Brewing and its all-lager line up to Selkirk Abbey and its Belgian-style ales, the area’s fourteen breweries aren’t afraid to stray from the norm.
Perry Street Brewing is Spokane’s newest, having opened back in March. Fellow Blogger Kendall over at Washington Beer Blog has a nice write up from his visit last week. The Spokesman-Review has a good write up about Ben Lukes, the Missoula native who honed his brewing chops with Big Sky Brewing before relocating to Spokane to start his own.
Perry Street’s interior is simple modern-industrial with wood and iron elements framing the bar and a large glass garage door providing the option to open up the entire place to the patio overlooking Perry Street. It oozes neighborhood comfort, complete with food trucks parked along a side street.
With its buzzing vibe on a warm, sunny, Saturday evening, friendly staff, and a comfortable atmosphere, you might just forget it’s the beer that brought you here in the first place. Once you do try any of the seven beers available during my visit, you’ll quickly realize Ben is not your average upstart brewer.
Though only open a couple of months, he’s coaxing good depth and character out of each beer from the Kolsch to the Double IPA, a rare feat for any new brewery. My favorites were the Milk Stout and the Belgian Dubbel. The Scotch Ale has a wonderfully classic scotch ale flavor and makes me wonder what he’d do with a traditional brown ale, one of my favorite styles.
Located at 1025 S. Perry St. (shocker), the brewery is on the south end of one of the trendiest three-block stretches in the city. While the traditional breakfast joint that first brought me to the neighborhood is gone, it was replaced by the Lantern Tap House which provides a very nice set of craft taps and some fun food. Hmm . . . breakfast or beer. Fortunately the quality of beer on tap and the cool food will make you forget about breakfast for a while. South Perry Pizza and its artisan pies is a short walk from the brewery. Get it to go and enjoy it with your Perry Street Brewery beers.
