On Tap: Quartzite Brewing opens in Chewelah
For a town of 2,600 people, Chewelah has a lot going on these days.
A wine bar, an art gallery and a global, organic cafe all have launched within the past couple of years. Now add a craft brewery to the mix.
Quartzite Brewing, named after the mountain that looms over the Stevens County community, quietly opened Jan. 22. The hours and the beers are limited – Friday and Saturday, 4-8 p.m., with one small keg of each style poured per night – and there’s no signage yet on the building.
“For now, we’re focusing on the beer side of things,” said co-owner/brewer Patrick Sawyer, who runs the brewery with partner Jake Wilson, both 27.
But that’s only part of the story. “The beer has been getting a good reaction,” Sawyer said, “but people are more amazed that two young people chose to open a business in Chewelah, and did something to this extent.”
He and Wilson have transformed a former auto shop on Main Avenue a block west of Highway 395 into a bright, airy, modern-industrial space with a gray concrete floor, blue and gray walls, and a ceiling covered with rough-cut wood planks. The rustic bar top was fashioned from a slab of Douglas fir.
Old skis and snowshoes eventually will adorn the walls. Two garage-style doors open onto what will become a patio this spring.
There’s no TV, to avoid competition with the local sports bar. Food is available from a handful of restaurants nearby, some of which deliver, including the eclectic Terrace Grille.
Sawyer hopes the brewery will become a focal point for Chewelah, much like Republic Brewing has accomplished in an even smaller town 75 miles to the northwest. “They’ve built a community there that’s astonishing,” he said.
The Denver native grew up around craft beer; his brother-in-law was an original employee at Wynkoop. But he didn’t start brewing until moving here four years ago, when he and Wilson ran across a homebrew kit that Wilson’s mother had bought his father many years ago.
Their first effort “was very, very bad,” Sawyer said, “but we enjoyed the process. We kept up with it, and that led to this.”
At Quartzite, they’re turning out five beers on a tidy but tiny one-barrel system, all named after peaks in the Colville National Forest.
The straw-gold Blacktail Mtn. Pale (5.1 percent alcohol by volume, 21 International Bitterness Units) is light and crisp, with a touch of caramel malt for color and flavor. Angel Peak Amber (5.5, 30), their favorite homebrew recipe, is slightly sweet with a dry, noticeably hoppy finish.
Goddards Peak IPA (5.9, 80) is an admitted work in progress but shows Sawyer’s preference for a more floral, hop-forward, less bitter interpretation of the style. He’s also tinkering with the dryish Iron Mtn. Stout (5.1, 14), planning to add more black patent malt for color and oats for smoothness.
The most distinctive offering is Stranger Mtn. Saison (5.5, 17), loosely modeled after the renowned Saison Dupont, golden-orange with subtle spice and fruit notes.
“The feedback we got from a lot of people is that it was better than our wheat beer, so we decided to go with it,” Sawyer said. “A lot of our friends who are Kokanee and Bud Light drinkers like the saison more than anything else.”
Then again, these days, maybe a bit of Belgium in Chewelah shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Freshly tapped
Closing up shop
The Hop Shop, a popular neighborhood pub at 38th and Grand, has lost its lease and will close at the end of the month.
Owner Mel Wood said she’s in discussions with potential partners about a new craft-beer-related project nearby that will “introduce something to the South Hill that it doesn’t have right now.” The final night at the current location will be Feb. 26, with food trucks, live music and kill-the-keg beer specials.
The property will be used by owners of the Remedy bar and restaurant being developed next door for parking and as a private banquet room.
Save the date
Send beer news, comments and questions to senior correspondent Rick Bonino at boninobeer@comcast.net.