Big Horn Sets Sights On Heights Of Brewing Business

For local beer lovers, “around the Horn” has a whole new meaning.

The Big Horn Brewing Co. and Ram Family Restaurant, Spokane’s newest brewpub, opened two weeks ago at 910 N. Howard, across from the Spokane Arena.

It’s the sixth in an ever-expanding chain of Ram restaurants with breweries, and the first in Washington, although more are opening on the west side. State law was changed earlier this year to allow an existing restaurant licensee, like the Tacoma-based Ram, to brew its own beer. (Ram also owns C.I. Shenanigan’s in Spokane, where a brewery is planned later.)

Brewpub chains are a growing trend, with Ram joined by the Rock Bottom pubs across the country and the Hops chains in Florida and Arizona.

To some skeptics, “chain” means “mediocre.” But Steve Samuelson, head brewer at the Spokane Big Horn, insists it isn’t so.

“We have the corporate backing to have really sophisticated equipment,” he says, standing by a shiny new 15-barrel New World brewing system. “They’re not skimping on anything.”

While the beers are made from standard recipes, Samuelson adds, brewers at each pub do some fine-tuning. “It’s not like we’re coming in here and being robots,’ he says.

Besides, Samuelson says, they’re good recipes: “We’re not putting out cookie-cutter, terrible beer.”

There are five Big Horn beers on tap so far, all relatively light-bodied, clean and drinkable.

The lightest, Washington Blonde, is designed to appeal to entry-level microbrew drinkers, with just enough malt and hops to let you know it’s not an industrial beer. “Anytime anyone orders a Budweiser, they get a sampler of this with it,” Samuelson says.

Big Horn Hefeweizen hints at the spicy banana/clove character of an authentic German wheat beer. That will become more pronounced with Samuelson soon switching to a yeast from Germany’s Weihenstephan brewery (which Portland Brewing uses in its Bavarian Style Weizen).

Big Red Ale, a mellow version of a British bitter, finishes with just enough hops to merit the name. The malty Buttface Amber is the most potent of Big Horn’s beers, at 6 percent alcohol by volume (making it perhaps a bit too easy-drinking for its own good).

Big Horn’s most distinctive brew is the Total Disorder Porter, made from a recipe that won a silver medal at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. Although approachable for novices, its roastiness and chocolate notes should satisfy more seasoned drinkers as well.

A Blewesberry blueberry ale, awaiting federal regulatory approval, will round out the regular six-beer lineup. Coming in a couple of weeks is a Black Cat Honey Stout, which will be served naturally carbonated from a hand-pumped beer engine.

While all of those are chainwide recipes, Samuelson and assistant brewer Lanny Fetzer get to exercise their creativity with a series of seasonal beers, starting with a “big, dark, spicy” ale for Christmas.

The beers also show up in some of the dishes on an extensive menu, including Total Disorder mustard and barbecue sauce and Buttface beer batter and marinade.

If you want to try the beers, you’ll have to do it at the pub; the special brewpub license for existing restaurant chains doesn’t allow them to sell beer to go or distribute to other locations. But there’s plenty of space, with bars both on the main level and in the upstairs game room (although it fills up fast on weekends and hockey nights at the Arena).

The brewing vessels are visible in a glassed-in area on the main floor, with Samuelson and Fetzer fond of working in the evenings so people can watch. If they have time, they’re happy to talk with customers and give tours.

Says Fetzer: “We want to teach people. If anyone has a question, we’ll be there for them.”

Hopping around

Elsewhere on the area brewpub scene, Solicitor’s Corner in Spokane has followed up its well-received Oktoberfest with a malty, mahogany Harvest Ale accented with cinnamon and other spices. There’s also a sweet, strong ale coming for Christmas. Look for Solicitor’s Sweetwater Brewing Co. to begin distributing to a few other locations around town …

M.J. Barleyhoppers in Lewiston has produced a hoppy Snake River Porter as its autumn beer, available on draft in North Idaho and selected spots in Spokane. Its holiday offering will be a full-bodied Chocolate Dunkleweizen (dark wheat beer) …

And in Coeur d’Alene, Hollister Mountain Brewing has its first beers on the market, a rye at the Fourth Street Alehouse and a pale ale at the Coeur d’Alene Inn and Tomato Street. Coming soon: a porter and a Scottish ale.

Flying high

The first bottled beers from the top-notch Lang Creek Brewery in Marion, Mont., Taildragger Honey Wheat and Tri-Motor Amber, have landed on local store shelves.

Unlike most wheat beers, the golden/amber Taildragger has some body and some hop bitterness - “kind of a grown-up honey wheat beer,” says brewer (and pilot) John Campbell. The soft, rich Tri-Motor is more predictably malty, but with a pleasant hop balance. Both are freshness dated.

In a time when supermarket coolers are increasingly crowded with mediocre microbrews (some of which also have airplanes on the label), Lang Creek is the real thing. Look for it at Rosauers in Spokane and at various stores in the Sandpoint area.

, DataTimes MEMO: On Tap is a monthly feature of IN Food. Write to: On Tap, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210. Call 459-5446, fax 459-5098 or e-mail to rickb@spokesman.com

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Rick Bonino The Spokesman-Review