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IPA from No-Li Brewhouse
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Born & Raised
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44 INLANDER BEST OF THE INLAND NW 2013
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Best Name for a Microbrew to Capture the Spirit of the Inland Northwest
iteral-minded voters gave top recognition to excellent existing beers: No-Li’s Born & Raised IPA, Iron Goat’s Head Butt IPA and Budge Brothers’ Spokamber. (Iron Goat also got some votes for its Garbage Pale Ale, which should take top honors for requiring Spokane knowledge to sound appealing.) But many other voters took this category into the more fanciful theoretical realm: Pothole Porter got quite a few nods — “a spirited bumpy brew” as one voter elaborated — but apparently the Inland Northwest doesn’t have a monopoly on potholes, because a couple of breweries elsewhere have already claimed it. Same goes for Red Wagon Ale, though no one’s yet created a Big Red Wagon Ale. Seattle’s Elysian Brewing Company has made a Silver Marmot pale ale, but there’s no reason the Inland Northwest shouldn’t have its own Marmot Dew.
The suggested Angry Driver and Bad Driver IPA have a nice ring, but it’s probably not a good idea to mix driving and booze in any way. And though the vote for an Inferiority Complex ESB is quite clever, the most resounding support was for an earnestly appropriate name that acknowledges the region’s excellent hops and piney landscape, like “Evergreen Fresh Hop IPA.” There also were a number of punny suggestions regarding the fact that Spokane’s second syllable sounds like the thing beer comes in, but let’s not get into that, unless we’re going for a microbrew name that makes you really need another round. — LISA WAANANEN 2nd PLACE: Head Butt IPA (Iron Goat Brewing); 3rd PLACE: Spokamber (Budge Brothers)