Northwest Oktoberfest

The spirit of Oktoberfest has thrived since it was conceived as a celebration for a couple of newlywed Bavarian royals back in 1810.

Though it originated in Germany, it's now spread worldwide as a drunken custom that people of all nationalities can really get behind.

That's why, even in our little corner of the Inland Northwest, we now find bars advertising the "holiday" by dressing up their wait staff in lederhosen to serve five-dollar pitchers of Budweiser for a few weeks.

It wasn't always like this.

Oktoberfest began as a five-day festival of sober revelry (if you can call activities like tree-climbing competitions revelry) until a while later, when the city began allowing beer on the fairgrounds where the party took place. Beer halls, like modern day beer gardens at outdoor concerts, started popping up everywhere, increasing the merriment exponentially.

These halls were sponsored by local breweries, of which Germany had - and still has - quite a few.

While local beer around here is as rare as a dancing dachshund, thirsty students of age can still find a few local brewpubs in our area.

Take Northern Lights Brewery, for instance. This Spokane alehouse offers refreshing respite for those who've grown tired of the tasteless yellow water pumped out by the big boys.

EWU alumnus, Mark Irvin, started the business as a production facility in Airway Heights, moving it to Spokane as a restaurant and pub seven years ago. Irvin took over the same space once occupied by the Bayou Brewing Company, buying up all their brewing equipment in the process.

Since then, Northern Lights has had noticeably better luck than its belly-up predecessor.

Last Saturday, the brewery held a celebration in honor of both its 15-year anniversary and Oktoberfest at the brewpub, located in the Riverwalk complex at 1003 E. Trent Ave. near Hamilton Street.

It hasn't been an entirely rosy road for the business, however, says sales rep. James Conrick, also an EWU graduate. "We've actually just survived an incredibly tough year. Our hop prices went up from about $2 a pound to, a lot of the varieties we use, about $20 a pound," says Conrick.

Assistant brew master Bryan Utigard notes that rising prices across the board, from grain to steel, have been hard on all microbreweries, but Northern Lights has the added challenge of being based in a difficult market.

"It's a tough area," says Utigard. "The micros are working their way over here from the west side but there are still a lot of people who can't get away from domestics like Coors Light."

Conrick agrees, "Here in America we've trained our palettes to be so mainstream and very safe. We don't want to explore. The micro drinker is somebody who's willing to explore and be a bit adventurous."

Both concur that the Inland Northwest is becoming bolder in beer choice, as well as in other areas.

"It's no different than with the music scene," says Conrick. "You're finding more people willing to branch out and listen to different types of music - Spokane's got a growing population of people like that."

Both he and Utigard give one another a knowing grin when asked if there's any drinking on the job. "There's definitely quality control," says Utigard.

And quality, says Conrick, is a key reason Northern Lights has thrived where other local breweries have not. "The brewery has lasted as long as it has because the beer is just damn good," he says, although he later adds that, without their loyal locals, they'd be out on the street.

Staying local is a concept that seems to be of major importance to the brewery.

Most of the hops they use come from the Yakima valley, and Conrick says about 80 percent of their grain comes from within a 100-mile radius.

"For me, drinking locally is important as far as keeping your money in the local economy, and it's an environmental thing as well," says Conrick. "It takes so much less gas to bring beer to the local accounts around here or in Washington state than it does to, say, ship beer from California, Colorado or Ireland."

Conrick says that while Northern Lights is currently expanding into the Seattle market, their main focus will always be the Inland Northwest.

"We're a group-hug brewery; we're not a big-time production brewery," says Conrick. "We're always going to be better for the alehouses, for people that appreciate good, local beer."

And from the busy hum coming from the brewpub itself, it seems a great many people do.

"Drinking beer from local breweries is what people used to do in the old days," Conrick says before taking a sip from a pint of Imperial IPA.

"That's what it's all about, fresh, good beer and drinking something that's unique and different," he adds - a sentiment to which those original Oktoberfest drinkers would surely toast.