The Silver Valley's latest export

WALLACE - Microbrewing has seen a significant surge in the Northwest in the past decade, and one of the Silver Valley's own breweries has seen its popularity grow so impressively this past year it caught the eye of a new distributor ready to quadruple the Wallace-based brewery's output.

Beers from the Wallace Brewing Company have only been available this past year in North Idaho, but now with new distributor Odom Corporation, a selection of Wallace Brewing Company's beers will be available in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the 10 North Idaho counties.

Wallace Brewing General Manager Chase Sanborn said he expects having Odom as a distributor will quadruple the brewery's production and output. He added this was a big step for the brewery.

"We're very excited to enter a new phase with this great business partner," Sanborn said. "We've undergone tremendous changes in the last year, new quality assurance programs, new recipes, new brewing processes, new equipment and some new personnel. We're now ready to move forward, having learned from our past, and deliver a great local beer to a large market."

Wallace Brewing's stock has been on the rise for a couple of years now, but the real boost came in June when the brewery won its first award for brewing when the North American Brewers Association awarded Wallace Brewing's Red Light beer the bronze medal in the Irish-Style Red Ale.

Sanborn added that Odom has been watching Wallace Brewing since they began, and he is excited about the partnership and where it will take the brewery.

"I think they can sell more beer than we can make but we want to push ourselves to test that limit," Sanborn said.

Sanborn said with the new distributor making Wallace Brewing products much more widely available across the Northwest will mean a much busier brewery. He said they are expecting to up their brewing from once to four times a week. Moreover, he also expects to be hiring one or two new employees to help with the new demand.

The new distributor is also excited about the new partnership, saying it will be a relationship beneficial to both parties.

"We're real excited to add Wallace Brewing's beers to our line up of quality products," John Lone of the Odom Corporation said. "We've been watching them grow slowly over the last few years and feel they have made the right changes and now we have a local Idaho beer that we can offer throughout Odom's entire distribution network."

Sanborn credited the brewery success to its perfectionist-like attention to detail to ensure the beers they brew are of the highest quality.

"We're very proud that we're now able to deliver a consistent product. Not only have we developed our own lab at the brewery for testing but we now also send a sample of every batch to an independent third party lab for off-site testing." Sanborn said. "A lot of people don't realize that beer is a growing thing and can continue to evolve after brewing if it's not monitored and controlled. We have processes in place from brewing to shipping that help ensure a consistent product in flavor, carbonation, color, and alcohol level."

He said that last year the brewery decided to really focus on quality and that's how they began sending each batch brewed to Alpha Analytics to be tested for quality, and that quality is a major factor in success and longevity.

"There are lots of breweries popping up and you have to set yourself apart and just make great beer and push yourself. We're doing all we can to make sure we stick around for a while," Sanborn said. "We've got many more people that have come to recognize us ... We just want to make the best beer possible, and it's bringing the fun back."

Visit the Wallace Brewing website at wallacebrewing.com or the company's Facebook page for more information about the brewery.