(Spokane, WA) – The re-birth of Northern Lights Brewing as No-Li Brewhouse surfaces this week for the first time after the company’s late April announcement.

Co-Owner, John Bryant, tells BeerPulse that the company recently bottled its first run of 22’s with Born and Raised IPA and launched the new brand just yesterday in Spokane.

Here is more context on the changes from Spokesman.com:

Founder and owner Mark Irvin has brought on craft beer veteran John Bryant as a business partner, and the two have changed the name of the brewery to No-Li Brewhouse with aspirations to brew at least 10,000 barrels every year and sell across the region and out of state, including to pubs and restaurants along the West Coast, in Denver and even in New York City. It’s an ambitious plan sparked by the addition of Bryant to the ownership group. He was the vice president of sales and marketing at Deschutes Brewery, the successful Bend, Ore., enterprise that grew from 17,000 barrels to 140,000 barrels during Bryant’s tenure. He also worked as chief operating officer of Colorado breweries Odell Brewing and Oskar Blues Brewery.

After the Spokane re-launch, the plan is to launch in select Colorado locations in July (Fort Collins and Denver where Bryant has spent a lot of time over the years) and Brooklyn in the fall. Odom Beverage Corp. is handling distribution in Washington though the company will still self-distribute around the immediate home market.

Greg Owsley, formerly the Chief Branding Officer with New Belgium and now running his own company, The Storied Brand, consulted with Irvin and Bryant to help them re-discover then-Northern Lights’ identity. Says Bryant, “What Greg is really great at is identifying the roots of what you are.”

The company isolated the turning point for the local Spokane community as the World’s Expo in 1974. At the time, it was the smallest city to host the international exposition. Everything about the brand is inspired by that time period and the imagery is meant to invoke a sense of familiarity across other communities as well.

In 2011, the brewery produced 1,500 barrels. Functional capacity is currently at 6,000 barrels and would likely max out around 10,000 barrels in the existing facility. Bryant hopes to eventually grow into a regional brewery (exceed 15,000 barrels of production annually) and would need to consider moving to a new facility in order to get there.

For now, he and Irvin are focused on building up No-Li’s following in Spokane.

The company celebrates its 20th anniversary next year.

Note: the 22 oz. bottles are screen printed with a custom neck and body label.