Brewers Julie Bowling and John Spencer in the brewery at 1188 Brewing Co. in John Day.

After a three-month hiatus, John Spencer and Julie Bowling are back sharing their talent behind the tanks at 1188 Brewing Co.

The brewers of the John Day establishment, now celebrating its 10th year in business, have been out of commission while the brewpub was shuttered due to smoke damage from a fire next door on April 17.

Now, after months of restoration work to the restaurant, the boiling and fermenting tanks have been reassembled in the space behind the dining area. The pair have been busy in recent days, heating the grains and feeding the yeast to make the different varieties of brew that Grant County craft beer aficionados have come to appreciate.

“It will be nice to be back open and have regular hours and have our customers back in,” said Bowling. “It will be great to see everybody again.”

Typically, 1188 will have eight beers on tap at the brewpub, all of which are made on the premises, said Spencer, who is head brewer.

“We have seventy-some recipes that we brew here,” he said. “Some are seasonal and some aren’t.”

Among the beers on tap currently are Tattiebogle, a smoked Scottish ale that’s a “wee (bit) heavy,” as well as an India pale ale called Whackadoodle, a Japanese rice lager called Silk Robes and Kimonos, and Crutch, a rich, dark stout that has notes of chocolate, oak and coffee.

“Here at 1188, we have a two-barrel, direct-fire system,” Spencer says standing next to his gleaming heating tanks.

Spencer’s wife was friends with 1188 owners Shannon and Jeremy Adair. Spencer and Bowling, who had both been working at the Pioneer Feed store in John Day, were brought on board to learn the craft under Jeremy, who had begun brewing in his garage.

“This is my seventh year that I’ve done it,” Spencer said. “This is Julie’s fifth year. I pretty much learned a lot from Jeremy, Shannon’s husband. … My wife is friends with Jeremy and Shannon, so we kind of hung out with them and started spending weekends down here watching and helping out brewing and then kind of fell in love with it.”

Bowling said she came on as an assistant to help.

“John started teaching me how to brew, and so it just went from there,” she said. “I like the spice beers, fruit beers, sours — kind of the odd stuff that you don’t see a lot.”

The first batch of beer brewed since reopening the brewery has been the Axe Grinder IPA, and Spencer says “so far, so good.”

Spencer said the best part of the job is listening to all the feedback from customers — going to other towns and hearing how good 1188 beer is.

“People from the (Willamette) Valley ask me if you’re ever going to open over there, and people from other towns are always telling me they wish 1188 was in their town,” he said.

Spencer said his favorite beers to make are red and amber ales.

“Those are my wheelhouse.”

The passion has paid off, with 1188 winning the People’s Choice Award at the Eastern Oregon Beer Festival in La Grand last year for their Gam Saan, a pale ale made from yuzu fruit and ginger, Spencer said.

“I always say I don’t have a job,” he said. “I get paid to do a hobby.”