Another landmark event in the Treasure Valley’s craft beer explosion. Woodland Empire Ale Craft opened it’s doors yesterday afternoon and began pouring the first four of what promises to be an interesting and eclectic gamut of craft beer for Boise area folks. I was there an hour after they opened their doors for the first time, officially and got to try everything they had.
An open, relaxed and somewhat spartan tasting room, with nice picnic table style seating and high small tables. A few cushy chairs at one end and the whole space still slightly smelling of fresh paint. It was already half full at 4pm with people continuing to trickle in as the after work crowd started to show up. By 5 o’clock it was pretty much packed. Rusty, one of the owners spotted my computer and made sure I had the wifi password as I staked out a corner table.
Their 4 “regulars” were on tap. “City of Trees IPA”, “In the Morning Mild”, “Gold Days Tripel”, and “Rabbit Fighter ESB” (there’s got to be a story behind that name). All of them were good, particularly the Mild. Kind of a light brown ale made with coffee from Doma Coffee of Post Falls, ID. All of them were very sessionable, though the Tripel was approximately %9. No “in your face” obnoxious experimental triple IPA bitter bombs or 17% Imperial Stouts, but more a line up of beers that are great for having (a few of) over relaxing conversations.
There are some more “risky” seasonal recipes coming down the pike for WEAC but these are likely to be the main line up for a while at least. The 4 sampler “flight” was even served in an old muffin tin and the self-serve water cart was stocked with 1 liter flip-tops. A nice touch.
It was a bit of a who’s who there with brewers from multiple local breweries and representatives from several local publications. It’s fair to say that Rob, Rusty, Keely and the rest of the crew were making it happen. It was a big turnout, a great start to an exciting and welcome addition to the Boise Beer scene.
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