Author: brewster

After several years worth of breweries popping up in the Treasure Valley lately, it has nearly gotten to a saturation point, for me at least. To be clear, I don’t mean there are too many options, rather there are now enough good beer spots that it is actually becoming a bit of work (good work, if you can get it) to visit each of them on a regular basis. You just can’t expect anymore to stop by both of the local brewpubs after work on a Friday and then feel like you’ve checked up on what’s new this week and covered the bases, so to speak.

Now, with 20 or so breweries, several growler fill type places, a few bottle shops, and more than a few straight up bars that specialize in getting in quality craft beer, it has become a bit of a challenge to keep up with what each of them have recently brewed, or put on tap. Particularly for those of us that consider ourselves beer-nerds.

Working in town and living in west Boise presents me with a few options as to which “gauntlet” I want to run in the afternoon on the way home.

The Chinden/Garden City strip has a few spots, beginning with the recently opened Western Collective Beer on 33^rd. Associated with Guns & Oil Brewing Co. (still not exactly sure how, even though they explained it to me at least once) these guys took over and severely remodeled the original Payette brewery/taproom, expanded it a bit and opened it up to a roomy laid back space. A dozen or so of their beers are on tap and though it is certainly not the cheapest pint in town, (some are $7), it’s a good spot and one of my regulars.

About a mile West on is Bella Brewing right on the north side of Chinden. This outfit changed hands again a few months ago and I must say I like the new direction they are taking so far. Tucked in between one of Boise’s fixture sandwich shops and a couple of wineries, its a small space, and a small brewing system. They have recently been offering a few more interesting and creative brews. Plus, free popcorn, so, there is that also. My sense is that there is a somewhat looser leash on whomever is making the beer there since this past winter, and lately I’ve been much more likely to visit than this time last year. If you stop by, aske then what in the world is a “moosechuck” .

Another couple of miles further, sort of at the West end of Garden City is HomeBrewStuff. A brewing supply retail shop that also has a dozen or so coolers of cans and bottles, focusing somewhat on local and regional offerings. They’ve also got 10 taps that someone has clearly put a bit of thought into. There is a small bar and rather Spartan seating area inside and they will set you up with a glass if you want to drink one of the cans or bottles that catch your eye.

Practically right next door, about 50′ further west is County Line Brewing. A small shop that has been slowly growing in the last 4 years or so and seems to have established a real “neighborhood pub” feel. I’ve always been impressed with what seemed like a conservative business model from the beginning.

A quarter mile west, is Powderhaus Brewing Company. An ambitious start up and an impressive building that has a great mountain ski lodge vibe. These guys started big with some large scale brewing equipment.

Next up, well pick a section of downtown and hit on the good craft-beer spots in that area.

Until then, Cheers

There seems to be no end in sight for this ongoing “brewruption” in the Boise area that has been going on now for over 3 years. Next up and now open for business as of last week, is White Dog Brewing.

Boise locals will immediately recognize the location as the original spot for Table Rock Brewing, one of the Boise “Old Guard” so to speak. Table Rock went out back in 2014 and soon after, the space was taken over by Rick Boyd of Brewforia fame, and his vision of an up-scale burger joint “Grind Modern Burger”, with Post Modern Brewing doing the beer side of things on premise. That didn’t quite take off and ultimately went out in March of 2016. I never got to try the food there but I loved the experimental and “no holds barred” style that Marvin was slinging on the brewery side. I mean a Mexican Hot Chocolate Stout and a Peanut Butter Porter you just don’t find very often.

    Now, about a year and a half later, beer is flowing once again at 705 W Fulton St. No kitchen this time, just food trucks…which is becoming more and more common with breweries and tap rooms in this day and age as evidently, a full restaurant and traditional food menu is just too much trouble, or too expensive. Which may be the same thing. I don’t mind this, I’m all about the beer. White Dog’s arrangement sort of hybridizes this model as menus are on the table and you place you place your order with the wait staff and it’s brought to you…just from the food truck out back.

    I stopped by on a Sunday afternoon, after a 10 mile ride on the greenbelt to try what they had. Besides the Hopzilla double IPA which is a TableRock recipe, and so I skipped that, the line-up was solid. If anything I thought the Scotch was not very “peaty” and the English IPA was pretty dark and malty. But these are brewers interpretations/variations on the style and not incorrect per se’. The Blood Orange Hef was very good, just a touch of the orange and a mild Bavarian yeast. The Blonde was pretty sharp and crisp and a bit more interesting than most of its style.

The staff was great and their “newness” was more than made up for by being attentive and very willing to chat. I was a couple minutes in to a conversation with one of them before he introduced himself as Dan, one of the owners. Found out from him that this is in fact the same White Dog brewing from Bozeman, MT and that there will be some beers made just in Boise and others made just at their original site in Bozeman. I asked if that meant that if I wanted to try the entire White Dog lineup, I’d have to make the 7 hr drive each way. He broke the news to me as gently as he could. He also mentioned that everything on tap here, was made here, and vice versa for the Montana location. No trucking kegs 8 hours back and forth between sites.

It is a pretty big, open space and the tables and furnishings are a bit Spartan but it is early and there is still a little work to do. While there is evidence of some significant remodeling in the dining/drinking area, I was told that they are in fact using the original Table Rock brewing equipment. I wasn’t too excited to see electronic dart boards and video games there but I must confess, “Galaga” is one of my favorites from back in the day, and I can understand they are trying to keep it family friendly. They will be tweaking a few things and completing interior improvements this next week or two and are expecting some good crowds during “Art in the Park” coming up. A grand opening will be in a week or two.

Boise Beer Culture also has a little write up here about this newest Boise brewery.

I asked about their rather generic names they have for their beers and Dan explained to me that they have intentionally opted out of the “name game” so as to not have to deal with potential copyright issues and also just for ease of knowing what kind of beer you are ordering or buying at the store. So, everything here will be “Pale Ale” or “English IPA” or “Hefewiezen”. Makes sense I suppose, but I was kind of hoping for a dog themed taplist like maybe a “West Highland Wit” or “Samoyed Stout”. Oh well, maybe I’ll drop a note in the suggestion box.

Seems like things are off to a good start here and it may turn out to be a regular stop for this beer guy.

-Cheers

This Friday’s crawl again started with Bier:Thirty…and again with a few leftovers from the previous day’s take-over. It was Firestone Walker this time, and first up was the new Luponic Distortion #5. From Firestone’s website this series is “…an ever-evolving mix of experimental hops, designed to deliver mind-blowing flavors that break the rules with each new release”. This IPA was terrific. Light soft matiness and tons of fresh citrus and tropical hop flavors. I don’t recall liking the previous 4 iterations of this series as much as this one, though FW is becoming one of my favorite regional brewers. I really need to pay them a visit. “Fortem” was the other Firestone beer there, that I had not tried before and it was not as good. A “double” or “Imperial” IPA it was, and just barely. Just lacked the fresh punch of a good IPA, double or no.

Whole Foods had a couple that were new to me, Double Mountain’s “Sweet Jane” IPA was OK but many of their others, I’ve liked better. Lagunitas Fusion 39 – Pale Wheat was good. The wheat malts smoothed it out and the decent fresh hop bite made for a nice balance. This is only the 4^th of their (evidently) 39 editions of this series that I’ve had. The batches must be pretty small and distribution of them necessarily limited.

10 Barrel was my next stop, and the new Grapefruit Gose they had on tap was neither tart, nor salty nor grapefruity…but other than that it was very mediocre. It was 6.50 for a snifter though….so it had that going for it. As it turned out, it is my lowest rated beer from 10B. Ever. A distant second is “Mr Duck” a very forgettable saison from a year and a half ago. Their Honey BarleyWine had blown earlier that day apparently, but the “Aimsir Stout” was good. Very prominent dark roast, cold campfire and bitter chocolate with a light and dry feel. Nice dry “Irish” stout. The Code 24 was a pale ale that they claim to have ben making since 2006. Never heard of it, but I’m glad I tried it. Great bold grapefruit citrus aromas and flavors.

PreFunk was my last stop and I spotted a beer called “Cruel Beauty” by Heretic Brewing. A strange dark beer that had some sour notes almost like grape jelly. Interesting but bizarre. Even though there were 40+ taps here, I didn’t see anything that I didn’t recognize.

Payette Brewing was my last stop, this afternoon and I spotted a couple of new beers that needed to be tried. The Witbier was light and…well…witty… as it should be. The “Dortmunder” was pale, soft and malty like a good German Lager should be. So, predictable and good, if not exciting here at Payette. Come to think of it, kind of like most of Payette’s beers. The new experimental IPA JS-02 is a nice combination of somewhat woody toasted malts and a big in-your-face piney hop flavor. Payette is becoming the swinging stick in Boise. Big production, regional distribution, good (though not very risky) beer and a great new taproom. If they go public soon…buy!

Cheers !

This Friday, the sun was starting to come out, winter is starting to feel somewhat behind us and this coming weekend is the first since mid-December that there wasn’t snow covering most of the ground around Boise. Though the temperature struggled to get to the 40s this afternoon, it just felt a bit like spring was giving us a tease of what was coming a few weeks from now.

My first stop was Bier:Thirty and was pleasantly surprised to find the remnants of an Occidental takeover a couple days before. The Hefewiezen was very good, with classic Bavarian banana yeast notes, the Pilsner was rather sharp and pungent and just had that skunky slant that probably is correct but just puts me off a bit. The Alt was the third and it reminded me a nice clean dry Amber, since “alt” is a style that I just can’t understand very well. These were the first beers from Occidental that I have had. Out of Portland, OR they are something that I will be keeping an eye out for, for sure. Their tag line is “Best. East or West” I kind of think a better one would be “Occidental, Purpose Driven Beer”….give it a minute. (They can use that if they want)

Down the road was PreFunk. The location that started it all, a couple years ago. It must have been “Bring Your Dog” day judging from the number of crotch-sniffers and leg lifters that were nosing around the place. Not that I mind, as long as my beer doesn’t smell like a wet dog, I’m fine. The place still had a few Founders‘ beers from last week’s mega hit “Welcome to Boise” night. I had the entire Founders line-up then so I tried a half pint each of a couple others I didn’t recognize. The PilsGnar from Barley Brown’s was a bit lighter and milder than the Occidental Pilsner I had an hour before, was a bit easier to drink and not so harsh. Very nice. The Lush IPA from Fremont was good and even though I have seen it around town, on tap and in cans and bottles he last couple months, I had not tried it until now. This one is fairly dry and bitter. Citra and Mosaic hops lend a tropical fruity hop flavor, but the dryness and biter bite make it bold enough for the IPA haters to keep their distance. They can go find a “Fat Tire” and cry in it

Right next door, about 50 yards south is Woodland Empire, the first true brewery on today’s gauntlet run. They had their Cozy Up milk stout on, both the 2016 and the 2017 versions, but I opted for the Woodland Pale, falsely assuming that it was one of their regulars that in my old age I had merely not remembered. I was shocked to find, after a moment or two of online research that something so generically named was in fact new and untasted by me. I quickly jumped on to RateBeer and Untappd and checked in on both respectively to rectify this inequity.

Gotta love kicking the weekend of this way. Cheers

Another fun benefit of this ongoing boom of small craft breweries popping up all over the country and particularly in the west, is that tap houses and beer-bars have more and more opportunity to focus on a particular brewer and have that brewers beers taking over all (or most) of their taps. A “Tap Takeover” so to speak gives breweries a chance to show off a bigger part of their line-up at one time at one place, run up their flag in a territory they are trying to break into or just simply “carpet bomb” an area and generally raise awareness of themselves. For us beer enthusiasts, tap take-overs at bars or restaurants are a good way, short of visiting the production facility and its tap room in person, to check out a wider selection of what a brewery has to offer, all in one fell swoop.

Sockeye, one of Boise’s oldest, and arguably most famous local brewery is celebrating its 20^th anniversary this summer and as fate would have it, so is BitterCreek Ale House, the popular downtown bar. There was no way that this confluence would not go unleveraged upon, and so last week all 45 of BitterCreek’s taps were occupied by one beer or another from the Boise brewer. It is common for 8 or 10 or even a dozen taps at an establishment to be monopolized in this way for an event like this but Bittercreek has no less than 45 taps behind the bar so a complete full takeover was a tall order to fill. Sockeye managed it. In the words of Boise area BJCP and beer nerd Chris Hillman “…Will not miss this. Takes a badass brewery to do a proper tap takeover at Bittercreek.”

Granted, many of the beers offered here were ones that any local would be familiar with, but also many of them were either, new recipes, one time only creations, modifications of some of their regulars, special barrel aged versions or maybe just vintages from past years. We all know and love, Dagger Falls IPA, Angel’s Perch Amber, and Powerhouse Porter, but some you may not have ever heard of are such interesting offerings as Salted Caramel Gose, Soured Cream Ale with Rhubarb and of course a couple especially made for the occasion. Sockeye’s own 20^th Anniversary Sour IPA as well as “Wheat Tarts”, the beer that they made to celebrate Bitter Creeks 20^th anniversary a few months before.

Keep an eye out for the next “Tap Take-Over” in your area and take advantage of the opportunity to get to know a brewery top to bottom this way. Try several of their offerings with a sampler tray or a flight or two of whatever is taking over the taps there that day.

Cheers

Typically on a Friday afternoon, I will liberate myself from work a little early and hit a few of the local breweries, brewpubs and bars known for their tap selection. The point is to find beers that I don’t recognize and so, logically, need to try. My endeavors and exploits on this Friday afternoon missions will be documented here.

This week’s edition, Whole Foods, Bier:Thirty, Boise Brewing and Woodland Empire.

Whole Foods has a nice little café upstairs they call the “River Room”, and I am often impressed if not surprised by the tap selection they have. Not very many, by today’s standards, but someone is looking out for and buying good beer there. Today they had Backwoods’ Brewing “Blueberry Wheat“. A very mild and faintly blueberry American wheat. Pleasant though not particularly interesting, and Ballast Point’s “Sextant Oatmeal Stout” A lovely smooth roasty beer with nice chocolatey flavors. This one was on Nitro which only added to its pillowy palate. Although I think there was something wrong with the tap today as if foamed like mad and there was not much carbonation left in my snifter. One of the other thngs I like abut this place is the option of getting a “half-pour” since as I stated before, the goal is to try multiple offerings before moving on.

Bier:Thirty had several taps occupied by Boise’s own Payette Brewing, when I stopped by, but they were all ones that I had tried a week or two ago at the Payette tap takeover at Bittercreek. Sadly I had to move on as there was nothing new to conquer here today.

Boise (don’t call me Bogus) Brewing was my next stop and they had a couple of their own beers on tap that I did not recognize. The brand new “The Big LeBoise Lager” turned out to be a classic, clean, Pale Lager but a bit more hopped and bittered up and the “Syringa Pale Ale“, a great beer with a lot of fresh up front hop flavors and a smooth easy feel. I like Boise Brewing with its cozy but open, and somewhat industrial atmosphere.

Next time will be some different locations and some new beers.

Cheers

@boisebrewblog

Too many choices?

The Boise craft beer scene has been exploding for the last few years and I and many others have been riding the wave of new interesting, and frequently good beer all along the way.

This proliferation of new craft beer options been showing up in 2 basic forms.  Either a new brewery opens up and offers a line-up of 6-10 of their wares on tap, or alternately, a place that while doesn’t brew on premises, offers a lot (40-50 sometimes) of taps pouring beers from around the region or across the country

Recently, it seems, I’ve seen a few posts, tweets and Facebook updates disparaging these high-count tap beer bars.  Mainly bringing to bear the “lots of taps is nice but stale beer is still stale” shtick.

Not only do I not have a problem with this problem but I take particular umbrage with the snobbery or “beer elitism” this sort of smells like.  These are the same people that send back a beer telling their server that the carbonation is not within .5 volumes of being correct for the style. I suppose these nay-sayers would prefer to have Dagger Falls, Rustler/Outlaw IPA, Black Butte Porter or for that matter Widmer Hefewiezen on every other tap in town.  Because since it moves so fast, you are always guaranteed to get a pour from a keg taped only hours ago.

Keep in mind, distributers or rather the brewers themselves, often have what’s called 1/6 barrel kegs that are deployed to tap-houses and beer bars. For those not in the know, that means these vessels are only slightly more than 5 Gallons. As the historical and rather anachronistic moniker “Barrel” is 31 gallons.  That means about 80 pints.  And unless the establishment you are at really does pour a full pint…that’s probably more like 100 or so servings.

How long does it really take to pour 100 glasses of a particular beer?   Breweries know better than to package their Cognac Barrel aged Brett Basil Grapefruit Fig Berliner-Weisse in 15.5 Gallon kegs and drop them off at PreFunk or Starvin’ Sam’s minimart Growler fill station.  I’m not sure even I would try more than a 4oz taster of something that weird.  A year later if I wanted to try it again….it would probably still be there….right where I (and everyone else) left it.  Mother earth, Lagunitas, Melvin, Fremont, Terminal Gravity, all have offerings that all but the most casual beer enthusiast would spot and go for.  If you cant move 100 glasses of Pelican’s Tsunami Stout in a reasonable time, well then maybe you should turn over your lease to the nail salon.

There are plenty of nerdy beer samplers or “tickers” out there that will try something just because its new.  Having 40 taps pouring interesting, rare, or one-offs is just fine and the Boise Beer nerd collective (yours truly included) will take care of it. ThankYouVeryMuch.

Thursday May 29^th was the official release date for Crooked Fence’s latest brew, “Little Bitch Otter” The Garden City brewer has a bit of a tradition of snappy quirky beer names, not that this necessarily distinguishes them from most other craft breweries, but this particular title was certainly not out of the ordinary for them.

I am not privy to the story behind the name…there must be one… but Im sure it would not be difficult to manufacture something reasonably entertaining Ex Post Facto. I’m pretty sure we can throw out the possibility that it is in reference to the 1977 “feel-good” story of Emmet and his friends and their “jug band”. Seeing as how it is not likely that the late Jim Henson’s estate would have allowed the use of that name anyhow. Maybe it is just that this otter is female, and it is simply accurately named in that way.

Crooked Fence calls this an “India Brown Ale”, yet another BJCP category bastardization, this time a combination (or compromise) of India Pale Ale and Brown Ale. The Beer Judge Certification Program puts a beer like this in Category 23. “Specialty Beer” Basically a catch-all. It’s the organizations category for “we don’t think these are important enough to warrant their own official category in our little classification system, but we can’t deny their existence either” In this case, the IBA is hoppier and more bitter than a standard Brown, and not as roasty and dark as the CDA or Black IPA (itself also not an officially recognized style).

I felt that the pint I had did in fact fit into this category with its nice fresh hoppy bitterness and a healthy component of toasted malts. I suppose it is hard to NOT be true to style when your “style” is so broad, that it includes such diverse elements as Great Divide’s “Bee Sting Honey Ale”, Bear Republic’s “Red Rocket Ale” and Stone’s “Arrogant Bastard”. As a brewer, shooting for Category 23 and nailing it would be about as hard as hitting a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle. I had mine at Woodland Empire Ale Craft, the brew place just down the block from the release party, held at Boise’s first growler fill station, “Pre Funk Beer Bar”. I guess you could say I was pre-pre-funking.

…Or…, maybe it is just another installment of their animal theme. OK, it’s not much of a theme, only 3, but they have put out “Black Unicorn” and “Crash Monkey”, as well as last fall’s “Donkey Show”. (I’m not touching what that one might mean) So, so far only mammals. If Platypus Stout is next, I’m not sure if that would continue the run for that class or not. Lactating egg-layers that they are. Perhaps if we knew weather this was an African Otter or a European Otter…that would be a good clue.

Judging by the massive turnout, Id say that this was an eagerly anticipated beer. Woodland Empire is a relative newcomer to the valley and Crooked Fence was in the first wave of early arrivals in the Boise Area craft beer awakening that started about 3 years ago. Both places were packed and had lines out the door and literally down the street. Woodland ran out of their allotment of the Otter by about 630 and I can only hope that PreFunk had a few more kegs. Still, a good beer, cheers to CF on this latest one, and a great crowd, showing their support for another Boise Beer.

Cheers