BoiseBrewBlog

See what I did there?…”hopping” up…and I’m just barley getting started…try the veal…I’m here til Tuesday…”

But seriously,  they are just coming out of the woodwork around here.  We are up to 13 or 14 breweries in the Boise/Meridian/Garden City metropolis (getting harder to keep track these days) and one of the latest to throw its hop-hat in the ring is “Edge” Brewing.   The local newspaper reported last week about this new player and I have it on good authority that the recent new Brewmaster at Table Rock will be making beer for Edge as well.  Possibly as a guest or a regular/rotational brewer.

Marcus Bezuhly, the owner of Garden City’s “HomeBrewStuff”, west Boise/Garden City’s go-to home-brew supply shop, is behind this new project and it will be off of Emerald in West Boise.  Reports are that this place will be focusing on experimental, one-off recipes that will be here and gone forever, to be replaced by the next hair-brained concoction.  I can’t wait to see how Edge will push the envelope of what we have come to consider beer is and isn’t.  Who’s to say you can’t make a fig porter or a radish-cucumber pale ale.  Who knows…who cares.  Let’s do it !  I’m in!

On my travels a few weeks ago I finally managed to stop by this place. For some reason it has evaded me in the many times I have driven by during my many Boise-Western Washington trips. Maybe it’s partly because “tri-cities” is a nearly perfect half-way point where I stop for gas and I cant convince myself to make another stop so soon, trying to make good time.

This trip, I was coming south from Ellensberg and had planned to turn off and head south on hwy 97 to Bend, OR the mecca of craft brew towns this side of the coast. As it turned out, the highway I wanted to take was closed due to wildfires somewhere. So 40 miles or so down the road was Prosser, WA. Hometown of former BSU all-everything Kellen Moore, and Whitstran Brewing Co.

I got there about 4PM and was tired and starving from the triathlon I had just run earlier that day in Ellensberg. I ordered a burger and fries and asked about a sampler tray. The beers were tasty and I was nearly finished with my food when another couple came in. I overheard the gal mention that she was a home brewer and she had a few questions about what they had on tap.

About that time, an older guy came out from the back. Late 50’s or so, wearing shorts, a bandanna and a wild tie-tied T-shirt, drinking beer from a mason jar. I took a wild guess and assumed he was the brewer. I walked up to the counter and asked our server loud enough so the other folks could hear “hey, what are the chances a couple of home-brewers could get a little tour of the back”?

Tie dye guy perked up and said no problem, c’mon back. The three of us chatted a bit while a kid was weighing out grain for the next batch.  I asked if he’d ever done any ciders with all the orchards around, but no, he sticks to his dozen or so regulars and a few rotation seasonals.  He can hardly keep up as it is and cant afford the fermenter space for too many experiments.  I thanked for the tour and the chat, and paid my tab and was on my way.  I will have to try harder to make this a regular sop on my travels in the future.

This is my 3rd time here, if I recall correctly.   Max Power IPA…how can you NOT try something with a name like that.  The fact that their menus claims it to be 100+ IBUs means they don’t even KNOW how to measure how bitter it is.  Supposedly the human tongue cannot detect anything over about 100.

That doesn’t scare me though.  the valiant tastes of death but once, right?

Ordered my food and and after chatting the the waitress, found that Max Power was NOT on tap right then.  Apparently they sent most of what they had to a near by brewers fest and didn’t leave enough at the restaurant and they ran out.  Very disappointing.  They did have the Sundown Saison and the Righteous Indignation Red with were both good. and I left there expecting to make a return visit sometime.

My server was friendly and we chatted a bit about the brewpubs in the area and even specifically about the newer ones in Boise when I mentioned I was from there.  PS is definitely on my list of must stops.  Good food, relaxed atmosphere, close to the highway and good beer.

-Cheers

Situated 2.5 hours from Boise, in La Grande, OR   Mt. Emily Alehouse is strategically positioned at just the right place for a cool beverage on my way west.  In this case, Ellensberg, WA.  It is a basic brew house with a small menu, but brewpubs are just cool no matter what, and this one is on the I-84 corridor that I travel a few times a year.

Stopping there this time, on the way to Ellensberg, WA, I timed it so that I would arrive right when they open at 11AM and it worked out just about right.

They had a Strawberry honey ale there that was the only one of theirs currently on tap that I hadn’t had yet.  It was tasty but a bit of a girly beer.  I was in a hurry and needed to get back on the road so I didn’t have any food

They had a oak aged barely wine there as well but it was their last 3 gallons and they weren’t giving out tasters of it.  Since a pint was $8, and 11% ABV, I passed.  Very strange that they didn’t offer a smaller serving for something that strong, that expensive and so low on supplies that they wouldn’t even let you taste it.  Tactical error in my opinion.

There is a section of Boise, that is technically it’s own separate town since swallowed up by the greater Boise metropolis, called Garden City.  It is a 4 square mile strip a few miles long along the river, zoned mostly industrial with a smattering of trailer parks and used car lots.

But on the bright side, over the last couple years it has been a localized hot bed for craft beer.  Starting at the east end is Payette Brewing, established in 2010 and basically a brewery with a small tasting room attached.  A mile or two west is Crooked Fence Brewing, a similar commercial model.  And another mile or so down the road is Kilted Dragon, a decidedly simple and blue-collar joint which opened its doors just last December.   Each is brewing on premises and all but the latter with their own canning line.

This stretch has been called Garden City’s “Ale Trail” and “Chinden Beer Boulevard”,  by local publication contributors.  I think I prefer simply, “the Beer Belt” referring to the near-by popular cycling and strolling “Green Belt” system of trails, winding along the river through town.

Whatever you want to call it, it’s a good thing.  Boise is on it’s way to making it’s mark on the regional list of brew-towns like it’s big sister about 300 miles to the west.

I was at Crooked Fence recently and had one of their year-round offerings, Devil’s Pick IPA.  At 80 IBUs it is plenty bitter, full bodied but not a ton of fresh hop flavor.  It packs a punch though and as somewhat of a hop-head myself, it did just fine.

The place seats about 35-40 and is mostly high stools and tables with a small 10 seat bar.  Very basic food choices consisting exclusively, as far as I can tell of  hotdogs “crooked wieners” on a rotating warmer.  But folks come here for a drink, and that’s just fine.

Looking forward to visiting the other newest members of the Boise Brewpub scene and I’ll be documenting it here.

It’s exciting to see growth in this area, in this area,  and I hope this town can support a few more.