Tag: boise

My Favorite Boise Beer Spots #002 – Mother Earth Brewing

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Mother Earth Brewing, has been a southern California company for about 13 years. They moved to Idaho August 2016 as part of an expansion, with the construction of a production site in Nampa. A small tasting room is inside as well, where you can try a couple of their beers right where they are made. This all whilst sitting amongst towering pallets of empty aluminum cans, just waiting to be filled. This facility helped make ME the largest brewer in the state, muscling past indigenous Idaho outfits like Sockeye and Payette.

Several years later, Mother Earth opened their taproom in downtown Boise proper, on 3rd just a couple blocks down Broad st from Boise Brewing. This was back in December 2021, when we were all just extricating ourselves from the Covid fiasco, and frankly needed an outlet like this. I was there opening week and their full lineup of beers was on line. The place was an immediate hit. Part of the site includes a large outdoor/patio seating area, which didn’t really see much action until it warmed up a few months later. Nevertheless, the outdoor area provides a great view of the currently active and changing downtown Boise skyline.

Great Beer

Mostly I love their hoppy beers. Particularly Boo-Koo, Heavy Cloud, and the Project-X series. Other main line offerings like Sin-Tax, Cali-Creamin and Milk-Truck are great also. Their premium line “Four Seasons” is…well… seasonal, and the heavy hitter Triple IPA has recently made a return. Called “Big Mother” this is a beast of a bear, you have been warned. Since its very beginning, ME has seen terrific growth with a line-up like this.

I read just this past week, the Boise taproom announced that “half pints” would also be available. Perhaps not of their high-octane selections that already are in a smaller serving size, but still the option of a “shorty” is great. A big part of my beer hobby is being able to try many different beers. Having to put down a full pint at a time can drag you down a bit.

Right in the heart of downtown, it is yet another nice craft beer destination, and is one of my regulars.

-Cheers

My Favorite Boise Beerspots #001 – Woodland Empire

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As I’ve mentioned before, Boise is a pretty good beer town. There are a few dozen breweries, taprooms, growler stations and dedicated beer-bars in the Treasure Valley and I’l be featuring one every so often. Not so much a review per se’ just my thoughts and observations on whichever location I find myself at that day.  Some key characteristics, my likes and maybe not lo likes and some details that make it unique. Every spot has a niche, or rather the good ones usually do and Ill focus a bit on that for each.

Today I’m at Woodland Empire. A Brew-On-Premise site that opened nearly 10 years ago in early 2014. I posted about that at that time, and you can read it here. It was a great time interviewing owner/brewers Keely and Rob Landerman.

Since the beginning, WE has had a sort of an irreverent, Bohemian, “Portlandia”, laid back vibe that I imagine would fit in well somewhere in Greenwich Village, maybe across from the record store between the body art shop and the funky coffee joint.

Coming up on a year ago now, Woodland was sold to Boise area group with local restaurateur Dave Krick and a few others including Lost Grove Brewing owner Jacob Black. You can read that story here, on BoiseDev. I’ve been in several times since that change-over and I can tell you the place still feels the same and the promised intent of staying loyal to what the Landerman’s had envisioned, seems to hold true. While my gut doesn’t necessarily love, fewer people owning more craft beer spots, the deal, as mentioned in the article on BoiseDev just seemed to make sense. The right thing at the right time for both parties involved.

Woodland, not long ago, sacrificed some of their parking (not that there was much to begin with) for a patio seating area. While hearing the rushing of home-bound commuters flooring it to catch that last light before the connector is not ideal, it is still a nice option.

There are barley 12 taps here, including a couple guest taps: ciders and Kombucha. There are always a few odd balls that are fun to try and typically few regulars that everyone knows. Namely the Big Sticky, and City of Trees, a couple of IPAs that were here from day one. If you can find a bottle of their Ada County Stout, it is a must have. A real local gem. A couple of coolers are here as well for some of their packaged offerings to go. While you are having a beer, there are even a few old-school machines here if you fancy yourself a bit of a pin-ball wizard. Check it out.

Woodland Empire is a good Beer-Spot

-Cheers

“Growler” Fill Station in Boise

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Historically, “Growlers” were galvanized “pails” in which folks could bring beer home from pre-prohibition small town local breweries.  They called them growlers because they supposedly made a growling noise as the CO2 escaped from the lid while they were bringing it home.   Today, they are typically glass bottles with screw top caps (to keep all that carbonation where it belongs)  and is still a convenient way to get good beer right from the tap,  “to-go”  Typically they are 64oz but there are also 1qt “growler-ettes” out there as well and some are double-walled stainless steel containers that do a pretty good job keeping the beer cold for quite a while.

Most, brewpubs offer growler fills for 10-15$ depending on the brew, plus another 5 or 10$ for the empty one if you didn’t bring yours in.  Some places are even specializing in growler fills.  Dedicated growler “fill-stations” they are calling themselves.  I think it is a great idea.  There is one opening up here is Boise called “PreFunk”.

The site for "PreFunk" in Boise
The site for “PreFunk” in Boise

They are even planning on offering a call ahead and online check-in service with your order so you can drive up and they have it ready for you.  This is sounding better and better all the time.  Not to mention that is in a perfect location.  Every 9-5’er leaving downtown west bound drives right by this place just as Front street funnels into the west bound “connector”.   Their website is not quite ready yet, nor could I find a Facebook page for them after a quick search.

It will be interesting to see what beers they are able to get. With 20 taps, they plan to have half of them representing local Brewpubs, according to a recent Statesman article.  I’ll be checking the place out this week