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Idaho Brew Review

Northwestcentric Beerventures

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Payette Brewing Black Friday 2015

December 21, 2015 by Ben Leave a Comment

2015-11-27 10.35.24The Friday following the Thanksgiving holiday, for many it’s a day filled with standing in line, braving the cold, and fighting the crowds to save a few bucks on electronics. What if I told you that there was a much better way to spend your day? Payette Brewing’s “Black Friday” is day filled with a possibilities and incredible beers from around the region! You can sate your need for deals with a few minutes online in the morning before you head out to enjoy the a breathtaking selection of Stouts and Porters that will delight your palate and ensnare the spirit. Ok, ok, that may be a little deep, but seriously… this event and theses beers are worth blocking out the day on your calendar and shipping the kids off to the grandparents so you can maximize your experience.

This year, Payette Brewing hosted the event at their new facility in downtown Boise off River Street. Since the building is still being renovated, a large tent was erected in the parking lot filled with tables, music, lights, and thankfully a generator nearby to provide power and some heat! To say that it was cold out is an understatement. To say that the generator was unruly is too kind, especially for those employees & volunteers who were on-site getting everything ready hours before the event started. I arrived at 10, an hour before the “League of Outlaws” members early access and you couldn’t miss the frost that was forming on the inside of the tent walls. Once things really got hopping around 1:00 there was enough heat inside from the heaters and warm bodies that the ambient temps were getting bearable although we had some intermittent rain from all that melting frost. By that time however, I don’t think anyone noticed… or cared. There were simply to many people to talk to and way too many beers to dive into….

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Filed Under: Beerventure, Events Tagged With: 10 Barrel, 2015, Activities, Alaskan, Anderson Valley, Archies Place, Bear Island, Beer, Beerventure, Big Sky, Boise, Boise Brewing, Boulevard, Cloud 9, County Line, Crooked Fence, Deschutes, drinking, EDGE, Epic, Events, Festivals, Food Trucks, Full Sail, Georgetown, Haff, Heretic, Highlands Hollow, Hopworks, Idaho, Micro Brew, Mother Earth, Ninkasi, Oakshire, Odell, Payette, Payette Brewing, Powderhaus, Salmon River, Sierra Nevada, Slanted Rock, Sockeye, Southern Tier, Squatters, Stone, Tasting, Three Creeks, Uinta

Boise Brewing Hoptober Freshtival 2015

November 5, 2015 by Ben Leave a Comment

Hoptober PosterBeer festivals! These two magic words can make a beer lovers knees quiver. Sadly, in Boise, we’ve been without a honest to goodness beer festival for the past few years as costs, permitting and other issues with the city brought about their untimely demise. Last year, I was fortunate enough to attend (and volunteer) at the inaugural Boise Brewing Hoptober Freshtival (read about it here). The initial event in 2014 brought out mostly local brewers to a central location (5th & Broad St) in front of the Boise Brewing brewery. Beer lovers heard the call and purchased their $25 tickets and received a taster mug (roughly 5oz) and were treated to unlimited tasters until the beer was gone or until 8pm.

This year, the Hoptober Freshtival was bigger and better in all the ways that count. Instead of 13 breweries we had 25+ for a total of more than 50 tap handles to choose from. All the local players were on hand and some regional breweries made the trip up as well, including Fort George, Deschutes, & Mazama Brewing. Sadly, we did loose the “all you can drink” component due to permitting changes with the city, but that may have been for the best. Who wouldn’t get into trouble at an All You Can Drink craft beer event? The new system offered attendees their taster mug and 20 tickets which, if fully redeemed, would equate to 80+ oz of beer. Still, a pretty damn good deal for a $25 ticket ($30 at the door).  Once again, Broad Street between 4th & 5th was blocked off in front of Boise Brewing. At noon, with people lined up along the fence, the gates opened and people started filing inside….

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Filed Under: Beerventure, Events Tagged With: 10 Barrel, 2 Towns Cider, 2015, Activities, Barbarian Brewing, Bear Island Brewing, Beer, Beer Festival, Boise, Boise Brewing, Cloud9 Brewing, Crooked Fence, Deschutes, drinking, Events, Fort George, Fresh Hop, Grand Teton, Haff Brewing, Highlands Hollow, Idaho, IPA, Longdrop Cider, Mazama, Melvin Brewing, Micro Brew, Mosaic, Payette Brewing, Postmodern, RAM, ROGUE, Salmon River, Sawtooth, Slanted Rock, Sockeye, Woodland Empire

10 Barrel Beer Wars Boise 2015

October 1, 2015 by Ben Leave a Comment

On a surprisingly hot day in late September 2015 10 Barrel Brewing put together a blind IPA tasting event dubbed “Beer Wars” in the parking lot behind the brewery in downtown Boise. While you may not be expecting to melt into the asphalt under a blistering afternoon so close to October; those in attendance were rewarded for their stamina and perseverance with a wealth of IPA goodness from around the West.

Now, I was expecting that the beers would be hidden, but I didn’t expect to be in the dark on which states the taps were from. The scenario that we found upon entering after purchasing our tulip and tokens were five stations, each with six tap handles with absolutely no identifying marks. The only information given to us was that each station represented a state. The states on hand were Washington, Oregon, California, Boise and last (but not least) the rest of Idaho. As a lover of beer this would have been a wonderful adventure to try to discern the various states and narrow down the respective beers from each had I been free to stay for the entire event.  Having only an hour or so to spend at Beer Wars due to other commitments, this completely blind scenario was disheartening. I love our Boise & Idaho breweries with a passion, but it’s not every day that you can stroll up and grab Barley Browns, pFriem Family Brewers, Breakside Brewing, Backwoods Brewing, Silver City, Naked City, Green Flash, Ballast Point, 21st Amendment (just to name a few) on tap and at such a reasonable cost. I wanted to devote my time to exploring those beers that are harder to come by on tap here in Boise. But, what are you going to do.

The first order of business was to do a slow pass to see if there was any visible clue that could help my case. On this walk about, I caught sight of part of an uncovered keg which was plastered with a large Barley Browns sticker. Win! With no other visual clues I decided to pony up to what I was now sure was the Oregon tent and order my first beer. Beer in hand I retreat to a table and strike up a conversation with a few other beer lovers to compare notes and sip my beer. During my brief stint at beer wars I must say I met some great people, drank outstanding beer, and had a hell of a good (although far too short) a time. To my, and my tables credit, we were able to identify the California, Washington & Oregon tents… unfortunately, I was totally off on all my tap handle predictions. When you’re playing for these stakes though, even when you loose you win. 🙂 Beers that I ended up putting my hands on were Firestone Walker Double Jack, 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die, 10 Barrel Pearl IPA (From Portland), Breakside Wanderlust IPA, Boneyard Notorious IPA.

As the evening progressed the crowd increased substantially, at 7pm, all taps were revealed and the thirsty group gathered was able to drink to their hearts content, now knowing exactly which beers they’re drinking. I also heard that there were protesters, why I can’t imagine, across the street. Not that I need an excuse to drink good beer, but events like these seem to have a strong draw and give craft beer lovers around the valley the chance to get together, explore beers both local and regional while comparing notes and sharing beerventure tales.

 

Let the games begin!Take to the shade!Beer ListHappy (Hoppy) CrowdFirst beerWither, blister, burn & peelMore beer & peopleSecond beerCrowd ShotImage Courtesy 10 Barrel Boise FB page

Filed Under: Beerventure, Events Tagged With: 10 Barrel, 2015, 21st Amendment, Backwoods Brewing, Ballast Point, Barley Browns, Beer, Beer Wars, Boise Brewing, Boneyard, Breakside, Broken Horn, California, California Craft Beer, Craft Beer, Deschutes, EDGE Brewing, Elysian, Everybody's Brewing, Firestone Walker, Georgetown, Grand Teton, Green Flash, Idaho, Laughing Dog, Micro Brew, Naked City, Oregon, Oregon Craft Beer, Payette Brewing, pFriem, Salmon River, Sawtooth, Silver City, Slate Creek, Sockeye, Stone Brewing, Washington, Washington Craft Beer, Woodland Empire

Kegs for Kerry 2015

July 24, 2015 by Ben Leave a Comment

3:10 and the line is almost to the corner!

3:10 and the line is almost to the corner!

On July 18th 2015 the brewing community in and around the Treasure Valley came together to support Kerry Thomas, head brewer at EDGE Brewing in Boise who was injured in a boil over accident.  It has always been my impression that the competition in craft beer, at least here in the Treasure Valley, is pretty good natured and generally friendly.   The wagons were circled to support one of their own from the get go.

In case you didn’t make it out to Prefunk for ‪#‎kegsforkerry‬ here are just a few of the things you missed. The crowd was of course, great and the turn out was pretty amazing. When I arrived a few minutes after 3pm there was already a line out the building of people waiting to get some beer. There was both a raffle (personally I didn’t win anything, but Rick & his wife Sarah cleaned house at the table we shared) and a silent auction. Auction items ran the gambit from a beach house stay in Oregon to gift certificates, growlers + fills, amazing beer packages, art and more.…

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Filed Under: Events, Musings Tagged With: 10 Barrel Brewing, 2015, Activities, Barbarian Brewing, Barley Browns, Beer, bier:thirty, Boise, Boise Brewing, Craft Beer, Craft Beer Events, Crooked Fence, EDGE, Highlands Hollow, kegsforkerry, Longdrop Cider, Payette Brewing, Postmodern Brewers, Prefunk, Sockeye, Woodland Empire

Payette Brewing League of Outlaws Initiation 2015

April 16, 2015 by Ben Leave a Comment

2015-04-12 13.07.49

This past Sunday marked the inauguration of the 2015 League of Outlaws class at Payette Brewing.  If you weren’t there or didn’t jump in to the league when you had the chance, I strongly suggest that you mark your calendar to take part next when it comes back around.  Like so many brew related experiences in the greater Boise area, the thing that makes clubs like this so entertaining is that it brings a pretty diverse group together to meet, mingle, and be, under the common love for great beer.…

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Filed Under: Beer/Brew Clubs, Breweries, Events Tagged With: 2015, Activities, Beer, Boise, Brewery Tour, drinking, Events, League of Outlaws, Payette, Payette Brewing, Tasting

Payette Brewing Black Friday

December 12, 2014 by Ben Leave a Comment

Payette Brewing Black Friday 2014 Menu

Why on earth would anyone care to battle the crowds to save a few bucks off electronics that you don’t need when you could spend 10 hours drinking amazing beer?? That’s just what we did at what will hopefully become an annual event put on by Payette Brewing at the Linen Building in downtown Boise featuring more stouts than I have ever seen in one location.

Everything on tap was a stout and they hailed from local brewers like Boise Brewing, EDGE, Crooked Fence, McCall Brewing, Sockeye, Highlands Hollow, & of course Payette. Not to be left out, a number of regional names were also in attendance like Deschutes, Ninkasi, Odell, Widmer Brothers, Full Sail to name just a few. Out front was one of my favorite local food trucks Archies Place, with perfect sandwiches to follow copious beer consumption. My only complaint was the unseasonably warm temps in Boise paired with mass stout consumption.

The crowd showed up ready to drink beer and while I was there at least, everyone was easy going, festive and chatting up other beer lovers. In fact, it was hard not to make new friends for those of us that were fortunate enough to have landed one of the few tables or barrels. After the first few hours… having a table to rally around made all the difference and as people came and went it proved fruitful in the inheritance of beer tokens as fellow patrons ran out of time, stamina, or sobriety and decided to throw in the towel. I wound up with 2 bonus beers which was both a blessing and a curse after the 5 tokens I had purchased for myself.

Payette Black Friday 2014; The event itself was free, tokens for a 5oz pour were $3 each, a commemorative glass snifter was $5 or you could forgo the glass and use a mini solo-cup. My thinking with the glass was that aside from the souvenir factor, it was also more likely to result in over-pour since it’s harder to judge the volume on the curved glass. Of course, every pour varied and some behind the tap were more generous than others. All things considered, definitely no complaints and as I understand it, some of the proceeds went to the Joe Cans project against cancer via Big City Coffee.

Payette Brewing Black Friday 2014 Album

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: 2014, Activities, Archies Place, Black Friday, Boise Brewing, Crooked Fence, Deschutes, EDGE, Events, Full Sail, Highlands Hollow, McCall Brewing, Micro Brew, Ninkasi, Odell, Payette Brewing, Sockeye, Widmer Brothers

The Science of Brewing: DCI Adult Night

September 19, 2014 by Ben Leave a Comment

DCI Science of Brewing Adult Night September 2014

Science of Brewing Schedule

The Discovery Center of Idaho is a hands on science museum located in Boise, Idaho and tonight they had an “Adult Night” focusing on the science of brewing.  What better way to learn about beer and brewing than with 4 local breweries serving a few of their popular bews, a few food trucks to keep everyone fed, and brewmasters with exhibits and small batch examples of some of the crazy things you can do with beer.  I can safely say that I never imagined that I would have a peanut butter and jelly porter, but I did, and it was a remarkable experience.  Not that I would set out to buy a peanut butter and jelly stout mind you, but that one could capture a peanut butter and jelly sandwich flavor in a beer was impressive.

Joining the regular exhibits, and the currently on display Leonardo DiVinci models were brewing exhibits from the public library which featured an impressive selection of beer/brewing books focusing on the North West (which were available for check out which I thought was even more impressive… I walked out with 2).  There was also a hops tea station where not only could you gather to learn about how different kinds of hops can influence beer making, but you were able to sample a hops tea (think boiling water poured over ground up hops and steeped like a green tea).  While meandering from one presentation to another you couldn’t help but strike up conversations with other beer lovers about everything from beer culture, brewing, and the wonderful growth that we’ve been seeing in the Micro Brewing scene here in the Treasure Valley with beer lovers and those doing the brewing themselves.  The crowd was friendly and engaged, which always makes for a pleasant evening with strangers bound by common interests.

Aside from great beer (Boise Brewing, Payette Brewing, EDGE Brewing, & Woodland Empire) and a variety of amazing food (Riceworks, Archies Place, B Town Bistro) (if you happen to be in Boise you should hunt town Archie’s Place food truck and get your grub on) there were also presentations facilitated by local brewers about the Microbiology of Brewing, Science & Aging of Beer, and Mash.  Honestly, what could be better than an evening in a hands on science museum where you can play with everything while eating good food, drinking great beer, and learning some fascinating info about the creation of the magical life sustaining elixir common people refer to as “beer”.

The Science of Brewing
Yummm Archies!
BitterCreek & Crooked Fence
EDGE & Boise Brewing

Crowd Enjoying good beer
Deviant Kin

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: 2014, Archies Place, B Town Bistro, Beer, Bittercreek, Boise, Boise Brewing, Deviant Kin, Discovery Center, EDGE, Idaho, Payette Brewing, Riceworks, Science, Woodland Empire

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