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Idaho Brew Review

Northwestcentric Beerventures

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Alefort is long over… but it was a hell of a good time

April 15, 2016 by Ben Leave a Comment

As the greater Boise area continues to develop as a source for local craft beer, we’re seeing our beer festival’s grow and mature.  Case in point, if you didn’t make it down at some point to Alefort, part of the Treefort Music Festival, you definitely missed out and your tastebuds may never forgive you.

All of the local players that you would expect to find (Meriwether, Cloud9, Sockeye, Slanted Rock, The Ram, Payette, Woodland Empire, EDGE, Bear Island, Crooked Fence, Powderhaus, Barbarian, Longdrop, Highlands Hollow, County Line and Boise Brewing) were on hand along with regional, representation from New Belgium and some outside sources (national and international) courtesy of Bittercreek, Bier:Thirty, The Front Door, and Prost.  To say that this was an expanded event over #Alefort2015 is an understatement and then some.  The brewery tent was easily 3 or 4 times larger than the year before and included secondary tent for some beer panels and belly dancing.  I was more focused on drinking the beer personally, but when I stuck my head in the second tent there was a belly dancer on stage doing her thing. Bottom line, there was thankfully a lot more space to hang out, drink beer, and meet up with fellow beer lovers….

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Filed Under: Events Tagged With: 2016, Activities, Alefort, Barbarian, Beer, bier:thirty, Boise, Boise Brewing, Cloud 9, County Line, Crooked Fence, Highlands Hollow, Idaho, Longdrop Cider, Micro Brew, Powderhaus, RAM, Sockeye, Treefort, Woodland Empire

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

Brewer for a Day – Boise RAM

May 5, 2015 by Ben Leave a Comment

RAM_brewing

It’s no secret that I’m a beer lover who is still learning the finer points of the process involved in taking base ingredients like water, grains, hops, yeast and making them into something far more magical like Porters, Lagers, Ales, or IPA’s.  Love to drink ’em, but couldn’t make much headway creating one at this point.  That’s part of the beer adventure though, in my opinion anyway.  One doesn’t have to be an authority to enjoy beer, or to have great conversations with other beer lovers here in the North West in my experience.  If you saddle up to the bar at any brewery, order a beer and look to your right and left, chances are you’ll find one or more individuals who are happy to talk to you in great details about their love of beer and where you might like to explore yourself to get a taste of the local flavor.

This was exactly my experience at the RAM here in Boise when I was invited to spend the better part of a day in the back watching the process from start to finish.  The only difference being that I wasn’t sitting at a bar with these gents, but I was darting back and forth to stay out from underfoot of head brewer Jake and his assistant Cody while getting the skinny on their beer and what it takes to keep both RAM’s fully stocked and ready to pour.

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Filed Under: Breweries Tagged With: 2015, Activities, Beer, Brewer For A Day, Brewing, Craft Beer, drinking, RAM

Hoptober FRESHtival 2014

October 12, 2014 by Ben Leave a Comment

Hoptober FRESHTIVAL 2014

Hoptoberfest 2014

What better way to spend 8 hours on a Saturday than at a street party surrounded by a few thousand beer lovers, 13 local breweries, food trucks ( P Ditty’s Wrap Wagon, Genki Takoyaki, Mosaic World Wraps), and music (Radio Boise DJ’s) on a mostly sunny afternoon. That was exactly the scenario that awaited the (hopefully first annual) Hoptober Freshtival attendees on October 11th at Boise Brewing in downtown Boise on Broad street.Admission to this all day beerbration (pretty sure I just made that word up) was a mere $20 in advance ($25 at the gate). At the gate each guest was issued a 4oz mini-mug. This mug, which was really more of a golden ticket, could be taken to any of the brewery fill stations on-site for a fill of magical elixir and the choices were fantastic. With 13 different breweries on hand, many having 2 beers to choose from, choices were never in short supply. On hand were beers from (in no particular order) 10 Barrel Brewing, Sockeye, Crooked Fence, Sawtooth, Woodland Empire, RAM, EDGE, Highlands Hollow, Salmon River, Portneuf Valley Brewing, Payette, Grand Teton, and of course Boise Brewing. Stouts, ales, saisons, and IPA’s were all easy to find, just to name a few.

While it was almost impossible to find a beer station that didn’t have a line, things were orderly and moved along at a brisk pace. Patrons waiting in line were cheerful, friendly and frequently chatting about what they had already tried, were hoping to try, or looking for advice of the like.Unfortunately, I missed out on the first few hours due to other commitments, but it was definitely still going strong when I rolled in at five o’clock. Having been on hand for the Boise Brewing grand opening earlier this summer (another street party), I knew that this would be a must attend event. To put the crowd and their beer drinking prowess into perspective, in total 35 kegs were consumed during the event and from what I could see I think the first breweries didn’t start to run dry until after 6 which I couldn’t help but find impressive. Having been behind the scenes, I know that more than one brewery on hand had more beer brought in to keep their taps flowing. As the evening drew to a close, around 7:45pm what seemed like a micro-burst brought in a bunch of wind and rain which wrecked a little bit of havoc but seemed a fitting way to close out a wonderful fall evening in downtown Boise.With the massive influx of new community micro-breweries that have started to spring up in the greater Boise area, it is fantastic to see events like this come about as a beer lover.

My only regret is that they don’t come along more often. Seriously, talk about beer paradise! Thirteen breweries that were all you can drink for 8 hours for a mere $20? Find me a better event anywhere if you can, because that’s where I want to be. As the North West continues to grow into a bit of a beer mecca it’s very welcome that this culture has expanded into Idaho after having such a successful incubation in our neighboring states of Oregon and Washington.Proceeds of this event benefitted the Idaho Brewers United and the Pink Boots Society. Boise Brewing has a great selection of photos from throughout the event that are worth checking out as well.

Hoptober FRESHTIVAL 2014
Afternoon Crowd
Hoptober FRESHTIVAL 2014
Afternoon Crowd
Hoptober FRESHTIVAL 2014
Keep the hits coming!
Hoptober FRESHTIVAL 2014
Got swag?

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Boise, Boise Brewing, EDGE, Events, Festivals, Food Trucks, Freshtival, Grand Teton, Highlands Hollow, Hoptober, Micro Brew, Payette, Portneuf Valley Brewing, RAM, Salmon River, Sawtooth, Woodland Empire

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