Its Friday, and I have a Beer Festival to go to this weekend! I know where I will be. For the first time I am going to the Boise Beer Festival. I know what you are thinking, “Pffft, Boise, how good could that be?” Well I’m here to tell you it is damn good. Rick Boyd owner of the Brewforia Franchise, and now owner of the Barley Brother’s Travelling Beer Show has poured his heart and soul into this fest for the last four years, and it is paying off in spades. Where he used to have to beg breweries to show up, now they are beating down his door to get in. Rick has almost singlehandedly put the Boise Beer Fest on the map to the point where it is now the third largest beer festival west of the Mississippi. And the names he is able to get there are impressive. Take a look at this list of brewers that will be represented.
Laughing Dog Brewing Grand Teton Brewing Sockeye Brewing
Tablerock Brewing Crescent Brewing Payette Brewing
Highland’s Hollow Brewpub Portneuf Valley Brewing Sawtooth Brewing
Sun Valley Brewing Wildlife Brewing Uinta Brewing
Epic Brewing Wasatch Brewing Snake River Brewing
Brewery Ommegang Southern Tier Brewing Shipyard Brewing
Boston Beer Company Midnight Sun Brewing Chuckanut Brewing
Two Beers Brewing Alameda Brewing Leavenworth Brewing
McCall Brewing Fox Barrel Cider Rogue Brewing
Ninkasi Brewing Portland Brewing Barley Brown’s Brewpub
Terminal Gravity Brewing Deschutes Brewing Bridgeport Brewing
Full Sail Brewing Georgetown Brewing Beer Valley Brewing
Hopworks Urban Brewing Laurelwood Brewing Widmer Brothers Brewing
Double Mountain Brewing Boulevard Brewing Great Divide Brewing
Avery Brewing Odell Brewing New Planet Brewing
Boulder Brewing New Belgium Brewing Kona Brewing
Goose Island Brewing Cascade Lakes Brewing Tieton Cider Works
Alaskan Brewing Elysian Brewing Riverport Brewing
Pike Brewing Pyramid Brewing Redhook Brewing
Maritime Pacific Brewing Harmon Brewing Fish Brewing
Anderson Valley Brewing Lagunitas Brewing Mendocino Brewing
Bear Republic Brewing 21st Amendment Brewing Sierra Nevada Brewing
Lost Coast Brewing Anchor Brewing North Coast Brewing
Mad River Brewing The Bruery Stone Brewing
Lost Abbey/Port Brewing Abita Brewing Spire Cider Co.
Ace Cider Co. Hardcore Cider Woodchuck Cider Co.
Wallace Brewing
OK, I know the lines are crooked, but believe me they were straight in the editor! Anyway, pretty impressive, no? While the likes of Dogfish Head and Brooklyn Breweries aren’t represented, Southern Tier is, as are most of the west coast big names, and a few easties as well. Not a bad deal for li’l ol’ Boise. I am particularly looking forward to sampling from Double Mountain. They are a relatively new brewery from Mt. Hood, Oregon, and have been getting rave reviews. Others that interest me are Southern Tier, Sam Adams said they would have a keg of Utopias on tap, Goose island should probably have some nice treats since AB InBev haven’t completely destroyed them yet, and a host of Washington brewers that only keg their brews and sell locally will be on hand as well.
Should be a great time. Remember if you go you should make arrangements to get home safely. It is very important that this festival not cause any problems in the community. I’m really looking forward to trying some amazing brews. I’m gonna start light and then get progressively darker. By night fall I should be drinking nothing but stouts!
So what about you? What are your plans? Do they involve a beer festival too? As usual let us know in the comments.
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
I don’t know. I was thinking of having a few beers.
Really, Zac? Hey, I liked your iPhone post. What to do in a room full of bad music 😉
I’ll admit, I have yet to be impressed to much since Southern Tier has came to KY, but the other night I had their Mokah and it was amazing. Like if you put a Chocolate Tootsie Pop in a glass and drank it. If they have it, make sure and try it if you get the chance. My wife love the Shipyard Pumpkin, so small chance they may have that out there.
I think they will Joun, as pumpkin brew season is right around the corner. I had some of theirs last year, and really enjoyed it. I liked that it was just a hint of pumpkin pie, and not like liquid pie. ST has some pretty great beer, their Oat is wonderful, and their unearthly IPA is flat out one of the best DIPAs out there. They even have a barrel aged version that I am looking forward to trying sometime soon. I’ll be interested to see what they bring.
That’s an impressive lineup for sure. I’m jealous but I’m sure you’ll have a handful of tasty brews and do them justice with a great write-up. Do you know which Southern Tier brews will be poured? Be on the lookout for Un*Earthly Pale, Iniquity, Choklat or any of the wood aged Cuvee Series. Perhaps you’ll be treated to Stone’s Green Tea IPA as well.
As for me, I’ll be attending Sierra Nevada Beer Camp (box version – not the real thing) and preparing to bottle my first homebrew, Midnight at Mavericks Belgian Black IPA.
Cheers!
@TheAlemonger
Funny, out here Midnight at Mavericks has a totally different meaning as Maverick is a gas station and C-Store. Typically at midnight the only people there are shift workers and drunks. However the home brew sounds great. Hope it turns out for you. Not sure what ST will be pouring, but I am looking forward to it.
So much for my “geocultural sensitivity” in selecting a name. I was going for the iconic California surfing spot. I guess I shouldn’t lose too much sleep over it. I have no intentions of distributing any of the 50 or so bottles much beyond 5 or 6 blocks of my “brewery.”
😦 Always forgotten. Anyway I hope it is a raving success!
Great lineup! I’m sure I could find myself a few (dozen) beers to enjoy with that guest list. As for me, I hope to be partaking in a couple Dark ‘n Stormies tonight but I’m sure I won’t get through the evening without a supplement or two out of the homebrew kegerator.
Sounds good. I’d love to be able to “supplement” but unless someone gives me home brew, I’m not supplementing much. Enjoy!
I’ll likely be there Sunday, Don. Note that in the past not every beer/brewery is necessarily represented both days. Rick tries to. But space and tap/beer availability sometimes means a beer or even a brewery you may want to try is there on Saturday and not Sunday or vise versa.
This year’s payment/consumption set up is different, too. $25, all you can drink all day (rather than tokens). To encourage pacing yourself and experiencing many beers rather than drinking mass quantities of only a few, glasses are the small, 5.5 oz tasting variety.
In the past things, haven’t gotten out of hand at this festival that I know of. Just a lot of veteran and newbie craft beer fans having a good time and enjoying beer. Good times.
Too bad you will be there Sunday, as I think I will be going on Saturday. I’m looking forward to it as well. 5 oz tasters are still pretty big. Last year at GABF they were 1 oz, which I think was a little ridiculous, but you could tell what the beer was like at that level, although there wasn’t enough to savor much less enjoy. I hope things go smoothly this year as well, but without the tokins, you might get the frat boy element. Hopefully not though.
*Sigh* It’s been quite a while since I’ve been to a good beer festival.
I managed to assemble 2 six-packs of singles from the not-so-local Wegman’s last weekend. A lot of session beers and summer ales. It must be going around – much like Jim I feel like laying off the high-octane stuff for a while.
I’m sure I’ll find something to console myself with!
Sounds like a good plan Mark, pace yourself with the lower abv stuff, especially in the summer when it is hot and you want to drink more. Don’t feel too sorry for Jim, as he is in Wisconsin and I’m sure enjoying New Glarus beers every night! Bastard!
To be honest Don, I have a hard time figuring out why Boise would not have a decent, well-represented and well-attended beer fest. Are there any other beer fests in ID that might steal their thunder?
The driving home part is always a problem. My tee-totaller daughter always goes as the designated driver when my son-in-law and I attend the MD Beer Fest. The first year we attended we arrived a bit late in the day but there were still about 60 or so folks waiting in line. This fest issues different colored name tags for the drinkers and non-drinkers so one of the staff asked for a show of hands for all the non-drinkers–my daughter was the only one in the crowd! All the while, not 50 feet away, MD State Troopers were directing traffic. All-in-all, that was not a good advertisement for craft beer drinkers.
In any event the Boise fest sounds good and I hope you have a lot of fun. The biggest problem I foresee is that you won;t get to a real representative taste of all the participating breweries’ products. BTW: the little brewers often have the best surprises.
All I can say is… DUDE! That sounds like a blast. Have fun Don! Take lots of notes and pics. We want details damn it! 🙂
I forget to mention. I’m surprising myself this weekend. I’m goin’ lookin’ for some of Philly’s Yards brewery quaffs. I’ve tried their Brawler and didn’t care for it but I need to try few more before I make a general decision about the brewery. BTW: Brawler is described as “Boasting superior taste and champion flavor, the Brawler is crafted in the style of English session ales. This malt-forward, ruby colored ale is great for when you want to go a few rounds.” As I’m sure you know by now, I love session beers, but this one just left me wanting a real beer so I switched to DFH’s 60′ IPA and Dale’s.
This weekend, I’ve opted for the Goose Island Matilda… but I wish I’d chosen the Pere Jacques.
The bigger news is that I’m an idiot and missed a chance to meet Boulevard Brewing’s Jeremy Danner and drink some Deschutes.
As an interim report, just got back from the local pub where I tried Heavy Seas Marzen on tap. I asked for a taste before I went for a pint and the barkeep served it in a frosted glass–couldn’t taste anything! I then asked for a half in an unchilled glass. Wasn’t bad at all. I expected it to taste sweet (as most Marzen’s are), it wasn’t, it was toasty and malty w/ a nice finish but I missed the hops so I finished off with a pint of Flying Dog’s Classic IPA–luscious as always. Since I’d already been drinking, I decided not to go too far looking for beer to take home. So I stopped at the closest liquor store. Unfortunately (or not, considering my tastes), almost all their micro-brews were IPAs. Anyway, I picked up a six each of Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA and Porkslap IPA (subtitled Farm House Ale.) I haven’t tried ’em yet.
Had about 12 friends or so over for Beef, Beer and Bourbon. We tried a number of beers to include; La Chouffe, Epic smoked and oaked, Ommegang BPA, Port City Porter and Appalachian Trail Jolly Scot. Bourbon included various bourbons out of production and single barrel picks.
How was the beer festival?… I ended up having a Belgian Strong Ale and yes some Pacifico (with lime)…
BTW, I’ve been meaning to ask, can you add my link to your blogroll? thx!!
Too much sleep can also cause other health problems like insulin resistance or obesity. Always sleep like 7-8 hours. *”,*.
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