Monday, October 26, 2015

MOTHER EARTH BREW CO ARRIVES IN NAMPA




My wife and I went to the Official Press Conference and Event to Welcome the folks at Mother Earth Brew Co. to Nampa. Those that attended the event were rewarded with free beer from Mother Earth along with free beer pint glasses and free shirts with the new Mother Earth  Nampa Railroad Logo.

Jana Jones, Director of the Economic Development Services started the press conference by reading a statement from Governor Otter welcoming Mother Earth Brew Co. to Idaho.  Then Bob Henry, the Mayor of Nampa, Idaho talked about all the jobs that Mother Earth will bring to Nampa and Canyon County.   Finally Jana introduced Daniel Love, co-founder and general manager of Mother Earth Brew Co. to the enthusiastic crowd composed the local craft beer fans.



Daniel  Love Talks to the Crowd at Wall Street Nampa next to Prefunk Nampa in the above photo:  Click Here to hear the six minute talk.  Dan explains the origins of Mother Earth and how Mother Earth came to Nampa, Idaho. I found it very interesting that Mother Earth has many ties to Stone Brewing.


Daniel Love Meets Mike Francis, Owner and Operator of Payette Brewing Company in the photos below:


Mother Earth and Payette will be the Two Largest Breweries in the State of Idaho by the end of 2016.

It looks like the new Nampa location will be ready in February to start construction and most of their major brewing equipment should be ready to ship in March.  They are hoping to start production in June 2016 with their tap room opening shortly thereafter.

Kamron Khannakhjavani and Mike Westley from Mother Earth also accompanied Dan to the Event.  After the event was over and most of the crowd had left,  Dan mentioned that he would like to meet Jerry Fergusson, the owner of the Crescent Brewery.  So Stacy Connelly (Boise Beer Buddies), Dan, Mike, Kamron, and my wife and I all walked down to the Crescent Brewery just three blocks down the street.

The Mother Earth guys got to meet Jerry and tour the Crescent Brewery and sample some of the Crescent Brewery's finest beers.  It is very important to Dan to become part of the Idaho Craft Beer Community and work with all his fellow brewers in the area.

On the walk back to Prefunk, Daniel Love talked about the "lack of a Local Beer Culture in Idaho comment." The comment was actually from Brandon Hernandez, a writer for a local beer magazine in San Diego.  In an article that he wrote about Mother Earth opening a Nampa plant, he  wrote "At first, it may seem a bit of an odd choice, constructing a second production facility so far from home, and in a part of the country that lacks a defined craft beer culture."  Dan said that he and those at Mother Earth who planned the Nampa Brewery are very aware of Idaho's current and growing Craft Beer Culture.

After meeting Dan, Kamron, and Mike; I know these guys will be a perfect fit for our Idaho Craft Beer Culture.

 Click Here to hear the six minute talk by Daniel Love.

Check out the Nampa Logo for Mother Earth Brew Co. below:



Logo is a photo from the shirt.



Another Story about the History of Mother Earth


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

WELCOME TO IDAHO MOTHER EARTH BREW CO.


mother earth

Exciting News about a new Brewery coming  to Nampa, Idaho.

Mother Earth Brew Co.located in Vista, California will be building their second production brewery in Nampa, Idaho at the old Rogers Seed location 1428 Madison Street shown below:



MEBC will be the second Brewing Company to add an Idaho location.  Bend's 10 Barrel Brewing located their second brewpub in Boise two years ago.  10  Barrel knocked down the barriers to other brewing companies moving to Idaho by working hard to change the laws prohibiting breweries from other states adding Idaho locations.

This will be a four vessel, 40 beer barrel production brewery with a tap room and company offices located in a 40,000 square feet facility.  The Nampa brewery will be larger than their Vista Brewery increasing their total capacity to over 100,000 beer barrels per year with plans to ship their beer throughout the Northwest.

About their beers:  Sin Tax Peanut Butter Stout is one of their more unique beers. This Beer won the Gold Medal for Specialty Beer at the San Diego International Beer Festival.
Feb 27, 2014 (15) - cropped


Hop Diggity Double IPA is another award winning beer.  Winning Silver and Bronze Medals.




Their other beers can be found on their website listed below.

One of the cool things about this brew company is that they have maintained  close ties with the Home brewing Community offering hands-on brewing classes on a 10 gallon system and selling home brewing equipment and supplies at their Vista location.  I hope they will also do this at their new Nampa location.

This will be fourth Brewery with a planned opening in Idaho in 2016.  See complete list here:  List of Idaho Breweries.  Idaho will have 54 breweries in operation when these four breweries open for business.  That will give Idaho one brewery for every 30,000 people.  This will be the second Brewery in Nampa joining the Crescent Brewery Downtown Nampa.

City of Nampa reports a welcome event/tasting Oct 23rd 3-4:30pm in Wall Street, Downtown Nampa. Hayden will be their distributor and ME beer should hit Idaho shelves this month.  Thanks to Troy Oppie for this tip.



Link  to the Opening Nampa Brewery Article

Mother  Earth Brew Co. Website

Mother Earth Brew Tap House Facebook

Mother Earth Facebook

Boise Valley Economic Partnership Story

P.S.  There is another Mother Earth Brewing Company.   It is in Mother Earth Brewing LLC located in North Carolina!!!!!


Wednesday, September 30, 2015

I Survived BEER WARS 2015

This will be brief.  I was going to  do a longer story with interviews, but as I began my journey  of drinking 30 four ounce pours, I lost my way. Check out the menu below.  That is an impressive list and the main reason that I lost my way.


I arrived early...about 3:00 and checked out the layout.  I talked to Whitney, the Beer Wars General, and she said they were almost ready to  go.   Then  I returned to to the 10 Barrel Brewery and Restaurant to eat my Fish and Chips and prepare to start tasting beer with a full stomach.  I was fortunate to have a Designated Driver, so it was "No Holds Barred" for trying all those IPA's.


Celeste Giordani is one of the volunteers that wore the Army Brown Shirts and the Camo Beer Wars Hats:


It  cost $5 for the taster glass (A nice collectible for your collection). Only $1 per chip that  got you a generous 4 ounce pour.  There were 5 booths pouring beer from 4 States...Idaho, Washington,  Oregon and Idaho. Idaho was divided into 2 categories....Boise and The Rest of Idaho.

Snake River Brewers were represented by Bob, Mike, Derek, Joe and Chris!  They were doing their best to empty those Kegs.  Steven Koonce was there doing his part too. Plus too many familiar faces to mention.  Great turn out by Boise's Craft Beer Drinkers!

Stacy from Beer Buddies was represented:


The Entrance:

The Oregon Booth:

Okay, the  funnest part was trying  to identify the Breweries and the States.  Consensus among friends was that Beer # 1 was Grapefruit Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point, So we identified the California Booth.  The next beer we agreed on was Double Dagger IPA from Sockeye and Outlaw from Payette, we had the Boise Booth identified.  I was pretty sure that #9 was Alpha Dog IPA from Laughing Dog.  So that was "The  Rest of Idaho"!  So we had three of the five I.D.'d, only two to go.  We really had a hard time with beers #25 to #30, we figured they had to be from Washington which meant the last group had to be from  Oregon. And #14 was Pallet Jack IPA from Barley Browns.  It was just so  familiar, I was sure that I had  drank it before.  So we pretty much had it figured out by 7:00 PM when they announced the beer identities.  California Won, but  with Firestone Walker Double Jack and the Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin, how could they lose.

Blind Tastings are challenging and fun.  I had a lot of fun tasting with my buddy Mike,  We shared our Chips so we only drank two ounces per beer.  It was a good strategy, because 120  ounces of IPA's  ranging in ABV from 7% to 10% would have hurt me.  There were a lot of Imperial and Double IPA's in the group.


The Protesters Across the Street (Beer is Evil):


And The Crowd:



The Band got going about 8:00 and so did we.....Great Time...highly recommend this event for all you that missed it.  Hope they  do it again in 2016.

Update:

And the winners were:


1st - California


2nd - Oregon


3rd - Rest of Idaho


4th - Washington


5th - Boise


And they were All winners in my book.

***Some of the photos provided by Stan Brewster****

Friday, September 18, 2015

BOISE CRAFT BEER NIRVANA SEPTEMBER 26, 2015

So, what are you doing Saturday, Septembeer 26th??

I am amazed at the Choice of Events that we, as Craft Beer Fans, have this weekend in Boise and the surrounding area.  Many of these events are easy walking (crawling) distance of one another.  I would never imagine this happening in Boise 5 years ago.

I used to make any annual trip to Bend Oregon, to try new beer and add badges to my Untappd Account.  I have not been to Bend the last 2 years.  Don't need to go to Bend with all the great local beer offerings in Boise and the state of Idaho.  Just one more reason that I am proud to be an Idahoan.

Click on the "Event" to see the details of each event.

Downtown Boise Events by Start Time

1  - ALEFORT @ Boise Farmers Market 3:00 - 8:00   Event
       Fresh-hopped creations and unique tastings by:
       SOCKEYE BREWING,  PAYETTE BREWING,  BOISE BREWING
       BARBARIAN BREWING,  MERIWEATHER CIDER,    BITTERCREEK ALEHOUSE
       Tasting cups are $3, Tokens are $2.50 for 7 oz pour


2 - Old Boise  Octoberfest 2015  3:00 - 10:00  Event  
     This event will be held in Old Boise at 6th & main.  $15 cover charge.  They will have authentic          German beer, food, and Music.


3 - Beer Wars IPA Festival sponsored by 10-Barrel 4:00 - 10:00    Event
      This event is for IPA lovers Only.  It will be at the 10 Barrel Brewery and feature 30 IPA's from   Idaho, Oregon and Washington Breweries.  $5.00 for the Taster Cup and $1.00 per token good for     a 4 ounce taste.

4 - Taco Beer Taco Fest @ Woodland Empire Craft 4:00 - 11:00  Event

      This Free event located at the Woodland Empire Craft Ale Brewery will feature specialty tacos            paired with specialty beer and there will be live music starting at 7:00


Events in other parts of Boise:

5 - Octoberfest @ Edge Brewing  11:00 - 11:00 Event
  •      BRATS- We will have a German menu all day long
  •      BEER-We will be serving our delicious Oktoberfest
  •      BBQ- We will have an outdoor brats BBQ in the Parking lot
  •       MUSIC- Emily Tipton 5-7pm

6 - 4th Annual B'Arc and Brew Festival @  Harrison Hollow Brewing 12:00 - 8:00 Event
      Dogs, bring your people and join us for some delicious craft beer, great live music, and good times! There will be a costume contest and dog parade at 1:45pm. It's going to be a doggone good time! Don't miss it!!


Events in other parts of the Valley:

7 - Blues at The Flats 2:00 - 8:00  Event
     Doors at 2:00. Music starts at 2:30.
      Tickets $8 in advance or $10 at the door. 

8 - Snake River Brewstock in Ontario, Oregon  2:00 - 9:00  Event
      Brewfest featuring 60 different beers. $25.00 Cover Charge.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BEER WARS UPDATE:



Attending Breweries:
 
Boise
·         10 Barrel Boise
·         Boise Brewing
·         Edge Brewing
·         Sockeye
·         Payette
·         Woodland Empire
California
·         Ballast Point
·         Firestone Walker
·         Green Flash
·         Pizza Port
·         Stone Brewing
·         21st Amendment
Oregon
·         10 Barrel PDX
·         Barley Brown’s
·         Boneyard
·         Breakside
·         Deschutes
·         pFriem
Rest of Idaho
·         Broken Horn
·         Laughing Dog
·         Grand Teton
·         Salmon River
·         Sawtooth
·         Slate Creek
Washington
·         Backwoods Brewing
·         Elysian
·         Everybody’s Brewing
·         Georgetown
·         Naked City
·         Silver City

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

WHY SHOULD YOU GROW YOUR OWN HOPS?

Why would you, a home brewer, want to grow your own hops?


1 -  You control the freshness of your own homegrown hops.
       I usually harvest around 100 ounces of hops every year,  I am still using hops from the 2014 season, but I            never use hops more than 2 years old.  All of my hops are stored in vacuum packed freezer bags          in my freezer.

2 -  Pride,  you have the satisfaction of knowing you have grown your own hops.
      When sharing my home brew beer, I never fail to mention that the beer is brewed with my own           home grown hops. 

3 -  If you want to make organic homebrew, you can be 100% sure that your hops ARE organic.
      You never know the history of those store  bought hops.  What is their definition of organic?  It            may different from your definition of organic. 

4 -  You can make fresh hop ales in August and September every year.
      This is one of my favorite reasons for growing my own hops.  Every year, I make a fresh hop ale.       The last two years, I made Fresh Hops IPA's, this year, I made a Fresh Hop Pale Ale.

5 -  You can decrease the cost of brewing your own beer.
       Raising Hops takes a lot of labor, but if you use a lot of hops in your beer (IPA's) you can save            money by raising your own hops.

6 -  Less impact from Hop shortages.
      With the increased demand created by the fast growing craft beer breweries for certain hops,                some hops become very hard to find.  Check out The Hops Shortage of 2008.


I started growing my own hops in 2002 when my wife bought me two rhizomes.  One was a Tettnanger, the other was a Fuggles.   I only raised those 2 hops for about 4 years. Then over time, I increased the number of hops to 12 varieties and 25 hop plants.  Now that was over kill.

I now raise 8 varieties and 16 hop plants which yield about 300+ ounces of hops per year.  But I harvest only about 1/3 of those hops.  I raise the hops I need to make the kind of beer I like to drink. I use a lot of Cascade and Centennial hops which are easy to harvest, because they have many large cones that grow in large clumps. Picture of my Chinook Hops below.




I will not go into how to grow your own hops here,  you can get information from:
Growing Your Own Hops from More Beer

And to find other home brewers in the Boise area that grow their own hops, check out:
Idaho Hop Growers on Facebook

P.S.  I have non-brewer friends that raise ornamental hops for shade.  We use Sunbeam Hops on our back deck for shade.  And they really are beautiful. See photo below:




Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Edge Expands Distribution

Monday, August 24, 2015

Berts Growler Garage in Ontario, Oregon

Although, not located in Idaho, Ontario is part of the Treasure Valley and also includes the Beer Valley Brewing Company owned and operated by Pete Ricks.

My wife and I had the opportunity to visit Berts on Friday, August, 21st.  We were very impressed with the 50's style decor.  With the checkerboard tiled floor and the old fashioned diner style stools and chairs, it has the charm of a time gone bye.  The Garage has 3 vintage vehicles inside and there is plenty of seating for large groups.


We got to meet the owner and operator, Michelle Bertalotto.  Michelle is knowledgeable about the local craft beer scene and seems to have a knack of finding those rare highly sought after beers.  Did I mention that they have food!  Good food, but I am here to talk about the beer.  Because Berts in in Oregon, they can offer beer that is not available in Idaho.

The picture below shows the beer that we took home Friday Night (We actually took home 6 bottles of Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA  plus 2 growlers of Barley Browns Beer in addition to those shown above).  Notice the variety of Dogfish Head Beer and the Pelican Mother of All Storms. Make sure to click on the photo see see the large version.



Michelle also had a case of the nostalgic Tim Batt's Snake River Brewery's Amber Lager on display.
Twelve bottles still full of beer in the case.



We highly recommend this venue.  Well worth the short trip to Ontario.


P.S. The reason we were at Berts was for a meeting with the Ontario based Malheur Mashers Homebrew Club.  If you live in the Ontario Area and you homebrew, join this club.  They had a great education presentation from Jack.  He raised 2-row barley malt to make his beer, so we learned how to raised the barley, harvest the barley and malt the barley.  Kudos to Jack for the in depth presentation.  Malheur Mashers Facebook Page.



You can find Berts on the internet: