Local Beer Locale

My obsession for local beer has many reasons. The big one is to bring the giant down. The reason the giant sucks so much is that all they produce is one product. I'm talking about the big three Budwieser, Coors, and Miller among others. They're all almost exactly the same beer. A fan of these may be able to tell you the difference but the point is that they are all the same kind of beer: pilsner. It's light, refreshing, and what the people wanted. Times are changing (at least I hope so) and it's not so hard to find beer that comes in different varieties. The giant breweries do have a very consistent product; it's just all the same. This is due to their highly mechanized process. It's where small breweries have more flexibility, but because their systems aren't as mechanized they have to keep an eye out for quality control ( I think this amounts to not falling asleep at the wheel).

At any rate, here in Boise we have four breweries that are attached to restaurants. Tablerock is located in downtown Boise at 705 Fulton St., The Ram is also right downtown at 709 E Park Blvd, Highlands Hollow is just north of Hyde park at 2455 Harrison Hollow Lane, and finally the Sockeye is by the mall at 3019 N Cole. Highlands Hollow and the Sockeye are two especially cool breweries and it seems that they are kind of hard to find unless you know where to go. I know that the Sockeye has live music regularly and they always have one or two brewer's whim beers, one of which is usually Belgian or another high gravity beer. The Ram is a corporation but they still produce some tasty beers.

Also in Ontario, OR there is Beer Valley, which is not attached to a restaurant. Beer Valley distributes all of their beer, but you can find most of it at the Boise Coop . You can also get it on tap at the Bittercreek Ale House, where you can also get beer from Sockeye, Highlands Hollow, and sometimes Tablerock. You can also find Highlands Hollow at Papa Joe's on Capital and Sockeye at Solid in Bodo. So check these out if you haven't done so already and let me know if there are any breweries that are your favorites and I'll try to visit them.