Barbarian Brewing

Cool little brewery tastingroom on the main drag north of Boise. Small service bar on far right across from the entrance with additional room to the left with a few tables, and farther left a small outdoor patio with a 1/2 dozen table. 20 well varied beers on tap and individual bottles and can for sale to go. The two beers I had there were solid. Very personable bartender. Very enjoyable experience, and I look forward to drinking the beer I got to go.

Fun local place producing gobs of new beers weekly, several of them barrel-aged, wild ales and sours. Lots of modern hazy options as well as dessert/pastry/golden stouts as well. Service is always EXCELLENT here, though the seating is limited. No food options on the premises either, which is a bummer because you can easily spend an hour or two here sampling brews and not get tired of it.

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barbarian has emerged as one of my favorite breweries in the boise area so far, they are doing some really cool beers across a wide expanse of style, but have become known locally here for their sours, many of which incorporate weird ingredients and many of which are stronger than is common. i have liked almost all the beers ive had from them, but especially a barbera grape sour, a brut type with geweurztraminer grapes, their little wolf ipa, and an earl grey tea sour, but all of them are so creative and so unique that they kind of all had my attention. they have two great spots, downtown is a a taproom, no brewing, with a ton of taps and a bustling atmosphere in a cool modern space, while the brewery is out on chinden with a small bar area in front with just a few seats but a cozy and expansive sitting area adjacent thats kind of set up like a living room, lots of cozy couches, coffee tables, very chilled out place to sip on a few beers. the folks at both have all been super nice so far, and its obvious that they have a good thing going, fun spaces, super inventive beers, and a certain level of quality that has been missing from a lot of the other local breweries in my experience so far. i am loving what these guys are doing, and cant recommend their spots highly enough! definitely among the most creative beers in town!

edit: these guys just recently moved to a brand new space down the road a bit closer to downtown, looks like way more production space and quite a bit bigger taproom too, all new feeling and airy inside, massive back parking lot space too, largely covered, some tables, some barrels to sit around, a little bit thrown together but its causal and good, a nice upgrade for these guys overall, the bar area is dope, and i can see this being a great space for them to grow. a new brewery has also moved into their previous address.

 

 

Barbarian have been going a bit over a year now...and right out of the gate they were the most ambitious brewery in the entire state in terms of pushing flavors. They are putting out unique and barrel aged beers and for the most part they are excellent, in a town overrun with breweries opening with a pale/ipa/porter/brown and often mediocre at that, barbarian are a refreshing and most welcome addition.

Very cozy, little place, with plans for expansion. Nice selection of taps, pretty well rounded for a new place. Good quality as well. I sense good things from these guys. Update: Now they ahve a downtown taproom as well