Gem State Brewing

new brewery opened in downtown eagle, would have thought i would have been there opening weekend, or at least in the first few weeks, but no, somehow it has taken me several months to make it in, i must be slipping! great space, i know this was a long time coming for them, so cool its finally here. new build, great location, this area is booming. nice patio facing the street, airy inside, with the brew house all down the one side, the bar straight back in the middle, and all kinds of seating, kids and dogs running around, even a band on the adjacent patio when we were there, people bringing in food from all over, definitely a fun hang, tidy and clean and new feeling, very thoughtfully done. they had what at first seemed like a pretty extensive beer list, but a closer look shows that a handful of their base beers are getting a lot of different treatments, one cream ale for example has three different iterations, still cool to see the diversity. i didnt fall in love with anything i drank, but a couple of them hit. i liked the oatmeal stout and the american stout both quite well, the rye ipa is solid, and they seem to still be getting their feet wet with others, the cream ales were over flavored and quite sweet, the hazy wasnt hazy, that sort of thing, but i expect continual improvement for awhile here as they get up and running. there was some weird fermentation character in a number of the beers, and the place itself smelled a bit like slightly off yeast activity, so something to keep an eye on. it was just walk up bar service but the people were nice enough, and it was absolutely popping. excited to see where this place goes, somewhat of a captive audience here they should do well, nice to have another option on this side of town, hope they grow up in quality a little bit here soon, but they seem off to a fine start!

Went there on a Friday afternoon and they didnt open until 3.So I went out to visit some other breweries, and when I got back in the evening, it was packed. Not a big space to begin with, prett musch every seat was taken. Lots of families and cranky children and the noise level was too much that I had one and left. I'll need to visit again ay a different time so I can review it a little bit better, First impression: not good. I couldn't wait to get out of there.
UPDATE: Revisited at opening on a Saturday. Much different vibe without the crowds. It did fill up soon after we got there