For the University of Idaho’s Dads’ Weekend 2013, going to one of the local breweries or wineries around Moscow and Pullman is an event dads’ are sure to love. Some notable businesses have been creating local delicacies with great taste. Here are some local hot spots to take your dad this weekend.
Moscow Brewing Company
Lucas Rate and Kimberly Shaw run the Moscow Brewing Company. Rate said he began home brewing 17 years ago while he was living in Oregon and it had always been his dream to start a brewery and Moscow seemed like the perfect place.
“The location has a good local scene,” Rate said. “Quality, local products are wanted here.”
Behind Rosauers Supermarket on North Almon Street, the brewery is found in a towering garage in a building complex used for industrial work or storage.
“Originally, the plan was to be more like a manufacturing brewery and a tap room secondarily,” Rate said. “But right now, we are just meeting the demand of the tap room in the house.”
Inside the Moscow Brewing Company, dark wooden benches lay against the back wall and the lights are dim around the bar. On the other side of the lounge, bar rails are mounted with stools sitting below. Tucked away in the back, Rate’s brewing process is in action. Kegs and stainless steel tables make it apparent that the beer is being made right in front of the clientele.
Rate said they want to grow the brewery by getting kegs around town. There’s been a lot of community support for the small scale business.
“Couldn’t ask for a better clientele,” Rate said.
Rate said he often sees new faces and there is always a good conversation taking place at the bar.
“Usually there are three beers on tap,” Rate said. “It will change as we grow.”
Rate said he doesn’t want to become a brewery with 20 different microbrews on tap but he wants a solid, core line up of beers.
“I’m not into brewing every single style of beer in the world,” Rate said.
The beer which is made and sold on tap at his establishment are North Western styles like the India Pale Ale, other pale ales, ambers and stouts. Rate also sticks with North Western hops and grains.
“Most of the grains are local,” Rate said.
He buys barley from farmers in Idaho, but they are malted in Pocatello and in Washington. Rate said his goal is to keep inline with the Northwestern style.
Another beer Rate hopes to start producing is the Hefeweizen. Since the Palouse area farms so much wheat, a wheat beer would be a perfect way to continue to use local products, Rate said.
There will be a keg at the Moscow Alehouse for Dads’ Weekend, he said.
“It’s going to be a 1L Pale Ale,” Rate said. “Not quite a IPA but a little bit hoppier pale ale featuring two unique local hops.”
Moscow Alehouse
Though not a brewery, the Moscow Alehouse is worth a visit during Dads’ Weekend.
Last Thursday, two brews from the Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company were featured on the menu. A huckleberry flavored beer and a vanilla stout. Along with Rate’s 1L Pale Ale from the Moscow Brewing Company — which will be tapped this weekend — there are plenty of choices and a range which will satisfy everyone.
Windy Johnson — the current owner of the Moscow Alehouse — said that 6 p.m. on Friday they will be hosting their annual beer tasting event. Six craft beers will be ready for sampling.
Also, for the first time, the Moscow Alehouse will be pairing up with Moscow Meats which will be serving samples of their food products as well, Johnson said.
Paradise Creek Brewery
If Moscow is too crowded during Dads’ Weekend, Paradise Creek Brewery in Pullman, Wash., is a good alternative with a variety of beers on tap.
The Paradise Creek Brewery building was once Pullman’s old Post Office.
Besides a dozen or more beers on tap, liquors are also stacked behind the counter for mixes and cocktails. Their ales and lagers are crafted in the basement, too.
Locally used products and greasy classics such as burgers, fries and paninis are sold at the brewery.
Camas Prairie Winery
For those families who would rather have a grape escape, the Camas Prairie Winery off of Main Street is a great place to sample a variety of wines.
Jeremy Ritter and his wife Heidi Ritter run a beautiful wine tasting bar and lounge in the front section of the building and produce all their wines in the back.
“This is a production house,” Ritter said. “Everything on the menu is produced here in the back.”
A wine sampling bar stretches along the right side of the interior. There is a lounge up stairs, which Ritter said has enough room to host parties. From the end of the tasting bar, past the cashier’s desk, a hallway leads to the back of the winery.
Toward the front, ten wooden barrels of wine are visible along with a dozen plastic barrels filled with fermenting red wine. Past the fermentation room, a grape press sits in the back along with large stainless steel containers where the red wine will sit for three years.
Meads and white wines will be bottled much quicker Ritter said. Usually, meads are ready to bottle within six weeks.
For Dads’ Weekend, also consider taking advantage of the winery’s sampling bar. Six samples are sold for $2 and three samples for $1.
Ritter said that they typically get their hands on local honey and fruits such as plums and huckleberries for their sweeter wines.
“We’ve played around with grapes in the region,” Ritter said. “But we’ve been working with a place in Washington for the past 20 years — 85 percent of our grapes are Washington grown.”
The winery has 24 different varieties inside for tasting and purchasing from sparkling wines and champagne to dry wines and many meads too, Ritter said. The Camas Prairie Winery offers a large variety of microbrews as well.
Currently, the Camas Prairie Winery is applying for a business grant and is asking clientele to vote for them on their Facebook page.