Weather Forecast River Levels FB Twitter Instagram Pinterest

(208) 634-4303 | RIVERBEAT BLOG

SIX OR TWELVE DAY RIVER ADVENTURES

MIDDLE FORK AND MAIN SALMON RIVERS, IDAHO

Beer Tasting Trip

Our First Ever Beer Tasting Trip

The relationship between Rivers and Beer:

Rafters and kayakers love beer. (Well, everybody loves beer, but with river people, it’s special.) Without beer, can kayaking even exist? I’m doubtful. Typically, drinking is associated with debauchery and recklessness, but rafters and brewers share a deep-rooted connection beyond the veneer of immoderation.

That connection is water. Out on the water, we spend hundreds of hours observing and debating the physical aspects of a river, determining the line, and discussing safety. Brewers, too, must go deep into water’s properties, choosing the purest source and a mineral content that will produce the best beer.

We at Canyons have drifted into McCall from Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California, Colorado, Australia, Canada, Utah, and elsewhere. Every year, we return to those places for winter hibernation or venture to new locations abroad. Along the way we’ve tasted the waters of many rivers – boiling it for coffee, swimming rapids, drinking bootie beers – and find amazement as a river’s character changes based on geography, geology, flora, and fauna. Similarly, the water itself changes.

How Uinta Brewing stewards the environment:

Our friends at Uinta Brewing Company know the importance of rivers, clean water, and environmental stewardship. Beer production is incredibly water-intensive – six gallons of water is used in the production of one gallon of beer – but Uinta minimizes its impact by powering its brewery with 85% wind and 15% solar.  To provide the finest beers, they rely on the cleanliness of the rivers just as rafters do. We need each other. In this spirit, Canyons and Uinta just conducted our first Hops & High Water beer tasting trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Combining our passions for beer and rivers seems natural. The preservation of pristine rivers is something rafters, brewers, and all river people can share a beer about.

 

About Greg McFadden

Similar Posts by The Author:

Sharing is caring