Bear Island Brewing Company may have started operations from Beth Bechtel (Westover) and husband Steve’s garage back in 2014, but the idea for the business started fermenting years before that.
A Navy explosive ordnance disposal technician, Bechtel was determined to start a business when she got out of the service. With deployments worldwide and an expanding palate for beer, particularly European styles, crafting her own beer seemed the perfect way forward.
“I started learning how to brew and learning everything about it, especially on deployment,” she said. “Read every book I could get my hands on. And then as soon as I got done with the deployments, I would brew every chance I got to create recipes and start formulating a business plan.”
In 2018, the business expanded from the garage to an old Boise fire station (and moved there fully in 2020) at the most appropriate address for a veteran-owned business: 1620 North Liberty Street.
“It couldn't have been better because, we're veterans and also a patriotic family,” Bechtel said. “My parents are owners as well. We had probably four or five places fall through that we were trying to rent or buy before (the firehouse) came to our attention. So it was just very divine, I think, that we got it.”
Spudsy Suds
Bear Island employs a distinctly Idaho ingredient in two of its brews.
“We're the original brewery to have official Idaho® Potato beers for two reasons,” Bechtel said. “One, it's not that easy to brew with potatoes when you're actually using it not as a gimmmick, but for fermentables and to enhance the beer. And then two, because the Idaho® Potato Commission is an awesome entity that protects our farmers. And so you have to be a licensee with them and you have to be using authentic Idaho® potatoes.”
According to Bechtel, spuds enhance the beer’s body and the head retention.
“We're the most known for our Idaho Potato® brews,” she said. “One is called Idaho® Potato Ale. That is the original. It is a traditional balanced IPA. And then the other one is Idaho® Potato Lager. And that's a nice Euro-style pilsner. The Idaho® Potato Ale IPA – I first invented that on my final deployment, in the Middle East. And yeah, after a few batches, I ran out of barley brewing in my room. So, what's an Idaho girl supposed to do? Use potatoes because potatoes are fermentable and they make the sugars you need to be able to make alcohol. You know, think potato vodka. It's not that unusual. I figured out – kind of by accident, by necessity really – on deployment, what potatoes actually do for beer. And then I came back and I spent two years developing the recipe with the addition of barley to perfect it to be basically our flagship
Tall Tales Help Name the Home of Ales
Where did Bear Island Brewing’s name come from?
Bechtel said her family was building a cabin in Donnelly, Idaho. At the time, the West Mountain area was undeveloped.
“So I had a very real fear of running into a bear,”Bechtel said. “And my dad said, ‘No, you see the island in the middle of the lake out there? Yeah, when it freezes over in the winter, all of the bears go out to that island and they hibernate. And then in the spring, when it thaws out, they're stuck out there. So that's Bear Island.’ And so basically, I named my brewery after a tall tale my dad told me. It's a neat memory.”
The taproom’s glasses even have the slogan “Bear Me” on them instead of “Beer Me,” so the family lore has been put to good use.
Supporting Veterans
As a veteran-owned organization, partnering with a veteran-focused nonprofit was a natural choice. Bear Island started teaming with the Aaron Butler Memorial Foundation and its annual Purple Heart Run in 2019.
“They have that kind of passion to just put everything into the charity to memorialize veterans,” Bechtel said. “And not only that, they've taken for Staff Sergeant Aaron Butler a new initiative in the last few years to also help youth programs for things like wrestling, because Aaron Butler was a wrestler, and other sports programs like that and leadership courses to get youth to learn how to lead in their communities. And so they're doing more than just memorializing our veterans who gave their lives, which is awesome in itself.”
Bechtel and Bear Island donate kegs of Mission Purple to the event. Bear Island naturally dyes its Prime In Pale Ale with butterfly pea flower to match the Purple Heart event.
“It is my aim now that I have a distributor and a little more help, and as Aaron Butler Memorial Foundation has grown, to be able to make a larger batch of that beer and do events with people around Idaho to raise funds for this awesome nonprofit so they can do even more honorable things for the community.”
Bear Island also offers veteran-centered events like happy hour daily for veterans and first responders, free beer on Veterans Day, a showing of the Army vs. Navy game, and support for Mission43 (which helps veterans transition to civilian life).
A Beer Pilgrimage
With Bechtel’s love of European-style beers, she said a beer pilgrimage just makes sense.
She and head brewer Hailey "Alex" Alexander will lead a tour for enthusiastic ale quaffers to Belgium in June 2027. To keep the tour intimate, they’re limiting available spots. Signups are available on their social media and website.
“We specialize (and have been winning awards for) Euro-styles, but both of us value Belgian styles as our very, very favorite,” Bechtel said.
One of their specialties is a Belgian dark strong ale named ‘Bear Knuckle Boxer’ as an ode to Bechtel’s pre-Navy boxing career.
If you’re a fan of ales, pilsners, potatoes, and local, veteran-owned, women-run businesses, you can visit the Bear Island Brewing taproom or bearislandbrewing.com to find your brew.