Vandals have a reputation for loving their beer.
But despite the stereotypical Keystone “inebriated” football fan, there are the aficionados toiling away in their closets, kitchens, and basements, over their own “home brews.”
Since ancient Egypt, fermented beverages have been a staple across the world, but the process has remained fundamentally the same. While it is complex science, involving intricate metabolic processes, anybody with a love of the finished product can make their own brews.
Jeff Greene had found a quick way to a beer-loving Vandal’s heart: He named his lightest, most drinkable ale Idaho Gold. The problem was the name was already taken by the infamous that-one-time freshman-year, bottom-shelf tequila.
Greene solved the problem and kept the name, thanks to a UI chemistry graduate student. By simply using the atomic symbol for gold, Au, Greene could keep his Idaho Au.
Passion for the process and product is the key to great beer, Greene said, because making beer is a tough way to make a buck.
“If you are getting into brewing to make money, you are in the wrong business,” Greene said.
For beer makers large and small, the love of beer and the endless possibilities it presents — different ingredients, processes, etc. — keeps them brewing.
Behind the bar at his tasting room in Pullman, Greene has a map scatter-plotted with foreign currency visitors have left. Beer, Greene said, is a universal language.
