Welcome back to Sip Northwest’s Beer Hall of Fame: a twice-monthly induction into a list of essential Northwest beers that have made their mark on the field and region.
If you don’t expect it, you’ll likely be surprised by the punch packed by Sockeye Brewing’s Dagger Falls India pale ale. In point of fact, it’s more of a one-two combo. It’s got a wallop up front with the big malty body, followed by a super-sharp hop bite backbone.
“It’s the hugest, hoppiest IPA you could get, especially around here in the Boise area,” says Mark Breske, marketing director for Sockeye. “It was renowned even when IPAs weren’t all the rage. The beer has a huge hop bitterness — it’s a scrape your tongue IPA.”
The brewers at Sockeye — Josh King, Kevin Bolen and Kim Spanbauer — have a combined 90 years of experience between them and they play favorites with Idaho pale malt from Idaho Falls and the Idaho #7 hop. “Those two ingredients show up a lot in our beers,” Breske says. “Idaho is the No. 2 barley producer and No. 3 hop producer in the United States, so we try to use as many of these local ingredients as we can.”
Launching in 1996 and founded on the motto of “drink like a fish,” Sockeye has has grown, building a brewpub in 2002, a second production location in 2012 and, more recently, a restaurant in 2014.
The Dagger Falls IPA makes up 68 percent of Sockeye’s sales, Breske says, and the stuff is distributed in seven states: Idaho, Eastern Oregon, Washington, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Alaska.
“It’s our flagship,” he says. “Ultimately we’ve got a lot of knowledge out here and that’s something we definitely pride ourselves on. The perfection we seek through the brewing process is very important for us and our brand.”
And the big ‘ol Boise beer sure does hit the spot. Cheers to Sockeye and the Dagger Falls IPA!
