Kings and Queens of Craft

There’s a secret ingredient hardly anyone is talking about in the Teton craft brewing industry.

Until now.

“Thai restaurants,” said Chris Macchietto, co-owner at Guidepost Brewing Company in downtown Victor. “I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about breweries starting in Thai restaurants around here.”

Chris is only half joking. When he and business partner Steve “Smitty” Smit launched Guidepost in 2022, they brewed their first batch on a one-barrel system in the basement of Chiang Mai Thai Kitchen.

“We spare no expense on the ingredients or the variety,” Chris said, just in case you thought basement beer meant amateur swill. “You’ll get a craft beer that is unique, something you just can’t find at the liquor store. We have regulars who come in and fall in love and keep coming back.”

Guidepost is still on tap at Chiang Mai, arguably one of the best Thai restaurants in Idaho, but the brewery quickly outgrew its basement birthplace. There just wasn’t enough room to experiment with a barrel-aged sour like the Riparian, one of Chris’ favorites, or the Japanese, Mexican and Vienna lagers they rotate throughout the year.

Today, the two reformed career men – Chris an electrical engineer by trade, Smitty a large-animal vet – are brewing just a few blocks away on a much larger system, but with the same rebel spirit they perfected in the basement.

“You have a lot of people in Idaho who say, ‘I only drink Coors Light,’” Chris said. “I tell them, ‘Give us a chance,’ and we’ll give them a Kölsch or Mexican lager and they lose their mind. We love to convert someone from Coors Light to one of ours.”

To the Mothership

Across Teton Pass on the “west coast of Wyoming,” a.k.a. Jackson Hole, Melvin Brewing was born in 2010 at the original Thai Me Up restaurant. 

Melvin has since moved to a massive compound dubbed “the Mothership” on the banks of the Palisades Reservoir in Alpine, about an hour south of Jackson.

“If you’re in Alpine, you can’t miss us,” the gals and guys at Melvin say. If you’re a craft beer aficionado, you can’t miss their signature artwork on flavorful IPAs, pilsners and blondes across the region. But on tap, at the Mothership, is the only place to find most of Melvin’s award-winning limited releases, like the Barrel-Aged Ruckus, winner at the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival in recent years.

The brewpub OGs

Melvin and Guidepost have kitchens, where pub grub is served with Teton flair, like homemade “German egg rolls” at Guidepost stuffed with sauerkraut, cheese and homemade bratwurst. 

Both breweries can thank the Otto brothers for keeping our bellies full. The founders of Grand Teton Brewing started brewing beer in 1988, when Wyoming state law prohibited food sales at breweries. Charlie Otto spent the next three years petitioning lawmakers to give food a chance, and by 1992 he and brother Ernie opened the state’s first brewpub in Wilson.

These days Grand Teton Brewing is based in Victor, where the crew is pouring creative brews, like the National Parks series named for Western parks, served up with a burger and fries from Otto’s kitchen.

But, because Grand Teton moved across state lines, the title of Wyoming’s oldest brewpub goes to Snake River Brewing in downtown Jackson. Founded in 1994, Snake River has been around long enough for Luke Bauer to work there not once, not twice, but three separate times.

“We are Jackson’s living room, where everyone feels like family,” Luke said. “And the beer is really good. I don’t sell beer I don’t like.”

Credit goes to brewmaster Rudy Borrogo, who started as a busser more than two decades ago. His beers are seriously good — the Speargun Coffee Milk Stout is a Great American Beer Fest gold medalist — but no one at Snake River takes things too seriously. Consider Bauer’s favorite brew, Pako’s IPA, named for a rowdy regular.

“Pako was a neighbor’s dog,” Luke said. “He would hop the fence and try to snag your food. He was kind of a naughty dog, but we loved Pako.”

Just in time for summer, Snake River is swapping out its 30-year-old brewing system.

“That thing is finally getting beat up, springing some leaks,” Luke mused. “Turns out even stainless steel doesn’t last forever. The new system will be bigger, a little more automated, so we can control a few things more closely.”

Through it all, the beer keeps flowing. Find your new favorite at the Jackson taproom or select restaurants and liquor stores across the West.

Teton Beer Tour

If you have to pick just one beer this summer, we recommend one of each.

— O-Ring, Guidepost Brewing Company (Victor, ID). Blackberry sour brewed with blackberry puree. 3.8% ABV.

— Melvin IPA, Melvin Brewing (Alpine, WY). West Coast IPA hopped and dry hopped with Centennial, Simcoe and Citra. 7.5% ABV.

— Sweetgrass Pale Ale, Grand Teton Brewing (Victor, ID). Traditional pale ale with balanced citrus and spice. 6% ABV. 

— Puddles, Snake River Brewing (Jackson, WY). Dry, crisp, refreshing wheat ale with essence of raspberries. 4.9% ABV.

— The Walrus, Roadhouse Brewing Co. (Jackson, WY). Hazy IPA brewed with peaches and tangerine. 8.3% ABV.

— Una Más, StillWest Brewery and Grill (Jackson, WY). Mexican lager brewed with flaked maize. 4.8% ABV.