brewery

There are nearly 100 active craft breweries in Idaho — about four times as many as in 2012. But the industry is facing challenges. Changing tastes, discerning drinkers and rising costs have many local breweries on a financial razor’s edge — and tough times are spilling into Idaho’s hop fields, too.

Craft beer has boomed over the last 15 years. But brewing it takes a lot of water: a seven-to-one ratio on average, according to the Brewer’s Association. More efficient breweries typically use less.

Kernza is the new, perennial grain trying to win over Colorado's craft beverage industry.

A brewery in the Mountain West is partnering up with a climate organization on a tree-themed beer – all with the bigger goal of saving trees.

This story is powered by America Amplified, a public radio consortium. Beer is big business in the Mountain West.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered federal excise taxes, also known as sin taxes, that alcoholic beverage makers pay on their finished product. That…