WHITEFISH – Beer and love have always gone together for Darin Fisher. He first started brewing beer when he “chased” his future wife, Carla Fisher, down to Indiana.
“I was unemployed and I needed a hobby,” he said.
Today, the couple is working on a brewery in Columbia Falls, which it hopes will open sometime next year.
The name, Backslope Brewing, “is meant to evoke the majestic outdoors without being specific,” Carla said. She wants everyone to imagine their own favorite spot in nature when they hear the name. Although the couple came up with the name together, Carla is in charge of the marketing and management, whereas Darin will focus on the beer.
Making a good beer “is all about the process,” according to Darin. To make beer, you malt barley, grind the grains, mix them with water, and let the porridge rest. After an hour or so, you siphon out the wort (beer lingo for liquid), boil it, add hops and put the mixture into a fermenter. Slight changes in temperature or timing at any point throughout the process alter the taste of the beer, and it’s easy to get it wrong.
“It took me two years to get decent, 10 to get good,” Darin said.
He tastes his beer at every stage throughout the brewing process.
“You have to try it when it’s warm and un-carbonated. It’s completely different once it’s cold and the effervescence gives it a pleasing quality ”
He believes that inconsistency and a lack of quality control are what ultimately doomed Desert Mountain Brewing & Draughthaus, which was the last brewery to operate in Columbia Falls, but “they showed that there’s a market for a brewery here,” he said.
Although he plans on having a couple of staple beers always on tap, Darin likes his brewing to be seasonal.
“Last summer, I made a wheat beer with lemon balm, but that wouldn’t sell much in December,” he said. When he adds herbs to his beer, they usually come directly from Carla’s garden, which is one way in which he keeps the process hyper-local and seasonal.
In order to provide consistently excellent beers, Darin takes extensive notes on every batch.
“I’ve been working on recipes for years,” he said, but even though he counts attention to detail as one of his greatest strengths, he knows that scaling up from 10-gallon batches to 200-gallon batches will be a big challenge, and that is one of the reasons the couple is taking its time to open the new brewery.
Although they purchased their brewing equipment from the Desert Mountain proprietors, they have not found a location yet, but they are committed to opening in Columbia Falls.
“When we were looking around in the valley for a place to live, Columbia Falls was the place we liked. We felt like it had a lot of potential,” Carla said. “There’s a lot of positive energy in the town,” but she also noted that there are not many places for people to congregate, so, “we want Backslope Brewing to be a welcoming place where people feel comfortable bringing their kids.”
Brewing is a family affair at the Fishers – even their 2-year-old daughter often sits in a pile of beer bottles as Darin brews – and this is evident in their dreams for the company.
“We want to offer a great experience for our customers and put out a great product,” Darin said. “We want to have a positive impact on the community, and we’re really excited to open next year.”