In ‘surprise twist,’ new downtown Boise brewery location won’t open Saturday after all

It’s OK to be a little grumpy, Boise — but you’ll need to wait to get Mad.

Either way, you won’t be sipping award-winning local beer at a new downtown brew hall this weekend as planned.

On Tuesday, Mad Swede Brewing Co., 2772 S. Cole Road, announced the long-awaited arrival of its second location. The soft opening of the new brew hall at 816 W. Bannock St. was slated for Saturday, Jan. 9, according to a press release.

But hours later, the brewery discovered that an employee at its Cole Road tasting room had tested positive for COVID-19. That location is now closed for deep cleaning while staff quarantines and gets tested. It should reopen in two to four days, Mad Swede wrote on its Facebook page.

And the new downtown pub? Its debut has been delayed for a week or two.

It’s all just “another surprise plot twist in the local brewery’s long saga of opening their second location,” Mad Swede explained good-naturedly in a second press release.

“If we hadn’t sent out the press release yesterday, it probably wouldn’t have happened,” marketing manager Danielle Reynolds said.

Either way, the brewery said it is committed to coronavirus precautions.

“In September 2020, Mad Swede Brewing installed the Reme Halo air purification system in their tasting room,” the press release says, “and the state-of-the-art system is lab-tested to kill viruses and bacteria at the source before they can travel even three feet. Combined with Mad Swede’s strictly enforced mask policy, it is highly likely that the system has kept the Cole Road tasting room largely uncontaminated by the virus, and that no customers were exposed to COVID-19 by the employee. They’ve installed the same Reme Halo system in the Downtown Brew Hall as well ... .”

When Mad Swede does open its downtown location, no formal grand opening party is planned. That decision is out of consideration for the ongoing pandemic, it explained in its original press release.

This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.