BOISE, IDAHO —

For most residents of Central Oregon, Boise, Idaho, isn’t exactly a new discovery.

Located about 320 miles east of Bend, Idaho’s largest city has grown in popularity as a quick getaway for Central Oregonians looking for new outdoor adventures.

As of late, it’s also become a good place to indulge in a drink.

As Boise’s culinary scene has taken off in recent years, so has its beer and spirits culture. The city now boasts 15 breweries, including the state’s largest craft brewer, Payette Brewing, which in May announced its plans for a $4.5 million production facility and tasting room in downtown Boise.

Add in a dynamic mix of colorful dives, well-stocked taphouses and trendy bars created to cater to the city’s growing number of young professionals, and a trip to Boise makes for a perfect drinks vacation.

One of the best places to start this trip is downtown Boise’s Bittercreek Alehouse. Only a handful of Treasure Valley’s breweries have up-and-running brewpubs, making taphouses like Bittercreek, which typically has 40 beers on tap, indispensable. It has the selection of Eugene’s Bier Stein but with a better vibe — complete with a classic long bar — that’s more conducive to drinking good beer.

The draft list is Idaho heavy, but that’s why you’re at Bittercreek, to discover Boise and Idaho beers. Bittercreek has an impressive list of hard-to-find beers on tap — and in bottles — including small-batch gems like Epic Brewing Company’s Big Bad Baptist, a barrel-aged coffee stout, and Boulevard Brewing Company’s Rye-on-Rye, a barrel-aged rye beer. This place gets even more bonus points for employing bartenders who more than welcome the geekiest of beer geek conversations.

Another downtown Boise spot that offers multiple craft beer handles is the Taphouse Pub & Eatery. The Taphouse is more of a sports bar with great craft beer on tap, most of which you can even get by the pitcher. Yes, you can get a pitcher of Stone Brewing’s Double Bastard strong ale, which checks in at 11 percent alcohol, but it’ll cost you and your buddies $28.

One of my favorite recent additions to Boise’s downtown is the German pub Prost! Boise, from Oregon restaurateur Dan Hart. Hart, who has two similar ventures in Portland, creates gathering spaces with old-world charm, and Prost! Boise is no different. Exposed brick behind the bar, hardwood floors and high-reaching wooden chairs on the walls make you want to hunker down and stay for the night. Spending an afternoon drinking German beer, made by breweries that predate the Louisiana Purchase, is the perfect antidote for anyone exasperated by the forever ongoing hop wars of the Pacific Northwest. Oh, and you can drink your beer out of a hefty glass boot, which is a plus.

Of course, Boise does have breweries with traditional tasting rooms and brewpubs. Payette Brewing Company on Boise’s west side — it’s about a 10-minute bike ride from downtown — offers a glimpse inside the state’s largest and arguably most influential brewing operation. The brewery, which currently has a 15-barrel brewing system, is adding a 60-barrel system in its downtown production site as it ramps up its production.

Also worth checking out is one of Boise’s newest craft breweries, PostModern Brewers; it’s the in-house brewery for Grind Modern Burger. PostModern has been open for less than a year, but already the brewery is pouring multiple solid beers, including its imperial IPA and milk chocolate stout. PostModern has also jumped into the growing “hard soda” business as it makes its own alcoholic root beer and ginger ale. The brewery pairs nicely with gourmet burgers from Grind.

Staying on the brewhouse theme, if you’re done boycotting Anheuser-Busch, go to 10 Barrel Brewing’s massive Boise pub. Head brewer Shawn Kelso, he of Barley Brown’s fame, is one of the best in the business. The Boise pub also provides one of the top restaurant experiences in town.

If you’re in town to try some great Boise beer, 10 Barrel’s P2P Stout and Idaho Fresh Hop — both made in Boise and available in limited quantities, if at all, outside the Boise pub — are both top-shelf brews. (P2P won a bronze medal at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver.)

The beauty of Boise’s emerging drinks scene is its diverse bar options. If you’re starting the day a little late and looking for brunch and a pick-me-up, pop into Saint Lawrence Gridiron. Why haven’t I been pairing shrimp and grits with Bloody Marys — garnished with steak bites and bacon — my whole life?

For cocktails later in the day, check out the simply named Whiskey Bar. Heads up, as this place can become a singles pickup joint later in the night, but the drinks — and especially the whiskey selection — are too good to pass up.

Drinking a whiskey sour made with egg whites from Whiskey Bar will forever change your view on a cocktail that somehow got bastardized with premade sour mix out of a soda gun.

For late-night activities, Boise has a pair of classic bar options. Tom Grainey’s, located in a 105-year-old building that originally housed the Idaho Statesman, has a little something for everyone. The upstairs Sporting Pub regularly hosts live music, while the basement and sub-basement bars below rock out with whatever the young pups are listening to these days. Grainey’s crowd morphs throughout the night and gets younger and rowdier by the hour.

My favorite bar in town, though, is Pengilly’s Saloon, which is highlighted by a beautiful 112-year-old Brunswick bar, a historic turn-of-the-century cash register and one gloriously large stuffed buffalo head.

Serving drinks since 1976, Pengilly’s looks like it could have been around since 1876. A stage in the back of the bar usually has live music or trivia. There’s nothing fancy or pretentious about Pengilly’s, which seems to capture Boise’s Old West spirit as well as any place in town. If you want to settle in for a drink or two, chat with friendly bar folk and enjoy a space that makes you feel as if legends like “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Jack London or Ernest Hemingway could walk in the door, there might not be a better place in the West.