American Craft Beer Week begins Monday and that means seven days of cool and unique beer events all over the Boise area.

The national weeklong celebration of our favorite artisan malt/hop/yeast/water beverage first began in 2006 and just continues to grow, both locally and nationally, as more and more (smart) people embrace the virtues of craft beer and kick the big-brewer-yellow-fizzy-stuff to the curb.

Almost every good beer bar and local brewery has some kind of fun event planned for the week, whether it’s a special beer dinner or drink specials. It's pretty hard to list them all, but there are a few events that you need to know about.

Craft beer enthusiasts in Meridian will finally get a brewery to call their own this fall now that Slanted Rock Brewing Co. is set to open a new production brewery in a shopping center across from the High Desert Harley Davidson store.

Slanted Rock Brewing Co. has leased a 3,500 square foot space in the High Desert Marketplace, 2374 E. Cinema Drive. Co-owner Alesa Lonseth says company has a 15 barrel brewing system on order and hopes to have that installed, all the permits taken care of, and the brewery open by fall.

Attention Boise beer people — If you want a preview of what Bend-based 10 Barrel Brewing will be serving at their new brewpub at 9th and Bannock Streets later this summer, check out your local bottle shop next week.

That’s because 22 ounce bottles 10 Barrel Brewing beers are about to hit local store shelves. Matt at the Boise Co-Op tells me he will have three 10-Barrel double deuces for sale, beginning Saturday: The Apocalypse IPA, S1NIST0R Black Ale, and India Session Ale.

Click here to read descriptions of 10 Barrel’s beers.

If any of you Boise beer nuts find yourselves really loving those 22 ounce bottles of Heretic Brewing Co. beers that started showing up on Boise store shelves late last year, you are not alone.

In fact, it might even be hard to find a bottle of the Evil Twin Red Ale or Evil Cousin Imperial IPA over the next few weeks as the Heretic beers have proven to be a very popular addition to the Boise market.

“I knew the first order would go quick, but we sent out a whole palet in three days,” said Greg Barnes of Idaho Wine Merchants, which is distributing Heretic beers in southwest Idaho. “Our second order, which we thought would last a few weeks, was gone in five days.

If you get a chance, be sure to stop by the Brewforia Beer Market at 3030 East Overland Road in Meridian this weekend and enjoy an exclusive pint of the new and extremely limited brew from NorCal craft beer stalwarts Sierra Nevada — the “Raiders of the Lost Hops” Imperial red ale brewed with lemon wood chips.

The “Raiders” recipe has Boise in it’s creative DNA. That’s because local homebrewer Wesley Owings was selected to be one of 40 applicants from across the U.S. to attend this year’s two beer camps at Sierra Nevada’s brewery in Chico.

If you like beers from San Diego-based Stone Brewing Co., then by all means figure out a way to stop by Bier:Thirty in Bown Crossing Thursday night.

The good folks at Bier:Thirty are doing The Stone Brewing TAP TAKEOVER & cellar tasting — which will feature 10 Stone beers on tap (10!), including Oaked Arrogant Bastard and Stone Smoked Porter with chipotle peppers — from 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday.

Bier:Thirty Bottle & Bistro co-owner Chris Oates said the recent decision to leave the Brewforia Beer Market name behind and adopt the new name for his craft beer store in Bown Crossing was over a difference in long term philosophy — not a falling out with Brewforia owner Rick Boyd.

So the beer store with 400 beers in bottles for sale and 10 taps for drafts and growler refills at 3073 South Bown Way is no longer called Brewforia. It's Bier:Thirty Bottle & Bistro. The owners say they are committed as ever to being the premier destination for craft beer enthusiasts in East Boise. It’s just that the bistro has a new name. They do want to expand their menu a little bit more, and they also - gasp! — offer wine by the glass.

Bier:Thirty Bottle & Bistro. The name is a riff on the concept that there is never a bad time to enjoy a craft beer. It’s always beer thirty.

For those of you beer nuts who want to support local, be sure to enjoy a pint or two of Boise homebrewer Chris Hillman’s Dirty Hippie Hef hefeweizen at Boise’s best beer bars this week.

Hillman’s hefeweizen won the top prize for this year’s Treasure Valley Organic Homebrew Challenge —  and the reward for that victory was having his beer commercially brewed at the Payette Brewing Co.

In yet another sign of the growing craft beer culture in the spud state, Grand Teton Brewing has just created a even more Idaho version of their already totally Idaho Pale Ale.

Grand Teton has brewed limited batches of the Idaho Pale Ale before, but this is their first harvest version. The IPA is a limited release IPA made of all Idaho ingredients — barley and water from eastern Idaho with hops coming from our corner of the state. Only this time, Grand Teton Head Brewer Kevin Bolen wet hopped the IPA with fresh Zeus hops from Canyon County.

Welcome back to the Beer Nut!

It’s been quite a while since I posted to this blog — my real job of being the public safety reporter is incredibly time-consuming — but I’m going to try to be more active with it. Simply put, there is more craft beer news happening in Boise area than a monthly column in Scene can cover.

Regular readers know I just got back from the Great American Beer Festival in Denver and that no Idaho brewers won any medals in the 83 style categories this year. Bummer.

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t drink GABF medal winners in the Treasure Valley.

Read more to find out what they are and where you can find them.