POCATELLO — Jim Dandy Brewing is celebrating eight years in the community and a recent gold-medal win for its Ambush Roaring Ale with a weekend of new beers, merchandise and live music.

The homegrown brewery recently took home gold at the North American Brewers Association Beer Awards in the blonde ale category for its Ambush Roaring Ale. The beer was developed in partnership with Idaho State University's athletics department.

Co-owner Davis Gove said the brewery worked with ISU to craft an officially licensed beer for Bengals fans, brewed with Idaho malt and hops. Gove described the brew as a light, easy-drinking beer that pairs well with watching a sports game. The name is a nod to the Bengal mascot and a tiger "ambush," a term for a group of tigers.

The gold medal adds to a growing list of accolades for the brewery, whose Boxcar hazy IPA has picked up national recognition in recent years, including a silver at the U.S. Open Beer Championship and back-to-back silvers at the North American Brewers Association awards.

Jim Dandy beers are now poured at a wide variety of restaurants, pubs and bars around Pocatello, including Goodies, Sand Trap, Sandpiper, McKenzie River, Brick 243, Union Tap Room, Barricade and Palate Street Bistro, among others.

The award comes as the brewery prepares to celebrate eight years in business. This year's celebration runs from 3 to 10 p.m. Friday, with live music from The Opskamatrists starting at 6 p.m. and food specials from Palate Street Bistro. The popular local brewery originally opened its doors on Independence Day in 2018, but this year the Goves rescheduled to avoid competing with Fourth of July festivities.

Looking back on eight years, the Goves said they never approached the business with a backup plan or had any doubts.

"We just really believed in ourselves," Hailee Gove said. "We're going to make this happen. We're going to make good beer, be very community oriented — because that was one of our major goals — to really involve ourselves with the community and support the community, so that the community wants to support us as well. To create a space where everyone feels welcome, that is family-friendly, and also be very beer-oriented."

Davis Gove described the anniversary as a juxtaposition: The years have flown by, yet he has been so immersed in the business that it feels inseparable from who he is today.

The pair said some of their proudest moments were the recent ISU partnership, growing distribution across town and word of mouth that has carried the Jim Dandy name well beyond Idaho. The couple recounted spotting a stranger wearing Jim Dandy gear at a bar in Portland, Maine, and hearing from a fan in Spain who saw a Jim Dandy hat on a stadium video screen and tracked the brewery down to buy one.

For this year's anniversary, Jim Dandy, located at 305 E. Lander St. in Pocatello, rolled out stylish new embroidered hats, available in several colors, followed by the return of Bamba Guava, the brewery's first-ever fruited beer.

On Friday, the brewery will release three new beers. The Eight Year Beer, an annual tradition tied to the brewery's age, is a West Coast-style hazy IPA that is hoppy but not overly bitter, with a dry finish. Joining it are the Workhorse, an American brown ale with caramel and toasted malt notes, and the Brown Derby, a hazelnut brown ale named in tribute to the East Idaho Brewing Company, a local brewery that operated from 1935 to 1954.

The anniversary merchandise also includes a stainless-steel pint cup featuring artwork by local artist Mark Daniels of Creative Chameleon, continuing a tradition of commissioning a different local artist each year.

The Goves said they're grateful to the community, their popular managers and staff from past and present, whom they described as part of the family, for helping build the brewery into what it is today. The pair expressed excitement about seeing everyone at the anniversary party.

"We're just so thankful for everyone that's come out for the last eight years and supported us," Davis Gove said. "We're excited to do it for another 80."