From Coast Guard to Community: Gather Brewing Comes to Avimor in Eagle, Idaho

We’re Mike and Rachel Voeller, the husband-and-wife team behind Gather Brewing. Our story didn’t begin with a business idea. It began years ago, in 2014, when the Coast Guard moved us to New Jersey. We were far from family, getting ready to have our first baby, and were struggling to build the kind of friendships we desperately needed. It was a season that taught us how deeply people need connection, the vulnerable, honest kind where you’re truly known. Some of our best and most memorable moments from that time were at a biergarten, sitting for hours at a long wooden table, sharing real conversations with the friends we eventually found.

During that time Mike worked as a Culinary Specialist aboard a ship and loved creating meals that wowed the crew. I (Rachel) loved hosting friends and visitors, creating an atmosphere where people felt comfortable enough to open up and stay awhile. Through a mutual friend, Mike discovered home-brewing and was gifted a kit for Christmas. Our garage and home were soon to be overtaken by carboy fermenters, kettles, hoses and kegerators.

We knew we wanted to build a place of our own where the atmosphere was welcoming and connection felt natural. A place where families, friends, and neighbors could gather and truly know each other. In 2018 we made the decision for Mike to leave the Coast Guard, move back to San Antonio, Texas where our families lived, and pursue our dream of opening a brewpub.

Mike home-brewed constantly. We held tasting events in our home with friends and family and eventually found the perfect location for what would become Gather Brewing Company in February of 2020. The building needed a complete renovation, and delays from COVID, plus rising costs and supply issues stretched the timeline, but we finally opened in December of 2021.

Our four years since opening have shaped the heart of Gather. We opened our doors hoping people would feel comfortable, and instead we watched something bigger take shape. Families became regulars. Military members brought visiting parents to “their brewery.” People introduced us to their newborns and celebrated their kids’ birthdays with us every year. Couples told us Gather was their favorite date-night spot. We saw friend groups form at the bar, complete strangers slide into deep conversations, and kids run in excited to order their “pink drink” and fries.

We were invited into so many meaningful moments. We celebrated homecomings and promotions, toasted retirements, cried with families who had gone through loss, and watched people build friendships that extended far beyond our tables. Those years taught us that what we envisioned was possible, and that people still deeply crave connection when given a place where it can naturally happen.

As Gather grew, we started thinking more seriously about what we wanted for our own family. We dreamed of four seasons, mountains, space for our kids to roam, trails to explore, and a deeper sense of community. Earlier this year we started exploring the idea of eventually planting roots outside of Texas, somewhere that aligned with the life we wanted to build.

That is what led us to Idaho — and ultimately to Avimor, Idaho, a community known for its outdoor lifestyle, strong sense of neighborhood, and access to the Boise foothills. We planned a trip in October to see if it felt right, and we fell in love immediately. Everything about it seemed to line up with what we were looking for: mountain views, open space, and a lifestyle centered around connection and the outdoors.

While exploring Avimor, a master-planned community in Eagle, Idaho, to see if it was somewhere we might want to settle, we visited Spring Creek Brewery and learned it was about to close its doors. As we walked the trails and experienced the beauty of this foothills community in Eagle, we could easily picture raising our family here. Opening another brewery someday had always been a far-off thought, but we flew home and could not stop thinking about the possibility.

We made a phone call, set up a meeting, flew back to Idaho the next week, and everything unfolded from there. What started as a trip to see if Idaho could be a future home quickly turned into a clear opportunity to bring Gather to a community that already felt aligned with our dreams in every way — a community surrounded by over 20,000 acres of preserved open space in the Boise foothills, miles of hiking and biking trails, and neighbors who genuinely know each other.

As our family moves to Avimor and we work toward opening Gather in early 2026, our hope is that it becomes more than a brewery. We are excited to become part of the growing energy around new homes in Eagle, Idaho, and to serve both longtime residents and those relocating to the area searching for homes for sale in Eagle, Idaho that offer both community and connection.

We hope it becomes the gathering place for neighbors, for cyclists biking the trails, for families celebrating birthdays, for friends catching up over a beer, and for kids to have a place they enjoy visiting as much as their parents. Whether you’re exploring real estate in Eagle, Idaho, enjoying the trails above the valley inversion, or simply looking for a welcoming place to meet friends, we hope Gather feels like home the moment you walk in.

From the bottom of our hearts, our family is deeply grateful for the warm welcome you have already extended toward us. We cannot wait to meet you, share a table, and build a home together in this beautiful Avimor.

– Mike and Rachel Voeller