MICROBREW MONTANA

Baucus Bets Microbrew on Carroll Game, But Which One?

By Bill Schneider, 12-19-08

	Montana microbrew brewing. Do recognize the brand? Photo by Bill Schneider.

This story gets a little personal for three reasons.

First, my hometown school, Carroll College, is playing the University of Sioux Falls tomorrow in the NAIA National Championship, again. The Fighting Saints beat the Cougars last year. And this is the sixth time in seven years Carroll has been in the championship game--winning all five times they played in the big game, by the way, and four it a row, 2002-2005. I’d like to see that other college over in Missoula try to match that record.

Second, my yearlong endeavor, the Microbrew Trail, has made me a big fan of Montana’s amazing craft beer producers. Read it all here.

Third, my hometown U.S. Senator Max Baucus made a friendly wager with fellow Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota, and he bet a case of Montana microbrew against a case of South Dakota beef jerky. (Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it? If Johnson wins he gets a whole case of the Nectar of the Gods, and Baucus gets dried up cow.)

Anyway, I got curious, and I had to ask: Which microbrew?

And the answer is: The microbrew made by a brewer named Max, is brewed the closest to the Senator’s home in Helena, and is named after two famous explorers who traveled through part of Montana now owned by the Senator’s family north of Helena.

But none of those are the real reason this specific beer was chosen. The real reason was because it is the closest brewery to Carroll College, right across the street actually.

Have you guessed it yet? I suspect most of you have, but just in case, congratulations Max Pigman and Lewis and Clark Brewing of Helena, which was the subject of the first Microbrew Montana profile way back in February.

I sort of feel sorry for the other Max, though. His buddy Tim will be enjoying a whole case of the good stuff, and he’ll be trying to digest all that beef jerky.

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