Beers and Gears Blog

Beers & Gears: Along the Mighty Missouri

By Bill Schneider, 6-01-10

	Stan Guedesse, Bill (left) and Will having a sample at the Harvest Moon taproom and one of many scenic views along the Missouri River on the way to Craig. Photos by Chuck Micklewright and Bill Schneider.

When we woke up in Belt this morning, it was pouring, but about 10 am when we headed over to the Harvest Moon taproom to chat with brewmaster and co-owner Stan Guedesse, it stopped raining. Whoa! There’s a change of pace we needed.

Stan told us life was good at Harvest Moon. We only had small samples of his success ourselves because we still had 65 miles ahead of us later that day on our bicycle, but Stan had nothing but good news.

Last year was flat, amid the worst economy in a long time, but Harvest Moon had 12 yearly increases before last year “and we’re on a record pace so far this year.” That has gotten the biggest brewery in Belt up to about 6,400 barrels per year, almost all of that sold through distributors to taverns and restaurants. Very little brew is sold at Harvest Moon’s nifty little taproom, which is, according to Stan, “sort of a novelty.”

That will change soon, though, as Harvest Moon has an offer in on an existing restaurant location in downtown Great Falls to open a new location, which will definitely have a lot of the type of high-margin retail business that keeps a lot of breweries afloat. 

Stan says they might get going on the renovation this year, but the new place won’t be open until sometime next year.

In the meantime, Harvest Moon is taking on another construction project by expanding its capacity in Belt. New distribution agreements to send Harvest Moon beer to Wisconsin and North Dakota and pending agreements for Wyoming, Idaho and Washington make the expansion necessary.

After that point, Harvest Moon will be another Montana brewery staring at that ridiculous 10,000-barrel limit, something the legislature really needs to spike. Since when do we penalize small Montana businesses for being successful?

We left Belt about 11 am and headed back to Great Falls and had another annoying trip through the city, but then it was all smooth sailing. We got onto the frontage road at the Airport Exit (we only had to ride the freeway for about a mile), and from there it’s about 45 miles of flat or gentling rolling terrain, all with little traffic and a lot of scenery, and much of it along the mighty Missouri River, all the way to Craig, where we found Chucks Bed & Breakfast parked and waiting for us.

And believe it or not, it was terrific, short-sleeved weather the entire way.

We had a fantastic dinner at Issak’s, which was about 100 yards from our camping spot at the fishing access site. 

Tomorrow is our last day. And yep, we’re sad about it, and already planning next year’s brewery tour (it will be better planned and it definitely will not be in May). At least our last day is our easiest, a mere 45 miles back to Helena where we plan stops at Blackfoot River and Lewis and Clark breweries before considering our trip completed.

Tomorrow night I’ll try to wrap up all the good stuff I forgot to say along our ten-day route.

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