MICROBREW MONTANA, AN END-OF-THE-YEAR COMMENTARY

Reflections from the Microbrew Trail

For the past year, I've been on the Microbrew Trail, visiting every brewery in Montana, except one, and posting articles on all 24 of them. You can read the entire series here.

Along the beer trail, I'm made a few observations about what might be Montana's fastest growing industry and thought I'd pass them on to microbrew-loving readers.

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Beaver Creek Brewing: Montana’s Microbrew Oasis

If you're like me, you're always asking yourself how dedicated you are? Well, I've recently learned, I'm not dedicated enough.

When I took on the Microbrew Montana project back in February I carefully calculated the miles I'd have to drive and the amount of time it'd take to see all the microbreweries in Montana.

Then, back in July, Jim Devine called and blew up my plan. He and his two partners, Sandy Stinnett and Russell Houck, had just started the Beaver Creek Brewery in Wibaux, and he wondered when I'd be out to see him.

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Blacksmith Brewing: Montana’s Newest Brewery, Montana’s Oldest Community

Well, here we are, at the end of the Microbrew Trail, my last taproom visit for this yearlong series of articles, and what did I find? An old buggy salesroom and blacksmith shop transformed into Montana's newest microbrewery, Blacksmith Brewing Company.

Is that Montana-esque or what?

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Baucus Bets Microbrew on Carroll Game, But Which One?

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 what's left of a dried up cow.)

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Quarry Brewing: Where They Dig Beer

In Butte, America, they dig things, like copper and silver, big statues on big hills, hunting and fishing, labor unions, big pits, and now, they dig beer, too, all because of Quarry Brewing, one of Montana's newwest microbreweries.

Butte has a long tradition of brewing beer and has many long-ago-closed breweries, but for many years, the Mining City has been without a brewery. Now, the Schnabels have come to town and fixed that problem, launching Butte's first microbrewery.

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Bayern Brewing: The Only German Brewery in the Rockies

When you walk into some Montana microbreweries, you get the feeling you've stumbled across somebody's expanded home brew operation, but that is hardly the case when you visit Bayern Brewing of Missoula. It's more like you beamed yourself to Hamburg or Munich for real masterbrew instead of those "malt-flavored beverages" sold by mega-brewers.

In fact, owner Jurgen Knoller is mighty proud of being "the only German microbrewery in the Rockies." And he's always anxious to elaborate.

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Flathead Lake Brewing: Great View, Great People, Great Beer

Some Montana microbreweries are hard to find, tucked away in alleys or side streets or even up in the timber at the end of an unpaved road, but not Flathead Lake Brewing. You can't miss it; it's right in the middle of Woods Bay along scenic State Highway 35 at mile marker 26, which is also the name of one of its award-winning, handcrafted beers.

And when you walk into the taproom, you don't find owner Terry Leonard in back room brewing beer or counting his money. Instead, you find him sitting at the bar enjoying a cold brew with his customers.

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Neptune’s Brewery: Where the Brew is Taylor-Made

One thing I didn't expect to find when I launched into the Microbrew Montana series was a brewery with a maritime theme. But then, I didn't know about Neptune's Brewery in Livingston, the self-proclaimed "Heart of the Rocky Mountains," and a small market (8,000 population) for a brewery. At Neptune's, everything is about the ocean, ships, sailing and maritime culture and lore--the logo, art, taproom furnishings, beer names, even the owner's only employee, Katrina.

You'd think a brewery in Livingston would feature a ranching or outdoor theme, or maybe even a movie star aura to appeal to all the local stars who have escaped Hollywood and landed in the Paradise Valley. So, of course, I had to ask why.

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Kettle House Brewing: The Little Brewery That Cans

When you go into the Kettle House taproom, which is tucked away on a hard-to-find side street in mid-town Missoula, you find something you see at most Montana microbreweries--a crowd of local folks enjoying good beer and good conversation in their adopted neighborhood pub where it's always "Hoppy Hour." But when you peak into the back room or decide to buy some tasty Kettle House brew at the grocery store, you see something you don't see at or from any other Montana microbrewery, beer cans.

Because Kettle House is the only little Montana brewery that cans.