Two New Breweries Opening in Montana in Summer 2012!

The Montana Brewers Association announced two new brewery members that plan to open this summer in Montana, which would bring the total number of Montana breweries to 36.

The Phillipsburg Brewing Company will open at 101 West Broadway in Phillipsburg, Montana.

Desert Mountain Brewing Company will open at 729 Nucleus Avenue, Ste. E in Columbia Falls, Montana.

Let's welcome them with empty glasses!

Stone Imperial Russian Stout at Worden's in Missoula

Like Sierra Nevada's Bigfoot Barleywine, Stone's Imperial Russian Stout is a beer that almost defines its genre.  The style is loved among beer geeks for the holy trinity of roasted malt, dark chocolate, and espresso beans, and this particular example has more hops behind it than most.

It is an annual spring release and it has apparently just happened this year.  Worden's Market has the beer in quantity at $5.29 a bottle.

Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company Hosts Beer Dinner at Chico Hot Springs

On Saturday May 5, 2012, Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company is hosting a Brewmaster Dinner at Chico Hot Springs Resort. Full details are available on the Red Lodge Ales Facebook page: 

6pm – 6:30pm
Beer tasting social
taste a variety of beer styles from Red Lodge Ales

6:30pm
Dinner

1st
Czech Mate Pilsner

Garden green salad with hop-smoked duck,
served with a pilsner vinaigrette

2nd
Red Lodge Ales Porter

Beer-battered walleye fingers,
with Sriracha tartar sauce

3rd
Bent Nail IPA

Wagyu carne asada served with
black bean puree,
spicy pico de gallo, and beer flat bread

4th
Resurrection DoppELbock

Sweet tamales with whipped cream,
caramel, and chocolate sauces

$50/person
Gratuity included

Bayern Brewing Needs 50,000 Bottles a Week - Can You Help?

According to a story in the Missoula Independent, Bayern Brewing needs about 50,000 of your used beer bottles a week in order to make its $400,000 investment in a German bottle washing machine pay off. 

According to Bayern Brewing's owner, Jurgen Knoller, an estimated 2.5 million Bayern beer bottles end up in Missoula's landfill each year. This, with the fact that a beer bottle can be reused by a brewery 8-10 times, compounded yet again by the fact that Missoula does not offer many opportunities to recycle/reuse glass (aside from taking them to Target to be trucked to Washington), prompted Knoller to make this happen.

Here's how it works. Craft beer drinkers in and around Missoula buy a Bayern Ecopack, a waxed cardboard box that holds 25 beer bottles in their six-pack holders, and once filled they bring it back to the brewery for an empty Ecopak. Bayern pays you $.05/bottle and $.10/carrier (for a total of $1.60). The beer bottles that can't be used are ones with designs or logos on the beer bottles themselves. For example, a Rogue beer bottle (most are 22 oz. anyway) with the logo silkscreened on or a New Belgium beer bottle with a raised logo on the bottleneck. Also, the six-pack holders Bayern needs are Bayern ones, not ones from another brewery. Logical, right. 

The whole system should be in place by June 2012. 

A Beer with Sen. Max Baucus

On Wednesday April 11, Montana's Senior U.S. Senator, Max Baucus, stopped by Draught Works Brewery to chat with representatives of the Montana Brewers Association, the Brewers Association and two local beer bloggers (myself, on left, and Alan McCormick from Growler Fills). Read the full story at MakeItMissoula.com.

Samichlaus Available at Missoula's Worden's

Castle Brewery Eggenberg in Austria is credited with producing one of the world's rarest specialty lagers: Samichlaus Bier. It's brewed only once a year on December 6th. After that, it's lagered for 18 months, increasing depth and complexity as well as providing a fuller body. It's a seriously big beer, coming in at 14% ABV. Now is your chance to get your hands on a bottle or two of this great beer at Worden's. Mark said that he got two cases in, and 750's are going for $16.95/bottle. Not cheap, but it's not every day that you get a chance to grab a beer like this. Buy a couple. Put them in the cellar. Be patient. In time, you will have some truly spectacular beer.