Grizzly Growler

I drove to PDX with enough time to grab a beer at one of several locations where you can do so in the airport. While I knew Montana would be a recreational paradise, I harbored a deep and resounding fear of the beer. I had only ever been exposed to Big Sky’s Moose Drool and Blackstar, two good, but not overly representative examples. Here I was leaving beertopia, the place where the water is clean and pure, and the hops are like green sausages hanging off the vines with their oils dripping to the ground in an abundance not seen since before prohibition. Deep in the bowels of the airport, where the Horizon flights arrive and depart from, I found a beer vendor and purchased a Boss IPA from the new Laurelwood pub. I sipped it and wondered if it would be the last hoppy, high-alcohol beer I’d get to drink for a while. On board flight 233 from PDX to Missoula, the flight attendant announced the featured beer would be Bear Republic’s Red Racer IPA. I was completely surprised. I watched as she walked up and down the aisle pouring as much as each passenger wanted for the length of the flight. It was midnight in Missoula before I hit the cardboard pillow in my hotel room, so I dreamt of big beers chock-full of yummy centennial hops and with an alcohol content in the 7 to 9 percent range. The interviews went well, and my nervousness faded, even as we walked into the tasting room at the Kettlehouse. But it wasn’t until I took a long pull of Double Haul IPA that I knew everything would be OK. Don’t get the wrong idea. I didn’t take the job up here based only on that first swallow of Missoula beer, but it might have weighted the decision a little.