Grizzly Growler

This is an article I wrote for Missoula.Com magazine.

Used to be, there were four distinct seasons (except in Arizona).
Now, thanks to Missoula’s Big Sky Brewing Co., winter has a few seasons of its own.
For beer drinkers, winter breaks down into three distinct time periods.
First comes the season of Thanksgiving, minus that most deplorable of tasks – trying to find a wine to match your turkey dinner.
Just take a little water, barley, hops and yeast, oh yeah, and a bourbon barrel, and you’ve got yourself something to be thankful for.
Big Sky’s Olde Bluehair Barley Wine is the first of three winter seasonals brewer Matt Long handcrafts each year.
Bottle-conditioned in 750-ml amber-glass bottles, their tops wrapped in foil, these beers retail for $12 at the taproom, but can be found in specialty stores around Montana.
The bottled version of Olde Bluehair Barley Wine is aged in bourbon barrels, while kegged versions at Big Sky’s taproom do not get the wood treatment.
This rich, strong ale is a sipper sure to soothe the soul while waiting for your turkey and gravy.
Long said he checks the beer to see when it’s ready to come off the wood.
“If it’s too green (too much alcohol in the taste), it may need to stay in longer,” Long said. “But on the other hand, you can overdo beer in bourbon barrels too.”
So you’ve survived Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the Brawl of the Wild.
Now what?
Big Sky’s got you covered into that joyful season of peace and goodwill.
Biere de Noel is brewed in early spring, but it’s ready just in time for Christmas.

Long named the beer after a trip to France several years ago.
“They don’t brew good beer in France, they get most of it from Belgium,” Long said. “All Belgian holiday ale had the same name, Biere de Noel.”
Big Sky’s Christmas offering is a Belgian Style Strong Dark Ale, an ode to dark days and darker nights.
As robust a strong ale as you can find, this woodsy bourbon bomb, with a hint of smoke, looks as good swirling in a snifter as a plate of milk and cookies does to Santa Claus.
Count yourself lucky if you get a couple bottles of Biere de Noel in your stocking this year.
That stretch from Christmas to March may be the longest, most painful stretch of the beer year for brew aficionados.
By the time the first warming rays of spring start to thaw things out, you’ve tried nearly every winter ale available and drank half your stock of last year’s homebrew.
I call this the season of despair.
And nothing that I know overcomes the feeling of despair quite like love in a bottle.
Valentine’s Day has long been given over to that chubby baby with the bow and arrow, chocolates and Victoria’s Secret.
For his Valentine’s release, which will be available in mid-January, Matt Long put love in a bottle.
And it’s called Strong Cherry Ale.

Brewed in August with copious amounts of organic Flathead Valley cherries, this fragrant fruit ale combines layers of luscious malt and dark jammy fruit with nutty undertones and bready yeast flavors.
The pinkish hue of the beer reminds the drinker that love can overcome the coldest and darkest of winter doldrums, while the warmth of the taste of cherry liqueur can melt the resolve of the pickiest of valentines.
Long has allocated only 100 cases of each beer, which means 600 bottles, all of which will get snapped up fast.
I guess we’re lucky there are three winter seasons instead of just one.

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