Grizzly Growler

On Friday afternoon, I ran out to Big Sky Brewing Co. to catch some of the blending process, whereby Matt B and Matt V of Brouwers/Bottleworks were putting together their 11th Anniversary Ale out of 14 different barrel-aged beers brewed by Big Sky.

I arrived in time to find the guys settled on their base beer and working to bring out some wine-like flavors from some of the beers stored in red-wine barrels. It was fascinating to watch them mix various portions of each beer to try and preserve and capture interesting flavors.

The conference room at Big Sky looked like a science experiment gone wrong. Growlers with cryptic numbers on top lined the table and measuring devices filled the spaces in between.

In the end, the Matts announced they had their beer, which they chose from some barrel-aged stouts, each with a different characteristic.

Blending is a bit of a lost art, though some breweries, especially Lost Abbey, are starting to blend signature beers each year. When asked, Matt B and Matt V said that in some ways they’d like to see the trend take off, but in other ways, they’d like to see their anniversary beers continue to stand out.

I was able to film some of the blending process and an interview with the Matts too, so I’ll post that this week.

On Saturday, Matt Long, head brewer at Big Sky, invited some folks out to his place in Frenchtown for some grilled wild game and beer tasting. Besides trying some of the former anniversary ales, Matt opened up some really great sour beers, some of Big Sky’s barrel-aged IPA, which will have to be a post in and of itself sometime, and he tapped a keg of the brewery’s new Pilsner, which is a really tasty Montana version of the European classic.

It was great getting to be around so many beer experts, from the brewers at Big Sky to Matt B and Matt V. I learned a lot about some new and interesting beers, and gained a whole new respect for what is happening in the craft beer world.

Hope  you had an epic beer weekend too.

Prost,

GG

Blending Beer