Updates on Missoula Winter BrewFest
The first Missoula Winter BrewFest will be held on Saturday, Feb. 12, in the old Macy’s building (aka the Historic Missoula Mercantile Building), located at 110 N. Higgins Ave. The event is a fundraiser for Caras Park and is joint venture between the Missoula Downtown Association and the new owners of the building, Virgina-based Octagon Partners.
The brewfest will be held from 1-7 p.m. Admission is $10, and that includes a 7-ounce glass with two beer tokens. Additional tokens are $1. Bands on board to play include Lil Smokies, Tom Catmull & the Clerics and more.
The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival opens the same weekend and those who have an all-access pass will get half off admission to the brewfest. In case you’re wondering why the beer will stop flowing so early, it’s because of said film festival, the Griz game against Northern Colorado and a fundraiser at the Missoula Children’s Theatre that night.
This will likely be a one-time event, at least in the current building, as Octagon Partners plans to begin renovations after the Winter Brewfest.
I’m not sure about all the breweries that will be there yet, but was told to expect around 20 with most, if not all, western Montana craft-beer makers present.
- Matt Pritchard
‘How Beer Saved the World’ premieres Sunday on Discovery Channel
“Without beer we’d probably still be living in caves.”
That’s a line from the documentary “How Beer Saved the World,” which premieres Sunday at 6 p.m. MST on the Discovery Channel. The film looks at how beer helped create “math, poetry, the Pyramids, medicine, labor laws and America.” Check out a preview and set that DVR.
- Matt Pritchard
What beer best represents Montana?
Illustration by Monica Fuentes/Houston Press
A food blog in Houston recently came out with the United States of Beer, an attempt to assign a beer to each state. While others can mull over the other 49 picks, we only care about one – Montana.
As you can see on the map they have chosen Missoula’s own Double Haul IPA from Kettlehouse Brewing Co. to represent the Treasure State. Excellent choice in my opinion. However, some commenters on the site have a different opinion. One nominates Cold Smoke, while another says it should have been something from Big Sky Brewing Co. So this begs a question; what beer represents Montana best?
- Matt Pritchard
Moose Drool on list of 10 weird beer names
A website in the U.K., Asylum (it’s like Maxim, I guess), recently came out with 10 nauseating weird beer names and the stories behind them.
Coming in at No. 10 is Big Sky Brewing’s Moose Drool:
Sounds like: the slobber from an elk with eating issues or a fat Canadian dude
Why? Neal Leathers, one of Big Sky Brewing founders, says, “We knew that we wanted to use Montana critters as our theme.”
His partner, Bjorn (Nabozney), had his mum do the label artwork and she decided on a moose in a pond. Neal suggested Moose Drool and it stuck. “If the name does turn some folks off, we’re more than willing to lose a few potential customers in order to maintain such a memorable brand,” Leathers says.
I never thought Moose Drool was weird name, maybe that makes me weird. Among the other names on the list include Old Jock, Salopian Entire Butt and, ehm, Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Pooh Coffee.
- Matt Pritchard
Cool Dog Ball mushes into Helena on Friday
The 16th annual Microbrew Review and Cool Dog Ball takes place Friday in Helena at the Civic Center Ballroom. Forty breweries will be on hand for the event that benefits Race to the Sky, a dog sled race in February along the Continental Divide. Tickets are $15 in advance at Bert and Ernie’s, Topper’s Cellar, The Overland Express, Staggering Ox and The Man Stores in Helena, and $17 at the door. Doors open at 6 p.m. Here’s more from Alana Listoe of the Independent Record. (more…)
Montana growler bill easily passes Senate panel
Senate Bill 203, which clarifies a rule to allow taverns with all-beverage licenses to fill growlers for off-premise consumption, won unanimous approval in the Senate Business and Labor Committee on Tuesday morning. With the vote, the measure will almost surely pass the Legislature. Good news for beer drinkers.
The bill most breweries are waiting for, Senate Bill 202 by Sen. Ryan Zinke, R-Whitefish, which would shift the hours brewery taprooms are allowed to serve beer from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. to noon-10 p.m. (drinks have to be finished by 11 p.m.), is still awaiting action in the Senate Business and Labor Committee. A petition on the Montana Brewers Association’s website has garnered almost 900 signatures to date.
- Matt Pritchard
‘Beer Culture’ documentary to examine Colorado breweries
Here’s a trailer for the upcoming documentary “Beer Culture,” which is set in Colorado and due out this summer. The film “explains the cultural phenomenon behind the growth of craft beer, telling it through the stories of struggles and successes of some top brewers in Colorado, including New Belgium, Oskar Blues, Avery Brewing Company, Tommyknocker, Upslope” and others.
Montana growler bill goes before Senate committee Tuesday
On Tuesday, the Senate Business and Labor Committee takes up Senate Bill 203, by Sen. Ryan Zinke, R-Whitefish, to allow the nonbrewery sale of growlers for off-premise consumption.
The hearing is the first craft-beer related measure of the 2011 Legislature and in all likelihood will pass. Having bars fill growlers has been going on for a long time in Montana and until recently no one thought anything of it.
Last April, the Montana Revenue Department sent out a proposed rule that would have made it illegal for bars with all-beverage licenses (such as the Rhino in Missoula) to fill growlers with beer. The Revenue Department shelved the idea to have the Legislature sort it out and revise the wording of the proposal.
“16-3-303. Sale of beer by retailer for consumption off premises. It is lawful for an on-premises retailer to sell or furnish beer to the public in its original package or in growlers and the beer must be taken away from the premises of the retailer for consumption off the premises of such the retailer. Growlers may not be filled in advance of sale and may be furnished by the consumer.”
The hearing starts at 9 a.m.
- Matt Pritchard
Winter BrewFest set Feb. 12 in old Macy’s building in Missoula
Tom Bauer/Missoulian
The Missoula Downtown Association will hold the inaugural Winter BrewFest on Saturday, Feb. 12., from 1-7 p.m. on the main floor of the old Macy’s building in downtown Missoula. The event, which takes place during the opening weekend of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, is a fundraiser for Caras Park and will be the first of its kind in town. (Talk about a great week, an indoor brew fest plus a performance by Yo La Tengo the following Tuesday at the Wilma Theatre.)
Details of what breweries will be there still need to be worked out, but I suspect most of the regional ones will take part. And why not? It sounds awesome.
Jenna Cederberg will have more in Saturday’s Missoulian and online at Missoulian.com.
- Matt Pritchard
Rumor: Brew fest to take place in old Macy’s building Feb. 12 in Missoula
Still searching for more details on this, but it looks like there will be a new brew fest in Missoula taking place during the opening weekend of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on Saturday, Feb. 12. The event is to take place in the old Macy’s building, which was recently purchased by Virginia-based developer Octagon Partners.
An indoor brew fest in February in Missoula? Whoa.
Stay tuned for updates.
- Matt Pritchard