Missoula breweries, Tavern Association team up to distribute special brews

Missoula breweries and the Missoula County Tavern Owner’s Association are joining forces to brew up and distribute specialty beers twice a year with proceeds going toward Missoula charities.

The Garden City Community Brew project features all four of Missoula’s breweries, Bayern, Kettlehouse, Big Sky and Draught Works, and the unique brews will be available in about 20 bars. The first installment is a Black IPA brewed at Draught Works. Brewing will begin on Dec. 5 and the beer is scheduled to be available Friday, Dec. 21.

The Tavern Owner’s Association members and Missoula breweries have already donated about $4,000 that will go to help the Missoula Food Bank. It’s nice to see our breweries and bars coming together for a worthy cause.

You can grab a pint at:

• Al’s & Vic’s
• Bodega
• Brooks & Browns
• The Depot
• Double Front Lounge
• Eagles
• Elbow Room
• Iron Horse Brew Pub
• James Bar
• Joker’s Wild
• The Keep
• Montana Club (both locations)
• Mo Club
• Paradise Falls
• Red’s Bar
• The Rhino
• Rowdy’s Cabin
• Sean Kelly’s
• Stone of Accord

- Matt Pritchard

Black Friday at Bitter Root Brewing Co.

If you’re in Hamilton, or need a reason to go there, perhaps a keg of Black IPA at Bitter Root Brewing Co. will be enough to turn your Friday from good to great, or maybe from just OK to good – either way you win. From Bitter Root’s newsletter:

We’re tapping a keg of Black IPA that we’ve been hording like that neighbor kid you grew up with that horded Halloween candy.  We’ll tap the keg at 4 p.m. on Friday

- Matt Pritchard

The mystery behind ‘black IPA’

Matt Van Wyk, brewmaster at Oakshire Brewing in Eugene, Ore., tries to unravel the mystery behind “black IPA” in a recent article on CraftBeer.com. He argues that the name of this relatively new beer style is misleading and should be called Cascadian Dark Ale, for various reasons. Read the article and decide for yourself. And while you’re at it, check out Will Moss’ review of Bitter Root Brewing’s Black IPA.

- Matt Pritchard