Grizzly Growler

Missoula finished in 18th place out of a total of 31 cities in the annual BeerCity USA poll, while Asheville, N.C., and Grand Rapids, Mich., shared the title this year. In total, Missoula had 402 out of the 55,926 votes cast, according to Charlie Papazian’s article. Not bad. Not good, but not bad. Here’s this [...]

Several Montana breweries took home some hardware over the weekend during the 2012 World Beer Cup awards ceremony. Nearly 800 breweries throughout the world entered close to 4,000 beers into the competition, which took place at the beginning of May and is held every two years. Montana breweries entered 29 beers and four of those won [...]

Missoula is not the only city in Montana with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for craft beer. As the state’s largest city, Billings continues to churn out beer at a fast clip and yet another brewery/pub is ready to enter the market. Überbrew is set to open in June and will join Montana Brewing Co., Angry [...]

The Brewers Association has released its latest stats on the current state of the craft brewing industry and there’s some good news. In 2011, volume grew by 13 percent and retail sales jumped 15 percent. Among the other findings: 250 breweries opened in the U.S. Sales topped $8.7 billion. Craft brewers made up more than [...]

Kettlehouse Brewing Co. on the Northside of Missoula has swapped smaller tanks for some bigger ones. Kettle replaced a conditioning tank and a fermentation tank, which each held 40 barrels, with tanks that can hold up to 90 barrels. Owner Tim O’Leary told the Missoulian: “This is primarily to give us some relief at high-production [...]

We here in Montana are lucky. Not only are new breweries opening up all around us, such as Higherground Brewing, Bowser Brewing, Draught Works and 406 Brewing Co., but existing breweries are expanding just as rapidly. Lewis and Clark Brewing in Helena is one of those places. The brewery last year moved into a new [...]

Not much to do about craft beer, but beer news nonetheless. Missoula-based Zip Beverage Co. recently completed its purchase of Butte’s Thompson Distributing Inc., which has been in business since 1976. The Montana Standard reports the Thompson family decided to sell after seeing the trend of small distributors being bought up by larger companies in [...]

The brewery boom continues, almost to the point where it’s tough to keep track of what’s going up where and when. Higherground Brewing Co. is preparing to open at 518 N. First St. in Hamilton, according to its Facebook page, bringing to three the number of Bitterroot Valley breweries. Coming December 2011!!! Handcrafted beers and wood [...]

Bowser Brewing Co. is moving closer to opening its doors in Great Falls, although no specific date has been set. In an email, Evan Bowser said the brewery should be open at its location at 1826 10th Ave. S. sometime before Christmas. Good news for those who’ve been waiting patiently for some new beer. Via [...]

It may seem counter-intuitive, but more craft breweries are finding themselves pulling out of markets in order to feed their local, and growing, base. Flying Dog Brewery in Maryland is one that’s seen its local demand boom and thus has curtailed distribution to 13 states. The moves help to save on shipping costs and also [...]