Day 1: Fantastic Pints From the Cut Along Belt Creek

“Wait … was that Belt?”

A collection of houses off Belt Creek and two unpaved roads left off the highway. It took two passes to find a proper entrance, then a mile of bumpy road before I could cross under the railroad tracks and enter Belt.

Immediately under the bridge, I glanced the familiar sight of brew tanks, these belonging to the Harvest Moon Brewery, the only craft brewer anywhere near Great Falls and North Central Montana.

Already familiar with their excellent Beltian White, a Belgian-style white ale and probably my favorite Montana beverage, I had to see what made this brewery tick. They only kept their taproom open until 4 p.m. Since I was their only afternoon visitor, I can't blame them.

Laws limit Montana microbrewers to closing at 8 p.m. and limiting patrons to three pints and one growler every 24 hours. To explain the lunacy of this, I can go into the casinos on almost every crossroads in this state and drink much later. But I can’t drink more than three craft beers a day. Yeah, that makes total sense.

The guys at Belt were friendly and more than willing to talk beer. They draw their water not from Belt Creek, but the Madison Aquifer deep below the region. Giant Springs in Great Falls is one spot where the aquifer water hits the surface. Since I was one of their few visitors that day, their operation revolves around bottling and now canning their top brews – Pig’s Ass Porter, Beltian White, and Charlie Russell Red, among others. Bottles and kegs made them known statewide. Now they canned Beltian White, although environmental friendliness slowed the amount of beer they could get out the door every day.

Despite my desire for a Beltian White from its source, I wanted to try new brew from Harvest Moon. The brewery staff started me with a Charlie Russell Red, the only outside product named for the popular Western artist’s (he was also a notorious drinker, so the staff told me his representatives had no problem with the connection). This clean yet spicy red ale almost went down like a lighter scotch ale. The red fruit flavors sat gently on the palette, then built toward a malty finale. It had a slight smokiness which amplified the malts and pushed the limits of what red ale can become.

I went for the typical with the next brew, a pale ale. Great Falls Select fell on the American side of pale ale, with a florid and sometimes nutty nose. The hops only expressed momentary bitterness, producing some nice citrus notes. For the final pint, I switched to their Nut Brown Ale, which was infused with a healthy dose of hazelnut extract. That created a sweet, pleasant finish not unlike Frangelica liqueur. After an initial creaminess, the lighter feel typical of a brown ale takes over. Unfortunately, the extract made me wonder what wonders they could have produced with actual hazelnuts, buty extract made it among the more usual nut browns, a style that often varies little from brewer to brewer.

Size meant nothing in Belt; the guys at Harvest Moon produced top-notch ales from a seldom-seen pocket of Montana. Only two breweries have more remote locations, but Harvest Mon has put Belt on the map.