Missoula Magic: The 2012 Montana Brewers Association Festival

Missoula boomed on Saturday morning. It seemed all the entire town of 60,000 stepped out for fresh air and errands. Throngs flocked to the farmers market and the festivities of the its various festivals. After visiting local bookstore Fact or Fiction to have Ivan Doig sign a few copies of The Bartender’s Tale – the book I had been reading during our trip - we wandered down to the Montana Brewers Association festival.

If ever there existed a beer festival I needed to attend, the Montana Brewers Association created it. In September 2010, my return flight to Nashville came two days too soon. Last year came and went without a Montana excursion. But this year, the dates lined up and the MBA Festival migrated northwest to Missoula.

The Caras Park Pavilion sat on the Clark Fork riverfront. Previously Bozeman hosted the MBA festival, but this year, they migrated to Missoula and tacked on a two –day seminar (we skipped town before that started). In Missoula, the festival has found a delightful new home compared to the Gallatin County Fairgrounds. Caras Park’s modern pavilion housed pouring stations for 25 brewers, all from Montana. None of the Billings breweries were there, and several others were absent, but for a snapshot of craft brewing in the nation’s fourth-largest state (by land, 48th by population density), you couldn’t ask for a better gathering.

A few twists elevated the MBA festival above the most beer tastings. Only Montana Brewers Association members poured their wares. Every brewer included a brand-new beer in its lineup. At 1 p.m., they all started pouring the new recipes.

With VIP tickets in hand, Nancy and I arrived around 12 noon and sampled a few before the 1 p.m. unveiling. Flathead Triple provided an excellent start to the festivities. Based in Bigfork on the shores of their namesake lake, the brewery produced an excellent American take on the Belgian style. Notes of peach, apricot, orange and a creamy effervescence emerge as well as the refreshing presence of pear. Nancy went with Lewis & Clark Brewing’s Tumbleweed IPA, a pretty bitter and lively version with Cascade and Centennial hops from the Helena brewer. We each took a trip t Higher Ground (Hamilton) for tastes of Summerfoot Pale Ale (concentrated citrus, but quite

Under the tent at the Flathead and Lewis & Clark stations.

 With Bitterroot Brewing (Hamilton), I opted for Bitterroot Single Hop Ale, which hit the palate harder than many American IPAs. Calling it Northwest pale ale, Single Hop uses CTZ hops to great effect. Nancy opted for Huckleberry Honey Hefeweizen, Bitterroot's stellar fruited wheat ale. The huckleberry tastes dramatically different than Yellowstone Valley’s version. Huckleberry Honey is balanced in its sweetness, with plenty of tart fruit notes appearing.

Neptune Honey Rye Lager was another rye revelation, a smooth lager in which the spicy elements get sweetened by the honey and pushed into comforting directions. Nancy would later sample the Sheze Titan Blonde, a lively blond ale with plenty of cracked grains that I once tasted at their Livingston taproom.

  From Stevensville in the Bitterroot Valley came Blacksmith Brewing's Wine Barrel Triple, a strong triple with an immense flavor profile. Slighter darker than most triples, WBT had notes of cinnamon, honey clove, vanilla, oak and the standard triple’s citrus characters. Aged for one year in a Cabernet Sauvignon barrel, the ale had an unexpected blackberry backbone, moments of smokiness and a slightly sour finish. Blacksmith easily forged the day’s most complex ale.

No lines, no waiting.

 For the most part, we started the day with session ales. Glacier Golden Grizzly Ale (Polson), a bubbly kitsch that felt a little out of place on an autumn but provided great relief from the massive beers the festival highlighted.

As 1 p.m. neared, we queued close to our top picks. For the first 1 p.m. plunge, I bee-lined for Blackfoot River Montambic, a lambic they sell in bottles only at the Helena taproom. Barrel aged and with plenty of lactobacillus influence, Montambic pushes forward with plenty of spice and the standard sour effervescence.

We returned to Flathead for Montucky Sour Cherry Brown, another delightful pucker from the Last Best Place. With plenty of cherry flavor, Montucky was thick and full on the palate. Cider qualities, molasses and mustiness reigned and as we sat at a picnic table on this bright afternoon, the sediment glittered in the sunlight.

Then we migrated back to Bitterroot for Imperial Honey Citra IPA. With hop presence galore, this IPA had the right blend of pine resin, spruce needles, sharp citrus tones and leafy textures. The honey balanced it all out, as honey often does. 406 Brewing’s Citra Amarillo IPA (Bozeman) goes to citrus extremes, unsurprising given the hops involved. Octoberfest Festive Ale from The Front displayed a nice array of red malts and tasted perfectly for fall quaffing. As Nancy said, it was the perfect accompaniment for “stumbling lovers’ walks”.

A happy toast

 Glacier Brewing rolled out Ursus Arctos Hefebilus Ale, an imperial hefeweizen named to honor its local alpha predator, the grizzly bear (ursus arctos horribilus). The full-bodied hefeweizen clocked in close to 10 percent and tasted rich with orange blossoms, coriander and lemon zest.

With harvest in full swing, most brewers poured something brewed with fresh hops. Fresh hopped beers required hop bills many times that of the hop pellets typically used in brewing, so they are usually made in small batches. Tamarack Fresh Hop Dark (Lakeside) took a new spin on the fresh hop craze, throwing in dark malts to create a fresh hop black ale. The grassy tones mesh well with the dark malts. Nancy’s verdict: It was good but she’s had better.

Madison River Green Emerger Fresh Hop Ale (Belgrade) has the muscle of fresh Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe and Centennia hops but went down smooth. Along with the standard grassy and oily characters, some atypical citrus like lime emerged. Its Gallatin Valley neighbor, Bozeman Brewing, poured its 2012 Bozone Terroir. Made with locally grown hops, it had the leafy, razor-sharp flavors of hops native to the Pacific Northwest.

At this point some of the names we sampled have faded. As we wound down, Nancy found a delicious raspberry wheat not in the festival guide.

But I clearly remember Beaver Creek Da Blondski Ale, an easy drinking session ale from Wibaux’s finest. Wibaux sits on the North Dakota border, has less than 1,000 residents and the brewery takes its name from the Missouri River tributary running through town. The blonde stood up with the best session beers of the trip.

The day’s last triple-style ale, Bozeman Third Visitor, hit all the stylistic marks but had the misfortune of coming after so many spectacular triples. It lays down mellow citrus that coats the palate and unleashes scary amounts of flavor.

How was this man not arrested?

We could not have imagined sampling everything. It could have been hazardous. Some brewers got skipped entirely (Sorry, Great Northern, Quarry and Outlaw). But the festival’s “new beer” nature could make it an easy festival to revisit annually. Plus, it isn’t Missoula’s only festival of the weekend. Aside from Doig, Rick Bass and many other authors were in town that week for the Montana Festival of Books. Few hobbies pair as well as beer and literature, so Missoula might have a pairing for the long haul.

We chased the festival with burgers and shakes from the Big Sky Inn, an old drive-through outside downtown Missoula. As a post-mortem – we reached our saturation point with drinking beer - we ventured out that evening, stopping at few bottle shops.

Founded in 1883 and on its fifth location, Worden's Market & Deli is one of Missoula’s oldest businesses. Among scores of cold options, Wordens had Alaskan Smoked Porter, which I will never turn down, along with bomber bottles of Bitterroot Blonde and a Flathead Imperial IPA. Liquid Planet had a similar selection that include single bottles from broken-down six-packs. I rounded up a mixed six-pack of Kettlehouse, Big Sky and Madison River favorites to fill out the suitcase for the journey home.