Missoula: One Fermented Evening

 A lot of names I’d encountered in my three previous Montana trips would not appear at the Montana Brewers Festival. Fortunately we had a night ahead of the festivities to wander around Missoula. Nancy needed to taste of Missoula’s long-running brewing ingenuity, and I wanted to see these brewers on their home turf.

After our arrival in Missoula, I led Nancy six blocks in the wrong direction only to find we had parked on the same street as our first destination. On beer destination lists, few Montana bars receive more mentions than The Rhinoceros.

Arriving at happy hour, we just missed a rare firkin of Kettlehouse Cold Smoke infused with huckleberries, but The Rhino treated us fine. Yeah, it would have been great to taste, but you can't drink them all, and the 10-block detour was my fault.

Equal parts beer bar, college hangout and comfortable neighborhood tavern, The Rhino had 50 taps, half of them local, a blessing Big Beer Country. Along with a rhinoceros “bursting” through a brick wall, the bar had bighorn and mountain skulls mounted above the bar, plus a bobcat with sunglasses.

The Rhino occupies a crossroads where people of all skills and stripes mingle. People of all tastes drink here too – the girl next to us went for pitchers of PBR. Knowing her job of wheat beers, I steered Nancy to Beltian White from Harvest Moon, one of the best Belgian-style white ales made anywhere. Frozen by all the unknown taps, I hastily chose Big Sky Scapegoat, a lemon-rich pale ale I enjoyed on past visits.

We rounded out the Rhino stop with two new contenders, Bowser Brewing Oatmeal Stout (Great Falls) and Lone Peak Raspberry Wheat (Big Sky). Bowser’s stout came off roasted, rich and creamy, with fingers of chocolate mousse and oily flourishes. While thick and roasted, Bowser Oatmeal Stout never felt overwhelming or gave into craft brewing oatmeal stout excesses.

Lone Peaks’s wheat was a bigger revelation. This one tastes slightly sour, with fruit notes radiating tartness and keeping the sweet flavors at bay. A light but powerful sizzle of raspberry melds with the effervescent character exquisitely. Lone Peak’s past efforts had not enamored me, but they hit all the marks with this gem.

We broke from The Rhino for a quick meal of empanadas. The South American pastries, stuff with meal and vegetables were a definite departure from the meat and potato options typical to Montana. Only upon reading a recent Montana Quarterly article about the original Empanada Lady were we alerted to the true tale behind the empanada proliferation in Missoula. But those pastry pockets would be enough to ward off any signs of inebriation.  

One my favorite labels

Two other stops rounded out the night.We could not visit Missoula without hitting two brewers not planned for the festival, Bayern and Kettlehouse. Billed as the only Bavarian-style brewery in the Rockies, Bayern brews all its beers in accordance with the Reinheitsgebot, the Bavarian beer purity law enacted in 1516. For such good beer, it seems like a small price.

When we arrived at Bayern, tucked away in a light industrial block outside downtown, the 25-year-old brewer roared with Friday night festivities. In the middle of a three-week Octoberfest run, we each sampled a pint. Later that night I would introduce Nancy to Dancing Trout, so we opted for Dragon’s Breath, a dunkelweizen, and a schwarzbier. This darkness deserves an embrace.

Unfortunately St. Wilbur Weizen ran out earlier that day; I had missed Bayern’s St. Bernard-themed wheat and hoped the brewery would oblige us. But we enjoyed our dark beers and departed Bayern as daylight left Missoula.

Kettlehouse recently trimmed its distribution back to its core markets. The brewer hit Montana’s 10,000-barrel limit to qualify as a craft brewer and in a statement, decided to hold steady at that production.

Still active in Bozeman and its hometown, the brewer operates out of a neighborhood space with a ¾ wall separating the taproom from the brew kettles. While Kettlehouse closes at 9, they stop pouring pints 8, so we arrived just in time. We ordered two rounds immediately and spent the next hour nursing them.

Kettlehouse taproom, with kettles and obligatory Lionel Richey sign

 
Nancy’s first pour was a unique wheat. Dixon Melonweizen had a Randall infusion of cantaloupe. This gives Dixon Melonweizen a juicy fruit kick on the front that contrasts well with the rougher wheat malt characteristics.

For her second she picked Festival of the Dead, a middle of the road pale ale with a few hints of citrus and little else. It might worked better as a session ale, but on this night, we didn’t have time for seconds.


I started with Rye Pale Lager, a sessionable spicy rye beer. No one would confuse this with a pale lager. With a little nudge of hops and plenty of spice, this rye has an alluring complexity for 4.5 percent ABV. It could not compete with the Stillwater Rye, but 345 miles from Billings, Kettlehouse's Rye worked just fine.

For a second, I couldn’t skip a shot at Double Haul IPA straight from Kettlehouse’s taps. For my tastebuds, Double Haul bests all other Montana IPAs. Lemon, bittern orange and occasional traces of grapefruit form its citrus power. Resin and pine needle rise up late on the palate. It’s never less than bitter, creamy and beautiful.

Despite the urge, I skipped the Cold Smoke. Still on tap in Bozeman, I knew I could sate that urge before Frontier called our flight to Denver. The festival awaited us the next afternoon, but we checked off three big Missoula destinations in one swoop.