Your top 5 Montana brews

[Speeddmn]

All our taste are different! Me I’ve been a coors light guy for a long time. Supper hoppy beers give me horrid headaches after a bit so I limit them to 1 or two an outing if it is there.
As for places to enjoy, here in Helena we have a few great places to chill and have a few drinks. Personally when I het back home to the Glasgow area I grh to stop into Busted Knuckle, usually someone great is always on the menu and the vibe is sweet.

Otherwise here in Helena, we have Missouri River Brewery, Headwaters Craft House, Cooper Farrow, Lewis and Clark. Plus we have some decent hunting in the area!

Razzu is great on a hot summer day! So is Busch Light Apple!

 

[runningmt]

#1 Hopzone
#2 Powder Hound
#3 Mexican Party Lager
#4 Shake a Day
#5 Big Sky IPA

Favorite Brewery to Visit: Bandit

Most need of new brewmaster: Katabatic

Standing room only: Philipsburg

 

[Derek44]

#1 Hopzone
#2 Powder Hound
#3 Mexican Party Lager
#4 Shake a Day
#5 Big Sky IPA

Favorite Brewery to Visit: Bandit

Most need of new brewmaster: Katabatic

Standing room only: Philipsburg

May have missed it earlier, but haven’t seen powder hound in here yet. Almost forgot about that one. It’s one of my favorites.

 

[JohnCushman]

I like Coldsmoke and Moose Drool and there was a Scotch Ale I tried that I liked, but I forgot the name.

 

[noisy]

I like Coldsmoke and Moose Drool and there was a Scotch Ale I tried that I liked, but I forgot the name.

Perhaps Back Country Scottish Ale from Lewis & Clark? That seems pretty popular.

Some interesting lists above. I've never been a fan of Big Sky Brewing beers, but I drank a bunch of Space Goat pale ale at the Red Ants Pants music festival this summer and it was actually very good. Better than their previous pale ale, which I can't recall the name. I remember they used to have a darker beer called Slow Elk that I really liked. Great name too. We're all looking for a slow elk!

Met my wife in the old Iron Horse in Missoula drinking Bayern Amber out of those glass boots. The original Iron Horse next to the tracks. That place was great, although Bayern Amber always gave me a wicked hangover. Surely my own fault for drinking too much.

 

[Hem]

Hem, a completely fair question and one I honestly can't answer except with my palette, and wallet - I don't "know" they're cheaper hops, I'm making an assumption based on what I taste (or don't taste) in the Midas. It's not complex - just sort of mediocre/flat taste-wise. It isn't esepcially pricey (good quality hops cost more money). Compare it to a Melvin. A totally different experience - complex flavors /depth of taste. I don't base what I taste on what I pay, but it just happens that more complex IPA's tend to cost more, just like a Cabernet you buy at Town Pump isn't going to be as complex a wine as, say, a Paul Hobbs Napa Cabernet. Whether the addtional cost is worth it is up to one's own taste, and we only have ourselves to please.

At the end of the day, to paraphrase Duke Ellington, "if it tastes good, it is good." And as you say, that's a very personal and subjective thing.

Legitimate response. I concur, it is obvious that some craft beers are flat while others seem more robust.
As for Midas, I find the flavor appealing from the tap but couldn't stand the canned offering...to me it was night and day.

 

[mtmuley]

#1 Hopzone
#2 Powder Hound
#3 Mexican Party Lager
#4 Shake a Day
#5 Big Sky IPA

Favorite Brewery to Visit: Bandit

Most need of new brewmaster: Katabatic

Standing room only: Philipsburg

Powder Hound is good. mtmuley

 

[runningmt]

Some interesting lists above. I've never been a fan of Big Sky Brewing beers, but I drank a bunch of Space Goat pale ale at the Red Ants Pants music festival this summer and it was actually very good. Better than their previous pale ale, which I can't recall the name. I remember they used to have a darker beer called Slow Elk that I really liked. Great name too.

Off subject, but did you happen to see Son Volt play at Red Ants? Really wanted to see them, couldn’t make it.

Oh, and Slow Elk is seasonal, comes out right around General Season if my slippery memory serves me.

 

[shb]

 

[Irrelevant]

I just got back into service... and saw this blasphemy. I did not read through but felt the need to add:

Anyone that doesn't list Bayern in the top 3 shouldn't be trusted. They make the purest and truest to form beer in the Big Sky. However, they don't made an IPA. I have yet to find a great IPA in MT, but I've never spent any time in Boz. I'll defer to GH on IPAs, he wasn't wrong about Piney the Elder, so I trust his judgement.

 

[Hem]

Well at least you arent treading water like shb.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

I just got back into service... and saw this blasphemy. I did not read through but felt the need to add:

Anyone that doesn't list Bayern in the top 3 shouldn't be trusted. They make the purest and truest to form beer in the Big Sky. However, they don't made an IPA. I have yet to find a great IPA in MT, but I've never spent any time in Boz. I'll defer to GH on IPAs, he wasn't wrong about Piney the Elder, so I trust his judgement.

I really like Bayern as well. If I had to pick one beer for all seasons for the rest of my life it might be Dragon's Breath. I like their seasonals a lot too.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Madison River Brewing - Salmon Fly Honey Rye (in my cooler today)
Red Lodge Ales - Helio Hefeweizen
Belt Brewing - Beltian White
Lewis & Clark Brewery - Miners Gold
Black Eagle Brewery - Sun Canyon Tangerine Cream Ale (If you visit the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the best beer to celebrate survival is this ale.)

BTW, the Celtic Cowboy bar in Great Falls has the most beer taps and great assortments of beer than you can taste in one summer!

 

[The Hedgehog]

I really like Bayern as well. If I had to pick one beer for all seasons for the rest of my life it might be Dragon's Breath. I like their seasonals a lot too.

Dragons breath is okay as in a notch above PBR kind of way.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Madison River Brewing - Salmon Fly Honey Rye (in my cooler today)
Red Lodge Ales - Helio Hefeweizen
Belt Brewing - Beltian White
Lewis & Clark Brewery - Miners Gold
Black Eagle Brewery - Sun Canyon Tangerine Cream Ale (If you visit the Bob Marshall Wilderness, the best beer to celebrate survival is this ale.)

BTW, the Celtic Cowboy bar in Great Falls has the most beer taps and great assortments of beer than you can taste in one summer!

You’re clearly a “sipper” and not a “gulper”. Some of those make me feel like I’d need a piece of chocolate along with the slice of orange they are served with.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Dragons breath is okay as in a notch above PBR king of way.

Kurt. The hops. They have done irreparable harm to your taste buds. ha

 

[rwc101]

I got drunk at MAP Brewing a few times because it was close to the hotel I was put up in for a conference.

 

[Straight Arrow]

You’re clearly a “sipper” and not a “gulper”. Some of those make me feel like I’d need a piece of chocolate along with the slice of orange they are served with.

Those are good options to complement.
I used to be a big gulper, consuming vast quantities all day long with no real preferences as long as it was beer. Aging has resigned me to "sipping" since if I gulp, then sleepy time shows up before I'm ready to call it a day!

 

[kwyeewyk]

BTW, the Celtic Cowboy bar in Great Falls has the most beer taps and great assortments of beer than you can taste in one summer!

Hold my beer! No wait hand me two.

 

[kwyeewyk]

As of now for most recommended beer we have:

1. Kettlehouse Coldsmoke
2. Bozeman Hopzone
3. Red Lodge Bent Nail
Three way tie
4.5.6. Jeremiah Johnson Mountain Man
Maps Midas Crush
Madison River Salmon Fly

Most named brewery (times brewery recommended and/or number of varieties mentioned)

Tie for 1.2.
Draught Works/Jeremiah Johnson
Tie for 3.4.5
Bayern
Big Sky
Highlander