There is an old Russian story which illustrates an emotional yet illogical aspect of human behavior which is sometimes exhibited:
There once was a peasant named Dmitri who had a family. He worked hard to grow crops in his garden, and had chickens, a couple geese, and a cow. One day the cow unexpectedly died. Dmitri was distraught and asked, “God, why did this have to happen? We will not have cream, or milk for my children, or butter for our bread. This is a severe hardship which I cannot endure.”
And God heard Dmitri’s query and sent an angel. The angel appeared to Dmitri and said, “God has heard of your plight and has sent me to grant you one wish as to help you better cope with your situation”.
So Dmitri hastily responded, “I wish all my neighbors cows to be dead too!”

During the recent legislative session, Senate Bill 202 was introduced by Ryan Zinke, senate district 2 in Whitefish. The bill was tabled and never made it out of committee. The purpose of the bill was to change the hours that brewers may sell their beer to the public in a tasting room located at their brewery. The current law allows for this to occur between 10am and 8pm. The entirety of the bill was to move that time slot two hours later to the hours of Noon until 10pm. This seems rather innocuous.

The idea was that not many people are touring tasting rooms at 10 in the morning, but there are a lot of after working hours tours, meetings, parties, gatherings, etc. One might think that this would not be a big issue either way, but it has become a big issue affecting the Bozeman area and it’s businesses. The Montana Tavern Owners opposed this bill claiming that moving the hours would financially affect bars and taverns because breweries would compete with bars and taverns. They further opined that it was unfair to bars and taverns because breweries did not have to purchase a beer and wine license to sell their product. In some cases, the Tavern Owners supported candidates in the last election based on their position on this single issue.

It was difficult to research this article because very few people want to talk about the issue, and nobody wants their name or business name to be associated with the controversy, and so no specific persons or business names involved will be cited.

From the brewery point of view, it is illegal under Montana law for them to own a beer & wine or liquor license as an operating maker of beer, wine, or liquor. And the brewers can only sell their own product at their brewery, so it’s not like they’re opening up nightclubs which directly compete with bars and taverns.

It is true that beer and wine licenses run about $100 thousand dollars, and liquor licenses can cost around half a million dollars, but that’s not by any action of the breweries which typically invest up to a million dollars to start up their brewing business.

So the controversy arises because of actions taken by several local Bozeman bar owners in response to this bill being introduced in Helena. They decided to pull all Montana made beers from their establishments and carry only out-of-state labels. How this helped resolve the situation or bettered anybody’s position is unclear. It’s a lose-lose-lose situation all around. While the involved bar owners are hardly in the dire straits of Dmitri in the story above, their emotional reactions to the now dead bill are similar.

The local breweries products are now available in less locations and have less sales. Those clubs which pulled the labels lose customers who patronize Montana beers, and the customers who like good local beer are now limited in places where they can get their favorite labels. And the state of Montana loses as we now import more out-of-state beer and discriminate against made in Montana products. It’s harder to be a ‘yokel’ and buy local.

Ironically, out-of-state beers like Redhook, brewed in Woodinville, WA, have full restaurants and bars in their taprooms which are open until 2am complete with live music, and do directly compete with bars and taverns there. But apparently that’s OK if that brewery is on the other side of a geo-political state line.

Imagine if the Co-Op decided not to sell local farmers vegetables because the farmers compete with the Co-Op by selling at the farmers market. Or supermarkets pulling all Wheat Montana product because Wheat Montana has their own stores where they sell their product. Should such a business philosophy become prevalent in Montana, it would damage our small businesses and affect jobs and our state’s economy.

Most local bars and taverns have not pulled the Montana labels however, and some are reporting increases in business as consumers seeking local beers are going where the product is served. A recent visit to one taproom (based only on anecdotal observation) suggests an increase in business. But that might have happened even without this controversy.
So the bill never passed, but this absurd situation endures. It’s a mess. How can this situation be resolved? Will it endure for years until nobody remembers why Montana beers are boycotted? How can the parties perhaps get together and work this out?

Maybe we could emulate of one of Obama’s successful ideas and hold a Bozeman Beer Summit. Maybe reserve the fairgrounds for a Saturday and get these tavern owners and brewers together, open it up to the public, and set up a lot of booths representing the various players in this controversy. Yeah, it’s kind of like another Montana Beer Festival or Bozeman Brewfest, but that’s not a bad thing.

Mike Comstock is an MSU graduate; software engineer by day, math tutor in the evenings, musician on the weekends, and freelance writer in his spare time.