If one heads east on Durston, the road turns into Peach. Then heading east on Peach past Rouse, then past Wallace, you get to the more industrial side of Bozeman down by Story Mill and the railroad tracks. As the road veers south and turns into Broadway, that’s where the Bozeman Brewing Company is located. And I mention this because that’s where the tasting room is where one can sample Bozone Amber Ale or one of the other fine select micro-brews produced at Bozeman Brewing.

Owner Todd Scott and brewer Bill Highland told me that there are four beers brewed year round and always available, and another dozen seasonal ales of which four are usually on tap at any given time. There isn’t any food served or a gift shop in the small tasting room which holds maybe three dozen patrons, but that’s just fine because the tasting room is all about the beer. And on almost any evening after work, the tasting room is full of regulars and other patrons sampling the great products from Bozeman Brewing. Todd led me on a tour of the brewery, and it is large and impressive.

Todd is originally from Indiana and attended culinary school in Joliet, IL. After that he came west and was a cook in Yellowstone Park for a couple years at Roosevelt Lodge where he met his wife. After a few years in California, they came back to Montana and Todd found work as the brewer for Spanish Peaks brewery from 1992 until 2001 when the brewing was moved to Salinas, CA, and the restaurant was relocated to East Main in Bozeman. I remember living in Seattle in the 1990s and being excited to find Spanish Peaks beers at the local supermarket. It was quite a step up from Rainier. I was surprised to learn that Spanish Peaks was actually brewed at Rainier for about a year.

Wanting to continue to brew beer and live in Bozeman, Todd purchased the brewing equipment from Spanish Peaks and rented the space where the brewery is located today. Todd tells of the day he signed the lease which was the day before the cement was poured for the brewing room floor, and the week before the equipment from Spanish Peaks had to be moved in. Out back of the brewery, the white barley grain silo still has the 10 foot tall Spanish Peaks logo painted on the side (check it out!). Although the original Spanish Peaks brewing equipment has been taken out of service and replaced with newer and bigger equipment, it has been recently sold to a startup brewery in Spokane and will again be in use after 20 years of service.

Currently beer is brewed three days a week using Montana barley, and the brewery produces about 5,000 kegs of beer per year. This beer is sold around western Montana via mostly distributorships to around 150 different establishments. One can purchase a keg or smaller pony keg at Bozeman Brewing, but the biggest distributor for parties and events is Joe’s Parkway across from the MSU campus on College. There is a list on the wall next to the bar of the tasting room of all of the establishments serving Bozeman Brewing beers.

Several months ago a dozen Bozeman area bars and restaurants stopped carrying Bozeman Brewing beers over a Montana Tavern Owners rift regarding a proposed tasting room bill in the Montana Legislature. (See Beer Wars in the May issue). That led to a downturn in business, but the bill was tabled in committee and most of those establishments have resumed carrying Bozeman Brewing beers again.

Bozeman Brewing is one of two dozen small Montana based beer makers that comprise the Montana Brewing Association. A recent tri-fold publication available at Bozeman Brewing shows the locations of all of these breweries which can be quite an aid in finding fun brewing destinations for the upcoming summer weekends. Maybe a Poker Run to micro-brew tasting rooms, yeah, that’s the ticket.

The tasting room has been operating for five years and is typically open from 4-8pm daily. There are 9 people currently working at Bozeman Brewing and they’re all quite friendly and helpful. They seem to really enjoy their work, who wouldn’t, it’s a brewery!

The typical beer is aged and fermented for three weeks and is then ready for consumption. But there are a couple beers which are aged in oak barrels for several months, and I’m waiting to try one of those. Todd described one called “Funky Virtue”, a Belgian beer which is aged for a year and has cherries added to it. It’s also a 12% strong alcohol content beer, but for now it’s still aging and not available. I can hardly wait.
The exciting news in the future for all us micro-brew aficionados is that in the next few months Bozeman Brewing will be installing equipment to can beer, so soon we’ll be able to get those great beers in a six-pack at the local supermarket. At that point, production will increase to brewing four days a week.

Scott says that cans are preferable to bottles for several reasons, the main being that cans allow no light into the container. Light entering a bottle changes the chemical content and can ruin the taste of beer. That’s why the better beer bottles are typically dark brown or dark green because those colors keep most of the light out of the container. Cans are also recyclable, faster and easier to chill, are lighter in weight, cost less, and won’t break.

So if you have a chance on a hot summer day after work, come on down to the best brewing company on Broadway (and in Bozeman) and sample some of the great product as well as the original Bozone Amber. Good times, great people, and wonderful beer. Say hi to Todd or Bill if they are in. Then write about your good times or send pics to: stories@BozemanBrewing.com

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.