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shop. The trio got serious about beer (when not back-country skiing) and their by-the-bootstraps creation, Big Sky, has grown so rapidly that today it brews more beer in one facility than the rest of Montana’s twenty-three breweries combined. Not bad for “a bunch of yahoos up here having a good time,” says cofounder Bjorn Nabozney. To certain Montanans who rue progress, the sudden success and size (around 40,000 barrels per year sold in Montana, Washington, Arizona, and twenty-one other states) can seem off-putting, but it’s hard to begrudge their good-natured success. “We’ve sort of become the Schmidt Brewery of the craft scene with all of our animals,” says Nabozney, whose mother designs the cartoon-like label art for the brewery. A visit to the bright, modern taproom is a fun affair, because every visitor is allowed four samples, which are no mere sips. Despite the location in an industrial park, there’s often a sizeable crowd on hand.

PHILOSOPHY

Ultimately, Big Sky is in it for the beer. “We don’t brew to get medals,” says Nobozney. “We brew for ourselves. We brew what we like. Which is very similar to a lot of craft brewers. We don’t brew a West Coast–style beer; we don’t brew an East Coast–style beer. We’re kind of monkeys-in-the-middle with regard to our hops and our malt characters. Our alcohols are pretty manageable; we don’t brew a bunch of extreme beers. When I’m having a beer, I want to enjoy my third beer and not feel like I’m overly full or like I can’t have another one. After I’m done skiing or getting off the river, I want to be able to have a couple.”

That approach has paid off. “We know that because of our size, we’re not the local beer anymore, we’re more like Montana’s beer. We’re an apple in a basket of oranges—distinctly different,” he says.

KEY BEER

The success of Big Sky has been built largely on the huge sales of Moose Drool, a slightly sweet-tasting 5.3% ABV American Brown Ale made with a tangy touch of Willamette hops from the Pacific Northwest, but the brewery’s more ambitious barrel-aged barley wines, Belgian-style saisons, and other limited releases are worth trying, too.

LOCAL HERO

BRENNAN’S WAVE: Missoula and the Bitterroot area are famous for whitewater rafting, kayaking, and river boarding. In the taprooms and bars of Missoula, you’ll inevitably hear of this man-made whitewater kayaking destination downtown on the Clark Fork River at Caras Park. Local Brennan Guth was a star high school athlete who later discovered whitewater and created a Montana-based kayaking school. He died in a boating accident in Chile in 2001, and a major community effort, including donations from Big Sky Brewing Co., resulted in the construction of this $300,000 play spot in the river (for experienced paddlers only), which was the site of the U.S. Freestyle Kayaking Championships in 2010. It’s a meaningful local landmark.

BAYERN

BREWING

1507 Montana St. • Missoula, MT 59801-1409

(406) 721-1482 • bayernbrewery.com • Established: 1987

SCENE & STORY

Think: Little Bavaria. Owner and head brewer Jürgen Knöller, who bought the operation from its original owners in 1991, is a born-and-raised Bavarian brewmaster, and he has taken great pains to create the atmosphere of a traditional German bierstube here, with wooden tables, German breweriana, hop garlands, and a barrel on the bar. The space is clean, with a wide bar and plenty of tables and stools inside. There are some traditional snacks available, like German Landjaegers (Bavarian beef jerky), and on Fridays, during the warm months, brats and sauerkraut are served outside. It’s popular with firefighters in very dry years, reports Knöller, and there’s a strong local contingent of fans as well.

PHILOSOPHY

“We’re a lot different than the other breweries. For one, it’s the good old way of brewing German beer, following the Reinheitsgebot [the German Beer Purity Law of 1516, still followed in spirit if not to the letter of the law in southern Germany],” says Jürgen. Which means the only ingredients used are malt, hops, yeast, and water, with nothing