The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [83]
KEY BEER
Bayern Pilsner, at 5% ABV, is exactly true to style, and has a bready taste with good, ample, noble hop flavor, which is on the spicy side.
KETTLEHOUSE
MYRTLE ST.
602 Myrtle St. • Missoula, MT 59801
(406) 728-1660, ext. 201 • Established: 2009
KETTLEHOUSE
NORTH SIDE
313 N. 1st St. West • Missoula, MT 59802
(406) 728-1660, ext. 222 • Established: 1995
SCENE & STORY
The original location of Kettlehouse, a brew-on-premises facility where customers could make their own beer in small batches, has a gritty, backcountry ski hut feel, and newcomers are likely to find the crowd at least two-deep around the bar. It’s there you’ll find the magnificently named Al Pils—bartender, in-house philosopher, and the bearded inspiration behind a house beer bearing his own name. Pils and his cohorts serve an ultra dedicated fan base that sometimes refer to their favorite establishment as the “K-Hole,” mingling as they sip on taproom-only offerings like the kookily named (but seriously brewed) Fresh Bongwater Pale Ale, Hemptober Spliff, and Discombobulator Maibock.
The newer north side location, necessitated by the company’s steady growth, is a sleeker affair straddling the Orange Street underpass and built in an old train building, with high ceilings, exposed brick walls, and a wooden bar that must be one of the longest in Montana. It’s a slightly more serene atmosphere, but not stuffy by any stretch of the imagination.
PHILOSOPHY
Tim O’Leary, Kettlehouse’s founder, set out to match the quality of his beer to that of Montana’s outdoor bounty. “I guess I don’t call myself a brewmaster because I have a degree in physics,” says the Helena native. “And I didn’t go to formal brewing school, but we’ve taken recipes that I’ve created, and those that our staff has created, and refined them. A core principle of ours is to buy local ingredients whenever possible. The barley that we use is grown in Montana, across the divide. The hops come from the Willamette and Yakima valleys, and then we use pure Montana water. I spend most of my thinking, working, and worrying time on the quality of the beer. Montana’s like a small town. If I put my name on a beer, I want to be proud of it, because I might see someone on the street, and they have no qualms about coming up to me to say, ‘Hey, your beer’s great!’ or ‘Your beer sucks.’ If we’re not making award-winning beer, I’m not doing my job. You’ve got to listen to people.”
KEY BEER
“Cold smoke” is a skier’s term for the sort of snow that forms with low humidity and low-temperature conditions, creating the best powder. It’s light, buoyant, and rare outside the Rockies. Kettlehouse’s award-winning beer of the same name isn’t overly heavy, nor is it airy and light. It’s a Scotch Ale that has fulsome, malty body with a slight smoky character. Spicy accents from East Kent Goldings hops (a British version also grown in the American West) balance it beautifully.
DETOUR
BIG DIPPER ICE CREAM
631 S. Higgins • Missoula, MT 59801 • (406) 543-5722 • bigdipper
icecream.com
Not only is Cold Smoke the name for the best snow and a favorite local beer, it’s now an ice-cream flavor, too. Big Dipper, a classic old-fashioned ice-cream stand which opened in the back of the original Kettlehouse brewery location in 1995, has become a staple in Missoula and achieved fame far beyond thanks to its retro feel. Cold Smoke ice-cream is made with Kettlehouse’s signature Scotch Ale. Today, the company has a new location in Helena’s Last Chance Gulch downtown, and added Big Sky IPA as a flavor, too. Other flavors (there are about forty total) include Pumpkin, Egg Nog, Chipotle Chocolate, Huckleberry Sorbet, and Strawberry Thin Mint Chip.
GLACIER
BREWING CO.
6 10th Ave. East • Polson, MT 59860-3219
(406) 883-2595 • glacierbrewing.com