We made another trip out to Montana and Idaho for the holidays, drinking our way along. One of these years, we’re going to have to stop in Spokane, but this year we hit Wallace, ID, and Bozeman and Belgrade, MT, again.
(pictures coming soon — hopefully)
Wallace Brewing
During 2008’s snOMG (or Snowpocalypse), the missus and I ventured east to Montana for the holidays. We arrived at our halfway point — Wallace, ID — a little frazzled from crazy roads and a harried departure. There, we discovered a little restaurant called the 1313 Club, and its tiny neighbor brewery called Wallace Brewing. It wasn’t open, but this year, we made it back to Wallace before the tasting room closed.
Generally, the beer at Wallace felt weak compared to many of my favorite Oregon breweries. For one, I think most of their beers had an original gravity of under 1.045, translating to low ABVs. The body mostly wasn’t there. Their cream stout felt nice and bitter. The Red Light amber had a decent malty sweetness.
We bought a growler of the Red Light amber, mostly to see if having a full pint would somehow impart more body than you can get from a tiny glass (hey, I’m not above mind games). We threw it in the trunk and continued on.
It actually tasted a little better two days later. Go figure.
I will definitely stop at Wallace again. If nothing else, their beer has such little alcohol that I don’t feel bad about sampling a small beer before heading back onto the freeway.
Bozeman Brewing
We made it out to Bozeman, where we sampled the Bozeman Brewing (Bozone!) Amber, which is a lusciously sweet amber. It kinda reminds me of dipping my finger into a bucket of malt extract, only with suds. Yum. While skiing up at Bridger Bowl, I also had their winter seasonal, “Steep and Deep,” which was a bittersweet stout (I think). Also good. But the best thing Bozone has to offer is their wicked cool growler.
Madison River Brewing Co.
We took a day off from skiing, and we ventured northeast to Belgrade, MT, about 20 minutes up I-90 from Bozeman to Madison River Brewing Co. Madison River is way bigger than I thought. They do all the contract brewing for Wyoming’s Big Hole Brewing and Utah’s Moab Brewery. I’ve seen Big Hole and Madison River six-packs at Montana and Idaho grocery stores.
Amanda picked their Scotch Ale for her growler. It’s a bit of a tradition of ours to get a pint on the way out of the Bozeman Airport. It’s a dark, peaty, heavy Scotch ale that drinks like a meal.
We also sampled their double IPA, which was a relatively low 7.8% ABV but thick with Amarillo and Simcoe hops. I rate it a 3.5 out of 5. We tried a few others, all of which were quite good. My favorite, however, was their traditional German Hefeweizen. Unlike your cloudy and sweet American Hefeweizen — Widmer, Pyramid, etc — it was zesty and spicy. I got a growler, and it was fantastic.
Double Mountain Brewing
Our long drive home went faster than planned, so we treated ourselves to a stop at Double Mountain Brewery. Nothing like a spicy Jersey Pie and a Hop Lava to make those last rainy, foggy, twisty miles of driving through the Gorge go a little easier. We also picked up a growler of 85 IBU (!!) Fa La La La La La La La La, which is their heavy holiday ale. Delicious.
