Bozeman, MT: Breweries

Here are my ratings for the breweries in the Bozeman area from my favorite to least favorite!

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Walking Mountains Brewing – Rating: Worth it!

On my third day in town, we popped over to Walking Mountains Brewing to try a few of their beers and grab a bite. We did a flight of four of their beers and the “tachos” (tater tot nachos), which were fine. We really should have gotten a pizza instead since those looked pretty bomb!

Here are the descriptions of the four beers we tried, from the menu:

• Digger Bee, Honey Rye: ABV 5.6% IBU 18 – Golden, Smooth, Crisp. The Digger Bee is crafted with a mild sweetness of honey and the perfect hint of rye mingling with a classic noble hop spice character.
• Apricot Sour, Wild Brett Ale: ABV 7.2% IBU 2 – Funky Fruity, Refreshing. This one off Frankenbarrel release is a golden ale blend aged on wild Brettanomyces yeasts and aged with buckets of apricots, vanilla beans, and alight kiss of spice.
• First Frost, Nitro Vanilla Cream Ale: ABV 5.1% IBU 16 Hops: Galaxy, Citra – Smooth, Creamy, Mellow. This classic nitrogen cream is brewed with oats and wheat ale aged with Madagascar vanilla beans. The First Frost is clear, smooth, creamy, and mellow like a favorite vinyl album playing on a lazy afternoon.
• Nice Fella, Italian Pilsner: ABV 5.4% IBU 14 Hops: Nelson Sauvin – White grape, Crisp, Smooth. Nice Fella is a new age twist on a contemporary German style pilsner. It is dry hopped with highly sought after hops from New Zealand to add a soft yet fruity background.

Honestly, overall really good beers! The apricot sour was my favorite and it was sour – as a Hawaii reference, it tasted a lot like li hing powder. The honey rye was my second favorite and had a great balance of the honey flavor without being too sweet. The nitro was great in taste (I’m just still not sure I like nitros – they always seem flat to me) and the pilsner was good also but a bit on the hoppy side for a pilsner. I would definitely say this brewery is worth a visit and it’s located very near Bozeman Brewing Company.

Bridger Brewing – Rating: Just OK, but good pizza!

Bridger Brewing is out by MSU campus, which was a fun excuse to get out to that end of town. The bar had a great atmosphere and an extensive pizza menu. I ended up trying the Highland pizza and it was great! The beer was fine – a little unremarkable to me in flavor but not bad.

Of the 10 brews on tap, I tried the following:

• Mad Mile Cream Ale: ABV 5.2%, IBU 20 – This crisp, clean ale is infused with fresh cucumber and honeydew melon.
• Summer Shandy: ABV 4.8%, IBU 16 – Zesty lemon with hints of floral and spice.
• Space Cowboy Pale Ale: ABV 5.2%, IBU 40 – In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo II Moon Landing, we partnered with Crooked Yard Hops with help from MSU to send malt, hops, water, and yeast into space and brewed this sessionable pale ale with aromas of sweet pine and light citrus, a crisp malt body, and hoppy finish.
• Salute the Whale Amber Ale: ABV 5.2%, IBU 30 – This craft beer staple has a warm honey hue, a sweet malty backbone with notes of cracker and bread, a mild floral aroma, and is well-balanced with appropriate bitterness.

Bozeman Brewing Company – Rating: Just OK

This was my third brewery in Bozeman – located close to Walking Mountains Brewing.

Of the 12 brews on tap, I tried the following:

• Hey Bear Honey Kolsch: ABV 6.0% IBU 27
• And So It Gose Black: ABV 4.4% IBU 0
• Shandy: ABV 3.1% IBU 20
• Hop Sour: ABV 5.1% IBU 0

Of all these, I would say that I liked the Kolsch the best as an easy drinking beer but in general not the most interesting beers. The Shandy was really just the Kolsch with some San Pellegrino poured in, which I was not particularly impressed with.

This is the most “classic” brewery in town, but honestly I think it’s worth a pass.

406 Brewing Company – Rating: Worth Skipping

This was my first brewery in Bozeman and I wouldn’t say that I was particularly impressed, though I am spoiled with Seattle beers!

I tried four beers – below are their descriptions off the 406 Brewing menu:

• Dr Hop Gose: ABV 4.2% >1 IBU – 3.68 pH Lacto ferment Gose, finished with 1056 and hella dry hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo hops.
• Blonde Ale: ABV 5.2% 20 IBU – A great summertime Blonde Ale. Wakatu hops give a nice floral and slight lime essence.
• The Peach Cobbler: ABV 5.0% 29 IBU – This Hefeweizen has a nice base of Pilsner malt, Magnum hops for bittering and Cascade hops for aroma.
• J.A.M.ber Ale: ABV 6.1% 21 IBU – Rich and malty. A good helping of Special B malt gives a deep caramel note with a hint of dark dried fruit reminisce of raisin.

Overall, I wasn’t over the moon with any of them and my favorites of these were probably either the Dr Hop Gose (though it was a bit sweet) and the J.A.M.ber Ale as a darker nut brown ale. I was disappointed by the Peach Cobbler, since I usual love fruit flavored beers, but I just wasn’t getting much flavor from it.