Montana Beers in Washington?

[RimChamps]

I was wondering what beers from Montana are officially available in Washington. I'm trying to get a good selection in my restaurant.

I know about:
Big Sky (Moose Drool etc.)
Lang (Tri-Motor Ale etc)
Spanish Peaks (Black Dog Ale etc)

Any others?

Thanks,

Konrad

[iahebert]

Moose is pretty easily findable here. It's not super common, but you can find it in most grocery stores. Fred Meyer is a good place to get it, also Whole Foods.

Depending on where you are in WA, there's a place in Bellevue called the Tap House Grill. They have 160+ beers on tap (that's not a typo) and they have a couple big sky brews on tap, including moose drool.

I say check it out, if for nothing else, 160 beers is impressive.

[BrewDog]

Don't forget all the AWESOME WA local beer, too (see my avatar for one).

[RimChamps]

I feel very lucky to be in Washington it is world class center of beer, wine and food. But places serving Washington's finest are a dime a dozen. As the two time Montana state BBQ champ I'm going with a Montana theme in our small BBQ joint. We do have Scuttlebutt and while our distributor sucks Phil Jr. takes AWESOME care of us. Right now we have about 17 bottles and 2 taps. In the next few weeks that should be at 20+ bottles and 4 to 6 taps, all taps will be craft beers.

Thanks to Costco I can bring in any beer I want direct from out of state breweries and may just have to go shopping this fall, tough job but someone has to do it.

[BrewDog]

It saddens me that your restaurant is right here in the Snoqualmie Valley in Duvall yet you won't even consider serving Snoqualmie Falls Brews (what is it, 3 towns over?).

Their stuff is certainly not a dime a dozen, nor is it found in every bar in the area. Rande Reed is the head brewer and used to be the head brewer for Thomas Kemper before they were bought out by Pyramid. One of his beers is cloned in the "North American Clone Brews" books. He was asked to write the review on the back of Greg Noonan's classic "Brewing Lager Beers" book. The guy is an awesome brewer and I feel incredibly lucky to have their brewery and now brewpub in our backyard.

Please reconsider. Their distribution is improving but it takes guys like you to help keep beers like this in front of the public. The Montana theme is "neat", but I'm pretty sure that nobody will really notice that when they WILL notice local beers on the menu (or the lack thereof).

[RimChamps]

The Montana theme has been around a lot longer than us having a beer license. It does get noticed, the number one question we get is are we from Montana, as the place is full of Montana trophies. We've had very positive customer feedback on both Scuttlebutt and Big Sky. A huge number of our customers have a connection with Montana.

My Columbia rep was in today and he carries Snoqualmie and will bring us some free samples to try next week.

The problem for the craft brewers is most distributors employ order takers rather than salesmen.

[BrewDog]

Great-
I agree with you about the order takers comments.

I look forward to stopping in sometime soon. I didn't know you were there and now I'll make a point of it. I LOVE good BBQ.

Thanks-

[RimChamps]

What's amazing is the local AB rep came in with flyers for Speakeasy beers from San Francisco. I asked about samples and was told they only give samples of beers that don't sell. Sounds like AB is shooting itself in the foot once again. I can get samples of whatever I want from the other distributors.

I'm slowly working through the samples that Snoqualmie dropped off.

[BrewDog]

Good. I was in their brewpub tonight. Had a couple of CopperHeads and some of the Oatmeal Stout (on Nitro).

I think you'll like their beers.

[ScottKingofBeer]

I haven't logged on in a while, sorry I missed this question earlier. I

n addition to the ones you have, I would suggest you try to add something from Bayern Brewing. They brew out of Missoula and I know that there distribution netwrks takes them into washington, Oregon and I believe California as well. They brew a number of German styles. I like the Amber Lager and the Hefe the best, but thats just my personal preference.

Additionally, I would recomend the follwing Montana Brews if you can get them, you may not be able to.

Blackfoot River IPA from Helena

White Cap Pale Ale from Flathead Lake Brewing

Pig Ass Porter from Belt, Montana.