2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Big Sky Brewing Company, Missoula, MT (July 9th, Brewery Stop #34)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Big Sky Brewing Company, Missoula, MT (July 9th, Brewery Stop #34) (recovered post) The 34th brewery visited during our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Big Sky Brewing Co. in Missoula Montana. After visiting family in Bismark North Dakota, we hit the road west and crossed the great barren north, or ‘Fly-over’ country as most call it. We got into Missoula in the afternoon and checked into our hotel, and to refridgerate the beers we had in our trunk. The brewery scene in Missoula wasn’t totally unfamiliar to us as we had visited it a year prior for a few days while on a work trip. We knew that tasters were limited and the amount of beer they could serve a person was restricted per visit, so we planned on just hitting a few breweries for tasters and then finding dinner and going from there. The first brewery we hit as it was closest to the hotel we stayed at was Big Sky. It’s located on the edge of town just off the freeway and it’s pretty easy to find. The production facility and tasting room look like a big …

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2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR, Portland OR to Portland ME and back… 24 June-9 July, 2015

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR, Portland OR to Portland ME and back…7800 miles later… From late June to early July 2015 I was lucky enough to go on a cross country road trip with Gary and our nephew Devin. We drove my car from Portland Oregon to Portland Maine in just about three weeks. We took a ‘central US’ path East and came back taking a more northern passage. Regarding where we went each day, we made it to about 40 breweries and a handful of tap-houses, bars, and brewpubs to find local beers and food along the way. While the long distance driving was challenging some days (10+ hrs at a time), we really enjoyed the trip with it’s the ever-changing scenery and wonderful cities, towns, and people we met. Before leaving on the trip, we gathered and then took a couple of cases of local specialty beers for our friend Rusty in Pittsburgh. The sucky part was that while we wanted the beers to not get ruined by the heat, we ended up unloading and reloading it a LOT as we stopped each night. This is a valuable learning experience, to stick to mailing stuff like beer and wine, …

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