Billings roundup

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cog_nate
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Billings roundup

#1 Post by cog_nate » Fri Apr 08, 2011 10:11 am

Montana Brewing Company
Sports bar atmosphere w/like food offerings (23rd Street-ish). They had Spire Mountain Dark and Dry Cider on tap, which was quite good. Way darker than I expected it to be, very apple-y and low acid with a little caramel flavor. Megan had an APA, which was not really as described. Underwhelming, a little malt flavor and lightly hopped. Maybe it was the seven hour drive up from Fort Collins that wore us out, but we didn't really like this place too much. If you have time, maybe stop by here for lunch or happy hour for a single beer.

Angry Hank's
Now this is more like it. Angry Hank's is a converted garage with the brewing apparatus plainly visible in the tap room. Bartenders are no-nonsense. Free popcorn (this is common at microbreweries in Montana for some reason). We got there a little after 4:00 and it filled up quickly. Here's what we had:
  • Head Trauma IPA: Good, frothy malt taste and full body. Maybe slightly overcarbonated. Not overpowering but lingering hop flavor w/one particular hop dominating. I think it was Centennial (the house description didn't list varieties).
    Russian Stout: Totally opaque, a little muddy. This beer has so much body it's downright pudgy. Malty malty malty w/a little booziness at the end. No roasted flavors at all, no hop flavors.
    Street Fight Imperial Red: An Imperial Red? Sure, whatever. Very nice ruby-red color, smooth and malty. Carbed just right. Very little hop flavor.
    Belgian Wheat: Straw gold, cloudy. Phenolic flavor was light but in a beer with not much else going on it was very noticeable.
Carter's Brewing
Two blocks away from Angry Hank's. Again, free popcorn. Again, brewing apparatus and pallets of grain visible in the tasting room, which is, again, a converted garage. I guess I just really dig places like that. Megan got loopy and we did a terrible duet of "Still Alive" after seeing a Portal 2 ad on the TV there. Best part: nobody noticed because it was so loud -- the place is right off the (very active) railroad tracks. Carter's seemed to have a little more Belgian stuff going on than the other places. We didn't get close to sampling all of them, but here's what we had:
  • Bier de Mars: Light golden color. Slight malt flavor but what is there is very fine. Light and lingering hop backbone. I don't know a whole lot about the bier de mars style and how this matches up to it, but it's a fine beer in its own right.
    De-Railed IPA: Cloudy and golden. Not a whole lot of malt flavor, slightly thin body. Lingering, heavy bitterness. Little carbonation (almost perfect in that regard).
    Farmhouse Ale: Unexpectedly bright. Light in every aspect, really no flavor qualities you'd expect in something called farmhouse ale. Pretty much just OK, a session beer.
    III Imperial IPA: Plenty of malt flavor and body but not oversweet like a lot of IIPAs, not overcarbed. Total over-the-top hop flavor, grapefruity (obvs) but that wasn't dominant. Not all that bitter, thankfully. We were swaying on the walk home after this one.
Yellowstone Valley Brewing
Didn't have time to stop here. Judging from their Comic Sans-heavy eyesore of a website, they get decent live bluegrass acts fairly regularly (we're going to miss Oakhurst playing there by a day, damn!).

Billings is pretty out of the way unless you're on an epic road trip and/or enjoy visiting oil refineries. But if you do stop there, visit Carter's or Angry Hank's because they're making quality beers.

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