Bayern Brewing is Montana’s oldest
MISSOULA – Bayern Brewing’s beer is easy to come by in stores, but a visit to Montana’s oldest brewery and its tap room isn’t to be missed when checking out Missoula’s beer scene.
“We have a great beer garden with a giant chessboard. There’s all kinds of activities to enjoy,” said Jared Spiker, Bayern sales and marketing manager. “We have windows around the building so you can look into every aspect for the brewing, even the bottling line.”
The tap room has a new copper tap system. Instead of bartenders lugging kegs around, the beer flows from the cooler through the ceiling to the bar.
Bayern is one of the few breweries to specialize in Bavarian beer (“Bayern” means Bavaria in German). The brewery crafts traditional German beer with traditional techniques and German equipment.
Owner Jürgen Knöller is a native Bavarian. He was Bayern’s brewmaster from its 1987 opening and bought the brewery in 1991.
“Lagers and ales have a distinctive taste. We brew German lagers, which means we use a bottom-fermenting yeast, which ferments at a lower temperature. That means it takes two to three times as long to make,” Spiker said. “If you were going to pull an ale and a lager off the shelf you can taste the difference.”
About 5 percent of Bayern beer sells through the brewery’s tap room, which is off Russell Street a few blocks south of the Clark Fork River.
“The benefit of being the oldest brewery in Montana is we have a quality, consistent product people can count on,” Spiker said. “Because we’ve been around so long it means people have been buying our product for many years and continue to support us.”
The most popular beer in the tap room is Bayern Amber, “the beer that got the craft revolution going,” but Dragon’s Breath Dark Heff leads overall sales.
Within a few weeks, Bayern Oktoberfest will start appearing in stores and on taps.
“It’s one of the beers we’re most famous for in the state,” Spiker said. “It’s out for two months, September and October, and it’s a get-it-while-you-can beer.”
He said many people quiz him when the beer is going to show up in their local stores. Then they swoop in and stockpile.
“If they’re in a little town where their store gets four packs, they buy it out and then are there waiting the next week when the shipment comes in,” he said.
The brewery has some gorgeous labels, including a Fort Benton/Square Butte scene on the brewery’s amber. Knöller and local artist Monte Dolack are friends, and Dolack turned some of his prints into labels. Bock means ram, and so Dolack paintings of mountain goat and bighorn sheep became the labels for Bayern Maibock and Bayern Doppelbock.
“A lot of tourists can relate to the art,” Spiker said. Some even collect labels.
The brewery offers crowlers, a 32 oz. can filled like a growler.
In the fall, Bayern expanded with the Edelweise Bistro on the upper floor. There you can enjoy spätzel and schnitzel and other favorites prepared by a German chef.
“In Missoula, it’s the only place you’re going to get authentic German cuisine,” Spiker said. “A lot of it is Jürgen’s own recipes.”
Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Inbody at kinbody@greatfallstribune.com. Follow her on Twitter at @GFTrib_KInbody.
If you go
BREWERY: Bayern Brewing
SINCE: 1987
LOCATION: 1507 Montana St., Missoula
HOURS: noon to 8 p.m., daily
TOP BEER: Dragon’s Breath Dark Heff
ONLINE:bayernbrewery.com
NOTE: The brewery specializes in German lagers and also has German cuisine at the Edelweise Bistro upstairs. Staff will recommend beer-food pairings.