By Lori Wickett, Montana Wheat & Barley Committee
Stop at any town across Montana and whether there are stop lights, or no lights at all, you’re likely to find a watering hole – or pit stop – or hole-in- the-wall – the local tavern. Here is where you can find the latest gossip about Uncle Lenny selling his best rope horse to the crazy guy from Pennsylvania, how the fourth grade teacher got locked in the bathroom by a couple of precocious students, or how a state sales tax will be the ruin of us all. There might even be a game of cards in the corner, and surely you’ll find dice on the bar.
This Treasure State scene has remained fairly consistent for the last one hundred years or so, offering the standard favorites from Coors Light to Budweiser, and Jack Daniels to Jim Beam, until the word “microbrew” became a thing. Not that it wasn’t real before; in fact the first brew shop appeared in 1863 in Virginia City called the Thorn-Smith Brewery, long before Montana became a state. In contemporary times, the first to launch a brewery was Missoula’s Bayern Brewing in 1987. It is now the oldest microbrewery in Montana. That success has given distillers courage to develop fine spirits, so we now have a map blooming with distilleries, too.
It is no secret that brewing great beer, or distilling a great spirit, is as much art as it is science. There are many aficionados that champion Montana brews as having the best flavor, and it’s not just opinion. Apparently the North American Brewers Association finds it fact, awarding thirteen Montana breweries a total of twenty-nine medals in this year’s International Beer and Cider Awards. Altogether, Montana counts
100 breweries and another twenty-five distilleries operating across the Big Sky.
Most consumers might recognize that barley, and sometimes wheat, is the key ingredient in their glass. But many do not know why this specialty crop is so important. The intensely competitive beer and spirit market has witnessed a downward trend in beer consumption with consumers walking away from traditional tastes and demanding new, bold flavors from their beverages. The microbrew industry has been able to adjust to this demand with a wider range of offerings, similar to how spirits can create a new cocktail.
Flavor Begins with the Variety
Hannah Uhlmann, Montana State University director of the Barley, Malt & Brewing Quality Lab, says that every barley variety starts in the lab with barley breeders. These are people who, as plant geneticists, specialize in crossing plants to achieve certain outcomes. A breeder might be working on an agronomic trait, such as drought tolerance or disease resistance, or a food characteristic, like a nutty flavor.
Successful crosses produce offspring with genetics from both parents. Those early seeds are planted to make a first generation cross. Multiple generations will then be planted and grown to create plant consistency, with the first family of plants including as many as 200 unique plants, or “lines.” Everything is measured from the malt quality traits, to the seed head size, to time to maturity, and more. Important in this early development phase is seed volume – it must reach sufficient levels in order to test for malting evaluations (120 grams). These diverse lines will be narrowed down again to a single line that best exhibits the ideal combination of traits that meets the breeder’s original objective.
At MSU, Barley Breeder Jamie Sherman continuously works the plots through years two, three and four, making sure these generational seeds meet the needs of the idea or challenge. By the fifth year, Sherman will select the best seeds to be planted in trials across the state at MSU research centers where they will have to withstand the pressures of intense environments, from drought and severe cold, to insect pressure and
varying agronomic practices. Finally, Sherman will select the very best performing line according to her strict standards. At that point, the variety will earn its own name. It still has a couple years running through the Foundation Seed program to build seed inventory, and then the Certified Seed program to ensure its purity. The whole process takes a variety 10-12 years before, as Uhlmann says, farmers can finally get a shot at it!
Enter the Maltster
Malt is the key ingredient for brewing beer and distilling whiskey. Barley varieties are critical to a maltster because he must meet the demands of the brewer while ensuring that the barley quality will “make malt.” The malt process is all about enzymes – a barley seed has a tiny sliver of tissue called the aleurone layer, critical in brewing. This aleurone layer contains a reserve of enzymes that are released when germination starts, breaking down into sugars (primarily maltose). This process is known as malting.
Barley purchased by a maltster must meet strict specifications. For barley growers, these specs can be rigid enough to cause their barley to be rejected, for example, after rainfall on a mature crop or other challenging environmental conditions compromise quality factors. A maltster will use their own barley (such as the case with Farm Power Malt) or contract with growers directly, establishing a business relationship. Both parties carry risk: the grower might have his barley rejected if it is not acceptable to the maltster, and a bad weather year that leads to a poor crop and can leave the maltster without barley supply for their brewers.
MSU’s Barley, Malt & Brewing Quality Lab
Montana State University is home to a unique combination in its Barley, Malt & Brewing Quality Lab, making it one of a kind. With everything under one roof, students have access to the entire barley chain from breeding to brewing. In 2024, MSU received an academic brewing license so that the entire supply chain could be realized for students. Testing at every stage includes assessment of barley varieties through the malting process and finishing with brewing the finished beer. They also offer public testing services, which are of limited availability at other universities with malt lab programs. Malt houses across the country have utilized this testing service, such as Riverbend Malt House in North Carolina or Maltwerks in Minnesota.
E
nd-Use Product: Spirits or Brews
Big brewers like Molson Coors or Anheuser-Busch have invested heavily in Montana’s barley industry with grain elevators located in Huntley, Power, Fairfield and Conrad. Both companies found Montana ideal as a prime growing region for their barley varieties. In each of these regions, many barley growers irrigate to dramatically expand their production per acre and consistently provide a reliable supply for large brewers.
Further north, Sunburst resides just shy of the Canadian border. This special part of Montana receives an unusual amount of rain, caught by the Sweet Grass Hills and the tallest peak known as West Butte. The Nagy family runs a small elevator in Sunburst specializing in barley purchasing, a service to many area malt barley growers in the area. Constellation Brands, home to Corona and Modelo beers, has shown an interest in contracting Montana barley, opening an international market for producers and a welcome boost to sagging domestic markets.
Sunburst is not the only dryland area successful at barley. Because barley varieties have greatly improved their ability to make malt despite relying only on Mother Nature’s rainfall, areas in central, southeast and southwest Montana are able to produce malt quality barley. This helps wheat farmers diversify their crop selections, helping to stabilize their crop portfolio and profitability.
Montana is fairly new to the distilling industry, but this market is rapidly growing. Distilling takes a long time to develop due to the necessary aging process – think growing Christmas trees. Glacier Distilling Company in Coram is the first to reach 12-year-old whiskey which is entirely distilled, aged and bottled in Montana. The flavor appeal works well for Montana distillers as they often use local infusions such as huckleberry to align with their promotion of high quality Montana barley. Headframe Spirits in Butte is now the largest single malt whiskey distillery west of the Mississippi, processing 18,000 pound of grain daily.
Buying a Glass = Supporting Farmers
Montana farmers plant more barley acres than any other state – nearly one million acres on average annually. Montana is second in production of barley at about 40-45 million bushels per year and malt barley is approximately 65-70% of the entire Montana barley crop. Summer events focusing on barley activities include Follow the Barley on August 20, a tour open to the public including a day on a local barley farm, finishing at a local brewery in Great Falls. Malteurop conducts Barley Days Molson Coors hosts Field Day, and Anheuser- Busch hosts Customer Appreciation Days. For more information about these events, email wbc@mt.gov.
While consumption trends have shifted in the last couple years, traditional lagers remain the largest beer segment in the US. We are challenging our fellow Montanans to explore the microbrewery and distillery scene this summer and fall. As you discover beautiful places in Montana you might not have been to before, or as you head to your favorite university football game, pair your experience with a stop at a local brewery or pick up a spirit you haven’t yet tried for your next neighborhood gathering. When you buy a local microbrew or a bottle of huckleberry whiskey, you’re keeping your dollars at home while helping support family farms right here in the Treasure State. And be sure to share your experiences with friends as you go!
Montana Breweries and Distilleries
taunyafagan.com/montana-beer-history
Montana Brewers Association
60 members to explore on their trail map https://montanabrewers.org/trail-map/
Montana Statistics
Barley-created jobs: 15,175
Total economic output: $2.2B
Taxes: $234M
Breweries: 101
Distilleries: 19
*2022 Ag Census, 2025 National Barley Improvement Committee