Überbrew

Thought I would start a thread specifically for these guys. I'm sure someone here knows a little more about them but I had such a positive experience there and with their recent success at GABF I thought people might be more interested in what they have going on. I had the pleasure to stop by the brewery yesterday for lunch as I was in town for a few hours for work. Cool location in a renovated old building. Got the great rustic/modern vibe going on with lots of reclaimed wood, iron, concrete etc. Place is really well lit during the day, nice tall ceilings. A great spot for sure. Grabbed lunch and the food was spot on. Well above average pub/bar food. I randomly happened to run into a college roommate who I haven't seen since my wedding three years ago. We were both thousands of miles from home and just happened to stop at Über for lunch! How random...

To the good stuff... the beer! Started right off with the Alpha Force Rap Dom (sp?). Which is their 9-10% DIPA. Yup pretty blown away to be drinking this caliber of beer in Billings, MT. Such well hidden alcohol, super smooth, yet exploding with hop flavor and aroma. Lots of late addition hops and multiple dry hop additions according to the head brewer. Unfortunately I didn't write down the exact hops they used in this one. There'a a reason these guys took home more medals at GABF than anyone else, won Alpha King last year, and got second this year. Tried a 16/32 Saison and an Amora IPA. Both well executed beers.

It was quiet in the pub so I asked my server if they offered brewery tours. Sure enough one of the bar tenders took me back into the brew house to give me a quick "tour". I had a couple of technical questions about water, yeast, fermentation blah blah blah that were a little over the head of the bar tender so I just kind of asked out loud to the brewer working at the time. Turns out it was Mark Hastings the owner and Head Brewer. He was kind enough to give me 5 minutes of his time and answer a bunch of questions I had about what their water was like, how they had to adjust it, the yeast they use, malts, etc. He then gave me one of his cards. One of the best interactions I've ever had with a pro brewer.

Left to do a bit more work that afternoon but decided to go back for a quick bite and a beer for dinner. Place was jamming! Managed to find a seat at the bar. Ordered the Alpha Force Double Tap (last year's Alpha King winner and this year's bronze in the American Style Black Ale category) and since it was last call an Iconic Pale Ale as well. I wasn't there for more than 5 minutes when Mark noticed me and came up to shake my hand and say hello again! I'm generally not a huge fan of black IPAs but Double Tap was prett damn good. If you were to close your eyes I bet you'd have a hard time believing it was a black IPA, almost zero roast or traditional "dark" flavors.

Get towards the end of my dinner and one of the bar tenders came up and told me Mark comped my beers. Again blown away by his gestures towards a random beer geek who was just wanting to glean some info from an experienced brewer. Grabbed a growler of their fresh hop red Ale and headed out the door.

The hoppy beers these guys are making are right up there with the big hitters here in the west that have a little larger distro. They're brewing on a 10bbl system if memory serves me so distribution is probably a little limited but if passing through Billings it's a must but make sure to demand your local beer nerd bar at least tries to get some!

Great beer and great people! Congrats to Uberbrew on their success!!!!

 

Yeah the bottled stuff doesn't really represent the beer they brew in Billings.

Red Chair in Bozeman had 8 of their beers on tap this past weekend. Had another Rapdom and another IPA I can't remember the name of that had 7 different hops with predominately Idaho 7. Was incredibly good. On another note their website game might be the weakest thing they got going on.