I'm from Hawaii and I'm about to be in Bozeman MT. Any suggestions for beer and/or brew pubs would be greatly appreciated.
There are a ton of options. Mountains Walking has a ton of hype for their IPAs, pastry sours, and pastry stouts, none of which are my preferred styles, so I didn’t visit when I were there. I liked Bozeman Brewing, which had a good selection of barrel-aged sours when I visited.
Snake River is from Wyoming. Grew up in Bozeman area, live in WY now. Mountains Walking, Bridger Brewing, Bozeman Brewing, and Madison River are definitely go tos. Map Brewing is also pretty decent.
Also, check out Montana Ale Works! Great food, lots of Montana raised meats and veggies. As well as most, 90%+, of the beer they serve is from around the state of Montana, so a good way to check out stuff from Billings, Missoula, Helena, etc. all is one building.
People love Mountains Walking for their pastry, smoothie style beers. The food is decent too. For hazies, food and a view go to Map. For some solid brews across the board hit up Outlaw. Their food trucks are solid as well. For "lambic" style beers and old school sours hit up Bozeman Brewing. It's across the Street From Mtns Walking. I like Bunkhouse. They have a small taproom on campus and just opened a second location in 4 Corners. Freefall and Last Best Brewing are fairly new and I haven't heard much buzz about them. The beers were just okay and I haven't been back since they opened. Montana Ale Works, in my opinion, has really gone downhill lately. Another thing to note is that most places have super limited hours and zero to no help. It's pretty painful to go out to dinner sometimes. For beer bars there's Shine right downtown, decent bottle shop to boot and Hop Lounge is a new joint on the way to 4 Corners. If you head that way there's Nordic Brew Works, weird concept, I think they just serve another breweries beers. Across the parking lot is Sidewinders. Solid tap list and solid food. In that same complex you'll find Single Barrel. Might be able to score some decent bourbons. Speaking of bourbon/tequila, there's Devil's Toboggan in the Cannery District. It's damn spendy but they have Pappy and the usual hype beast libations. One last thing, go have a drink at the rooftop bar at The Armory Hotel. Worth the view alone. Anything else feel free to ask. I think that covers most of here...
For my money's worth, Mountains Walking and Bozeman Brewing are the must-hits. Outlaw and Bridger are both great also. Bunkhouse and Last Best are worth a stop if you have time. Shine is a decent beer bar, but Hop Lounge is a must hit for me in that category (even if there's great outdoor space at Shine)
I was in Bozeman a few weeks ago and will echo the recommendations for Mountains Walking and Bozeman Brewing. I only had one beer from Bridger (their scotch ale) but it was solid. I had a couple of lagers from MAP--one at their taproom, the other at a restaurant--both were solid to really good. Given that I don't overly care for the hazies, Bozeman Brewing definitely got my vote as the best brewery I visited. Strong sour game and their Plum Street porter was one I had to have a full pint of after having it as part of a flight--later to find out it won a Gold at the World Beer Cup. Not surprised by that at all. One thing to keep in mind: Breweries that produce under 10,000 barrels can only sell a person a total of 48 ounces of beer per person per day. Their hours are limited by law as well. Mountains Walking and Bozeman Brewing offered flights, which was handy given the serving restrictions. Would also recommend Montana Ale Works and Shine (for its tap and liquor store selections).
