This month we took a road trip to a really fun brewery, the Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company in Red Lodge. The taproom opens at 11am and since it’s a two hour drive from Bozeman, we left at 9am, which meant getting up at 7:30 on a Saturday. We wanted to be there when the place opened. We reasoned the beer would be fresher then.

The drive was awesome as the fall leaves were turning color. The fastest way is to take I-90 to Columbus and then drive up through Absorkee along the Little Rosebud river. The Beartooths were in view with their first winter coat of snow for the season, and the roads were free of motorhomes, Harleys, trailers, semi’s and bicycles.  That’s a good thing because then you can drive a bit faster and that road is kind of like a roller coaster in places. Lots  of fun. There were a lot of road-kill deer though, and the fields along the highway were filled with deer.  Probably because hunting season was still a week away.

Anyways, we ended up arriving late because the brewery had moved. It’s been a few years, and the old brewery used to be in town, so we spent a bit of time driving around looking for it. Finally we looked up the address. The new iPhone is great for us guys because we can get directions now and still don’t have to ask anybody for them. Everybody wins.

The new location (which has been there for two years now) is about a mile or so north of the edge of town on the road from Red Lodge to Laurel. It’s north of where the road from Columbus comes in, so of course we never saw it on the way in. The new building is really large and hard to miss, well, if you drive by it that is.

So we arrived about 11:30 and there were already a dozen patrons having lunch. Red Lodge Ales serves great food too, and I ordered my favorite, the Reuben sandwich, the one food I like as much or more than beer.  But clearly I’d need beer to get that Reuben down, so I started off with a Glacier Ale which was a great medium dark amber full bodied beer. It complemented the Reuben perfectly. Later I found out that the Glacier Ale is a medal-winning beer. The Red Lodge Ales website has great descriptions of each beer.

I followed that with a Resurrection Doppelbock beer, which is really dark, has a caramel taste, and then an almost chocolate/coffee aftertaste. The transition from taste to aftertaste with each sip was unusual yet surprisingly delicious. Later I read that the aftertaste is actually licorice. The literature on the Doppelbock says that it is modeled after a German beer: “According to lore, two goats pulled the Norse god, Thor’s, chariot when he travelled. Each night he would eat the goats and resurrect them the following day with his magic hammer, Mjolnir.” So the Resurrection part is clear, and apparently Doppelbock means “double beer”.  (I thought it might mean two goats.) Maybe Thor had this beer while eating his goats. You’d think he’d get tired of goats and beer every night. I didn’t see any goat burgers on the menu to go with my Dopplebock, but that’s probably just as well.

So after a couple beers and lunch, it was time for the tour. The Red Lodge Ales brewing company was started by Sam Hoffman in 1993. He was out of town during our trip, but we had it on good authority that the secret to his excellent beermaking is in part due to his German heritage. Many of the beers are modeled after traditional European beers. The brewing part of the facility is quite large and windows allow the restaurant and bar patrons to look in upon the brewmaking process. There are perhaps a dozen large tanks of various sizes in the room, but still extra room for expansion. If you are interested, tours can be arranged for groups in advance.

Currently Red Lodge Ales produces about 4,000 barrels of beer a year, but has the capacity to turn out around 10,000, so there is plenty of room for expansion. The beer is brewed in batches, and each batch takes about six hours and produces about 20 barrels of beer. Much of the distribution is to Billings. The beer is also bottled in six packs and 22 oz bombers, and patrons can get Growlers filled at the bar for a very reasonable price.  About a dozen people are employed by the brewery, pub, and restaurant.

So we took some pictures, met the brew hound, and had a great tour. By the time we got done, it was around 2pm and the bar/restaurant area was pretty much full of fun people having great beer and food. The bar is actually a separate business entity from the brewery and is called Sams Taproom and Restaurant. The brewery actually sells the beer to the bar and they share the same building.

Red Lodge Ales has 8-10 year-round labels, and four or five seasonal ales. Currently the seasonal ale is the Oktoberfest, and the Winterfest will be ready soon. The regular ales include the Ullr Fest Lager (after the Norse god of snow & skiing), the Monster Maibock, the Bent Nail IPA, the Broken Nail IPA (8.5 % !), Jacks Scottish Ale, Beartooth Pale Ale, Porter, Hefeweizen, and the Czech Mate. There is also a Kings Cupboard ale and a Chocolate Stout. Gotta try me one of those chocolate ones. These beers aren’t weak either, and average around 6% alcohol content. I didn’t even ask about the calories.

Red Lodge Ales also strives to be a ‘green’ company. The roof of the facility is lined with solar cells, and there are several unique engineering additions to make the facility energy efficient. The new facility includes what Red Lodge Ales claims is “the largest solar thermal array in the state of Montana”, and they use hot water to heat the brewery in the winter and to heat process water in the summer. The refrigerators and coolers also have a system that uses outdoor air to cool in the winter rather than the traditional refrigerator compressors.

We did have lots of fun, but really only sampled a few of the many great beers and one of the great items on the menu. So we’re planning on going there again soon. I’d recommend a fun trip to Red Lodge Ales. Maybe spend the night and do some skiing too.

Red Lodge Ales is located at:
1445 North Broadway
Red Lodge, MT 59068 ·
(406) 446-4607
www.RedLodgeAles.com

Mike Comstock is an MSU graduate; software engineer by day, math tutor in the evenings, musician on the weekends, and freelance writer in his spare time.