Brew Tour: 406 Brewing of Bozeman, Montana

Taking a mid-winter vacation in order to head up to Missoula, Montana in order to see the Harrington's good friends Hyunhee and Hakcheol, fresh in from South Korea, the Harrington duo made a good, strong effort to map out some Montana breweries for the trip. Montana is home to over 30 micro-breweries and has the second-highest number of breweries per capita making it a beer-lovers dream come true.

Since their hours of travel were not always conducive to operating hours, the Harringtons couldn't hit up every brewery but with additional Montana-bound trips in the near future, there was no fear that the couple would miss some top destinations.

Making their way to Missoula, relatively early on January 30th, the couple was entering Bozeman, MT around noon and were thrilled to discover that one of the local breweries, 406 Brewing, would be opening their doors at exactly that hour. The couple enjoyed the bar and the bar tender nearly to themselves the entire time they were enjoying their sampler followed by pints. They received a short tour of the operation and left with a recommendation to enjoy some delicious Bar-B-Q from 3-Bar which was just down the road.

The beer was delicious (and potent, especially for the Mrs. who ended up feeling a bit embarrassed by her lack of stamina, grace and ability to drink at noon) although the exact names escape our memories - Melissa of course enjoyed something dark and either stout-like or porter-like while the man sipped on a CDA (Cascadian dark ale a.k.a. Black IPA). The atmosphere of 406 Brewing, which is housed in an old pea factory was spacious, light and absolutely charming in all those home-town-western-state kinds of ways. There are plans to implement a kitchen which will feature fine local ingredients and if they pull food off as well as they do beer, it's sure to be a fantastic dining and drinking experience.

And finally, a quality which the Harringtons loved: 406 allows you to buy your friends a beer...even if your friend isn't with you at the time. Simply give the bartender five extra bucks, tell them your friend's name, they'll write a note on a whiteboard showcasing who has beer, who bought it and how much they get to spend on the said beer. The Harrington duo was thankful to have a friend in Bozeman just to participate in this fun and generous gift-giving concept!