Andrew Fish / Leader Staff

Polson's Glacier Brewing Company owes its existence to a long drive through Wyoming many years ago.

Dave Ayers, 40, of Polson, explains that his then-girlfriend-now-wife was a seasonal ranger at Glacier National Park and they were driving through Wyoming on the way from their home in Colorado. His wife was sleeping and he had only to vast empty Wyoming landscape to entertain himself. All the sudden, he had a vision.

"The whole thing just popped into my head," explained Ayers. "I was going to open a Glacier Brewing company. I was going to have a Golden Grizzly Ale. I even pictured the building." Ayers originally pictured the brewery's location as West Glacier. But, after he drew up the plans and wrote down the idea, he filed them away and let them, he said, "float around my head and ferment."

One of the founders of the brewery and its head brewer, Ayers has been around beer for a long time. He had been a home-brewer for some time when his curiosity led him to take a job as a keg-washer at a brewery in Ft. Collins, Colo. He stayed at the brewery and learned on the job, eventually working his way to an apprenticeship under the head brewer. Ayers enjoyed being an assistant brewer and really had a handle on the ins-and-outs of brewing, but he wasn't quite ready to be a head brewer. That changed when the head brewer decided to quit one day. "The boss decided I would be the new head brewer because I seemed to know the most about brewing," remembered Ayers. "I wasn't sure I was ready, it was a real sink or swim opportunity. Well, I swam."

Ayers stayed on as head brewer for a while, but eventually the office-politics at the brewery drove him to seek employment as a framer. After a year commuting to job he hated and missing his calling as a brewer, Ayers wasn't sure what to do when one day he came home and a man called to speak to him about his resume. A brewery in Telluride, Colo. had seen his resume on a website and wanted to interview him. He, his wife, and their newborn spent a weekend in Telluride, loved it and went home to wait. A few days later the brewery called to tell him that he had a job. His family moved and he began working as head brewer.

One of Ayers' other business partners is his brother-in-law Bob Hardy, of Polson. While Ayers was working in Telluride, Hardy experienced some life changing events that led him to leave his career as a police officer. One decision he made was to move to Polson. One day in 2001, Hardy, Ayers and Ayers' other business partner, Ayers' wife Christine, were having lunch at the Telluride brewery where Ayers worked when the topic of Glacier Brewery came up. "At that point one of us said that we should either do it or just be quiet about it," said Ayers. "We all got quiet and then someone said, why don't we do it?"

That night, Ayers went home and drew up their business plan. He also began looking for equipment. Almost as soon as he started looking a man in California posted an ad for the exact equipment he needed. He quickly snatched up the equipment, sight unseen. Finding a location wasn't as easy. He and Hardy looked around West Glacier, Kalispell and Whitefish among other places but couldn't fin the right place. In the mean time, he had brought the equipment to his father-in-law's spruce farm in Creston. There it sat for a year. Finally, Ayers got a call from Hardy, saying he had found a building in Polson. "The Elks Club had built it as a racquetball court in the '70s and when we looked at it the floor was oil covered and it was dusty. And there was a giant printing press there," said Ayers. "We looked at each other and said, 'it's perfect.'"

The brewery opened its doors in the spring of 2003. Long time customers will probably remember that the original tasting room was just a small office space on the front of the brew house. Limited space meant limited retail opportunities. Ayers recalls people calling to tell him that they wanted to stop "but that there were two cars out front and they figured there wouldn't be room." Most of the brewery's business was merchandisers coming to pick up bottles to sell elsewhere. Last year's addition of a newer and much larger tasting room changed that. The new tasting room was designed to be a warm, bright and family friendly. "We wanted it to be a well lit, open space" said Ayers. "A place that people felt ok bringing their families."

Making the tasting room a friendly and relaxing place has really paid off. Ayers describes the look as rustic but clean. Beer and soda are served from behind a bar made with planks from Hunt's Timbers in St. Ignatius. The wainscoting is actually rough sawn timber recovered from an old barn that was being torn down. Many of the items decorating the wall are from Ayers' personal collection, but several are customer donations. "The shotgun, the bison skull and the chastity belt are donations," said Ayers with a grin. "And that guy's wife got pregnant the week he gave it to me."

According to Ayers most of his business now comes from people that come to the tasting room. While summer has always been a busy time for the brewery, people now come during the winter to socialize in the welcoming atmosphere of the tasting room. Ayers feels that people feels that people feel all right with bringing their children to the tasting room because it is such a relaxing and friendly environment. In addition to providing a community space, Ayers said that they have always tried to be a socially responsible corporate citizen. He frequently receives requests to help with local causes and honors them when he can.

On tap at the brewery are several varieties of beer and soda. When deciding what type of beer to brew, Ayers relies in part on customer requests. He consults his recipe book to determine the parameters for a particular type of beer but uses his extensive knowledge to determine the exact proportions of ingredients to arrive at the taste he's aiming for. The Golden Grizzly Ale was the first beer recipe that Ayers developed completely on his own. Ayer's creations have won many awards, including on for his Flathead Cherry Ale that arrived during the interview.

Jim Meyers, the assistant brewer, got his start the same way as Ayers: washing kegs. He has been Ayers' apprentice for about one year. Meyers admits his obsession with good beer is what drew him to want to work in a brewery but the art of brewing is what keeps him there. "It allows me to take on my fear of chemistry, water and enclosed spaces," jokes Meyers as he works at stirring a vat of beer in its first stages. "Making beer is one of the most fun things I've done in my life. And I get paid for it."

When Ayers first decided that he was going to open a brewery in Polson, people told him he was crazy. In retrospect Ayers feels that he would not have been as successful had he opened in a different town. "I can not fathom that we'd have been as successful or made the amazing personal relationships that we have if we'd opened somewhere else," said Ayers. "The community support has been great."