Glacier Brewing brings home the iron from Bigfork Brewfest

The Bigfork Brewfest’s People’s Choice Award for Best Beer went to Glacier Brewing Company in Polson for its Snowpack Limoncello Seltzer.

“Everybody likes it,” said Patrick May, who owns the brewery with his wife Sarah. The couple is quite excited about the award, given at the conclusion of the March 4 event.

“We approached ours differently because we don’t like traditional seltzers,” Patrick said about Snowpak Limoncello Seltzer.

When they first began making seltzers, they used 75 percent cereal grains as the rules required. Now the rules have loosened up, Patrick said.

“We also use a percentage of pure sugar,” he added. “We also use powdered malt, which makes for a better flavor and better body.”

Patrick said they’ve always had a great experience at the annual Bigfork Brewfest. Its organizers reached out to the Mays when they first bought the brewery, and they’ve taken brews to the event for four years.

This marks Glacier’s second award in the last year; the limoncello seltzer also won Best Seltzer/ Cider at the Pints-for-a-Path Brewfest in West Glacier.

Glacier Brewing Co.’s branding is about fun, according to Patrick, a theme the couple emphasizes with brews named Cow in a Coal Mine, the Grapefruit Falcon, Rude Rooster Rye, Golden Grizzly, and Creeper Pigeon IPA. They want a brand with a story that builds a character.

For instance, the Cow in a Coal Mine label features a black and white cow with the family brand on its arm in homage to the Mays’ ranching roots. Patrick’s father attended Colstrip High School which helps explain why the cow is seated in a mining car wearing a miner’s helmet.

To support Montana, their marketing brand and starving artists, Sarah and Patrick are planning to launch the BAIR Project, which will round up interested art students from around Montana and pay them professional wages to do their graphic designs. Sarah is a very talented graphic designer, too.

But first comes warm weather and more local patrons shaking off hibernation and visitors coming to enjoy the handcrafted beer in the brewery itself or in its outside area. Trivia night is Wednesdays at 6 p.m. A food truck serving gourmet crepes and comfort food will be outside all summer to feed hungry customers.

“It’s gonna be a wild summer,” Patrick predicted, since they’re planning on attending more than a dozen brewfests instead of their usual eight to ten.

Also there will be live music starting Memorial Day from 5-8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and continuing until Labor Day. Patrick recruits local bands from the Flathead to Missoula, who play outdoors on the bandstand.

Glacier Brewing Company opens at noon, with the last pour at 7:50 p.m., and closes at 9 p.m.

From Memorial Day to Labor Day, doors open at 10 a.m.