our brewery

Available at our Bigfork, MT location
Monday – Friday: 9:00am to 5:00pm

If you need a keg for a personal event, you can find it here! We feature an extensive selection of locally made craft beers sold by the keg.

PRICING & AVAILABILITY
Dock sales are offered in three sizes:
• 1/6 BBL (5 gallons, approximately 40 pints)
• 1/4 BBL (7.25 gallons, approximately 62 pints)
• 1/2 BBL (15.5 gallons, approximately 124 pints)

‍Pricing of the beer varies with the style and keg size.

• We also have equipment available to rent:
• Pump Tap: $10 fee
• Jockey Box: $25 fee

Our core brands are available year-round. For seasonal releases, contact us for more information on what’s available. Check out our beer page for more information on our styles!

HOW TO ORDER
Call (406) 837 0085 or email sales@flatheadlakebrewing.com with your request, including pickup date. A confirmation phone call or email back will let you know your keg is in stock and your order will be fulfilled.

Flathead Lake Brewing Co. & Pubhouse Donation Request Requirements
If your organization is seeking a donation from the Flathead Lake Brewing Co. & Pubhouse, please refer to the requirements listed below.
‍
1. All requested funds must be spent on projects benefiting the Flathead Valley or Montana in general.
2. You must submit proof of nonprofit status.
3 The focus of your request must be one or more of the following (requests outside of these focus areas will not be considered):

• The arts
• Building a stronger and more connected community
• Land preservation
• Sustainability
• Entrepreneurship
• Environmental integrity and the enjoyment of the outdoors
• Locally grown food
• Reducing our dependency on fossil fuels
• Please note that we believe faith and religion are personal rather than business focuses.
• We are supportive of our youth and their futures, but we believe that the promotion of alcohol in conjunction with certain children’s events and organizations sends the wrong message.
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If you meet these criteria, please send a donation request email with the following information:

• Your name
• Your email
• Organization name
• Tax ID number
• Mailing address
• Tell us a little about your organization and describe what kind of donation you are seeking.

For FLBC Pubhouse related requests, email sandy@flbcpubhouse.com. For all beer related requests, email jon@flatheadlakebrewing.com.

Sours at FLBC
Flathead Lake Brewing Company was a pioneer of Montana sour beer at the tiny but miraculous location on the east shore of the lake. When the Woods Bay location closed and the brewery moved into a production-style facility here in Bigfork, we as brewers would not allow ourselves to cross-contaminate the clean beer production in cans with the necessary microbes that can create the wonderful menagerie of sour flavors. Instead, we filled many barrels with “clean” beer to perpetuate our barrel program and keep as many oak vessels wet as possible. Once the appetite for aged beer outgrew the clean cellar floor, the decision was made to move the project below decks. There were many plans proposed to finish the lower deck of the landbound ship, which is the pub and brewery. The one currently in operation included a stage with a lake view and a room to contain all of the microbes involved in transforming beer into beautiful barrel-aged sour beers. Thus, the sour room was born, rather forged from office space, bowling alley cellar, networking farm, and old oak and steel imported from Woods Bay. This endeavor was not undertaken overnight. There were plans and changes and changes and then complications and then more changes. Eventually, there was a shell of red isolation waiting for beer to fill vessels with living libation. It is important to note here that the blending tank, as it has become known, was built into the room before finishing. Thus fully committing any non-sour savvy brewers and operators to making some sort of aged product in the basement room.

As plans were finalized and the tank, walls, and plumbing were muscled into place, a gracious use of foresight was used along with a little rainbow of luck to brew up the inaugural batch of Sour beer, the first destined just for oak in the basement. Like all the beer served here, it starts in the 30BBL brewhouse and gets fermented in our stainless conical fermenters (with a very few pending experiments). Once it gains the alcohol and zest it needs to repel the evil spoilers that would steal the nectar for themselves, it is banished from the clean cellar to the depths of the sour room.

The sour program started in Bigfork with no shortage of oak barrels. The previous plans abandoned, there were 4 dozen marooned casks waiting to transform fresh beer into aged refreshment. Not all of the casks were treated with the time-tested respect that these marvelous oak vessels deserve. Some were growing less than favorable biomes, some were left to dry until light shone through the staves, and some were left filled with vile concoctions the likes of Lucifer would never mention. All of the barrels were subject to olfactory inspection, and the ruffians were discarded to toil in the fields. Only those that were reminiscent of fine wine, brandy, bread, and charred oak made the manifest and were selected to bring FLBC beer to new depths.

The best way to start a new voyage is with a chart from the past. So we took the casks that aged the best of the FLBC sour beer in Woods Bay, under fearless skipper Tim, and fast-tracked them into the new North Shore elite. The rest of the crew was assembled to match their intended inoculations and lined up in the bilge of the brewery. While the world was quarantined during the initial bout of the 2020 plague, the tireless brewers here carefully packed away the ballast of beverage that would sustain the oak until the time was right to bring it into a blend for the good people of Bigfork, MT.

Blending is a sacred and tedious exercise that is not well taught or learned by simple procedures. We enlisted the best taste buds of the crew to gather opinions and thoughts about what the future of sour beer from FLBC would be. Finally, after a solid year of re-fermenting, waiting, feeding, topping off, and sampling, the barrels were bound for the blend. This blend is moved back to steel confines to chill. We just had to hire our salesperson to hook it up to the chilling / heating system to ensure we could package cold, premium, quality beer. With the help of our retired Air Force colonel, fighter jet pilot, and packaging expert, we revived the forsaken Little Prince bottling machine to help us captivate the blended Jewel for your enjoyment.

Once bottled and kegged, the product was hoisted and briefly aged in the sky as a leave from the leaky bilge of the brewery and brought onto the Montana Beer Scene. Now available is the award-winning Jewel of the Flathead Lake Brewing North Shore Sour Project. Awaiting in the dark, cool is a single barrel release consisting of the last barrel from Woods Bay brewery, which aged the first from the sour program here in Bigfork. We do hope that you enjoy the time-honored tradition of barrel-aged sour beer from the time-tested oak casks that have accompanied us on this beverage odyssey.

-Matt Dagle, Head Brewer

Construction of the sour room.

Almost ready!

Preparing the oak barrels.

Rainbows on brew day.

Filling the oak barrels.

Hoisting the kegs down to the cellar.

Airtime!

Pitching the sour yeast.

Beer foam!

And then we wait!

taste, taste, and more tasting.

More tasting.

Filling the sour fermenter.

Filling bottles.

Medals!

Here you’ll find information about our series of hand-bottled and wax-dipped sour beers. Each and every batch is a Jewel, so scan the QR code you’ll find on the label, find the corresponding batch number, and read about the liquid treasure you’re about to enjoy. We have officially launched our first installment of the Jewel series, but stay tuned for future releases!

Batch No. 1
‍Released Fall 2021
This is the culmination of a year’s worth of preparation and waiting for the stars to align over the Jewel.  Composed of 5 barrels with varying micro fauna, this blend brings out the best of what has been waiting in the barrel cellar.  It is fruity and funky on the nose, bright and tart on the tongue, and leaves a refreshing, wine-like, silky sour finish.

Blended from five barrels of varying ages and recipes.
Brettanomyces Lambicus, Bruxelinsus, and Lactobacillus Brevis and Plantarum
ABV: 6.2% | IBU: 13

Batch No. 2
‍Released Winter 2022
Moonlight Paddle was a favorite kettle sour of the FLBC clientele for years.  We have aged some in our sour room with a helping hand from the first-ever fermentation, destined straight for the sour program in Bigfork, MT.  This blend is a light and fruity representation of oak-aged sour beer with hints of pineapple and Pinot Gris.  This beer could convince any wine lover to make the switch.

Blended from three barrels aging since the inception of the sour program in Bigfork.  Among them, the famous Moonlight Paddle Kettle Sour with Italian Plum.Brettanomyces Lambicus, Bruxelinsus, and Lactobacillus Brevis and Plantarum
ABV: 6.2% | IBU: 13