Sunday, June 13, 2010

Closing the Circle..

Please indulge me a little.


Starting on this VERY strange and dynamic journey of opening and running a microbrewery in northwestern Montana, I was idealistic and more than a little naive. In the original daydream, the Glacier Brewing Company existed in West Glacier, Montana. This is the "west entrance" to Glacier National Park (nevermind the Camas entrance!). It has wonderful summer traffic but extremely sparce cold-month traffic. Primarily because of this, we (my wife, her brother, and myself) decided we would be more successful to open our brewery elsewhere. We did. In Polson.
Aside from our physical location, I've always wanted to see our products for sale in the stores of Glacier National Park. The thought was this "If we could get our beer in bottles (no small task, ask any brewer!) AND get it for sale in a store in a National Park, well, now that would be something to hang one's hat on!"

Well, this last weekend, I was fortunate enough, with my family, to spend some great time in the Northfork. On our way home, we swung through West Glacier and Apgar where we witnessed our little brewery's products for sale at not only the West Glacier Merc and Eddie's Gifts, but on the menu in Eddie's Cafe!
As my family and myself finished our lunch, we looked across the room and saw another family's table with one of OUR BOTTLES ON IT!!!!!
Let me tell you that for entrepreneurs, to have our "daydreamed" products for sale alongside other Montana breweries and industry giants was a very cool thing indeed!
This is what was in my original daydream, lo those many years ago, traversing the eternal straight-a-way highways of western Wyoming: To plunge, headstrong and full-force, into the northwestern Montana life and culture and start and run a brewery and bring our products to market!
We have been seeing our beers and root beer popping up in more and more bars, restaurants, and stores than ever before! We've been pushing and pushing for this for a long time now as this is not something that can happen quickly or all at once. It takes time and persistence and energy.

It seems our beers and root beer are being demanded in more places by a wider audience than ever before! I'd like to deeply and humbly thank all of the businesses that have chosen to provide our products to the public. Your support has provided our families with deeply appreciated support! Again, THANK YOU!!!


We are striving hard and happily to keep this pace going....

I feel fortunate.
I feel lucky.
(Some days, I feel a little self-imposed curse!)

I can say without conceit and for all who started this brewery, after these years of extreme hard work and personal sacrifices.....we love this!

"Life is a spectacle. A sheer festival of light!"

until next time,
your humble brewer