About
Big Sky Brewing Company was started by Neal Leathers, Bjorn Nabozney, and Brad Robinson. Brad and Neal had been homebrewers in Michigan since the mid 1980’s, and had moved to Missoula with a group of friends in the summer of 1990. In 1993 they started to set up a brewery. After about a year and a half, Big Sky Brewing Company had enough cash in the bank and a large enough bank loan to begin purchasing equipment and renovating its original location at 120-A Hickory Street. We brewed our first batch of beer in mid-June of 1995.

The company was a draft only brewery (no bottled beer) for its first five and a half years. We brewed everything on Hickory Street, but we realized that to really become a regional player we had to find a way to put our beer into bottles. in early 2002 we broke ground on a new brewery on Trumpeter Way just north of Missoula’s airport. We began brewing in the new brewery in September of 2002 and started bottling our beer there in January of 2003. Since then, we have been where we always wanted to be, brewing and packaging all of our beer right here in Missoula.
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andrewje41 (7956) reviewed
Powder Hound Winter Ale from Big Sky Brewing Company
3 years ago
7.2/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 8 Overall 7
12 oz can. Picked up a six pack just as the first snow of the year was falling. Perfect timing to bring this brew out of rating hiatus. Clean golden pour. Patchy head. Crisp taste up front. Toast like malt character, with winter piney hops. Cool flavor, and tastes a little stronger than it is. This batch listed at 6.5%. Flavorful IPA.
Tried from Can on 04 Dec 2022 at 19:47
nuplastikk (10801) reviewed
Hazy IPA from Big Sky Brewing Company
3 years ago
6.9/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
12oz can. Pretty decent aroma, flavor for a less than ten dollar sixpack hazy. I suppose this is more of a juicy IPA than a hazy to me. Pleasantly light on the palate. Pleasant tropical tones. OK.
Tried from Can on 24 Nov 2022 at 07:01
solidfunk (22755) reviewed
Space Goat from Big Sky Brewing Company
3 years ago
6.1/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 6 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 5.5
Pineapple and some sour tangerine. A little marmalade. Pours golden with decent head. Finishes fairly on the sour citrusy side. Can.
Tried from Can on 13 Nov 2022 at 03:34
BoiseBrewBlog (9283) reviewed
Olde Bluehair (2011) from Big Sky Brewing Company
3 years ago
7.4/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 8 Overall 7.5
2011 750 Medium reddish amber. Thin off white head . Light woody malty flavors. Mellowed out buttered. Just a smooth tasty slightly sweet big ale
Tried on 16 Oct 2022 at 00:51
stevoj (19093) reviewed
Shake A Day Double Juicy IPA from Big Sky Brewing Company
3 years ago
6.9/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
Draft at Jumpin' Janet's. Clear golden pour, spotty head, rings of lacing. Malty aroma with a light fruity edge. Taste brings light tropical notes, fruity, trailing bitterness, full, earthy, abrupt finish. A bit dry.
Tried from Draft on 01 Oct 2022 at 20:50
bhensonb (23077) reviewed
Shake A Day Double Juicy IPA from Big Sky Brewing Company
3 years ago
7.9/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 8.5
Can from Total Wine in Folsom, CA. Pours clear copper/amber with a large creamy white head. Aroma of lots of hop - some citrus/pine, some weed notes. Approaching full bodied. It's juicy, not wholly dry. There's lots of hop bitter - lots of pine resin and some herbal/earth notes. A wee bit astringent. Excellent.
Tried from Can on 30 Sep 2022 at 00:57
Kleg (4018) reviewed
Huck It from Big Sky Brewing Company
4 years ago
6.8/10 — Appearance 4 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 4 Overall 8
12 oz.bottle from Withey's Health Foods in Kalispell, MT. Pours a clear orange-amber color with a small white head and decent retention. Almost no lacing. Fruit jelly aroma. Sweet Huckleberry jelly flavor in a basic base beer. This is more of a fruit beer than a blonde ale. That said, the flavor tastes natural and it's very refreshing on a hot summer day. Light body. Good carbonation. Zero bitterness. An enjoyable beer, even if there's not much beer flavor.
Tried from Bottle on 17 Aug 2022 at 23:55
jgb9348 (12478) reviewed
Olde Bluehair from Big Sky Brewing Company
4 years ago
8.9/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 9 Flavor 9 Texture 10 Overall 8.5
Labelled as 'Ale aged in American Oak Bourbon Barrels at 12,3% Alc/Vol, 2015 Vintage Beautiful, fairly hazy amber and deep copper coloured body with hints of ruby, brown and orange - very nice, all with a thinnish, relatively fast-dying off-white head that starts off at about two centimetres and ends at just a layer after a few minutes. Aroma of rich pitted fruits with some figs, apricots, plums, raisins, grapes and even some caramelised sugars and some alcohol noticeable, but the sugars are great here and show off nicely in the nose along with some subdued yeast. Medium-bodied; Very amazing sweetness shows at first with the fruits all front and centre along with some earthiness, but a lot of figs, apricots, pears, raisins, plums and brown along with caster sugar all come through nicely here and brings out a great sweetness that is balanced out with a ton of richness and yeast that shows some strength at the end, but the aging is great here. Aftertaste is sweet, rich and very fruity with a lot of caramelised sugars and enjoyable richness from earthy and slight pungency from yeast, but this seems like around 8 or at most 9 per cent alcohol that goes down quite easily. Overall, a very nice barley wine, perhaps it always was or always will be, but the aging I did with this seems to be very nice and while I wish I had another bottle, this might be around the absolutely perfect time to drink this one - while it still has a lot of body and complexity, but goes down very easily, especially the for the style. I sampled this 75 cL corked and caged bottle (2015 Vintage), purchased from Vintage Sellars in Great Falls, Montana on 20-June-2016 for US$16,95 as Bottle #3080 of 3300, sampled at my house here in Washington, just over six years after purchase and 7 years after bottling sampled just before my birthday on 26-June-2022.
Tried from Can on 28 Jun 2022 at 08:08
Kleg (4018) reviewed
Summer Honey from Big Sky Brewing Company
4 years ago
7.5/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 8
Big 19.2 oz can from local grocery store. Pours a crystal clear gold color with a small white head and decent retention. Light lacing. As expected, aroma of bread and honey. Tastes like a lager with honey and only a hint of bread flavor in the finish. Very clean and smooth and easy drinking. Sweet, but not too sweet. Medium-light body. Semi-crisp mouthfeel. Not bitter. Maybe not a great blonde, but easily repeatable.
Tried from Can on 25 Jun 2022 at 05:11
wombat23 (6579) reviewed
Merlinerweisse from Big Sky Brewing Company
4 years ago
6.9/10 — Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
On tap at Aces & Ales. Hazy pale gold, white head. Tart strawberries, funk, salt. Good.
Tried from Draft on 23 Jun 2022 at 21:01