The Best Breweries in Billings Montana

My partner and I took a trip to Montana to check out Bozeman and Billings. We wanted a quick get-away and, despite the answer to being “what’s there to do in Billings?” being nothing, it was a pretty good time. He and I are really into breweries so since there wasn’t much else to do (and we could walk to the majority of them from our AirBNB) we decided to do a mini tour-de-beer. There were some disappointments (and some local-only bars that were also a bummer) so I’m only going to talk about the best three. If you’re used to walking more than a few blocks, you can hit all of these in one night. Things close early relative to Denver so make sure to check out their hours before going on a late(ish) brewery crawl.

Thirsty Street Brewing Company

The tap list in the Thirsty Street Brewing Company taproom (there are two locations)

Thirsty Street Brewing Company was my favorite brewery in Billings by far. If you’re into sours or lighter beers this is the place for you. The vibe wasn’t anything I haven’t experienced before- bright but a little industrial. They allow dogs since they don’t have food which is nice if you are traveling with your pup. I always recommend getting a flight when trying out a new spot. In my opinion, it’s the best way to get a good idea of the range of beers a brewery has. Plus, the smaller sizes allow you to step outside your comfort zone since you can finish one of the flavors in just a few drinks if you really hate it.

For my flight, I had the Mountain Margarita, Lemon Drop American Sour, Blue Note Blueberry Sour, and Bear’s Delight Honey Wheat.

Mountain Margarita

This was by far my favorite beer I’ve had in the past year. It was light, refreshing, tasted like if a margarita was beer, and the presentation was so cute. It came with a salted rim which I thought was pretty fun. The salt was the cherry on top that really made me love this beer. I was super bummed to find out they didn’t have any in cans. So sadly, it will be the beer of my dreams in my dreams until the next time I accidentally go to Billings.

Lemon Drop American Sour

This was pretty good. It was more tart than sour which, after a weekend of almost exclusively sour beers, was welcomed. It was light and mild and I could pair this with something to eat. Typically I don’t like food with my sour beers because, well, have you ever tried to eat a burger and sour patch kids at the same time? No. Because that’s kind of gross.

Bear’s Delight Honey Wheat

This was a solid wheat beer. Nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about either. I always need at least one that’s not a sour to give me a breather in between my creative beers and this was that.

Blue Note Blueberry Sour

So this one I had really high hopes for but it fell short. It was a little too sour for me and I was hoping for more of a blueberry flavor to come through. The color was really pretty but it was a beer that I was more excited to look at than to drink.

Uberbrew

Two sample sizes of beer at Uberbrew

Sadly I only had time to try two small beers at Uberbrew but what I did have was delicious. I had the White Noise wheat beer and the Watermelon Gose.

The White Noise was a perfect beer to go with food. It didn’t have an overpowering flavor but it didn’t have the aftertaste that I get with most wheat beers. It was on the lighter side and I can tell why this is an award-winning brew. If you’re wanting something basic (gasp!) this is a must-try.

As for the Watermelon Gose, it was like a less sweet watermelon Jolly Rancher but with a tart kick. If you don’t know what a gose is in the context of beer, they tend to be tart or sour. I didn’t know that the first time I had one so just a heads up there. This is up there on my favorite list with the Mountain Margarita from Thirsty Street. There was an excellent balance of tartness with what you’d expect a watermelon beer to taste like. Since it’s a gose I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much if I had food along with it. Sour/tart beer and food just aren’t a happy pair for me.

If you’re into darker beers and IPAs, you’d appreciate knowing that those also got big thumbs up from my partner. He had The Bruce (a Scotch ale) and a seasonal IPA.

This brewery also had a full food menu which is something Thirsty Street didn’t offer. The food looked really good too as it was coming out of the kitchen.

Overall, I really liked Uberbrew. It was my second favorite brewery we tried and it was my partner’s favorite.

Montana Brewing Company

Montana Brewing Company is more of a restaurant than a brewery, though they do brew their own beers. The place was packed when we went and it seemed to be just a normal night for them (there weren’t special events going on). The beer was fine. Just fine in my opinion.

With the name Montana Brewing Company, I was expecting a brewery and not a brewpub. I was also expecting a bigger beer selection than what they had (there were maybe 5 options and two of them were basically the same only with huckleberries added). I tried the blonde and the huckleberry blonde and the huckleberry was the way to go (huckleberry anything is the way to go) but I still wasn’t that impressed. It was heavy for being in the light beer family and it was just kind of lackluster. With the non-huckleberry version, it tasted like every other run-of-the-mill blonde ale that I’ve had.

This was my second least favorite brewery we visited and it was also my partner’s least favorite. If you’re traveling with kids though, their menu was pretty extensive so this would be an option to feed the fam while also grabbing a local brew.

Freefall Brewery

My mom always said, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” With that in mind, all I have to say is that we went here and really wished we didn’t.