Ale to the Chief
Author Brent Zundel
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
November 8, 2012
This past Tuesday, we re-elected Barack Obama president of the United States. As the Exponent’s designated beer drinker, I credit Obama’s crushing Electoral College victory to his well-documented love of beer. Read More…
A Toast to the Harvest
Author Brent Zundel
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
October 25, 2012
As the year’s first snows blanket Bozeman, it’s time to pause for a minute and toast a special time of year: the harvest. While the end of the summer growing season has historically been important in brewing various beverages, today the dropping temperatures signal a new round of seasonal beers and a shift in many people’s drinking preferences.
Crisp, lighter beers cool us off during the hot summer months, but many folks want a different kind of drink to warm their bellies and ward off the nip of cool fall nights. Here are a few options to consider. Read More…
Atomic Ale
Author Brent Zundel
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
October 11, 2012
Quick: What would you do if a nuclear bomb exploded over Bozeman? After the shock wave passed, what would you do amidst the roiling chaos that surrounded you? Futilely wish you’d joined the Church Universal and Triumphant so you could live out the rest of your days in their underground end-of-times bunkers near Corwin Springs? Drive as fast as you can against the prevailing wind?
What about cracking a cold one, sitting on your porch and just watching the world go to shit? Read More…
Beer Floats
Author Brent Zundel
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
September 27, 2012
I’m going to share with you one of the greatest discoveries I have ever made. I’m not sure you deserve this paradigm-shifting information without any effort of your own, but it’s so seductive I can’t resist.
Beer floats. Read More…
Harvest Moon
Author Brent Zundel
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
September 13, 2012
“This is an aggressive ale. You probably won’t like it. It is quite doubtful that you have the taste or sophistication to be able to appreciate an ale of this quality and depth.” Read More…
Introducing The Brewponent
Author Brent Zundel
By Brent Zundel and Matt Kennedy
For the MSU Exponent
September 6, 2012
Don’t worry, we understand why you did it. Why you drank Folgers this morning and why you’re already looking forward to that Coors Light later today. Sure, other beer and coffee is expensive. Anyway, the only people who like specialty beer and coffee are snobs. They strut into the coffee shop or bar, with their thin moustaches, loafers and stylish scarves, and order something you don’t understand. Maybe you can pronounce it, but you don’t know what’s in it, and you certainly don’t drink it with a smugness only appropriate for English royalty and AKC dog shows. We get it. If you have to look and act like that, it seems better to continue buying the 24 packs of PBR.
Lucky for us, Bozeman’s drinking culture is not populated by snobs. Read More…
Great Beer from a Great State
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
June 8, 2012
Beer is one of the most culturally important aspects of growing up, perhaps at no time more so than in college. While finding someone to buy a 30-rack seems to be the most pressing need for some freshmen, beer’s importance in Montana transcends those concerns in a number of important ways.
Unlike wine, beer suffers from often unfair stereotypes. While some beer drinkers earn their frat boy reputations, many others simply enjoy partaking in one of mankind’s most ancient rituals. Oftentimes, the ingredients — water, barley, yeast and hops — are cultivated very differently just one valley over, which makes beer from every small brewery unique.
Montana is one of the best places in the world for beer lovers, with a variety as big as our sky. Per capita, Montana has the second most breweries in the nation — ahead of Oregon and just barely behind Vermont. Moreover, Montanans consume the third most beer per person in the country.
“Montana is one of the best places in the world for beer lovers, with a variety as big as our sky.” Read More…
Montana Beer Fest Comes to Bozeman
Members of the Red Lodge Brewing Company, dressed in kilts for the occasion, show off their wares. Photo by Brent Zundel
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
April 19, 2012
Nothing brings together a community like good beer and a good cause. With 38 breweries serving 110 beers and $1,000 donated to charity, last Friday’s Montana Beer Fest had plenty of both ingredients.
The sixth annual event brought primarily Montana breweries to the Gallatin County Fairgrounds, but also included larger craft breweries from across the Pacific Northwest, like Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery and California’s Sierra Nevada. Read More…
SUB Pub to Move Forward, but Serving Only Keystone
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
March 29, 2012
Note: This satirical news article originally appeared as part of the Exponent’s annual April Fools’ Day edition, the Excrement.
None of this will be served at the new SUB Pub. Only Keystone. Photo by Brent Zundel
In a recent decision, SUB Director Dutch Hamburger has begun moving forward with plans to install a pub in the basement of the Student Union Building. The only caveat, he said, is that the new campus gathering place will serve exclusively Keystone beer.
“The Coors Brewing Company made us an offer we couldn’t refuse,” Hamburger said. A representative from the Bozeman Brewing Company responded to the Exponent’s request for comment. “We could sell cheap beer too, if we made it out of cat piss instead of barley,” he said, upset at not winning the contract to supply booze to MSU’s 13,500 students.
Dean of Students Matt Shares was initially hesitant about the idea. “At first, I thought that a SUB Pub would be a great way to support local breweries,” he said, listing off Bozone, 406 and Madison River. “But, more importantly, I think teaching college kids to drink responsibly is critical.”
“What could go wrong?” —Dean of Students Matt Shares Read More…
New Microbrewery Opens in Belgrade
Pint glasses and growlers wait to be filled above the taps at Outlaw Brewing in Belgrade, Mont. Photo by Brent Zundel
By Brent Zundel
For the MSU Exponent
March 1, 2012
Take the Belgrade Interstate exit and the last right before the train tracks to sample a pint of the newest beer in Montana. On Jan. 16, Outlaw Brewing’s taps started flowing.
Located inside the Bar 3 Bar-B-Q restaurant, the brewpub is in an industrial section of town with blaring train whistles adding to the beer drinking experience. New tables and a barbecue joint atmosphere contrast the inside of the building sharply with the exterior. Read More…
Author
Mountain Solitaire Author Brent Zundel
MOUNTAIN SOLITAIRE 