What’s the Deal with Montana Brewery Laws?

Montana brewery laws might be restrictive – but they’re probably to thank for the state’s vibrant craft beer scene!

Many a tourist coming through our great state will notice brewery after brewery. Whether it’s driving past a lone brewery on a desolate highway or seeing a bunch packed together in a busy downtown, they must be thinking, “Montanans really loves their beer,” right?

On closer inspection though, these breweries have some peculiarities. Check their hours, and it seems they close at the disreputable hour of 8:00pm. Walk inside one, and the bartender might hand you a strange business card with three spaces on it. And then expect you to present it every time you order a drink!

What gives? Why is Montana so weird when it comes to breweries?

The Legacy of Prohibition

Way, way back, in ye olde 1880s, the people of the Montana Territory gathered together to petition the federal government for statehood. They were a bunch of Wild West types, and while they wanted all the benefits of statehood, they didn’t take kindly to the feds telling them how to run things. And being the hard-living types that they were, there were a fair number of bars and breweries scattered around Big Sky country.

Fast forward 30 years, and America’s views on alcohol have undergone a dramatic shift. The federal government bans alcohol of any type with the 18th amendment, but enforcement of Prohibition is sporadic at best in Montana. No big surprise, Montana became the first state to repeal prohibition in 1926, seven years before the country ratified the 21st amendment to end it federally.

But only the country’s largest breweries weathered the lingering effects of Prohibition, the Great Depression, and World War II, and Montana’s were no exception. Historic breweries like Kessler in Helena and Tivoli in Butte made a go of it, but closed down as competition from national breweries became too fierce. Those bigger national breweries succeeded largely by cutting costs – and quality (honestly, beer in America was an embarrassment).

That all changed at the tail end of the 1970s, when the nationwide legalization of homebrewing kicked off the craft beer revolution. Less than a decade later, Bayern Brewing opened in Missoula and launched Montana’s modern craft beer scene.

Regulating the Montana Beer Industry

For their first decade or so, the handful of breweries operating in Montana were required to abide by the three-tiered chain of producer-distributor-retailer. Breweries couldn’t sell their own beer, so there were no taprooms. Rather, they had to sell their product to wholesalers, who would then distribute it out to retailers. This regulation cut into their profits, making it harder to open and maintain a brewery.

But in 1999, Montana passed a new brewery law to allow them to sell directly to the public. Now, small- to medium-sized breweries could sell their product directly to stores, restaurants, and bars without the middleman.

Not only that, they could now open their own taprooms and serve their beer straight to customers – essentially acting as a bar, but without needing the expensive license that would usually be required.

For customers who liked the idea of talking to the person that who their beer and seeing where it was brewed, this was a big hit. Breweries became more profitable, and more popular, than ever before.

So, breweries were happy, customers were happy, stores were happy. But the Montana Tavern Association, which represents bars and other establishments with a liquor license, saw this as a play to undercut its members’ business.

Previously, breweries were the producers, and stores, restaurants, and bars had their place as retailers. Under the new law, those same producers could sell to the public and at a much lower price. Suddenly, drinking at a bar was the more expensive option.

To alleviate their concerns, the Montana legislature set up some new brewery rules to differentiate them from bars and reduce their advantage.

Current Montana Brewery Laws

The state’s rules regarding breweries might seem arbitrary and ridiculous to the tourist passing through, but the numbers speak for themselves – Montana has the third-highest number of breweries per capita of any state, lagging only behind Maine and Vermont.

8:00pm Last Call

Montana breweries can open as early as 10:00am, but most don’t serve until noon simply because there isn’t enough of a “morning beers” crowd to justify it. More punishingly, last call must be at 8:00pm, after which they can stay open one more hour to let patrons finish their beers and sell canned or bottled drinks.

The limited hours prevent breweries from directly competing with bars, which can serve until 2:00am, and even restaurants, which can serve until 11:00pm. It also protects breweries from becoming a negative influence on the community, by minimizing the social harms that come with being open later (I mean, nothing good happens after midnight).

Three-Drink Limit

Perhaps the most jarring aspect of Montana brewery culture, the punch card, exists because of the three-drink limit. Each customer can only be served 48 ounces of a brewery’s product per day (although if it’s before 8:00pm, you can just go down the road to the next brewery for three more drinks).

Technically, Montana breweries operate “tasting rooms,” and each pint glass is a “sample.” It’s a bit silly, and there’s little pretense that the beers being served are a “sample” to savor. But the limit is strictly enforced, and many breweries, especially if they’re busy, pass out little cards with three spaces on them. With each beer you order, a space gets marked off.

Similar to the regulations around opening and closing times, the 48-ounce rule prevents breweries from competing with bars, who can serve customers until they’re visibly intoxicated (and often beyond…). It also shields breweries and the areas they’re in from the harmful effects of overconsumption.

No Food Allowed

“Hey now, I’ve had a few pints at a Montana brewery, and I’ve often had a burger or a slice of pizza with my beer.”

Yes, but there are some caveats, because another rule limiting Montana breweries is that they can’t serve food.

However, a number of have breweries ponied up for the proper licensing to serve food along with their beer. Others invite local food trucks to their parking lot, and some have permanent food stands just outside the taproom, but they are entirely separate businesses. Plenty of other breweries operate on a BYOF policy – Bring Your Own Food; some even put out delivery menus for area restaurants. Those that don’t have any other food available often serve free popcorn that you can serve yourself.

But if the brewery actually has a kitchen and serves its own food, it could be operating under a different type of license – and the 8:00pm last call and 48-ounce limit might not apply.

Growler Fills

This is one area where Montana beer laws are a bit looser than some states. If you’ve ever lived someplace with more gratuitous restrictions, like Massachusetts or Idaho, you know there can be all sorts of foolishness associated with growler fills.

Some states only permit breweries to fill their own branded growlers, which leads to you clearing out a whole pantry shelf to start a glass collection – a different growler for every brewery. Others require special tamper-proof tape over the growler to ensure you don’t open it on the way home (and without which it’s considered an open container).

Fortunately, Montana is having none of that. You can fill any growler at any brewery, whether that’s a brown glass bottle from Limberlost filled at Draught Works or your own neon Hydro Flask filled at Angry Hanks.

Pro tip: bringing in a growler from an obscure brewery is a great conversation starter for nerding out with the bartender.

Spirits & Wine Get in on the Action

Not to be left out, Montana’s distilling community called for a similar loosening of regulations and got it in 2005. In 2009, RoughStock opened the first distillery in Montana since Prohibition just outside of Bozeman. (Things did not end well for them, but many other distilleries have opened up across the state since.)

Like breweries, Montana distilleries are prohibited from serving after 8:00pm. And similarly, they’re only allowed to serve customers two ounces of liquor per day. For them, the taproom really is just a place to try samples before making a purchase. Unlike breweries, there’s also a limit on what customers can buy to consume off-premises (1.75L per day) – I guess so as to not compete with state liquor stores?

While not nearly as large as the brewing industry, Montana has several excellent wineries that serve their product directly to the public. Curiously, Montana winery rules are more lax, with no additional limits on how much they can serve or when they can serve it. They’re only held to the general restrictions that no establishment can sell alcohol between 2:00am and 8:00am, whether it’s a bar, grocery store, or gas station.

No matter what kind of alcohol you’re enjoying, the legal drinking age in Montana is 21, just as it is everywhere else in the U.S.

Is It All Smoke & Mirrors?

Even the New York Times has covered Montana’s brewery laws, highlighting how these convoluted regulations allowed upstart breweries to operate as bars without paying the exorbitant fees required of full bars.

The Tavern Association has even called for breweries to be forced to buy full liquor licenses, which can cost upwards of a quarter million dollars. Such a requirement would decimate the brewery industry, and all but a few of the biggest would inevitably close their taprooms. But do Montana brewery rules unfairly burden bar owners who may have invested their life savings into those expensive liquor licenses?

The liquor licensing system was created to protect communities from the potential harms of alcohol. A bar on every street corner isn’t great for crime rates or property values, especially if they’re on the dive-ier end of the spectrum.

Then there’s the gambling that’s tied into so many alcohol-serving establishments in Montana, since bars with full liquor licenses can have video poker and keno machines. Add to that the fact that many of Montana’s casinos start serving alcohol at 8:00am. Liquor licenses are expensive because they’re limited, in an effort to rein in the number of bars and the potential social harm that comes with them.

But breweries don’t attract the same level of violence, alcoholism, or gambling that full bars do, in large part because of the strict regulations they have to follow. Eliminating gaming machines, closing early, and limiting drinks, not to mention the lack of shots being served, makes for a less contentious atmosphere. Police are called far less frequently to breweries than they are to equally popular bars.

In 2019, brewery owners did ask the legislature to extend their hours to 10:00pm, but the bill was shot down due to opposition from the Tavern Association. It’s safe to say these Montana brewery rules aren’t likely to change any time soon.

A Culture of Experimentation

The Montana craft beer industry has experienced explosive growth through the 2010s, tripling in size, though it has leveled off since the beginning of the pandemic.

At least a portion of that growth can be attributed to the ease with which a person can open a brewery in the state. While the rules might seem strange, there’s no denying that Montana has one of the most competitive and innovative brewery scenes in the country.

What do you think – are Montana brewery regulations fair?

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