KettleHouse Brewing Company is best known for its riverside taproom with rotating beers on tap, take-home cans, and live music events but they also, more subtly, support our community and region in important ways that you may not realize. The can in your hand makes it count.
Which non-profits have you supported in 2024 and what beer names were given out in tribute?
We've worked with a lot of great local non-profits on a small scale throughout the year with various pint nights, donations, and sponsorships, but our more robust partnerships within the last year include:
Ducks Unlimited Winter Lager, 6% ABV, 25 IBUs: Malt-driven lager with caramel notes and a crisp finish. Supports Ducks Unlimited Non-Profit. (Draft only)
Glacier Ice Rink SMASH IPA, 5.8% ABV, 30 IBUs: A S.M.A.S.H. beer (single malt, single hop) with two-row malt and a unique new hop called KRUSH. Notes of melon and citrus. This beer supports Missoula’s Glacier Ice Rink (Draft Only)
Trout Unlimited Eddy Out Pale Ale, 5.5% ABV: A piney, resinous beer with Cascade hops. This beer supports Trout Unlimited. (Draft Only)
Peaks to Prairie, 5.3% ABV, 30 IBUs: A crisp, American-style hoppy Pilsner made with Montana-grown pilsner malt. Supports the Montana Brewer's Association. (Draft only)
MPS Pilsner (Pearl Jam Collaboration), 4.9% ABV, 28 IBUs: Traditionally brewed Czech-style pilsner. Light-bodied, crisp, and refreshing. This beer supports Montana Pool Service (MPS), a non-profit founded by Jeff Ament (of Big Sandy, MT), co-founder and bassist of Pearl Jam. MPS helps fund world-class skateparks in rural and isolated communities throughout Montana and across the West. (Draft and 16oz can 4-packs)
Doc Fest IPA, 5.5% ABV: Dry-hopped IPA with an abundance of Chinook, Cascade, Citra, and Simcoe hops. Heavy-handed late hop additions make this a more floral, less bitter, and easy-sipping IPA. Brewed in celebration of the 21st anniversary of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. KettleHouse is the official beer sponsor for BSDFF. (Draft and 16oz can 4-packs)
National Forest Foundation - Montana Forest Fund: KettleHouse teamed up with the National Forest Foundation to create the Montana Forest Fund. The Montana Forest Fund invests funds into priority restoration and recreation-based projects that provide meaningful and lasting improvement to Montana’s National Forests. This partnership includes a dedicated tap handle at the KettleHouse taproom in Bonner with rotating beers supporting the Montana Forest Fund, as well as a percentage of sales from all KettleHouse hard seltzer 4-packs and 8-packs of 16oz cans.
What started this idea?
Staying involved and supporting our community is something that's always been important to KettleHouse. While we do participate in more traditional ways of supporting non-profits via donations, sponsorships, and volunteerism, we wanted a chance to partner with a few organizations as a more robust and committed partnership. Collaborating with non-profits to make a beer gives our customers a chance to learn more about causes we care about. Often times, it's our customers and friends bringing these causes to our attention, so we're grateful we can be involved in this way.
How do you decide on which non-profits to feature?
There are so many wonderful non-profits out there doing meaningful work so this can be challenging. We partner with organizations that align with our mission and values whether it's an outdoor focused non-profit benefiting our state's natural resources, or a community focused non-profit.