The Best Breweries in Montana

Yesterday Ashley Warren discovered the best bakeries in Montana according to Yelp.

Now don't get me wrong, I love a good bakery. Blueberry muffins, bear claws or good old-fashioned donuts will always be a treat, but I'm more of a brewery & bar kind of guy. Instead of finding the best bakeries, I dove into the best breweries in Montana.

The rankings were determined by an app called "Untappd." It's a fun database for beer drinkers if you're unfamiliar. You can use it to rate pours and breweries and log all the places you've visited. I scoped out each Montana city's top-rated breweries according to Untappd users.

Missoula - Imagine Nation (4.04)

Imagine Nation comes in tied for the honor of the highest-rated brewery in the entire state. Over 37 thousand ratings, too, so it's not like this is a fluke. In my opinion, Imagine Nation has tremendous beer and invests itself in the community, thus, the high rating.

Bozeman - Mountains Walking (4.04)

The Missoula-Bozeman rivalry never stops does it? Griz-Cat on the football field or Imagine Nation-Mountains Walking in the brewhouse, the rivalry is always on. Coming in tied for the highest-rated brewery is Mountains Walking. It's got a fireplace, so bonus points are awarded.

Billings - By All Means (3.95)

"We are an experimental brew lab set in place to continue to innovate, redefine and stretch the definition of "brewing" by all means necessary," - By All Means' description on Untappd.

I like the sound of that. Keep on experimenting, gang.

Helena - Copper Furrow (3.88)

This was a fun article to write for a couple of reasons: 1) I like beer. 2) It introduces me to breweries I haven't encountered.

So the next time I'm in Helena, you better believe I'll hit up Copper Furrow Brewing. That's a sweet-looking patio.

Flathead Area (Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Polson, Bigfork...) - Sacred Waters (3.81)

I decided to lump all the towns around Flathead Lake into one entry. Sacred Waters Brewing of Kalispell came out the Flathead King. You just can't beat a day on the lake capped off with a brewski at Sacred Waters.

Great Falls - Mighty Mo (3.77)

I haven't had any beer from Mighty Mo, but we'll have to change that. Its logo is sharp (it's a big fish) and the name 'Mighty Mo' is a terrific brewery name. Mighty Mo is on the brewery tour list.

Honorable Mention: Butte Brewing Company (3.58)

There were only two breweries that populated for Butte in the app, but I'm sure Butte Brewing Company still smacks.

Let us know on the app or in our Facebook comments about some of your favorite breweries in the state.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.

Source: The Best Breweries in Montana According to Untappd