Many people love sitting down to enjoy a cold beer. But did you know some of the best beer in Montana could be right in your own backyard?
For Jason Brenden, he's something of an expert when it comes to the “cold snack.”
“I got into brewing in kind of a weird way,” Brenden said. “I started at Outlaw, and it was just kind of a random phone call to try to volunteer to get school credit.”
Brenden began doing everything but making beer — mowing, welding and more — but he paid close attention to the brewers.
“Learning through my peers, bought a lot of books, listened to a lot of podcasts,” he said.
WATCH: From humble beginnings as a volunteer to head brewer, Jason Brenden's story proves that following your passion pays off
Today, Brenden is the head brewer and director of operations at Bridger Brewing.
Bridger Brewing has been around since 2013, starting with its location near Montana State University. Four years ago, the company opened its Three Forks location.
“The biggest change is probably just the scale we’re operating at now,” Brenden said.
With the new facility, the brewery can produce around 1 million cans of beer annually, distributing across Montana and parts of Wyoming. Their beer ranks among the best in the state.
“It definitely became surprising eventually,” Brenden said. “Like, you hope to get one or two medals, but by the time it started getting to eight, nine, ten medals, we were feeling good.”
At the 2026 Montana Beer Awards — held in Helena and judged by industry professionals from around the world — Bridger Brewing not only won Best Large Brewery but also earned 10 medals, five of them gold. The award-winning brews include Pacific Pilsner, Lee Metcalf Pale Ale, Peaks to Peach, Antilogy Black IPA and the popular Vigilante IPA.
“We’ve been cranking away, and to get that just makes it feel like all your hard work is paying off,” Brenden said. “We had a good time at the end of the night there.”
So, what makes a gold-medal beer?
“Here’s kind of like your step one,” Brenden explained, showing me the process in their large brew room. “We’re filling the mash tun."
Around 2,000 pounds of grain are turned into mash, converting starches into sugars.
“Then we pump it over into our lauter tun,” he said.
A lauter tun is essentially a giant strainer that separates the sugar water, or wort, from the grain. From there, it moves into the kettle whirlpool, where the wort boils at about 200 degrees to sterilize it.
“This is where we’ll typically start adding hops as well,” Brenden said.
After boiling, the wort mixture cools down.
“We send it down into what we call the cellar,” Brenden said.
The cooled wort is loaded into tanks and left to ferment. After fermentation, the beer sits for varying lengths of time.
“Our Premo Pilsner is about eight weeks, but on the other side, our Lee Metcalf, Vigilante, and Chasing Haze? Those are closer to two weeks,” he said.
Finally, the beer is ready for canning.
“How many cans of Vigilante are you doing today?” I asked in awe of their large canning machine.
“We’ll do about 12,000 cans,” he replied.
Kegs are also filled and sent straight to the bar for fresh beer.
The process reveals just how much chemistry, manual labor, and skill go into making some of the best beer in Montana. For Brenden, award-winning beer or not, there’s nothing else he’d rather be doing.
“We always strive to do our best,” he said. “It’s great to get some validity behind what you’re doing from an organized group. But we don’t live and die by what a scorecard says.”
