Flathead Lake Brewing Company crafts ale to benefit ALS research

A special brew hit the taps Friday at Flathead Lake Brewing Company to help raise money for ALS research.

ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive neurological disease that leads to paralysis. It has no cure. The disease saw an influx of attention this summer with the Ice Bucket Challenge sweeping social media. In the challenge, participants would dump a bucket of ice water over their heads, and then challenge others to do the same, or donate to ALS research. The videos played a large part in increasing awareness about ALS, which wasn’t previously talked about often, though about 30,000 people in the United States suffer from the disease.

Flathead Lake Brewing is one of 69 breweries around the nation participating in the second year of Ales for ALS, and the only one in Montana.

“It’s a good cause and we want to give back to society through beer,” lead Brewer David Brendgard said. “This year there’s a lot of attention drawn to it with the ice bucket challenge. We felt this was a great way for us to participate in it, without jumping on the ice bucket bandwagon.”

Participating brewers were sent a special hop blend for free from Loftus Ranches and Hopunion. This year’s blend included citra and mosaic hops, blended with several other experimental varieties. From there, each brewery designed a beer using the hops, and agreed to donate a portion of the profit from each beer sold to the ALS Therapy Development institute.

Brendgard crafted and brewed about 12 barrels of an American Pale Ale for Flathead Lake Brewing Company’s ALS ale. 

“It’s kind of a nice, well balanced, kind of darker pale ale,” Brendgard said.

The aromatic ale has a rich red color, a nice bitterness that sits on the tongue and a lower alcoholic content at 5.3 percent. It features Montana two-row pale, wheat, caramel and roast malts. It is on tap in Woods Bay and in Missoula. A pint costs $5, with $1 going to ALS research.

“We’ve had nothing but positive feedback on it,” Brendgard said.

And that’s not the only beer the brewery has received positive feedback on recently.

Flathead Lake Brewing Company took home three awards from the Montana Brewers Association Festival earlier this month for their sour beers. They won best sour beer, best festival release and best in show.

Flathead Lake Brewing is one of the few breweries in the state making sour beers, which has a large part to do with Brendgard, who worked at Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Ore., where he was in charge of sours and barrel-aged beers.

Brendgard said the style has been popular in Belgium and Germany, and has gained popularity in California and Oregon. Flathead Lake Brewing hopes to be one of the leaders in the style, which is characterized by its acidic and sour taste.

“We are moving forward wholeheartedly with sour beers and barrel aged beer,” Brendgard said. “We are working very hard to become the leaders in the state on those two styles of beer. It makes your brewery stand out and it also proves that you’re willing to do more experimental beers.”

Soon, Flathead Lake Brewing will be making even more experimental beers, as they begin to transition the production of their mainstay brews from Woods Bay to their new facility in Bigfork this week.

The construction of their new facility on the corner of Holt Drive and Montana 35 has been slow going, as the large facility will be completely LEED certified. And while there is still no opening date set for the restaurant and tap room, the brewing facilities are nearly complete and Brendgard said they will begin using them this week.

The new facility will enable the brewery to make significantly larger quantities than they can brew in Woods Bay, and by moving their main beers to the new facility, space in Woods Bay will be freed up to try more experimental beers, on a slightly smaller scale.

“You need that to grow,” Brendgard said. “You need a pilot brewery where you can make small batches to experiment with, and this is the perfect location to do that in.”