Enjoy Great Beer and a Nice Stroll on MT’s Largest Brewery Trail

Montanan's love our breweries. I couldn't find an exact number of currently operating breweries in the state, but a 2019 article in the Missoula Current said there were around 80 at the time. I would suspect we're closer to 90 here in late 2021.  Data released from the Montana Brewers Association in 2017 noted some interesting facts.

• Montana ranks 2nd in the US for breweries per capita.
• Over 2,700 Montanans are employed in the brewery industry.
• Montana brewers produced 188,449 barrels of beer in 2017. There are 248 pints in a barrel of beer. I'll do the math for you... that's over 46.7 million pints of beer. Wow.

Support local and drink local beer.

Even most smaller towns in Montana will have a brewery or two, and bigger cities offer a wide assortment of local brews. Billings is no exception and we're blessed with about a dozen local brewers, cider mills, and craft distillers.

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Put on some comfortable shoes and hit the street.

A handful of Billings breweries are on the West End, but six of the best are all located within a few blocks of each other in the heart of downtown Billings. There are actually eight stops if you include a distillery and cider mill. It's very easily walkable. In fact, the Downtown Billings Association calls it Montana's Largest Most Walkable Brewery Trail.  On a brisk December afternoon, I set out to give it a shot.