HELENA – A project chronicling the surge of craft beer brewing in Montana is going online through the Montana Historical Society.
Archivist and oral historian Anneliese Warhank started working on the project in 2016 with the help of a grant from Humanities Montana.
It begins in the late 1980’s, when craft brewing started to get underway in Montana. It picks up steam in the late 90’s with legislation to allow tap rooms in the state. And from there, the boom really begins in the early 2000s.
Warhank says the project was important to chronicle now, to preserve the memories of the people who were involved during this time of intense development.
“The people that were the pioneers in this industry are still in this industry,” says Warhank. “So getting their stories – those were the ones that saw the growth of it – and they can give you all of their experiences and if that can help future researchers understand exactly why this boom happened and what it took to get this industry into the state that it’s in now. Because it was not an overnight success.”
There are twenty craft breweries profiled in the project.
Click hereto go directly to the Montana Brewery Oral History Project.
