Bridger Brewing, Bozeman MT

1 July 2023

I didn’t get a photo of the outside as it was still sprinkling lightly when I pulled into the very busy parking lot. Based on Google analytics, I’d expected the place to be somewhat busy; I certainly didn’t expect the noise level, though! Perhaps I’ll just be thankful I wasn’t here during the school year as it’s right on the edge of a University of Montana campus!

There was a decent amount of space indoors, only a fraction of which is captured here:

They’ll do a flight with any number of beers, but I went with six. Unfortunately, only five are listed on the flight card and the six aren’t in any particular order so I played “guess the brew” and I think I was pretty successful at that! I’ll describe in the left-to-right order of this photo; unfortunately, when I took a quick photo of the beer list I didn’t check to make sure it wasn’t blurry … so I can’t read the ABV numbers … sorry!

Lee Metcalf (Pale Ale) – This was, at first, my favorite of the flight although I changed my mind later. I thought it was really well balanced and pleasant tasting.

Vigilante (IPA) – Phew, such a lot of bitterness in this one … it was refreshing and fine with food, but I certainly wouldn’t drink it by itself.

Mad Mule (Cream Ale) – The Mad Mule has a lot of cucumber in it and that reminded me of a beer I had in Laramie WY two years ago; it’s an unusual ingredient. It was good in a flight, but not one I’d want more of.

Copper City Lager – I loved both the color and the taste of this one and had a pint of it later.

287 Ale – At first, this didn’t have as much character and flavor as the Copper City, but once I had the pint of the Copper City I found myself wishing I’d ordered this one instead. It was very easy drinking, very refreshing, and would be good with any food.

Plains Traveler (IPA) – I liked this IPA better than the Vigilante, but I don’t think IPAs are really their forte – the ales are much tastier.

Bridger doesn’t have a huge menu and it’s mostly pizza. That was OK with me and I appreciated that you can order both 10″ and 14″ pies (and some people were being served slices, but I didn’t see that as an obvious option on the menu). This 10″ was more than enough food for me and it was delicious:

I wouldn’t mind returning here at a less busy time but would certainly try to find a less crowded and noisy time.