Flathead Lake Brewing to open in Woods Bay by early summer

It won't be long now until the pale ale is flowing.

Flathead Lake Brewing Co. owner Terry Leonard and head brewer Mike Hall are putting the finishing touches on a new brewery at Woods Bay that's on track for an early-summer opening.

The idea of owning his own business - a brewery specifically - had been on Leonard's mind for some time.

"I thought it would be fun to run a brewery" said Leonard, who works in the financial department at Kalispell Regional Medical Center. "I thought there would be a market for it and decided to put my business background to work for myself."

Smiling, Leonard added: "It got out of control and before I knew it there was a brewing system on a flatbed truck headed my way."

Microbrewed beer is not new to Wood's Bay.

Raven Brewing Co., a two-barrel system capable of producing one and a half kegs of beer in a batch, operated for several years in the Raven Brew Pub and Grill and had a loyal following. Two years ago, Neil Brown, who owned the small brewery, sold the Raven building to Lisa Cloutier, who owned the liquor license. Since state law prohibits the same person from owning both the liquor license and brewery, the brewery was closed, Leonard explained.

That left the door open for Leonard to pursue his dream.

He chose the former Ace Hardware building across the street from the Raven and began shaping it into a brewery.

One of the first orders of business was finding a brewer. He picked longtime beer-maker Mike Hall, who was working at Bristol Brewing Co. in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Hall will be the lone employee for now, overseeing a system capable of producing 40-keg batches. A keg is the equivalent of a half barrel.

"We can have up to 80 barrels going at a time," Hall said.

Flathead Lake Brewing will initially offer three main brews and a seasonal beer. Its flagship beer is White Cap Pale Ale, a lighter-bodied American ale that Hall has spent the better part of his adult life perfecting.

"It's named after the 5- to 10-foot waves that Flathead Lake is famous for during wintertime storms," Leonard said.

Their two other signature beers will be Last Train Home Amber, a Scottish export-style brew, and Flathead Lake Steamers, a California common-style beer.

Hall plans to use two-row domestic barley along with specialty barley from European sources to give the beers a distinct color and flavor.

His seasonal microbrews will vary from English- to Belgian-style ales.

During the winter months the Flathead Lake Steamers will be swapped out with a porter (a heavy dark beer brewed from browned or charred malt).

"We'll have a contest to name the porter," Leonard said. "We want to get people involved."

Flathead Lake Brewing joins a community of microbreweries in the Flathead Valley that includes Glacier Brewing Co. in Polson, Lang Creek Brewery in Marion, and Whitefish Brewing Co. and Great Northern Brewing of Whitefish.

"We're not really competitors," Hall said. "The goal is to be united as craft brewers and educate people on good beer."

Hall learned the trade as a home brewer and started producing beer professionally nine years ago. He's been honing his skills for 12 years and has been featured in several brewing publications, most recently in The New Brewer trade publication for his recent work in Belgian Saison brewing styles.

The hardest thing about brewing beer?

"It's managing the demand with production," he said, "and keeping good management on the yeast. Yeast is everything to beer."

Flathead Lake Brewing's beers will be on tap at several places around the valley, including the Raven at Woods Bay and Garden Bar in Bigfork.

"We have 26 accounts pending between here and Billings," Leonard said.

The tasting room adjacent to the brewery has windows that allow tasters to see the brewing equipment. Adorned with a nautical look, the tap room features counters made of drift wood pulled out of Flathead Lake.

"Our main bar-top section is a one-piece 15-foot slab of timber found floating in Flathead Lake , already milled for us," Leonard said. "The saw marks on it look to be from an old 36 inch milling blade."

Pictures hanging in the tap room are mostly from Leonard's grandfather's days in the Navy during World War II in the South Pacific. Leonard, a 10-year Navy veteran, said members of his family have been in the military back to the time of King George III, when one of Leonard's ancestors was a member of the king's rangers during the Revolutionary War.

Leonard developed a taste for beer while he served in the Navy.

"I started drinking in the service," he said. "I drank in over 30 different countries; that may be an exaggeration. My Navy buddies say owning a brewery is the only cost-effective way for me to drink."

A Florida native, Leonard has a degree in biology and a master's in business. He was the director of an interventional cardiology practice in Florida before moving to Kalispell four years ago.

His market research indicates the Flathead is ripe for another microbrew.

"The valley is growing and the market is growing," he said. "I think we can carve out a good niche."

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com