New Kalispell bar showcases craft beer

“Beer, if drank in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit and promotes good health.”

Those words of inspiration from Thomas Jefferson stand out on the menu at The Brass Tap. So does a sentiment from Plato: “He was a wise man who invented beer.”

At Kalispell’s new beer bar and restaurant, craft beer takes center stage. The Brass Tap opens on Monday, Feb. 6, featuring more than 160 varieties of beer on tap and in bottles or cans. There are 59 taps with a growler fill, including more than 30 Montana craft brews. And there are plenty of local and regional beers in bottles and cans, owner Sean Andrachick assured.

He and his wife Sandra are the owners of The Brass Tap, located across from Cabela’s in north Kalispell, next door to Sport Clips.

The Brass Tap was founded in 2007 when three business partners and friends created their vision for the “ultimate beer bar.” They tapped into the explosive growth in the craft beer market and opened the first Brass Tap in Wesley Chapel, Florida, in 2008. Since then more than three-dozen of the franchise beer bars and accompanying eateries have popped up across the country.

“They’ve got it really dialed in,” Andrachick said about The Brass Tap’s business model. His beer bar and restaurant is the first Brass Tap in Montana.

In addition to the expansive beer selection, the bar offers wine, a number of ciders and sours, plus lambic, a type of beer brewed in the Pajottenland region of Belgium.

Patrons can get free samples of any of the brews. Four-ounce flights of beers will further the tasting experience. The Brass Tap will offer a Brew Crew rewards program that enables patrons to earn discounts and merchandise.

The Brass Tap’s restaurant menu features a number of appetizers — “sharables” — along with gourmet Angus beef burgers, sandwiches and wraps, sliders, flatbreads, pretzels, nachos, street tacos, and salads.

A couple of noteworthy food items are the house-made potato tots and hand-breaded chicken and cod filets.

While the restaurant menu follows The Brass Tap’s franchise model, each eatery is allowed to have a rotating selection of local specialty items, Andrachick said, that allows the bar to tailor entrees to local tastes.

Flatscreen TVs throughout the bar will let patrons tune in to their favorite sports teams and shows.

The Andrachicks both grew up in Marion. Sean worked in the trucking industry, hauling logs for a number of years until the national recession in 2008. When Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. closed its Frenchtown linerboard plant in late 2009, Sean headed to Colorado and hauled crude oil for a while before establishing a trucking business in the North Dakota Bakken oil fields. He still has his oil-field business, but the Andrachicks dearly wanted to find a livelihood that would bring Sean home to the Flathead for good after so many years of bouncing back and forth between here and North Dakota.

“I just want to be home,” he said.

Another part of The Brass Tap business model is community involvement, and the Andrachicks look forward to being part of the community with projects such as raising money for local nonprofits.

The bar will offer live music, most likely on Fridays.

Brad Helding is the general manager and will oversee the staff of 25 to 30 employees. Helding, a Libby native who was raised in Missoula, has an extensive background in the restaurant and bar business. He worked in the Virgin Islands for a time, and was the food and beverage manager of the Belton Chalet in West Glacier for seven years.

All of The Brass Tap staff will be certified through the Cicerone Certification Program that certifies and educates beer professionals in order to elevate the beer experience for consumers.

Hours at The Brass Tap are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday; and 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

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