Presentation looks at family history of beer brewing in Montana

Steve Lozar isn't a big beer drinker. Other than a beer at dinner, he'd rather have a Diet Coke. But his lifetime fascination with the history of beer brewing in Montana led him to build a private beer museum over his business in Polson.

He will share stories about Montana breweries in a presentation on March 18 before the Northwest Montana Westerners in Kalispell.

Beer was always part of the pioneer West, Lozar said Though few realize it, communities as small as Creston and Egan had their breweries. To prove the point, he pulls out a page from the 1892 Inter Lake where Lang & Tiedman advertise their “Flathead Shingle Mill and Brewery” east of Egan.

At one time, Butte had 39 breweries, and Deer Lodge had four, he said. Kalispell had a major brewery district, with the buildings still standing on Fifth and Sixth avenues west. But in the 1970s, before the craft beer explosion, the United States was down to 17 commercial breweries.  

Beer brought Lozar's family to Montana. His great-grandfather was recruited from his native Slovenia in 1887 for his brewing expertise. Beer was part of the family dinner, children and all. “No matter how old you were, we all got a pint,” he said.

He also recalls the ethnic neighborhoods of Butte, where not only did each nationality have their own variety of beer, but the delivery horses were distinct colors.

Lozar's family moved to the Flathead Reservation, and intermarriages resulted in enough native heritage that he was elected to the Tribal Council. Among his relatives was the feisty, and one-eyed, Sophie Morigeau of Eureka. She smuggled her bootleg liquor from Canada throughout western Montana in a wagon with a false bottom.

Lozar's museum is hidden away near the intersection of Highways 93 and 35 in Polson, above a screen printing business. His collection not only includes beer bottles and memorabilia dating back to his great-grandfather's time, but the ceilings are covered with advertisements from the past. About every year he gets out a ladder and replaces the ads with more from his collection.    

The talk is the monthly presentation of the Northwest Montana Westerners, a local history group. It starts at 7 p.m. on the second floor of the Northwest Montana History Museum, at 124 Second Ave. East in Kalispell.  Cost is $5 for the general public, with members and youths under 16 admitted free.