After spending time in Whitefish and Missoula, our third stop in Montana was Helena – the state capital. It has a really cute downtown area that we enjoyed exploring, while another of our favorite features in the city was all of its pet-friendly breweries.
Shae and I managed to visit five pet-friendly breweries in Helena during our five days there – here’s what they were.
Blackfoot River Brewing Co
We started our first morning in Helena by heading to Reeder’s Alley, a charming brick-lined street. After exploring downtown for a while, we headed back up to where we’d parked near Reeder’s Alley as that was close to Blackfoot River Brewing Co.
It was a hot day out, so we appreciated that there was some shade we could sit in while having a drink. Shae also appreciated that in addition to beer, Blackfoot River Brewing Co has a pretty good selection of ciders and wines as she’s not a big fan of beer.
She got a cider (I think it was the Fat Robin), while I ordered a flight of six beers. Clockwise from top-left:
- Scottish Ale
- Stout
- Cream Ale
- Single Malt IPA
- Hazy IPA
- Summer Shandy
The Scottish ale was my favorite, while the stout was a close second.
Truffles meanwhile was also grateful to be resting in the shade after traipsing all around downtown with us that morning.
Ten Mile Creek Brewery
The next day we returned downtown and headed to Ten Mile Creek Brewery which, like Blackfoot River Brewing Co, doesn’t allow dogs inside but does allow them on their patio out front.
When checking their website before we visited, I saw that they had a coffee porter that I was looking forward to trying. Unfortunately that wasn’t available that day though.
Instead I got a flight of:
- Smoke Jumper Dunkelweizen
- Wood Knocker IPA
- What Not Belgian Wit
- Afternoon Delight Raspberry Light
The dunkelweizen was my favorite of those four. Ten Mile Creek doesn’t offer wine or cider, so Shae stuck with a Diet Coke.
On our way out of town a few days later, we stopped back in at Ten Mile Creek for a quick drink with one of Shae’s friends who lives in Helena. I got lucky that day as their Firetower Coffee Porter was back on tap, so I tried that and enjoyed it even more than the dunkelweizen.
Speakeasy 41
The most fun of all the breweries we went to was the one we visited after Ten Mile Creek. Just two or three miles north of downtown Helena is Speakeasy 41, a brewery with a speakeasy-style entrance.
Open the bookcase and you’ll enter the spacious and nicely-decorated brewery:
Unlike the other four breweries we visited in Helena, Truffles was allowed to join us inside at Speakeasy 41.
The brewery had a good selection of different types of beers, as well as some slushies, served by the friendly and welcoming Hannah.
Shae went for a slushie which she loved…
…while I got another beer flight which were good-sized pours and served in a muffin tin. Going clockwise from top-left, I ordered:
- Blueberry Blonde Ale
- Habanero Hefeweizen
- Old Town
- Cement Shoes Java Stout
- Root Beer Porter
- Scotch Ale
The habanero hefeweizen had a bit of a kick to it, while the scotch ale and Cement Shoes Java stout were my two favorites.
Headwaters Crafthouse
The fourth brewery we went to wasn’t, strictly speaking, a brewery because as far as I’m aware they don’t make their own beer. Instead, Headwaters Crafthouse is a taproom with beers from many different breweries.
In fact, it’s not just beers they carry. Their website says they have something for everyone and they’re not kidding about that. There are dozens of different beers from around the country, as well as many ciders, wines, hard seltzers, soda, kombucha and more.
There were loads of beers I was interested in trying, so I started off with the following flight of four:
- Oktoberfest from Kettlehouse Brewing Co in Montana
- Cinq Cents Belgian Tripel from Chimay in Belgium
- Fail Again, Fail Better English dark mild from Imagine Nation Brewing in Montana
- Bannack Special Pre-Prohibition Ale in Cooper Furrow Brewing in Montana
Shae meanwhile had a Snow Devil cider from Big Mountain Ciderworks in Montana.
Similar to most of the other breweries we went to, pups weren’t allowed inside at Headwaters Crafthouse, but they do have a covered patio area out front where dogs can join you.
I was most interested in what I was going to pick for my second beer flight. I prefer porters and stouts when it comes to beer and Headwaters had a great selection of those. Here’s what I picked for that second flight:
- Knotty Lotty Latte Stout from Neptune’s Brewery in Montana
- 2021 Hazelnut KBS Stout from Founders Brewing in Michigan
- Peanut Butter Narwhal BA Stout from Sierra Nevada Brewing in California
- KBS Spicy Chocolate Stout from Founders Brewing in Michigan
These four beers were my favorite four beers of the eight I tried at Headwaters as they were all particularly flavorful. Somewhat surprisingly, the peanut butter stout was my favorite of them all; that was a little surprising because I don’t actually like peanut butter, but in beer it’s greatly improved 😉
We’d gone out that day to visit Garnet Ghost Town. We were unsuccessful with that (more about that in this post), but being out and about all day apparently tired Truffles out. When we’re out at a brewery she’s normally still on semi-high alert, so she must’ve been pretty tired to end up on her side.
Missouri River Brewing Company
The fifth and final pet-friendly brewery we visited in Helena was in East Helena – Missouri River Brewing Company. From what I can remember, this brewery has two pet-friendly seating areas and we chose the one on the left of the building which had lots of outdoor seating and a grassy area.
Although their drinks menus aren’t as extensive as Headwaters Crafthouse, there’s still a decent selection of beers, wines and spirits for people to choose from.
Shae ordered a glass of red wine…
…while I ordered a flight of six beers. Similar to Speakeasy 41, the glasses were served in a muffin tin which was a fun touch. The beers I chose were (clockwise from top-left):
- Huckleberry Shandy
- Strawberry Mango Hazy
- Tailgate Hefeweizen
- Butterscotch Oatmeal Stout
- White Stout
- Wee Heavy
The butterscotch oatmeal stout was my favorite of the six, while the Wee Heavy and white stout were very good too.
Final Thoughts
We enjoyed drinking our way around Helena, especially seeing as Truffles got to join us at these pet-friendly breweries.
Leave a Reply