It took a little longer than expected, but the beer at Muddy Creek Brewery will be flowing soon.
The Butte brewery opens for business on Friday featuring five beers on tap in a roomy upstairs tasting room next to the Post bar on Galena Street.
“We want it to be comfortable and fun,” said Chris Sherman, who owns the brewery with Gregg Wigen and Todd McAdams, with a family atmosphere.
The brewery has a “unique relationship” with the next-door Post, a full bar. It sells its kegs to the bar, which will serve them on tap. Typically, brewery owners and tavern owners aren’t exactly on the same page; several legislative reform efforts incorporating the two groups have fallen apart in recent years.
“There aren’t many places in Montana where you see a brewery and tavern working together,” Wigen said.
But since breweries are required to close at 8 p.m., owners for both businesses expect a natural flow of customers toward the Post, which is typically busier in the late evening.
“When we close is about when they get going,” McAdams said.
It also gives customers who want to exceed the 48-ounce serving limit at breweries a nearby place to continue drinking.
Sherman and Wigen grew up together in Conrad, Mont., and started other business ventures together. The duo moved to Butte to launch a tech company together in 2000, which they sold in 2006.
Wigen started brewing about 12 years ago after getting a beginners kit purchased at Costco.
“I brewed some really tremendously awful beer,” he said, “but I was hooked.”
Wigen’s craft progressed, and he and Sherman – the businessman manager for the brewery – began to talk about opening a brewery about four years ago. They recruited McAdams, another friend, for his expertise in chemical engineering and fermentation.
Muddy Creek Brewery
Grand Opening: Friday, 3 p.m.
Hours: Monday-Thursday 4 to 8 p.m., Friday-Saturday 12 to 8 p.m., Sunday 2 to 8 p.m.
Address: 2 E. Galena St.
Phone: 406-299-3645
https://www.facebook.com/muddycreekbrewery