Great Falls Select Beer

[llholmes1948]

According to the Great Falls Tribune, the former Great Falls Brewing Company building in Great Falls has burned:

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/p ... 0312/1002/

This company produced Great Falls Select, probably one of most maligned beers in Montana when I was around the Park in the early 1970s. It acquired the popular nickname "Great Falls Shellac." As I recall it had about the same poor reputation that Narragansett did in New England.

It was not sold in the Park when I worked there in 1970-72 but it seems to me that it may have still been available in some nearby bars. I don't know if that is really true since those bottles would have been about 2 years old at the time but I knew a few drunks around Coram who would not have been bothered by that. I never had any so I can't attest to its quality firsthand only to its general reputation.

I think the Great Falls Select brand has been revived by another company but hopefully not its reputation.

Lyman

[Ear Mountain]

Police arrest juveniles in connection with brewery fire.

More at this link:
http://www.montanasnewsstation.com/glob ... ?s=7350216

[Ear Mountain]

Turns out Great Falls Select was brewed in Great Falls only until 1968. After that it was brewed by Blitz-Weinhard in Portland until 1979, when Pabst purchased Blitz-Weinhard and shelved the Great Falls Select name for more than a quarter-century. Great Falls Select re-emerged again recently, brewed by Harvest Moon Brewing Co. in Belt.

Knowing that Harvest Moon Brewing Co produces some pretty good beer I suggest the the more recent Great Falls Select is a far cry better than the older version. You can read the history of breweries in Great Falls in this article in the Great Falls Tribune:
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/p ... /711130301

Maybe more than you ever wanted to know about the subject, eh?

[Ear Mountain]

Subsequent Story: Arson charges loom for teens in brewery fire
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/p ... /711130302

[jared6]

My Great Grandfather worked at the GReat Falls Select Brewery as a Groundkeepers