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Journalists are notorious for actually following up a random question by researching it. Or, you know, a lazy food critic like me will also sometimes just Tweet my errant thoughts and see what happens.

I wondered the other day as to why the hell tall boys of Montucky Cold Snacks appeared all over town about six months ago. The catchy name (who doesn’t NOT want to order a “cold snack?!”) and bright blue can with a horse on is at my corner market, my favorite bar and on the cheap beer list of tons of restaurants these days.

I pondered this on Twitter, and like a champ, Portlander Taryn Cowart just up and emailed the founders, and then forwarded the deets on to me! So, if you’ve ever wondered where this horsey beer came from as you sip yet another decent cheap lager, here’s the lowdown, from co-owner Jeremy Gregory:

“So there is a bit of a story…. but not too crazy of one. Basically it goes something like this: We started in Montana and were doing our happy thing here, and somewhere about 2 years ago the someone from See See Motorcycles in PDX (the owner I think), was cruising through MT, and grabbed a six pack of our beer. He then somehow wound up chatting with the crew from White Owl Social Club in PDX and the crew from White Owl invited us out to their annual LagerFest that same year. From there we got picked up by Point Blank Distributing in PDX and the rest is history; but as you noted, we’ve only been in the market a short time…. this June will be one year in PDX! Glad that you are seeing it around and enjoying it!

Do you know much else about our company? We are committed to giving 8% of our profits back to local causes, and just helping people have fun. Plus, unlike a certain beer company we consider a competitor, called PBR, we are owned by two young MT natives…. not some huge corporate conglomerate based out of Russia.”

So there you have it. Go forth, drink whatever makes you happy.

UPDATE: Just to clarify, Montucky Cold Snacks co-owner Jeremy Gregory is incorrect in his assertion that PBR is “based out of Russia.” This rumor was based on a Huffington Post article that has since been proven false. PBR is backed by TSG Consumer Partners based out of San Francisco, and is owned by “American beer entrepreneur” Eugene Kashper. So, sorry Montucky… but AMERICA. And our apologies for not correcting this sooner.

Andrea Damewood is a food writer and restaurant critic. Her interests include noodle soups, fried chicken, and sparkles.

7 replies on “You Have See See Motorcycles to Thank for that Montucky Cold Snack”

  1. More like branded in Montana than made in Montana like they seem to be implying in their marketing. It is made in Wisconsin by a company that seems to make a lot of malt liquor. I also wish that it tasted a bit better. I really like american lagers, epecially olympia, rainier, and hamms, but this one I really don’t enjoy.

  2. Econoline’s story checks out. Montucky is brewed by Melanie Brewing Co, which is also known as City Brewing.

    http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1…
    http://www.citybrewery.com/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Brewing_…

    But good job on helping this macro-brewery make people think that they’re some sort of nice and twee little brewery out of Montana. They’re shit beer made in giant factories in Wisconsin and then very carefully focused grouped to sell to people who don’t know better.

  4. They never claim to be a micro brewery. They wanted to compete with what most people in Montana drink, which is cheap, shitty, very macro/corporate beer. I grew up in Montana and was excited when I first saw these around town. I then was instantly disappointed when I found out that it wasn’t brewed in Montana, but when I posted about my disappointment online, they responded and told me that they are working on building a brewery in MT, they only outsourced their brewing because its what they needed to do to be able to actually compete with the big corporate beers, which they seem to be succeeding in doing. By choosing to drink this over whatever other macro-corporate offerings there are out there at the same price you aren’t being tricked. You’re supporting a small business who gives back to their local community.

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