KETTLEHOUSE: BEER STEEPED IN ROCK AND ROLL.

Double Haul IPA: Decant or Drink from can.

KettleHouse started in a modest version of its current Myrtle Street location in the second half of the 1990s as you-brew place, with nice stainless 10 gallon brew kettles and carboys for rent, brewing supplies for sale and a business plan centered around Missoula's student/low bagger population not having the means to buy brewing gear, but wanting like hell to brew. That business did pretty well for a number of years, but it wasn't until they started turning some of their own recipes loose from the taps that the place started to fill on up and become a stalwart corner of Missoula's beer scene that it's become. Before Kettlehouse, there were Bayern and Big Sky, both great outfits in their own right, but Kettlehouse's game change for Missoula was the fact that they brought their great flagship beer recipes and a great vibe in their centrally-located, lived-in-and-okay-with-it, Myrtle St. taproom.

It's a place you might hear some P Funk, loud. Or Iron Maiden. Or Prince. For years, Kettlehouse' Al Pils won best bartender in Missoula, although technically his tending was limited to pouring Kettlehouse brew. Pils is cut more from the publican cloth than bartender style anyhow, writing long screeds on a white board about some NFL team or star whom he'd gotten sideways with recently, and having a believer's passion in the awesome elixir coming out of K-hole's taps. It's not hard to be evangelical about good beer, and Kettlehouse's beer is great. Myrtle St. location's expanded, it's kept its original beer laboratory charm, with that same great lived in feel.

Missoula's best bartender.

Kettlehouse has been a part of Total Fest in some way or another since we began.We still pickup kegs of Eddy Out pale ale for all our band barbecues, and they help us out by throwing a pint night our way to help raise funds for the festival.

And that's what's happening this Wednesday, May 13 over on the North Side location, on N. 1st St. By the ZACC! We get a percent of sales all evening, and if we hit 400 beers sold, well shucks, Total Fest gets an additional $250 to support the fest! Come down and have a beer with us, please!