Flathead Lake Brewing Company opened its new facility in Bigfork last weekend, with an exceptional response from the local community. 

The pubhouse, located at 116 Holt Drive, hosts a restaurant, three televisions, a fireplace, full retail shop, a private party room and great views of both the beer brewing process and Flathead Lake. 

The project to transform an old bowling alley into a state-of-the-art brewing facility originally was slated to take just over six months, but took almost two and a half years to complete, according to owner Sandy Johnston. 

“We came across a lot of unforeseen issues the deeper we got into it,” she said. “But we’re very happy with the way we did things.” 

As the project began, the brewery owners decided they wanted the new facility to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED-certified. They worked to reuse or recycle any material possible, in an effort to make the building efficient as well as environmentally friendly.  

The interior bricks are reused from old buildings. Wood that forms the interior trim was created from trees that needed to be removed from the lot, and ceiling beams are logs that were dredged from the river. 

“Anywhere we could go green, we did,” Johnston said. “It was really important to us to create a healthy environment here.” 

Flathead Lake Brewery is one of the only LEED-accredited breweries in the country, which has caught the attention of environmentally minded companies around the world. Several companies with similar goals have contacted the brewery for more information, including one company from Germany, according to Johnston. 

In addition to the decision to go green, the company ran into issues with the building. 

“We wanted to save as much of the building as we could, but it’s just an old building, and it needed a lot of love,” Johnston said. 

During renovations, the brewery owners were forced to gut the interior of the building and rebuild many areas from scratch. However, they worked hard to preserve the exterior. 

The new pubhouse is 8,000 square feet, and is able to house eight 60-barrel tanks, with room to grow as the brewery needs. 

“This will turn into our mass-production facility, where the brewers will churn out favorites or popular beers for canning or sales,” Johnston said. These favorites will include Centennial IPA, Bufflehead Brown and Wild Mile Wheat. 

The old Woods Bay brewhouse, where the brewery was previously housed, now will become a tasting room, as well as an experimental area for the company’s brewers to learn sour beer brewing.

For the past two years the brewery has been at capacity, brewing about 1,000 barrels each year. With the new facility they should be able to increase production at least 10-fold, with room to expand. Currently they serve two markets — the Flathead Valley and Missoula.

The new pubhouse has a room overlooking the brewing room that is dedicated to growler fills and appetizers. 

Johnston said they hope to add another bar area to the basement level at some point. 

“We were just too excited to wait any longer to open,” she said. “We wanted to open up and show off.” 

The Bigfork pubhouse is open Monday through Friday, from 4 until 10 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. For more information, visit online at www.flatheadlakebrewing.com, or call 837-2004. 

Reporter Brianna Loper may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at [email protected].