Have You Heard?: Black Tooth Brew Master opens 105, 1889 Brewing opens in EBIRD
Billings will see two new breweries in the coming months, and in areas of town that haven't seen much action in the beer scene, until now. 105 Brewing Company will open in the Heights in 2025, at 815 Yellowstone River Rd., and 1889 Brewing Company will open in the East Billings Urban Renewal District, at 204 N. 13th St.
A founder and brew master of Black Tooth Brewing, a widely-recognized brewery out of Sheridan, Wyoming, has returned to his roots to bring master-brewed beer to the Billings Heights. After 10 years with Black Tooth, this 40-something Heights kid with an award-winning beer resumé decided it was time to bring some love and community to his old neighborhood.
"When Black Tooth opened up, there was just a ground swell of excitement, and I've been having déjà vu here in the Heights, everyone is excited," Travis Zeilstra said.
"My history of making beer has been really good at the competition level and I will strive to do the same here at 105, but my main goal is to create a fun, viable base for the community to have conversations and enjoy the fruits of our labor," he said.
Beer connoisseurs can expect a wide range of all of the classic beer styles at 105. Differentiating from Black Tooth, an ale-concentrated brewery, 105's beer menu will include mostly lagers with IPAs, including pilsner, amber lager, dark Czech lager, Baltic porter, Colsch, Rocky Mountain IPA, hazy IPA and an Octoberfest, to name a few.
"I had evolved an appreciation for lagers, and I think the lager style fits with the Heights and the Billings community," Zeilstra said. "It's a new chapter; been there, done that, let's try something else. It's human nature to try something new, something different, it's a different town, different brewery."
Zeilstra will wear a lot of different hats at 105 as the master brewer and chief operating officer. Other part owners of 105 include Zeilstra's wife Jen, Brandon and Nicole Fleury, Bryce and Erin Kirschenmann, and CEO Tim Barnes, also back from Black Tooth Brewing.
Beer will start pouring in March.
Matt and Lindsey Miller hope to start pouring beer from 1889 Brewing Company's taproom by Thanksgiving; they're waiting on a part to start brewing. Since signing the lease in January, the Millers have been hard at work making ready their now-converted warehouse at 204 N. 13th St. As Billings born and raised locals themselves, they are excited to be a part of the revitalization of the EBURD.
"It's really starting to take shape and change," Matt said.
"We're reinvigorating it," Lindsey said. "And we get to be a part of it and watch it from the ground floor."
Dubbed after Montana's birth year, 1889 Brewing Co. will offer a diverse variety of small batch brews for beer connoisseurs of all kinds to delight in, from light to dark, new and old style beers. There will be "a little bit of everything," Matt said. A couple of non-alcoholic options will be brewed in house as well, like hop water and root beer.
From the kitchen sink 15 years ago, to a professional set up of his own, and time as president of the Rimrock Brewers' Guild, it's the experimentation and creativity of the craft that inspires Matt's brews.
"It's kind of like an artist with a blank canvas," he said. "You can easily change the flavor of a beer just by the hops you use or when you put them in the beer...You can pick and choose how you want that beer to turn out, and each person can get different flavors out of it."
Matt also enjoys experimenting with new and old styles of beer. In fact, the EBURD neighborhood isn't the only thing 1889 Brewing is reinvigorating, Matt plans to reintroduce Billings to some pre-prohibition-style beers as well.
"I try to bring back some styles that people maybe don't know exist, it's just less boring or anticipated," he said.
"We can turn them fast and play around a lot more," Lindsey said. "There's a lot more flexibility in brewing the small batches."
Have a Billings business tip? Send an email to .
Education and Health Reporter
