We first had Cold Smoke on a ski trip through Missoula, ordered on a friend’s recommendation before we’d ever heard of KettleHouse Brewing. It’s the kind of beer that gets handed to you the moment someone finds out you’re new to Montana, and after finishing the pint we understood why.
In this article:
Where Cold Smoke Comes From
KettleHouse Brewing Co. started in 1995 as a brew-on-premise “U-Brew” on Myrtle Street in Missoula, Montana, co-founded by Tim O’Leary and Suzy Rizza. At the time it wasn’t even legal in Montana for a brewery to sell beer for on-site consumption. O’Leary and other Montana brewers lobbied to change that, eventually winning the state’s Brewers Exemption, also known as the 48-ounce rule, which let breweries sell up to 48 ounces per person per day in their taprooms. That legislative win is what let KettleHouse become a real brewery instead of a homebrew club with a storefront.
Cold Smoke Scotch Ale followed soon after and became the brewery’s flagship. The name comes from a Montana skiing term: “cold smoke” describes the light, bottomless powder that falls in the mountains there, the kind that draws skiers and boarders from across the state. According to KettleHouse, Google search data puts Cold Smoke as the most-searched beer name among Montanans, which says something about how tied the beer is to the state’s identity.
Cold Smoke is named after Montana’s lightest, driest powder snow, and it’s reportedly the most Googled beer name in the state.
Tasting Notes
Cold Smoke pours a deep amber-brown with a light tan head. The nose leans toward roasted malt and a touch of caramel, without the peaty smoke you might expect from the name (there’s no actual smoked malt in this Scotch ale). On the palate it’s smooth, medium-bodied, and finishes with a slightly sweet coffee note that lingers pleasantly. KettleHouse itself describes it as a dark, smooth ale with a slightly sweet coffee finish, and that matches what we tasted glass for glass. It’s also the beer KettleHouse calls its “gateway beer,” the one that eases macro-lager drinkers into craft beer without overwhelming them with hop bitterness or heavy roast.
ABV and Style
At 6.5% ABV and just 11 IBUs, Cold Smoke is built to be approachable rather than aggressive. The low bitterness is a big part of why it reads as smooth rather than heavy, even with its dark color and malt-forward profile. KettleHouse was also the first Montana craft brewery to package beer in cans, a move that helped Cold Smoke travel well beyond the taproom.
Cold Smoke vs. an Actually Smoked Beer
Worth clearing up since the name trips people up constantly: Cold Smoke has zero smoked malt in the grain bill. The “smoke” is a Montana powder-skiing term, not a brewing technique. If you want the real thing, a beer built on actual smoked malt, that’s a rauchbier, and it tastes nothing like this. Our German smoked beer (rauchbier) guide covers the Bamberg style where the malt itself is dried over an open beechwood fire, giving the beer a campfire and bacon-like character Cold Smoke doesn’t have. If you’d rather stay in porter territory but want genuine smoke character, Okell’s Smoked Porter and Alaskan Smoked Porter are both brewed with real smoked malt and are worth trying back to back with Cold Smoke so you can taste the difference for yourself.
Food and Cigar Pairing
Cold Smoke’s low IBU and caramel-forward malt profile make it more forgiving with food than a hop-heavy IPA. On the table, it works well with grilled or smoked meats (elk, venison, or a simple burger, all common on a Montana menu), aged cheddar, and roasted root vegetables, since the beer’s sweetness balances char without fighting it.
It also happens to be a solid cigar beer. A mild to medium-bodied cigar, a Connecticut wrapper or a mellow Dominican, won’t overpower the ale’s coffee-and-caramel finish the way a full-strength Nicaraguan puro would. The beer’s low bitterness means it won’t turn metallic against the tobacco, which is the usual failure mode when you pair a hoppy beer with a cigar. If you want to go bigger and smokier on both sides, save that pairing for an actual rauchbier or one of the smoked porters linked above, they can stand up to a stronger cigar in a way Cold Smoke, gentle as it is, can’t quite match.
Where to Find It
Cold Smoke distributes widely across Montana and into neighboring states in the Mountain West, but it’s still a regional beer, so don’t expect to find it on shelves in most of the country. If you’re not near KettleHouse’s distribution footprint, look for other Scotch ales as a substitute; our Scotch ale style guide covers the category in more depth, and our beer history guide has more on where styles like this one originated.
5 Alternatives If Cold Smoke Isn’t on Your Shelf
KettleHouse’s distribution doesn’t stretch far past the Mountain West, so here’s what I’d grab instead if you’re chasing that same malty, low-bitterness profile:
