Sit down in any bar in western Montana, and pretty soon you'll hear someone order a Moose Drool. A strange-sounding order, but a great beer from this brewery five minutes outside Missoula. The taproom is open until early evening Monday to Saturday. (Brewery tours are available on Fridays.) Besides the Moose Drool, a best-selling brown ale, try the award-winning Scape Goat Pale Ale.

There's no shortage of places in downtown Bozeman to grab a longneck Bud, but only one for a well-built mojito with fresh, hand-crushed mint. The bartenders pour a lot of them, for some reason. There are also more than a few small-batch rums, tequilas, and scotches. The stained-wood decor is pretty upmarket, too, with not-so-Montanan appetizers like a spinach and arugula salad with grilled apples and molasses vinaigrette.

You're not going to find the Bozeman Brewing Company's taproom by accident, which is fine with the regulars who pack the place most weeknights. The bar is five blocks off Bozeman's main strip, next to a lumberyard, and has no real sign, except for a neon light and a few bumper stickers on the gray metal front door. For the last two years, Todd Scott has been brewing in this north-side neighborhood, with a small bar that's open until eight and often has at least five beers on tap, like its signature Bozone Select Amber Ale or summertime Belgium Wit, an oat-and-wheat beer with hints of coriander and orange.

Try closing down this bar, and you'll be here a while. According to myth, the Oxford Saloon hasn't closed in the last 100 years. No one's really sure about that date, but you'll notice some of the doors don't even have locks. The bar is on the corner of Higgins and Pine and draws a mixed Missoula crowd who amuse themselves by playing poker, shooting pool, and bolting down inexpensive hamburgers from the adjoining café.