Join historian Brian Shovers for a talk on "Seventy-five and Counting: The Origins and Evolution of the Montana Micro-Brewery Industry." In 1981 the United States claimed only 82 breweries; in 2017 that number exceeded 5,300. In 1968 Great Falls Select, Montana’s only brewery, called it quits. This would all change in 1984 when Kessler Micro-brewery opened in Helena’s Sixth Ward, followed by Bayern Brewery in Missoula, operated by a trained German brew master named Jurgen Knoller. This talk is based on fourteen oral history interviews conducted last year with some of the pioneers of the industry, an industry which now claims over 1,400 employees, in towns from Wibaux to Libby.