Livingston beer to bring awareness of mining concerns - KBZK Bozeman News

LIVINGSTON -

"It's very light, crisp."

Brice Jones, co-owner of Katabatic Brewing in Livingston, explains his new beer - Cold Water Pilsner.

“It's hard to make and takes about 2-3 times as long as our other beers,” he said.

Organizers say the brew is a collaborative project with the Yellowstone Gateway Business Coalition in an effort to highlight and bring awareness to the issues facing the Paradise Valley with the mining interests that want to do some resource extraction at the foot of Yellowstone.

Two companies want to explore for gold. Lucky Minerals at Emigrant Gulch near Chico Hot Springs and Crevice Mountain Group at Crevice Mountain in Gardiner.

The business coalition scored a huge victory last month when the Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell came to Paradise Valley to announce a temporary end to mining claims on public lands. But the group’s efforts are far from over.

“Essentially I think what we are looking at doing is putting a full court press on Senator Daines and whoever our future representative might be, to try to pass a resolution as quickly as possible to basically remove the mineral rights from being able to be mined,” said group member Dale Sexton.

The group already has the support of Senator Jon Tester.

Katabatic’s business relies heavily on a natural resource that could be contaminated by mining - water. Beer is 92-94 percent water and that’s one of the reasons that Jones hopes his new beer will get people thinking.

“I want people to go away knowing that as a business we're trying to help the community, we're trying to engage citizens,” he said. “We're trying to collaborate with other businesses so  the community benefits, the businesses benefit and we benefit."

If you want to try cold water pilsner you need to hurry, they have some bottles left and it's on tap. The group hopes it will last through New Year's Day.