Our Story

In the beginning

The beginnings of Palladium Draughthaus were officially organized in Montana on August 3, 2020. However, the real beginnings started many years before.

Our Founders, Joe and Mina, were born and raised in rural Montana Joe lived in Montana his whole life, except for the three years he spent deployed in Germany with the US Army in the early 1980s. During his time abroad he developed his love for craft beer. Each city and town in Germany had its style and flavor of beer which was entirely different from the beer that was from the big US breweries.

Headed Home

After leaving the service Joe returned to his home in Montana where he and Mina started a family. Joe got a job working in Government but never forgot about his love for craft beer. With the development of the Craft Beer movement, Joe was an avid explorer of beer, trying as many different beer styles as possible and visiting many breweries on their travels. In 2001 Joe got a home brew kit and started brewing beer for his close friends.

In 2018 Joe enrolled in the Craft Beer and Fermentation program through MSU-Billings with the intention to start a brewery in Columbus. This led to a search for the “right” location, which we finally secured on Pike Ave.

Our Dream

We hope to soon be offering a varied selection of craft beer styles from our son’s brewery co-located next to the Draughthaus. Our water is especially good for brewing dark beers such as Stouts, Porters, and Brown Ales. We will also have a variety of styles ranging from Honey Wheats and our special Swamp Fox double IPA.

Why did we call it Palladium?

Columbus is in the heart of Stillwater County and has the privilege of having the Stillwater Complex which has the only Platinum and Palladium Mine in the United States. The mine has been a major business and employer within the county and an important part of the community. It also represents a high standard of quality, which is what we want to provide our customers. The chemical symbol is Pd (similar to Palladium Draughthaus!) and the atomic number is 46 (also similar to Montana’s area code of 406).