The brand began as the brainchild of Zeitner and co-founder Jeremy Gregory in 2012. The pair, based in Bozeman, Montana, originally considered opening a more traditional craft brewery. But as 20-somethings with no brewing experience, they found banks unwilling to loan them the $1 million they were asking for in order to buy or build a brewery.

“That ended up being a blessing in disguise. Once we figured out that there are people who will contract brew for you, it allowed us to focus on the brand and the marketing aspect of it,” Zeitner says. “In the light domestic space, that’s what it comes down to.”

That reality flies in the face of nearly all of craft beer’s messaging over the past two decades, which has touted quality and obsessive attention to brewing details as key differentiators from what it derided as “fizzy, yellow beer.” Montucky bet from day one that quality wasn’t consumers’ top priority when it came to the general style of Light Lager. It was meant to be fun.

Focusing on easy-drinking domestic Lager was always the plan. PBR, Rainier Beer, and other similar beers are staples on the ski slopes and fly-fishing rivers of Montana. What if drinkers had a homegrown beer in that style to call their own? Zeitner says he and Gregory originally set out to create a PBR rival born in Big Sky Country; if they were able to capture 1% of PBR’s sales in the Treasure State, they figured that would be enough to call it a solid business.

Montucky deliberately prices itself to compete with other value-priced beers, sometimes retailing for less than PBR or Busch Light on shelves. Its suggested retail price is $5.99 per six-pack of 16oz cans; the beer is also sold in 30-packs ($20 at Costco; roughly $24 elsewhere) and 12-packs ($9.99-$11.99) of 12oz cans.

That price point is crucial: ski bums, college kids, and fly-fishing guides aren’t known to be flush with disposable income; many of them drink macro Lagers and feel comfortable at that price point. But, Montucky figured—if there were a similar-tasting product at a similar price, but with an independent spirit and more connection to the Rocky Mountain lifestyle—people would have no financial reason not to make the switch.

After initially launching in Montana in 2013, the brand opened up other markets starting in spring 2014, including Oregon, Washington, Northern California, Texas, and Colorado, the latter of which is now the brand’s top-selling state and the only market to have Montucky on draft. (Bozeman still consumes the most Montucky per capita of any city.) After originally signing with a smaller Colorado distributor that went out of business, prompting a lawsuit over Montucky’s distribution rights in that state, Montucky eventually landed with Breakthru Beverage Group.

Ryan Mac Isaac, Breakthru’s director of beer trade development, says the distributor saw the brand’s potential early on. Mac Isaac himself noticed, when he was outside playing volleyball or softball, that people of all demographics and ages were carting around 12-packs of Montucky. Given changes in Colorado law that passed in 2018 to allow for sales of full-strength beer in all grocery and convenience stores, Breakthru felt the sooner it could snap up the brand and get it into chain accounts, the more growth potential it had.

“We saw the brand growing in distribution and rate of sale. Knowing that we could take it to additional outlets, including chains, we saw an enormous amount of potential for one of those once-in-a-decade type brands,” Mac Isaac tells GBH. “One thing I have said about many beer brands is that they must find a way to be socially acceptable to show up to a barbecue or a party with. You don’t want to be perceived as too cheap, showing up with certain brands, but you also don’t want to be perceived as too snobby or have beers that are too particular to a taste and can’t appeal to everyone there.”

Mac Isaac cites that versatility as part of Montucky’s appeal, noting that while Breakthru has been able to position Montucky as the “craft alternative” to macro Lagers in bars and grocery stores, higher-end bars and restaurants also feel comfortable serving the beer as an approachable “cool kid” option at a lower price point, typically costing around $4 per 16oz can. While Montucky isn’t brewed in Colorado (or even the region), the brand has donated 8% of profits to dozens of organizations in the markets in which it’s sold, including Human Rights Campaign Arizona, Boulder Food Rescue, AIDS Services of Austin, Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, Seattle Children's Hospital, and more. To date, Montucky says it has donated more than $150,000 to community organizations.

Mac Isaac says the “8% back” policy endears the brand to drinkers across markets, as they see its sales benefit organizations they’re familiar with. But perhaps more crucially, it’s also a tactic to help Montucky knock off a PBR placement: distributors can argue that if an account is carrying a domestic macro Lager, why shouldn’t it switch to a craft one that sells at the same price point and donates to local organizations?