Pint.o Run precedes Beer Run in Malta

This Saturday, May 18, Blue Ridge Brewing will team up with Malta Parks and Rec for the first annual Malta Beer Run, but last Thursday the local brewery hosted the Montana Pint.O' Beer Run, which included way less exercise...in fact, none.

The Pint.O Beer Run featured live music and much more as Billings' Wes Urbaniak and the Mountain Folk made Malta and Blue Ridge Brewing the fourth of 15 stops across the state of Montana.

Urbaniak told the PCN before their Thursday night gig that he and the Mountain Folk (one other band member on the night) play live music and between sets, he collects stories from the people they meet along their Pint.O run path, record their stories and fit them into his new podcast "Montana Brewery Stories Hopcast."

"It is available anywhere you get your podcasts," he said. "It has been pretty cool and people have some crazy stories. And the stories aren't just about breweries, but also people telling stories in breweries."

Wes Urbaniak and the Mountain Folk have a total of nine albums and their music is a self-described "experimental expressionism" which "puts fire to the gasoline structure of folk music."

Urbaniak and his bass player, Mat Regele, played music on a guitar and bass that the duo made themselves using reclaimed wood. Urbaniak invites anyone interested in winning one of the handmade musical instruments to write him a letter and "tell me a story." (For more information on the letter writing campaign, the music, or the podcast, visit wesurbaniak.com). The night of music and brews was punctuated with stories and catering by Ray J's BBQ.

On the heels of the Pint.O run, this Saturday in Malta, will be some real running at the Malta Beer Run (but if you don't enjoy running, don't fret, you'll have another option to enjoy the day at the brewery.)

Brianna Shores, who co-owns Blue Ridge Brewing with her husband, Brian Shores, said she ran a pub run in her college days and enjoyed herself. She said that she had noticed more and more breweries hosting runs and decided to talk to Julie Tatafu, Co-director of Malta Parks and Rec, about joining up to add another running event in Malta (the Parks and Rec Color Run is just around the corner.) Shores said Parks and Rec decided they would co-sponsor the event which gets underway at 2 p.m. on Saturday (for more information, see the Malta Run advertisement on page 4A.)

Each entrant receives a pint glass with the Malta Beer Run logo on it, full of beer, as well as a t-shirt, one for runners, one for non-runners. Shores said there are three different tickets for the races; a 5k, 21-and-over race; 20 and younger 5k (no beer or mug, but a t-shirt is awarded) and then a patio ticket.

"That last one is all of the swag and none of the sweat," she said. "So those people with patio tickets get the pint glass, the beer, but you don't run the 5k and their shirts have an American flag on the front and says 'these colors don't run, and neither do I' on it. Those who make the run get a shirt that says 'I survived the First Annual Malta Beer Run'...I ordered a patio ticket for myself."

Registration forms for the first annual Malta Beer Run can be found on the City of Malta website (cityofmalta.com) or at Malta City Hall and questions can be directed to Tatafu at 654-4178 or Shores at 301-1713.