KALISPELL — Sacred Waters Brewing brings good beer and food to the table, but another cause is on tap.
"We have always been about promoting our wilderness and wild and scenic rivers. It's a big part of the brand, a big part of the brewery, and when that's a part of your brand, that means that that's a great story on the front and you have to do the work on the back end," said Jackie Evans, general manager of Sacred Waters Brewing.
That's why the brewery partnered with the Flathead Rivers Alliance, a nonprofit that helps to preserve the Flathead River System.
"We are thrilled to be working with Sacred Waters," Flathead Rivers Alliance Executive Director Sheena Pate said. "We started this partnership with Sacred Waters Brewing Company a couple years ago and we've just kind of blown it out of the river this year and leading into 2026."
One of the collaborations is a recycling trailer where anyone can grab a bag and recycle aluminum cans. A portion of the proceeds will go toward the Flathead Rivers Alliance.
The trailer was brought to the brewery by Ryan Ellis, who has a passion for recycling and has multiple trailers in the area that have collected nearly 5,000 pounds of cans.
"I hope that other people and other programs in the Flathead Valley or across Montana see it as a way to help the environment, help your community," said Ellis, owner of Ellis Maintenance Services LLC.
While the trailer is available now, a different collaboration is gearing up for 2026, including a special edition beer and a contest that anyone can enter to design the label.
"We would love if you're a novice, you're an expert, a longtime artist, we would love to see what inspires you about the river. Is it the wildlife, is it the feel of it, history?" Pate said.
Both organizations aim to make it easy to help out the community.
"It's just providing easy ways for the community to do good and do things that help us all," Evans explained.
