When Todd Hough ’98 sees travelers at Yellowstone International Airport sporting gear from Outlaw Brewing, the craft brewery he launched in 2011, it confirms that the marketing know-how he acquired as a Lehigh student is working.
“One of the things that really got drilled in my head with a marketing degree from Lehigh was that somebody has to see a product at least three times before they buy it,” Hough says.
“Our beer is on tap at the airport. Tourists come into town, and they see somebody wearing a sweatshirt. They go to a gas station or grocery store, and they see our cans on the shelf. They pop into a bar, and they see us on tap or on the menu,” he says. “I really think that helps to drive traffic to our tasting room.”
The brewery at 2876 N. 27th Street — officially known as Sheriff Henry Plummer’s Outlaw Brewing — has an enthusiastic following among locals and the tourists who come to enjoy Montana’s abundant outdoor recreational opportunities. In addition to Bozeman, the beer also is sold in bars and stores in Butte, Missoula, and the surrounding areas. It features six core brands with catchy names like Patio Pounder (a session hazy IPA), Pot Shot Pilsner (a German pilsner), Yuppie Hammer (a New England-style IPA), and Hop Mullet (a West Coast IPA).
The brewery also makes more than 40 seasonal offerings annually. Recent examples include a West Coast pale ale called Cutting Grass, a fruited sour named Strawberry Moon, and Glacial Flow Cold IPA. The brews have earned awards, including a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival, the largest competition in the country.
Hough co-owns the brewery with his wife, Nicole ’98, a business and economics graduate. She manages all the branded merchandise sold at the brewery as well overseeing employee benefits.
"I love being able to help and support Todd in creating Outlaw and following his passion for brewing beer," Nicole says.
Todd manages the majority of the day-to-day operations.
“I do all the procurement, all the bookkeeping, all the HR, all the maintenance, and all the scheduling. It’s a lot,” he says.
He also works closely with four production employees, collaborating to develop new seasonal beer varieties. Thanks to 11 part-time bartenders, he no longer serves customers.
He recently bought a food truck that offers ballpark-type fare at the taproom.
“Oddly enough, our biggest seller is the corn dog,” he says.
The Road to Montana
A Virginia native, Hough chose Lehigh based on its academic reputation and location. After he graduated, his first job, which was with a government contractor in the travel industry, took him to offices on 30 different Army bases around the world. Back in the States and disenchanted with life on the busy East Coast, he and his wife moved to Montana’s wide open spaces.
Hough worked for a charter bus company, then built homes and commercial properties from 2003 to 2008. When the housing market collapsed in the 2008 recession, he got a job in a brewery.
“In the back of my mind, a brewery was always something I wanted to do,” Hough says. With a newborn son at home, he delayed starting a business to work as a financial adviser. He eventually launched his brewery while still working in finance, initially sharing space with a restaurant. Outlaw Brewing moved into its current taproom — a space Hough designed and built himself — in December 2014.
Becoming an Outlaw
Hough developed his signature brews without formal training.
“Through podcasts and books, there’s so much knowledge that’s available now, (training) hasn’t proven necessary,” he says.
Aware of the importance of establishing a brand, Hough wanted to trademark the name Outlaw Brewing, only to learn that a large liquor conglomerate owned it.
“My trademark lawyer said I could add identifiers to it, and I’d still be able to have a trademark,” Hough says. “So I googled famous Montana outlaws.”
The search yielded the name Sheriff Henry Plummer, an outlaw sheriff. Hough was intrigued.
“Maybe he was a good guy; maybe he was a bad guy,” Hough muses. “I kind of liked that question mark.”
When he discovered that Plummer’s biographer also is named Hough and that the biographer’s wife shares a maiden name with his grandmother, it seemed a lucky coincidence.
A Work of Art
Hough has prioritized having his beers stand out on store shelves.
“We decided to do pint cans instead of 12-ounce cans for a lot of reasons — and one is that it’s a bigger canvas,” he explains. “Every one of our cans is its own piece of artwork … They call them hero cans because each one has a main character or theme on it.”
The eye-catching images are detailed, colorful, and whimsical. For example, Hop Mullet India Pale Ale features a green grain of hops sporting a bright yellow mullet and wearing a pair of sunglasses.
Hough says he never wanted to own a bar, so there’s a certain irony that he’s the successful proprietor of a brewery. He explains that Montana law mandates that craft brewery taprooms must close at 8 p.m., long before bars call it a night. With a teenage son and daughter at home, it’s been an advantage.
“At 9 o’clock, I shut off my phone, and I don’t really have to worry about the problems at work anymore. It’s been a great kind of lifestyle for me,” he says.
