Mellow Mink Brewery - The Beer Thrillers

Mellow Mink Brewing is Closing

B. Kline — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 22:45:11 +0000

Mellow Mink Brewing’s Closing Announcement

Mellow Mink

This. One. Hurts. Some places, some breweries, just become a part of you and part of your craft beer experience, and world, and enjoyment. As we see more and more breweries closing this year, and the upcoming years, some are going to hurt more than others. Each person is different, and each brewery’s closing will affect people differently; but this one really just hurts. Matt and Cole are such wonderful people, who have done a lot for the beer community, have made a tremendous brewery and bar experience, and have been such wonderful people to talk beer with, this absolutely hurts. Like The Alementary and their closing, Mellow Mink Brewery held a very special place in our hearts here at The Beer Thrillers. We just want to go above and beyond to say thank you to all Matt and Cole and have done for the community.

Mellow Mink Brewing is located at 4830 Carlisle Pike in Hampden Township (4830 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050).

Mellow Mink Brewing is a craft brewery located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, known for its unique and innovative approach to brewing. Founded by Matt Miller and Cole Taylor, Mellow Mink specializes in producing a wide range of craft beers, with a particular focus on sours and barrel-aged brews. The brewery has gained a reputation for its meticulous brewing process and the use of high-quality ingredients, ensuring each beer offers a distinct and memorable flavor profile.

The brewery’s taproom provides a welcoming and stylish environment for patrons to enjoy their beverages. With a sleek and modern design, the taproom offers a comfortable space for beer enthusiasts to gather and savor Mellow Mink’s diverse selection. In addition to its regular lineup, the brewery frequently releases limited-edition and seasonal beers, keeping the menu fresh and exciting for visitors. The taproom also hosts various events, including beer tastings, food pairings, and community gatherings, enhancing the overall experience.

Josh and Ben hanging out with Matt and Cole at Mellow Mink Brewery (January 2020)

When our blog was still new and baby fresh, Matt invited Josh and I out to their brewery to have a behind the scenes tour and get an intimate look at their operation, their beers and their sours, and we had such a wonderful time hanging out with Matt and Cole and spending hour and hour after hour talking about beer to no end. (See: Brewery Visit – Mellow Mink Brewery) I can’t thank Matt and Cole enough for that experience, as we learned so much from it all, and more importantly – just had a wonderful night.

Mellow Mink Brewing is Closing

As more and more breweries are closing, theres a lot of dynamics at play, and a lot of reasons for why they are closing. There is certainly a ‘bubble bursting’ in the craft beer industry, no matter how much some will tell you otherwise. And there is so many reasons and things that go into what makes a brewery great, or what will keep it standing out, and will keep people going back. The loss of Mellow Mink will be a big blow to the Central PA and the Harrisburg area and Harrisburg adjacent beer area.

Here is their announcement posted to social media:

Mellow Mink Brewing’s Closing Announcement

Today, it is with a heavy heart that we announce the upcoming closure of Mellow Mink Brewing. We have cherished the opportunity to serve our fans and community for the past six years. We are deeply proud of the beers and cocktails that we crafted, and the all-inclusive environment that we fostered. We now plan to wind-down brewing and taproom operations and close permanently by the end of August 2024. We hope you will visit us again before we are gone – we will be releasing several small batch and full-scale blends that are currently in the tanks. Thank you all for your love and support over the years!

Mellow Mink Brewing – Facebook Post

The out pouring of support started immediately right after they made their announcement and posts. The love the community has for them clearly shown, sadly, not enough support was given while they were fully in operation.

But, please everyone, lets go and visit them throughout July, and August, until their last day. Lets show Matt and Cole all the support we can while the doors are open — and afterwards. Let them know how much they are loved by the community. How great their sours are, and how much their stouts, and IPAs, kicked butt as well.

I just want to reiterate how much love we have for Matt and Cole and all the staff at Mellow Mink Brewery, and wish the absolute best for all involved in the future and everything they do. Lets all raise a pint to Matt, Cole, the staff of Mellow Mink, and the brewery itself!

(Join us, Josh, Ben, and Amy, as we will be visiting Mellow Mink, Friday – July 5th, after 6PM.)

For More Information on Mellow Mink Brewery

The following comes via Untappd.

Mellow Mink Brewing is a microbrewery from Mechanicsburg, PA. They have 478 unique beers and over 34,000 ratings, with a global average rating of 3.88 (as of 7.2.24). Their Untappd description reads: “Mellow Mink Brewing is an all inclusive craft brewery and taproom in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. It is our goal to bring the traditions of both old and new world brewing excellence to our home on the west shore of the Susquehanna River. We strive to brew creative and delicious craft beers of the highest quality.”

You can find them at these social media platforms:

Brewery News

Interested in finding out about many other brewery openings, new locations, closings, movings, and in general brewery news? You can check out our links below:

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If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

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We are working on a massive project here at The Beer Thrillers. We are creating a map of all of the breweries across the United States. State by state we are adding maps of all of the different states with every brewery in each state. (We will eventually get to the US Territories, as well as the Canadian Provinces, and possibly more countries; as well as doing some fun maps like a map of all the breweries we’ve been to, and other fun maps.) You can find the brewery maps here:

MAPS OF BREWERIES

We are also working on a project of creating printable and downloadable PDFs and resources to be able to check and keep track of all of the breweries you’ve been to. So stay tuned for that project once we are finished with the Brewery Maps of the US States.

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The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

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Mechanicsburg Area Breweries

beermapsofusa — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 16:56:43 +0000

A map of the Mechanicsburg (and surrounding) Area breweries.

Mechanicsburg Area Breweries

There are a lot of fantastic breweries in the Mechanicsburg area! And with the addition of Sworn Brewing – that list is only growing!

Here is Google Directions to take you from the greater Mechanicsburg area breweries (starting at Ever Grain Brewing Company): Google Maps – Greater Mechanicsburg Area Breweries. These directions will take you from Ever Grain Brewing Company to Mellow Mink Brewery to LoveDraft’s Brew Co to Appalachian Brewing Company (Mechanicsburg) to High Road Taproom to Sworn Brewing to Wolf Brewing to Hemauer Brewing and then ending at Marzoni’s Brick Over Pizza and Brewery and Isaac’s Craft Kitchen and Brewery. Total driving time is 53 minutes (at time of making the map). 16.3 miles of driving total.

Google Map Directions of Breweries in Mechanicsburg (starting with Ever Grain Brewing Company)

Map of Mechanicsburg Area Breweries

The following map shows breweries in the Mechanicsburg area. Breweries with the ‘beer mug’ are located in Mechanicsburg (although Ever Grain is listed as a Camp Hill location, it is just two blocks away from Mellow Mink which has a Mechanicsburg address, and Grateful Goat which is further east than both, also has a Mechanicsburg address – so I have included Ever Grain Brewing in with the Mechanicsburg breweries). Also included are breweries in very near by surrounding (West Shore) areas – such as Enola, Lemoyne, Camp Hill, etc.

The yellow pins are those without a Mechanicsburg address (not including Ever Grain which I placed in with the Mechanicsburg locations) – it also includes the Farmers Market (West Shore Farmers Market) which has a GearHouse Brewing stand.

A late addition to the list is Cold Springs Brewery; which has a Mechanicsburg address despite being south of Shepherdstown. (I was tempted to give this a separate pin color, but decided against it due to having a Mechanicsburg location still, and because it would be the only one of that nature).

How to Use the Map

You can zoom in, and click on each of the beer mugs with the paw prints on them to see the breweries. This will call up their address via Google Maps, as well as any other information they have supplied to Google (phone numbers, websites, etc.). You can also save this map to your Google Maps so when you call up Google Maps these locations will be pinned onto your map as an overlay.

The Map:

List of Mechanicsburg Area Breweries

Here is a list of the breweries to be found on the map above:

Mechanicsburg Area:

Mellow Mink Brewery
Appalachian Brewing Company – Mechanicsburg
Grateful Goat Brewery
Sworn Brewing
Highroad Taproom
Hemauer Brewing
LoveDraft’s Brew Co
Wolf Brewing
Marzoni’s Brewery
Isaac’s Craft Brewery
Cold Springs Brewery

Enola and Camp Hill Areas:

Ever Grain Brewing Company (Camp Hill Address)
Jigsy’s Pizza and Brewery
PizzaBoy Brewing / Al’s of Hampden
Wild Rabbit Pizza and Eatery (Ever Grain secondary location)

Vendors:

GearHouse Brewing Company: West Shore Farmer’s Market

Pennsylvania Breweries

Two additional resources we currently have to offer for Pennsylvania Breweries:

List of All Pennsylvania Breweries
Map of Veteran Owned Pennsylvania Breweries
Map of Dauphin County Breweries
Map of Lebanon County Breweries
Map of Dog Friendly Breweries in Pennsylvania
Mechanicsburg Area Breweries

Maps of Breweries in the United States of America (USA)

The below is a list of maps of the states, territories, and districts of the United States. As well as a fun map of all the breweries that The Beer Thrillers have been to. I am working on getting these done geographically, starting with Maine. (When the state is underlined and in color, means the map is done and ready to be viewed.)

States

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Territories

American Samoa
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Federated States of Micronesia
Guam
Republic of the Marshall Islands
Republic of Palau
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Districts

Washington D.C.

Miscellaneous Maps

Hops and Vines for Hunger Participating Breweries (2023)
Map of Veteran Owned Pennsylvania Breweries
Map of Dog Friendly Breweries in Pennsylvania

Fun Maps

Map of All the Breweries that The Beer Thrillers Have Visited (Total)
Map of All the Breweries that The Beer Thrillers Visited (in 2023)
Map of All the Breweries that The Beer Thrillers Visited (in 2022)
Map of All the Breweries that The Beer Thrillers Visited (in 2021)
Map of All the Breweries that The Beer Thrillers Visited (in 2020)

If we decide to add any future maps, we will update the page if necessary. If you have any map suggestions for us, please feel free to comment, contact us, or e – mail us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com

Thank You For Reading

If you like this article, please check out our other many articles, including news, beer reviews, travelogues, maps, and much much more. We greatly appreciate everyone visiting the site!

Cheers.

MAPS OF BREWERIES

You can check out our different directories here: Beer Reviews, Hike Reviews, Book Reviews, Brewery News, Brewery Openings, Brewer Interviews, and Travelogues.

The Beer Thrillers on LinkTree can be found here: The Beer Thrillers LinkTree.

If you would like to reach out to us for product reviews, beer reviews, press release writing, and other media – please contact us at thebeerthrillers@gmail.com. Thank you.

Beer Review: Scarlet Sunrise – Blackberry and Blueberry (Mellow Mink Brewing)

BKline — Sat, 25 Jan 2020 15:58:54 +0000

Scarlet Sunrise Blackberry and Blueberry by Mellow Mink Brewing

If you thought The Beer Thrillers were done with the Mellow Mink content, you’re wrong. At the end of our visit on January 2nd, Matt cracked open a bottle of this for the three of us to share and devour, and savor, and savor and devour we did!

I think the picture above is pretty good, but even still it doesn’t do the beer justice for how aesthetically pleasing it looks. Let alone how tasty it is.

While getting to sit down with Matt and Josh and discussing the barrel aging and bottling that Mellow Mink Brewing does. Matt here is Dr. Lambic, Mr. Matt Miller, Doctorate, head brewer, bottler, part-owner, and genius of Mellow Mink Brewing in Mechanicsburg PA. If there is one thing this man knows (and there is plenty, don’t worry) its sour beer. He knows more about the various yeasts and strains and “lactobacilus” and “saccharomyces” then I know things in general – in total. So it was a complete treat to get to sit down with him, enjoy one of his perfected creations, and listen to him talk about how it was made, why it was made, why this or that ingredient was used, how the aging was done, why this barrel or that, etc, etc. All the while getting to sip on this exquisite drink.

So with enough of an adieu (since I wrote all that above, I can’t say with no further adieu, because I did give plenty of adieu), let’s break down this gorgeous beer:

Beer: Scarlet Sunrise – Blackberry and Blueberry
Brewery: Mellow Mink Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 4
Untappd Write-Up: A blend of sour red ales aged for 12 months in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels refermented on Blackberries and Blueberries. Naturally carbonated and conditioned in the bottle.
Notes: Bottle Conditioned, Saccharomyces, Brettanomyces, Lactobacilius

So after getting to tour the facility there at Mellow Mink, Matt had us sample some untouched barrel projects, and then we went to the finished product. This made for a fantastic cap to the night.

Appearance is beautiful, rosy red, effervescent, glowing, sour fruited look alike, but richer, deeper, more full bodied look. You can tell it was aged, you can tell it has a ‘wine’ backbone to it due to the barrel aging, and you can tell it was conditioned for a while. You can see that this is not merely a regular fruited sour, but one that has been labored over and loved over. It just glows and looks beautiful straight from the pour. Great carbonation, great appearance.

Aroma from this is everything you want from reading the bottle. Your nose immediately picks up the blackberry, the blueberry, the Cabernet Sauvignon wine barrel, you get the dryness, the muskyness, the earthy undertones, you inhale and get even more dry stone fruit notes, the blackberries and blueberries jumping in again. Just a wealth of fantastic aroma notes assaulting your nostrils in one great blending.

Now, this is definitely not one to gulp, to quaff down, to chug. This is a beautiful sipping beer. Not surprisingly given how it was made and prepared, you drink this like wine. You sift it, you sniff it, you sip it, you sift it, you swirl it, you savor it, you slowly, devour it. You let it roll around on your tongue, you let it slide to the back of your throat and enjoy the taste. You don’t rush this at all. Its dry, complex, and full of wonderful tastes, textures, and its just so well made that you appreciate every last drop of it. You get deep dryness from this, you get earthy notes, musky notes, you get heavy stone fruit, you taste the wine, you get overpowering blackberry, you get slow building blueberry, you get a tartness but not a complete sourness, the tartness going hand in hand with the dryness. It all culminates in a fantastic and delicious beer that fully embodies what Matt is striving to do at Mellow Mink – make fantastic beers. And that he does, in spades twenty times over.

My Untappd Rating: ****.50
Global Untappd Rating: 4.26 (as of 1.25.20)

Started this article yesterday morning (Friday, 1.24.20) but had to leave for work, and immediately after work took my daughter Lily to the Hummelstown Winter Fling. Which was an absolute blast and I might do a quick write-up on that. Tattered Flag, Spring Gate, Howling Henry’s, BrewDog through the Warwick Hotel; were all there as well as the Warwick being open for sales. Ffej was playing drums for the Julia Schreiber band and it was a blast hearing them nail some Rush songs in Neil Pert’s memory.

I’m wrapping this up just in time to go to work, where immediately afterwards I’ll be rushing to Marysville for the second day of the Grand Opening at the Liquid Noise Brewery, with head brewer Brad Moyer. Can’t wait to check out what he’s got going on, his home brewing stuff has been phenomenal. So definitely be on the look out for that write-up soon after.

To read up on the Mellow Mink Visit me and Josh did, you can check that out here. We had an absolute amazing time hanging out with Matt Miller and Cole and recommend everyone check out Mellow Mink Brewing.

Cheers!

-B. Kline

Brewery Visit: Mellow Mink

BKline — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 15:11:12 +0000

On January 2nd, we got to go on a fantastic trip and visit to Mellow Mink and do a brewery tour, visit, review, an interview, and for lack of words just spend the evening hanging out with owner and head brewer Matt Miller. This was an amazing evening for myself and Josh and we had a complete and total blast hanging out with Matt, Cole, and just taking in the wisdom, passion, knowledge, love, and just in short the awesome vibes Matt was giving off. As soon we were both there, we could feel his genuineness, his eager to teach, his love and his passion for brewing, craft beer, blending, sours, and just having fun.

Matt contacted us through the blog about visiting him at Mellow Mink and spending some time seeing the behind the scenes, the blending program, and just generally hanging out. Myself (Ben) and Josh immediately jumped at this idea. And to show just how hard it can be at times for just three humans to be able to meet, we started discussing when to visit mid-November and only got to actually meet January 2nd. A host of reasons attest to that; the least of all being a brewer, business operator, pharmacist, and all around busy man for Matt, for myself having only having two weekday days off rather than a weekend (whereas Josh has the weekend off), and myself having three daughters as well as another side-hustle (the podcasts). But we got to make it work, and it was a beautiful, and wonderful kick off to the new year and the new decade. Hopefully we’ll get to do more fun visits like this at other breweries.

Here’s how this article is going to break down for everyone reading. I (B. Kline) am going to start off, giving my side of the events of the evening, and talk through what led up to us finally getting to meet, how the evening went, and then I’m going to pass the baton off to J. Doncevic who will give his side of everything.We’ll meet back up at the end giving reviews of the beers we had – specifically the absolutely fantastic bottle we all got to share; we’ll then go back and forth with a few closing comments, and I’ll wrap it up with post-brewery visit nonsense, general blog news and future events and things like that, last second plugs, etc, and that’ll be that. Hopefully this will do the visit, the tour, Matt, and the brewery – Mellow Mink – justice. I think this format will be the best and make the most sense for the readers, and give a more overall perspective of our time there and the visit and things we got to discuss with Matt. I know personally I can’t say enough wonderful things about Matt, about the beers, about the place, about everything, and just how appreciative we were that Matt reached out to us and invited us basically into his home away from home.

Ben:

As head of the blog I’m the one ‘saddled’ with having to do the behind the scenes upkeep of the blog, checking comments, media things, feedback through our contact page, generally all of the administrative and boring details. And to be honest, at a blog of our size, that’s really not much work, and I don’t mind one bit of it. Especially when I come across a notice like the one I received from Matt Miller. I immediately contacted Josh, my (main) co-writer here at the blog (one of a few now with the addition of Default Brewing joining in) and he was completely ecstatic right out of the gate just like I was. So I contacted Matt back and we stayed in touch via e-mail and messenger until we could finally hammer down a date – January 2nd.

My day was a bit hectic. Morning consisted of getting girls to school (driving my oldest two to two different schools, then walking my youngest), running errands, enjoying a nice lunch, and ultimately being late to my buddy D. Scott’s place. We were doing our podcast for The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian. The night before I was at his place to do the LOST Podcast (Seasons 1 and 2) with Esteban. So for the Star Wars podcast I got to Drew’s just shy of 3PM when I was supposed to be there at 2:30/2:45PM. We ended up finishing the podcast at about 5:35PM and I all but ran and flew driving to get from Grantville to Mechanicsburg to meet Matt and Josh. I was supposed to be there at 6PM, and my GPS said I’d arrive there at 5:58, but I ended up walking in the doors at 6:02PM. I hate being late and try not to make it a common occurrence. Josh is already there sipping on Super Fruit 6. He informs me Matt is taking a business call.

Janet Weisse by Mellow Mink Brewing

I order my first – the Janet Weisse – and hang out talking with Josh about the evening and what to expect and how we might do the blog article. As per usual with me, nothing set in stone and nothing definitive, I tend to do much of everything on a ‘let’s just wing it’ kind of approach and let the chips fall and land where they do. In no time at all Matt comes out, introduces himself to Josh and I begin thanking him for letting us come out.

We stood by the bar drinking our first beer, the three of us chatting about how its taken so long for us to get to meet up finally, how we were supposed to the last week of December, why I was a bit running behind (because of the podcast, traffic, etc.), and just general life things. We then transitioned into the brewery, how long its been opened, small details about Mellow Mink in general.

Mellow Mink taproom after closing

Immediately Josh and I can tell just the wealth of knowledge Matt has. Certainly no one could ever doubt that this man knows beer. In one night’s sleep he probably forgets more about beer and brewing and sours and blending then I’ll ever learn / know in my entire life. You can tell up front and right away that this is a passion for him. That he’s knowledgeable, smart, and loves the business, the making of beer, the blending of sours, the people, the atmosphere, the craftsmanship behind brewing a damn good beer.

We ordered our second beers, Josh got the Cloud Cove IPA, since his Peaches and Cream IPA was out, I got the Super 6, and Matt got the Mechanicsbock. Absolutely loved the Super 6, and Josh enjoyed his Cloud Cove. We then began to talk actual shop. Discussing the beers he likes, breweries he likes, some of his inspirations, aspirations, and all around influences and influencers. He discussed going to Monk’s Cafe and trying out Cantillion on Zwanze Day and falling in love with lambics and the Belgian brewing style. Talked about how he discovered the sours and lambics and the various blendings and how its so similar to creating a good wine. We started discussing the different brewing styles and methods of lambics and the Belgian and German and European ways of brewing. It was like storytime with a historian and a scholar. The information that came out of him was too much to even comprehend most times, phenols, blending styles, aeration, different barrels, temperatures, mashing temperatures, kettle styles, stainless steel, different yeast strains, different sour methods, different cultures, bact, lacto, etc. etc, etc, etc.

Even with a notebook, heck, even with a recorder, I wouldn’t be able to write everything down and get it correct. Like I said, he knows far more than I’ll ever even possibly learn. We then ordered our next – myself getting the Mechanicsbock, Josh ordering the Janet Weisse, and we then followed Matt into the back to take a look at the full facility.

I will be honest here, and Matt will back me up on this, the facility is a glorified home brew set up. But its a DAMN GOOD glorified home brew set up. Matt even called it a “enlarged home brewing environment” while we were there. But please, this takes nothing away from the meticulousness, the procedure, the quality, or the skill that Matt uses. If anything it shows you how much better of a brewer Matt is to produce the quality he produces on such a small size and scale.

Backstage at the Mellow Mink brewery, take note of the Mellow Mink logo on the grates.

One of the first things that caught Josh’s eye was the grates in the floor. All breweries have them, their for flushing and letting out the water, and spills, etc, just like the backhouse of most restaurants, and even warehouses. But this was the first that either of us have seen where the grates had the logo of the brewery in them acting as some of the holes. The Mellow Mink logo distinctive in the grates was a super cool touch.

He walked us around showing his kettles, the mash tun, his various fermenters and equipment, showed us the cooler with the kegs that run up into the brewery and to the bar, every last nook and cranny of the backstage facility. It was glorious to get to walk around and listen to an expert explain what this piece was for, why he had it set up this way, what the water was like in Mechanicsburg, what he added/detracted from the water, why his setup was this way, where he did his souring, all of this so educating and elucidating, was just a marvel to see it all. I don’t believe our pictures can do it all justice, but hopefully it gives you at least an idea.

While chatting behind scenes, Matt told us how he’s actually a Doctor and works at a pharmacy by day, highlighting his science knowledge and showing why he’s so knowledgeable about the technical aspects of the molecular side of things in brewing. He told us about his prior writing before opening Mellow Mink – his blog – called The Sour Blog or Sour Blog where he was known as Dr. Lambic. Now it’s all clicking into place. We then chatted about his blog, our blog, and the intricacies of writing and blogs.

Matt with his babies…. I mean barrels.

We then came back out to the barrels and he pulled the pin from a barrel to give us a pour from one, replaced the pin, and then did the same with another. We then took a seat at the bar again, and sampled the untouched and un-added-to beers from the barrels. A white and a red. Both like fine wines, tasting absolutely phenomenal. Dry. Tasty. So fantastic. Dr. Lambic, err, Dr. Matt, err, Matt – never call him Doctor – then got one of their latest bottle offerings, the Scarlet Sunrise – Blackberry and Blueberry. Now, I know this is early in the year, but this is a clear cut front runner for best beer of the year. Absolutely fantastic.

Different pours from the barrels

I’ll go into the beers we had and do beer reviews later in this article. So make sure you check that out. Might also do an individual posting for a beer review on just the Scarlet Sunrise.

But to wrap up my portion of the night, after we sampled the Scarlet Sunrise, talked very in depth about barrels, aging, blending, sours, etc, we then began to wrap things up. Cole got a group selfie of the four of us (he is the artistic and creative one as far as that sort of thing goes after all), and we chatted a little bit more, and gave our farewells.

After leaving, me and Josh stood outside chatting for a bit and then made our ways home. So I’ll hand this article off to Josh and let him talk about his evening at Mellow Mink:

JOSH:

Imagine my surprise when Ben messages me over Facebook that there was a brewery that had invited the two of us to come in and chat. The first thought that crossed my mind was “which one?” and immediately afterwards, the second thought was “you’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?” Ben cleared out the doubt when he told me it was Mellow Mink. Located just off the Carlisle Pike, in the Hampden Centre shopping plaza, right next to Pho 7 Spice, you’ll find an unassuming storefront. Step inside and you’re welcomed by friendly staff and a pleasant, upscale atmosphere that just feels right. If you’re looking for sours or farmhouse ales, you’ve stepped into the right place.

When Ben mentioned the sheer amount of time it took to set what would eventually become a January 2nd meeting, he wasn’t kidding. The offer for us to spend some time with Matt, drink his beer, chat, and view the inner workings of his passion took just under two months. Two months! Yes, various factors are to be taken into consideration, and on one occasion Ben & I were both available, but Matt had just received new brewery equipment that was coming in right around the time frame we’d have been there. Plus, like any brewer, Matt said he’d have new beer on tap that we would most likely be interested in. You don’t have to tell me twice. In retrospect, the day we were actually able to make our schedules work was probably the best as it was the start of a new year. Best time to hang out with a brewer and pick his brain, see what makes his brewery tick and try new things? YES! Before this sounds like some emphatic lovefest and a little too much fanboy fawning, allow me to place a little personal disclaimer: things like this usually do not happen to me. At least not on a regular basis. At any rate, I arrived a little early and checked my messages. Ben said he was running late, so I headed in and decided to, at the very least, let Matt know his 6 o’clock had arrived and was enjoying Super Fruit 6. Just a few minutes later Mr. Miller swings the backdoor open and greets me with a warm smile and hearty handshake. You can always tell when someone is about to talk about their passion. Their eyes are bright, their face is glowing, their smile is inhumanly wide and expressive. There’s this easy happiness that exudes from Matt as we share a brief moment conversing about what now occupies our glasses before my colleague crashes the party. Just kidding! It was fully my intent to kill some time while Ben was en route to Mellow Mink. To be fair to Ben, he wasn’t that late, and once things got started, time was never the issue.

Something sure smells good here….

So where do you start when you’ve got the night and (mostly) the run of his establishment? The beginning of course! Not wanting to waste time, we asked Matt a slew of questions ranging from his favorite style to where he got the idea of opening a brewery in the first place. Then the second beer hit, well, it was ordered and while entertaining their respective contents, the information Ben and I were being given was something that we quickly realized we might have wanted a recorder of some sort. Let’s touch on the highlights though.

Would you believe that Mellow Mink is not Matt’s only job? Hard to believe since the liquid luxury that pours from the taps is quite good. No, Matt has another job that pays the bills outside of being a brewer. He’s a pharmacist. Aha! At this point Ben and I realized the parallel that had been drawn between his profession and his passion project. Mr. Miller had moved us from the bar area to where he makes the magic happen. Sure there’s a lot of shiny metal tanks, fermenters, and even a HUGE refrigerator. None of this caught my immediate attention. No, what really got me excited was the fact that the drain grates incorporated the Mink from the logo. Matt was quick to add the company that made the grates offered to add the Mink for free so he jumped at the chance. I mean, wouldn’t you? Like a kid in a candy store, Ben and I are shown around and given a glimpse into what it means to be Matt Miller and what a typical month’s worth of brewing amounts to. In showing us what Mellow Mink really is, Matt also let’s us see that he’s not afraid to be resourceful and inventive. He shows us a bottle filling station with six separate spouts. Apparently when it was purchased it didn’t allow the proper amount of air to escape, so Matt set to work making it function the way he needed it. Way to go! Ben and I are having a great time, but now we’ve got an issue; our glasses are empty. Fortunately this is an easy problem to fix. However, we don’t want to fill our glasses just yet as Matt has something special for us. He gleefully shows us the barrels on sliding racks that occupy the back right corner and explains that the beer contained within is aged separately for at least 6 months and then blended together. Okay, brewers and distillers do this, but Matt uses beer aged in white wine and red wine barrels and marries them into one seamless, sultry mixture. He could have stopped there by telling us this process, but Matt believes in showing us this process. We are first given a sour that was aging in the red wine barrel. Although not finished aging, it comes across as mellow, smooth, and deep. We are then handed a sample of the sour from the white wine barrel. It is a stark contrast, in nose and experience. Where the red was mellow, the white is peaky, vibrant, upfront, and contains a lot more acidic bite. As the finale, Matt brings out a bottle of Scarlet Sunrise. This then is the end result of Matt’s incredible attention to detail as he deftly blends white and red into a sour with a luscious bouquet and more drinkability than anything this side of wine has a right to. This. This is what Matt does. Scarlet Sunrise represents what happens when someone has a passion for the craft and with every sip, that fact becomes more and more apparent. For me, Scarlet Sunrise puts the “Mellow” in “Mellow Mink” as it never feels the need to be the center of attention, nor does it completely fade into the background. Between the three of us we polish off the bottle, pay our tabs, grab a selfie with Matt and his partner Cole (the artistic side of the brewery), say our goodbyes then exit into the cold January evening. It was an incredible evening that Ben and I will not soon forget and one we might just need to have again.

BEN:

Just to wrap things back up here, this was certainly a blast. I know I can speak for myself and Josh and say that we had an absolutely fantastic time at Mellow Mink. For anyone familiar with their beers, you’ll understand how great this was, and anyone unfamiliar with their beers will definitely want to check them out.

Matt is a genius brilliant brewer who certainly knows his trade. Getting to pick his mind on everything from sours, to brewing, to Untappd, to creativity things like naming and making recipes, to running a business, to being married and having another job and running a business, and just talking about his craft, his enthusiasm for what he does, his down-to-earth nature, and his pleasantness and niceness as a human being all shone through.

We visited on January 2nd, and we’re now posting this 20 days later on January 22nd. We’ve been a bit quiet on the blog homefront mainly because we’ve been working on this. Our last beer blog post was the duo 2019 recap blog posts: End of the Year – 2019 and The Best of 2019. I’ve also been busy doing podcasts.

We would like to take this time to thank Matt Miller extensively for allowing us into his brewery (basically his home) and showing us around and drinking with us and chatting with us. It was a blast!

For those reading, I have decided to move the beer reviews of what we had that night to a new article. I think this article is long enough and the beer reviews wouldn’t be necessary at this point. I will say we had some fantastic brews and none of them were below a 4 star review on Untappd. I will be doing the Scarlet Sunrise as its own review, and the others as a multi-beer review. I think thats the fairest way to do all of them. I believe Josh might also be doing a beer review article on the Scarlet Sunrise.

We are also considering doing a Q&A / interview series here on the blog. I know Matt has told us he’d welcome the idea of it and would gladly do one with us. If you are a brewer or brewery worker reading this and would like to do one, you can reach out to us here on the blog either through the comments or the contact page, and we would gladly do one!

Also, if you are a brewery (owner or brewmaster) and would like to invite us out to your brewery, we are super more than willing! We love hanging out at breweries, drinking, chatting, and will gladly do a review / write-up of your brewery. So once again, contact us, and we’ll work something out. We have covered a few brewery opening articles which you can find here: MidWest Coast Brewery Opening and Rotunda Brew Pub Opening.

I will also take this time to point out our various social media accounts for those of you unfamiliar with us, we have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (though sadly we don’t use Instagram as much, but looking to in the future), and Pinterest.

We have a ton of different articles here on the site for you to check out, from brewery reviews, like our review of Battlefield Brew Works and Cushwa Brewery, to beer reviews like Fuzzy Nudge, The Hog, Dillston, Should Have Put Him Into Custardy, etc.

I am also finishing up my series on the Tree House beers soon after this gets published. I’ve done Sap, Autumn, and Haze, and soon will do the review for Julius and Doppelganger.

You can also check out the podcasts I do with friends over at our Podcast page – So a Mexican and a Scot Walk Into a Bar…. (The podcast is popculture themed, we discuss movies, shows, and drink beers and discuss the beers we are drinking while discussing the other esoteric stuff.) (The podcasts typically run from 1 Hour and 20 Minutes to 1 Hour and 45 Minutes.)

For a few months now we’ve been listed on FeedSpot’s Top 100 Beer Blogs; we’ve recently moved up from #11 on the charts to #9. And thats thanks to all of you checking us out, reading our entries, and clicking Follow and Like and Subscribe. We appreciate it so much! (We originally debuted at #137, then after a week we moved to #11 where we stalled for about a month or so, but now we’ve finally moved up again, to #9. Interestingly #2 and #3 is the same blog, so I guess in a way…. technically…. we’re #8…. but I don’t know. Just happy to be in the Top 10. There is some great blogs on this list.)

This was our first joint blog post (me and Josh), and I think it turned out pretty well. If you want to read more of our individual articles, you can find them here:
* B. Kline
* J. Doncevic

Click on the name and it’ll take you to a list of that author’s articles.

I will now close out with some pictures we took of the brewery:

Our visit to Mellow Mink on Jnauary 2nd.

(This was my first time using the gallery feature on the blog, so hopefully it comes out ok).

Thank you all for taking the time to read this blog post, article, whatever you want to call it. Brewery review… beer review… brewery tour….. However you want to label it, it was a blast, and we want to thank Matt and Cole for having us and for you guys for reading this! Please be sure to follow us, subscribe to our Facebook and Twitter pages, and check out our past and future articles here on The Beer Thrillers!

Cheers from Josh and Ben!

The Beer Thrillers invade Mellow Mink. (From Left to Right – Josh, Matt, Cole, and in the back Ben.)

Cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

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