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MISSISSIPPIBeer TrailBeer Trail

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Biloxi Brewing Co.Biloxi

Mississippi Brewing Co.Biloxi

Chandeleur Island BrewingGulfport

Lazy Magnolia BreweryKiln

Lucky Town Brewing Co. Jackson

Mayhew Junction Brewing Co.Starkville

Natchez Brewing Co.Natchez

Slowboat Brewing Co.Laurel

Southern Prohibition Brewing Co.Hattiesburg

Yalobusha Brewing Co.Water Valley

Mighty Miss Brewing Co.Greenville

1817 BreweryOkolona

written by Laurie Triplette illustration by Bryan Nigh

Mississippi is legendary for its distinctive cultural, culinary and libationary attrac-tions. Blues. Rock and roll. The Delta.

Tamales. Football. Sweet tea. Bourbon. Catfish.  But Mississippi beer has never bubbled to

the top of anyone’s list of favorites. Until now. A change in our creative economy is

brewing, thanks to the concerted efforts of dedicated Magnolia State beer lovers, led by seasoned members of the Mississippi Brewers Guild and Raise Your Pints, a nonprofit orga-nization dedicated to modernizing Mississippi beer laws.

When Mississippi became the 49th state to legalize high-gravity beer in 2012, 80-90% of America’s most popular high-quality beers were excluded from in-state distribution. Only three craft breweries called Mississippi home at the time.

Mississippi’s restrictive alcohol policies received a second crucial blow in 2013, when the state legalized home brewing, the proven crucible for craft brewery startups. Mississippi still ranks 50th in number of breweries, but already that number has risen to 12.

The newest state law, MS House Bill 1322, in effect July 1, will enable breweries to sell beer on-site. All are retooling their facilities

and long-range business plans to accommodate direct sales to beer-drinking visitors. Many are installing taprooms or outright brewpubs. This change is good news not just for the consumer but also for the brewers, who will now have more room for creativity.

“When we have the ability to sell product on the premises, it allows brewers to experi-ment and get automatic feedback on a recipe,” said Matthew McLaughlin, executive director of the Mississippi Brewers Guild. “This can prevent a $50,000 new-offering mistake, enabling the brewer to tweak the recipe into a viable product.”

Lucas Simmons, a cofounder and head brewer at Lucky Town Brewing, agrees. “With the new taproom experience, customers are going to be more honest about what they do and don’t like about a beer that costs them $5,” he said.

Alvin Felder, chief sales officer for Lazy Magnolia Brewery, explains that all beers con-tain three main ingredients: water, grain and yeast, and typically hops. The magic is in how the brewer tweaks the ingredients’ chemistry, combines them, ferments the brew and finishes it. Mississippi contains excellent water aquifers and expansive resources for exotic seasonal ingredients such as sweet potatoes, peppers,

blackberries, peaches and watermelon. “There’s a romantic side to craft brewing

and a nerdiness that appeals to both artists and engineers, but the business side is where people often get lost,” McLaughlin said. “Making good beer is simply not enough.”

“Competition is good for craft breweries,” he added. “Mississippi-made beer is only about 0.3% of the total market in our state, a fraction of the local craft beer market in other parts of the country. The potential for growth in Mississippi is huge.”

1 Yalobusha Brewing Co.Founded 2013 in Water Valley. The first brewery in north Mississippi, it’s located

in the restored 156-year-old Hendricks Ma-chine Shop and Foundry building. Try Testify bourbon barrel-aged imperial milk stout, 9% ABV; Snopes Family Pilsner, 4.5% ABV; Larry Brown Ale, 6.4% ABV; and Mississippi Blues Trail, a farmhouse ale containing lemon zest and white pepper, 4.5% ABV. Coffee addicts will love sipping Coffee Break Happy Hour, a porter infused with Cups Snickerdoodle cin-namon coffee, chocolate and spice, 5% ABV. Converting to a brewpub this summer, with a restaurant and coffee bar in the works. Live music on Friday nights.

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3 INVITATION OXFORD | November 2014

2 1817 BreweryFounded 2015 in Okolona; shipped first sales to Tupelo in 2016. Produces five

to seven beers year-round in its Chickasaw County facility (kegs only, to date); construc-tion is planned for a 30-barrel facility in Tupelo’s Mill Village District. Signature beer is 1817 Bicentennial Ale, 9.3% ABV, named for the year Mississippi became the 20th state in the U.S. Owner Kem Coleman loves all his brews but recommends 1817 Trippel, a 7.7% interpretation of a 200-year-old Trappist monk recipe using Belgian candy sugar; Hill Country IPA, 6.4% ABV; The Mexican, 4.8% ABV, a Mexican-style ale that drinks like a lager; and seasonal pilsner Mango Wheat, 6.6% ABV.

3 Mayhew Junction Brewing Co.Founded 2014 in Starkville; owners built facility and began distribution in 2016.

Five-barrel brew base brews 12-18 tap-only recipes at any given time. Hometown coverage throughout Starkville and Columbus; distrib-uted as far as Tupelo. The four owners, self-proclaimed engineering, IT and science nerds, collaborate with local farmers on seasonals, led by their summertime Seed Spitter watermelon pale ale, 4.6% ABV. Mayhew Mild, an Eng-lish mild ale, 4.3% ABV, sets the brewery’s standard, but try the Cerveza Agria, a saison farmhouse sour ale aged in cabernet sauvignon French oak. And there’s the Mayhew PB&J milk porter, 6.1% ABV, made with peanut butter and strawberry jam.

4 Slowboat Brewing Co.Founded 2015 in an old AM radio station in Laurel; offered first tour in January

2016. Music-loving owners Kenny and Carrie Mann launched a local beer club that segued into a six-barrel brewery serving local area and in-state beer festivals. Offers three year-round brews, led by flagship Into the Mystic, a Bel-gian witbier brewed with hibiscus, 4.9% ABV, and Wayward Son, a grapefruit farmhouse sour ale, 7.2% ABV. One-offs and seasonals bring the total up to six or seven beers. Stouts and farmhouse ales prevail, using locally sourced produce and honey. Check out brews con-taining herbs, onions and mushrooms. Local beer-and-food event pairings are the norm; live music every Saturday night.

6 Biloxi Brewing Co.Founded 2014; contract-brewed at Lazy Magnolia until October 2016; now

provides contract brewing for other startups. Produces five brews in a 10-barrel brewhouse, focused on top-fermenting yeasts, packaged in cans suitable for the casual, outdoors-oriented coastal lifestyle. Biloxi Pale Ale, 5% ABV is the best-seller for shrimp and crawfish events, but the tasty new gose, Salty Dog, is riding the crest of the national gose craft-brew trend. Award-winning Black Gold channels Irish extra stouts, and Black Gold Breakfast Blend is a special topping for the homemade ice cream at Sal & Mookies in Biloxi.

5 Southern Prohibition Brewing Co.Founded April 2013; Hattiesburg’s downtown brewery. Production: 7,000

barrels in 2017, packaged in cans and 22-ounce bottles distributed throughout the South. Quinby Chun and Ben Green feature an annual hoppy IPA, plus five year-rounds, including Crowd Control Imperial IPA, 8% ABV; Mississippi Fire Ant Imperial Red Ale, 8% ABV; and Devil’s Harvest Breakfast IPA, 4.9% ABV. In 2017, they launched the Rota-tor series, featuring experimental ales to match the season, plus a Wild and Wood series that includes a special bourbon barrel-aged Missis-sippi Fire Ant Imperial that brings out vanilla, oak and roasted malt.

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E Sip on ThisAle Beer created using top-fermenting yeast strains, which perform at warmer temperatures than yeasts used to brew lager; by-products create more fruitiness and esters.

Amber Any top- or bottom-fermented beer that is amber in color; full-bodied malt aromas; can be either ale or lager.

Blonde Ale that is very pale in color, crisp, dry, with low to medium bitterness and hops aroma, but some sweetness from malt

Gose (Go-suh) Old German-style beer of at least 50% unfiltered malted wheat; cloudy yel-low, crisp and tangy, with herbal characteristics, saltiness and lemon sourness.

IPA (India pale ale) Pale ale is drier than light ale, with hoppier taste; India pale ale is a British pale ale with intense flavor from high alcohol content and high hopping rates that preserve the beer from souring over long storage times.

Kolsch A clean-tasting, crisp hybrid beer fermented with ale yeast but finished in cold temps like lager; light yellow with subdued fruity flavor.

Lager Beer produced at colder temps with bottom-fermenting yeasts.

Pilsner A type of lager developed in Pilsen, Czech Republic, that features more prominent hop flavor and pale color.

Porter A type of ale with a malting aroma and hop bitterness; strong and dark; brewed with soft rather than hard water.

Saison A spicy pale ale that’s about 7% ABV; brewed with pale malts, English and Belgian hops, and a secondary in-bottle fermentation; orange color with citrus and fruity hop notes. Stout A dark beer made with more roasted malts than used for porter.

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7 Mississippi Brewing Co.Founded 2013 in Gulfport as the state’s only brewpub; switched to contract brewery

in Biloxi in 2016, distributing kegs and cans but with a months-long gap between brewery contracts. Resumed distribution along the coast and statewide in March 2017, up to 20 barrels per month for the two flagship brews, Courage Pale Ale, 7.5% ABV, and Red Headed Step Child Red Ale, 5% ABV. Southern Light Blonde Ale, 4.5% ABV, goes back into produc-tion in late summer.

8 Chandeleur Island BrewingOpened 2014 in a converted historic build-ing in downtown Gulfport. Produces five

core beers: CBC Freemason Golden Ale, 5.3% ABV; Lil Smack IPA, 6.5% ABV; Surfside Wheat Ale, 4.8% ABV; Lil Miss Tangerine Sour Ale, 6% ABV; and Curlew’s Coconut Toasted Porter, 5.8% ABV. Continuously offers seasonals, such as Raspberry Farmhouse, Big Smack Double IPA and Zinfandel IPA. Special events include the annual Chandy Fest Music Festival. Team collaborates with local coastal food trucks and restaurants. Beer distribution has reached Alabama and Louisiana.

9 Lazy Magnolia BreweryFounded 2003 in Kiln; brewery completed in 2005; the state’s oldest and largest post-

Prohibition packaging brewery. Co-founders Mark and Leslie Henderson are dedicated to providing great jobs and tasty local beer. Lazy Magnolia provides bottling and brew support for four to six other breweries; offers beers ranging from ambers, pale ales and IPAs to porters and stouts; and makes specialty local honey-and-fruit Mississippi Nectar mead. The brand is marketed in 18 states. The Welcome to the Porch series features award-winning Southern Pecan nut brown ale, 4.39% ABV, and Big & Juicy Eureka, a limited-release IPA with 8.1% ABV. The Back Porch series features higher ABVs, with intense blends such as Tim-ber Beast, an imperial rye IPA with 8.9% ABV, and Jeez Louise, a jalapeño-flavored pale ale with 5.5% ABV. The Debutante series includes 10, a full-bodied ale with 10% ABV based on Belgian Trappist ales, and Skeleton Key, aged in bourbon-barrel oak with notes of chocolate and coffee.

Natchez Brewing Co.Opened 2015, relocated in 2016 to High Street in historic downtown.

Offers two year-rounds – Bluff City Blonde, an American blonde ale, 4.5% ABV, and Alt-ered State, a German-style amber, 6.4% ABV. Try the sophisticated seasonals, especially Revival Coffee Porter, a creamy porter made with chocolate malts and roasted beans from Natchez’ Steampunk Coffee Roasters, 5.8% ABV; Southern Grace, a spring-and-summer Berliner-style weisse sour ale hinting of lemon and passion fruit, 4.5% ABV; and the new late-summer 300, a Belgian-style tripel, 9% ABV, created for the Natchez Tricentennial.

Lucky Town Brewing Co.Founded 2011. Jackson’s hometown brewery has a 20-barrel brew system

for five year-round brews plus seasonals and sells throughout Mississippi and Memphis, with plans to expand into Tennessee and Alabama. Gose Gamblin’, the state’s first com-mercial gose, is low in alcohol (4% ABV) but tart and salty. Best-seller Ballistic Blonde, a Belgian-style blonde ale, 5.1% ABV, incorpo-rates Trappist yeasts and is in good company with Lucky Town English-style pub ale, 3.76% ABV; Hop Fiasco, an American-style IPA with citrusy-sweet hop flavor, 6.7% ABV; and Flare Incident, an oatmeal stout brewed with Vermont maple syrup and brown sugar, 5.7% ABV. Brewer Lucas Simmons is itching to cre-ate about 70 other beer recipes.

Mighty Miss Brewing Co.Began contract brewing March 2017; recently launched a new 15-barrel

brew facility in Greenville. Four beers on tap throughout the Delta and Starkville, including flagship Mighty Miss. American pale ale, 5.5% ABV; Pace Porter (named after Pace, Missis-sippi), 5% ABV; Sledge Saison, 6.3% ABV; and Onward Amber, 4.7% ABV. Founder Jon Alverson, also publisher of the Greenville Delta Democrat Times, started as a home brewer. He says the slightly tinted, soft Greenville water has proven perfect for brewing excellent beers. Expect to see the brews in cans by year’s end.

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Mississippi Beer Laws1850Mississippi legislature passes a measure allowing individual communities to vote on allowing or banning alcohol sales

1881 Mississippi holds its first public meeting about Prohibition

1907 Mississippi ratifies the first statewide “bone dry” prohibition of alcohol, effective January 1908

1918 Mississippi is the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment (Prohibition)

1920 The 18th Amendment goes into effect, along with the Volstead Act, requiring states to enforce the law within their own borders

1933 The 21st Amendment repeals the 18th Amendment; states begin repealing Prohibition locally

1933-1966Mississippi remains legally dry, but citizens privately consume alcoholic beverages; State Black Market Liquor Tax Collector position is established to enforce a 10% tax on illegal liquor

1945 Mississippi legalizes the sale of 3.2% ABV beer, as approved by local, county and city option

1952 Mississippi State Representative Noah S. “Soggy” Sweat Jr. gives historic Whiskey Speech before the state legislature, opining on the pros and cons of Prohibition

1963 Mississippi abolishes the Black Market Liquor Tax Collector position, which at the time is the second-highest-paid U.S. government job, behind the president

1966 Mississippi repeals statewide Prohibition, leaving it up to individual counties and municipalities; the first legal liquor store opens in Greenville

1972 Oxford allows the sale of beer for the first time since World War II, but not refrigerated and not on Sundays

1979 The U.S. Cranston Bill nationally legalizes home brewing up to 100 gallons of beer per year per single-person household; 200 gallons for two or more adults

2012 Mississippi legalizes Craft Beer Law permitting production and sale of high-gravity beer, an increase from 6.25% ABV to 10% ABV

2013 Mississippi becomes the 49th state to legalize home brewing, complying with the 1979 U.S. Cranston Bill

2013 Oxford Board of Aldermen votes to allow the sale of cold beer in stores and Sunday sales of beer and light wine (beer remains illegal in Lafayette County outside Oxford city limits)

2016 Mississippi “go-cup” law allows cities with downtown entertain-ment districts to set boundaries within which people may carry open containers of alcohol

2017 MSHB 1322 goes into effect July 1, making Mississippi the 49th state allowing “small craft breweries” to sell up to 10% of the brewery production for on-site consumption and carry-out

2017 Thirty-four of Mississippi’s 82 counties remain completely dry for hard liquor; The Grove remains dry for beer but wet for liquor, and both beer and alcohol are permitted at the Ole Miss baseball stadium

2017Individuals may not carry alcohol into the state or in transit through a dry county but may carry open containers of alcohol in cars within wet boundaries