![Briess MerriMINT Chocolate Mint Stout](/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MerriMINT_Hero_Blog-001-1024x683.jpg)
One of the best aspects of my position here at Briess, and in the craft beer industry, is the opportunity to collaborate with customers. This might be a brew for a brewer’s guild to help raise money to support their organization, or a beer to showcase some malts we would like to be a shining star at a conference. Most recently, I got the opportunity to work with Grant Pauly, Owner of 3 Sheeps Brewing in Sheboygan, WI, along with his awesome team, to create our 2nd annual Briess holiday beer – MerriMINT Chocolate Mint Stout.
How fun to create a beer with a great local customer, right!? The team at 3 Sheeps Brewing and I discussed a couple of options from their base brews and how we could gear one toward a Christmas seasonal.
“When Briess asked us to collaborate on a holiday brew, we knew right away that it would have to be a stout,” mentioned Grant. After some chatter, we landed on the idea of their “15-2” beer – a product that uses eleven (Yes, 11!) of our finest malts. This beer is a fantastic stout but needed a tweak to get it into the holiday spirit. Should we use spruce tips to give it a hint of earthy, snowy pine? Maybe we should go traditional with holiday spices like clove, nutmeg, and allspice?
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Grant added, “I love playing around with Briess’ dark specialty malts, so getting to blend Midnight Wheat, Chocolate, Extra Special, Caramel Malt 120L, and Ashburne® Mild, along with a few others, and have them balance with some more classic winter flavors of vanilla, mint, and cocoa nibs, was a very fun project. I hope everyone enjoys the final result!”
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With that being said, I wanted to tie in some holiday spirit and thought, why not share this as a poem? So with help from Briess’ Director of Marketing, Ron Schroder, we introduce a twist on a familiar Christmas Story…
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What an excellent way to end the year and have this opportunity with one of our amazing brewery partners to share the holiday spirit. MerriMINT is currently on tap at 3 Sheeps Brewing, located at 1837 North Avenue in Sheboygan, WI, while supplies last. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and see you all in 2024!