Briess MerriMINT Chocolate Mint Stout
Grant has the perfect concept of a Chocolate Mint Stout for the holiday season! 

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? 

Adding in some holiday spirit with cocoa nibs! 

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!”

I never realized how many different varieties of vanilla there are, but thankfully Grant narrowed it down to three. 

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…

Briess Division Managers Mike Illig and Mike Killelea with Grant Pauly (second from left) and the rest of the 3 Sheeps crew for brew day.

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!