Nolensville’s Mill Creek Brewing looks beyond area for distribution

August 31, 2016

Franklin Home Page
by Zach Harmuth

The first-ever brewery in Nolensville released its first beer, Lil Darlin, last July.

In May, it started full operations and its great-tasting craft beers have been flowing throughout the mid-state ever since.

Mill Creek Brewing Company, founded by Chris Going and Michael Krewson, features four brews: Landmark, a German lager; Lil Darlin, a citrus wheat beer; Silo, a farmhouse ale; and Woodshed, their IPA.

Their taproom opened last week, for the first time selling growlers and giving out samples at at their home at 2008 Johnson Industrial Blvd.

While they are brewing out of a 27,000 square-foot space, Mill Creek started small.

The origin story goes something like this: Before a family trip to the Smoky Mountains, Going, a home-brew hobbyist for years, accepted the challenge of crafting a beer that could win over his light-beer loving brother-in-law. After tweaking some traditional styles and recipes he’d been working on, Lil Darlin’ was born.

A few years later, he met Krewson, by chance when both were teaching music (Going plays guitar; Krewson is a master pianist). Both home-brew enthusiasts, the chance meeting created a powerful brewing team. Krewson’s business acumen — he started home-brew kit business Nashville BrewPost in 2014 and has a Master’s in Accounting from Vanderbilt — combined with Going’s hop-honed recipes and brewing skills.

They released  Lil Darlin last July, contracting space in another brewery while theirs was built in Nolensville.

The doors officially opened in May, and their four brews began appearing in supermarkets, convenience stores and liquor stores across the mid-state. Kroger carries their beer, as do some Publix and Targets, along with Twice Daily.

“It has been great,’ said Going. “The response has been awesome. From everything I hear people are loving the beers.”

This month they released their first seasonal brew, called Sunflash, which is a tropical pale ale. Its counterpart is Sourflash, which is the same beer with sour yeast.

For fall they plan to release an Oktoberfest seasonal, and a stout this winter.

Long term plans have them looking farther out.

“We are starting to look outside of Nashville for distribution,” Going said. “We haven’t selected a new market just yet, but we are having those discussions with distributors in other markets. The plan is in early 2017, people in Memphis and Chattanooga should be able to find Mill Creek.”

For now, their immediate goals include getting Nolensville to tweak a city ordinance to allow them to sell pints at their taproom, hopefully by the end of November.

Mill Creek Brewery is open Thursday and Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.