Yet another craft brewery will set up shop in New Orleans this year. According to the Uptown Messenger, the new Miel Brewery Taproom will plant its roots in a former bus station and industrial building on Sixth Street near Tchoupitoulas—just one block from the NOLA Brewing Company—in late 2017.
The project is the work of New Orleans-area brewer Alex Peyroux and his fiancee Janice Montoya. Peyroux met Montoya while he was working at Abita Brewing Company, and the couple eventually moved to Boston so he could take a job at the city’s Harpoon Brewery. After a few years in New England, the pair have now returned to Louisiana to bring their own brewery and taproom to life.
The name “Miel” is derived from the French and Spanish word for honey, which harkens back to New Orleans’ colonial roots. It’s also refers to what will be a key ingredient in the brewery’s offerings. Gambit reports that Miel will explore the honey-based “braggot” style of beer, with some of the wild honey coming from bees that Peyroux’s family keeps on the Northshore.
Miel will be relatively small operation, according to Uptown Messenger. The brewery’s manufacturing licence allows them to sell just 250 barrels of beer out their taproom each month, so all of it will be brewed for sale in that location. The building’s interior will seat 75 people downstairs, 35 people upstairs and 100 people in the outdoor courtyard.
“The only place you’re going to find the beer we make is at the taproom,” Peyroux told the publication.
The Miel Brewery Taproom announcement comes as New Orleans’ craft brewery scene continues to grow, particularly in the Irish Channel. The Courtyard Brewery opened up on Erato Street in 2014, and Urban South was launched on Tchoupitoulas last year. Other parts of the city have also joined the game, with both Second Line Brewing opening in Mid-City in 2015 and Wayward Owl Brewing Company opening in Central City in 2016. Port Orleans Brewing Company, Brieux Carre, Parleaux Beer Lab and Royal Brewery are slated to open around town this year.
