Millcreek Brewing Company
Erie, PA
When I heard rumors that Millcreek Brewing was going to be opening I was excited. There wasn’t a single brewery located near where I grew up. Granted there are lots of good ones in Erie — just none in Millcreek.
I finally had a chance to stop in here near Christmas with a buddy of mine and my parents for lunch. It was pretty empty, but it was the middle of the day on a weekday. I’ve seen pictures where they are one of the hotspots in Millcreek now. I’m sure that they are getting a lot of traffic that nowhere around there could take before. Not a lot of places offer good craft beer and good food.
The beers I had were almost all Belgian-styled. I heard from someone that the brewer was known for his Belgians when he was a homebrewer and I can tell why. While they’re not my favorite style, I can definitely appreciate them. These were all really tasty.
The bar has 30 beers on tap — with 6 of them being Millcreek Brewing in-house brewed beers. On the day I visited I had the Abbey Normal (an 8% Belgian Strong Dark Ale), 3 Sheets to the Wind (8% Belgian Strong Pale Ale), Noire Monk (8.5% Belgian Tripel), and the Blackship Belfast Porter (5.2%). Out of these, I absolutely loved the Blackship. It was the perfect porter, lots of roasted malt and chocolate flavors and at the perfect ABV to drink more than one if you wanted.
A lot of breweries I’ve been to don’t have food, or when they do it’s just finger foods or small items. Millcreek Brewing has a full kitchen. As a table, we ordered some of the finger foods so that the beers didn’t go right to our bloodstreams. After, I ordered the Reuben which I thought was excellent. And everyone at the table seemed to be happy with the food they ordered. I’m not a food critic by any means, but I definitely enjoyed what I was served.
Overall, I will definitely be back. Next time I’m home visiting my parents (probably March) I’ll be stopping in to see what new beers they’ve rotated in.
My only complaint was out of 30 taps — they only had 6 of their own beers. I think that should be slightly higher. But, they’d have to make sure they could match production in the brew house side.
