Photos: Keith Montgomery

Meddlesome Brewing Company is the newest brewery to open in the Memphis area.

What you need to know:

Taproom hours are 4pm-10pm Wednesday thru Friday, 12pm-10pm Saturday, 12pm – 7pm Sunday.

They’re located at 7750 Trinity Road, Suite #114, just past Shelby Farms Park.

They’re launching with 3 year round beers, 7 rotating, and 2 non-alcoholic sodas (rootbeer and cream soda to start)

Everything else you should know:

Meddlesome Brewing Company is made up of Richie EsQuivel, a former brewer at Bosco’s, and Ben Pugh, a former brewer at Rock’n Dough Pizza & Brew Co. Between their professional brewing and homebrewing experience, they have a combined 20 years of beer making experience.

Meddlesome Brewing gets its name from Richie’s and Ben’s creative and curious personalities. “Always meddling with convention” was the spirit they wanted to bring to Memphis’s growing beer scene. As we toured the soon-to-be-open taproom and brewhouse, they pointed out a mural, being one of the very few aspects of the build out that they didn’t personally do themselves. From finishing the tables and chairs to running draft lines and assembling fixtures in the bathrooms, the whole place is a labor of love and grit.

They are launching with three year round beers: Brass Bellows (American blonde ale), Broad Hammer (American brown ale), and 201 Hoplar (a hard hitting IPA). The taproom will have 10 taps (they’re hoping for 7 for June 30), three with the aforementioned beers, the rest a mix of seasonal, specialty, gluten reduced beers, and small batch taproom exclusive releases. They will also have two house made sodas available. The taproom even includes a kid’s corner for family friendliness.

Richie explained that the idea behind the small batch taproom exclusive beers is a chance to always have something new on tap. Each beer will be produced in 1bbl quantities (which amounts to two “regular sized” kegs). You know those giant tanks that breweries have? Most of those you see around town are either 20bbl, 40bbl, or 60bbl (bbl just means barrels. A barrel is 31 gallons. What most people call a regular keg is 15.5 gallons, so 1/2 of a bbl. Not that any of this will change your life, you can just use it to sound cool when you talk about beer quantities). Well they have three of these 1 bbl tanks (in addition to their larger 20bbl and 40bbl tanks), so they can rotate through unique beers regularly. They want you to experience something new every time you visit. I mean, variety is the spice of life, and that stays true for taprooms.

Meddlesome will focus on clean American and Belgian style beers, but they made it clear that nothing is out of the realm of possibilities. Sours and wild ales are not on their radar because of the potential hazard those beers have on their regular operations. There are easier ways to make sour beers that require cutting corners, but as Richie said, “if we’re going to do anything, we’re going to do it right.” Barrel aging did come up as something they’re anticipating though, for the big and boozy fans out there.

Location, Location, Location

The warehouse area of Trinity Road just past Shelby Farms Park may not be the first place you would expect a brewery, but this choice was very conscious and wise. The obvious one: Shelby Farms Park. What better way to spend a summer afternoon than paddle-boating around the lake or playing a round of disk golf and chasing it with a cold one just up the street? The choice to not be in midtown or downtown also helps to spread the craft beer love out across all of Memphis. Now downtown, the Edge District, Midtown (from Cooper Young, to Overton, to Binghampton/Broad), and Cordova are all in fermentation representation (also, did you know Millington has its own cidery?) Meddlesome is also right around the corner from a plethora of restaurants, a short jaunt from the Greenline, and just down Germantown Parkway from Ikea.

Only the Beginning

There is a lot in the works at Meddlesome. The way they walked me through the brewery talking about their hopes and dreams for the entire facility, I can only imagine how the place will grow and develop over the coming months and years. Keep an eye on Meddlesome, and be sure to check out all their hard work later this month!