Fans vote Mississippi brewery with beer, new spiked lemonade as one of the best in the US

Yahoo

07-03-2025

A Hattiesburg brewery has made USA TODAY's list of the best in the nation.
There are about 20 breweries in the Magnolia State, and one craft beer creator keeps earning national accolades.
Overall, the Mississippi craft brewing business is still performing well, despite a national dip.
Mississippi's craft beer industry has an economic impact on the state of roughly $303 million per year, according to 2023 figures, the most recent available from the Brewers Association. The state's breweries produce more than 20,300 barrels of beer each year.
Here's what we know about one of the best brewpubs in the nation and what it plans for the future.
Southern Prohibition Brewing Co. is in the national spotlight again, ranking in USA TODAY's Top 10 brewpubs in the U.S. The list was nominated by experts and voted on by readers across the nation. (Lights of the Wild at the Hattiesburg Zoo made a similar Christmas lights list in December.)
Co-Owner Quinby Chunn said in a February interview that his brewery has several products that perform well. Crowd Control, a dry-hopped Imperial IPA, is their most popular, and it's been in their lineup for a decade.
"An employee-owned company, Southern Prohibition Brewing is a popular spot in Mississippi's craft beer scene. It offers a number of taproom exclusives and seasonal releases, and the kitchen pairs menu items with their beer selection," USA TODAY wrote.
Last year, it topped SB Nation's Hustle Belt - Belts Beer Garden list of Mississippi breweries, and in 2018 its Devil's Harvest Breakfast IPA was named the best beer in the state by Men's Journal.
The community favorite opened in 2013. Over the years, the brewery has experimented with a lot of beers and beer styles, pushing each to the extreme and trying variations of the brews to make them exciting, fun and appealing to beer aficionados.
In addition, SoPro opened a taproom, a large outdoor patio and an event room for special occasions. There is a full-service restaurant and full bar, including a selection of alcohol-free mocktails, making it a family-friendly, something-for-everyone kind of place.
"I do think the beer industry has been changing ever since we got into it, honestly," Chunn said. "When we first opened, we had a different idea of what it became even six months later. Consumer trends are changing. We are just trying to change with it."
For example, he and co-owner Ben Green plan to expand a popular line of spiked lemonade in 2025.
"We're still making beers and a lot of products we are proud of, but this lemonade is delicious," Green said earlier this year. "We aren't going to stuck in one place and only make one product. That's how people go out of business. You have to be smart and you have to be willing to adapt, and I think that is what we are doing."
Business of brewing in Mississippi. What is the forecast as big beer tumbles nationwide?
Lua Brewing (Des Moines, Iowa)
Strangebird Brewery (Rochester, New York)
Free State Brewing Company (Lawrence, Kansas)
Dewey Beer Co. (Dewey Beach, Delaware)
Urban Roots Brewing & Smokehouse (Sacramento, California)
Forbidden Root Restaurant & Brewery (Chicago, Illinois)
Otherlands Beer (Bellingham, Washington)
Southern Prohibition Brewing (Hattiesburg, Mississippi)
The Brewer's Art (Baltimore, Maryand)
Lakefront Brewery (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Mississippi's venture in the craft beer industry was slow getting started, mainly because state law wasn't conducive to building a thriving beer business.
The oldest brewery in the state is Lazy Magnolia, which started making and selling packaged beer in 2005.
The first new law that kicked off the movement was one that allowed for beers containing more than 5% alcohol to be sold in the state. Allowing breweries to sell their beer on site also helped.
Changes to state law started in 2012, and since then the growth of beer sales and number of breweries popping up has continued to grow.
Although the breweries could make beer, they couldn't sell it on location, so beer lovers had to buy their favorites in retail stores. Instead of selling beer, breweries offered tours for a fee and gave away samples of their beer with the tours.
In 2017, another new law was enacted to allow breweries to sell a limited amount of their beers, so many opened taprooms to the delight of fans. Craft beer lovers could meet at the breweries and compare notes on the beers in person.
Other new laws in recent years have done even more to help the craft beer business in Mississippi, creating an even more robust industry.
Contact Lici Beveridge at [e-mail]. Follow her on X @licibev or Facebook at facebook.com/licibeveridge.
Ross Reily is a writer for the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at [e-mail] or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.
Bonnie Bolden is the Deep South Connect reporter for Mississippi with Gannett/USA Today. Email her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi brewery with beer, food makes Top 10 list of best in US