USA, MS: Crooked Letter Brewing of Mississippi expands to Louisiana market

Since 1995, Paul Blacksmith, his wife, Wanda Blacksmith, and John Myers toured in rock bands. All that travel turned out to be research for their latest venture: Crooked Letter Brewing Co. in Ocean Springs, MS. After tasting beers across America, they knew what they liked to drink and what they wanted to make, Nola.com reports.

Crooked Letter, which launched in January 2013, entered New Orleans on October 28. Southern Louisiana is Crooked Letter's first market outside Mississippi.

"New Orleans being our musical neighbor," Paul Blacksmith said, "it's almost like a second home."

Crooked Letter will bring to Louisiana all four of its flagship beers: Gipsy IPA, Mystery Romp coffee porter, Crooked Heffy hefeweizen and Stabello, an Italian-style lager.

"We wanted to come out of the box with a wide array of beers," Blacksmith said. "We definitely did not go with the advice of a lot of people that we should start with a single yeast strain."

Currently Crooked Letter beers are only available on draft. Bottles should come to Louisiana in the next few months.

The brewery uses a 15-barrel system and plans to produce 2,000 barrels of beer this year. Next year, Crooked Letter hopes to increase its output to 3,000–4,000 barrels. A barrel equals 31 gallons.