Tasty food paired with housemate brews in Hermann.
by Paul Newton | pnewton@ruralmissouri.coop
You’ll come for the food, but hang around for so much more at Tin Mill Brewing Co. There’s a pet-friendly patio with yard games and live music. There’s a jukebox in the basement of the old granary while the upstairs is relaxed and features plenty of board games and space for quiet conversation. On the main level, the bar features 20 taps of housemade beer, cider, mixed drinks and more.
“The atmosphere is our big sell here,” says Randy Lissner, manager of Tin Mill Brewing Co. “The beer is amazing and the food is great and meant to complement the beer. We want to be inviting with live music on Fridays and Saturdays throughout the season. It’s a place to come that just has good vibes.”
For nearly two decades, Tin Mill Brewing Co. in downtown Hermann has served mouthwatering bites and ice-cold beers brewed on-site. The brewery is known for its quick-service menu featuring plenty of appetizers, burgers and pizzas to pair with its wide selection of drinks.
Tin Mill opened in 2006 and today is part of a family of businesses — including a winery, distillery, fine-dining restaurant, deli and inn — located on the east side of the German town.
“Our philosophy with our food is rooted in speed and efficiency,” Randy says. “We have a lot of foot traffic that comes through here. We might be a little slow and then get 60 people who come in at once. Our focus is on casual food that pairs well with our beers like pizza and burgers. It’s not fancy or overly complicated, but elevated pub food.”
For a German classic, start with the Bavarian Pretzel. The jumbo soft pretzel is cooked to order and served with housemade Red Caboose beer cheese. The rich sauce is made with Tin Mill’s Red Caboose amber lager, a core beer at the brewery that is a nod to the Caboose Museum across the street. Try the Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel for a sweet alternative. The hot pretzel is dusted with cinnamon and sugar and served with buttercream icing.
Other unique appetizers include the Sweet Tots — crispy sweet potato tots fried and served with chipotle dipping sauce — and the Spicy Cheese Curds served with housemade ranch dressing. “The cheese curds are our No. 1 seller,” Randy says. “I have to warn people when they order the cheese curds that they do pack quite a spicy kick.”
You’ll have multiple options if you want a burger, but the most popular is the Brewery Burger. The classic cheeseburger features a one-third-pound patty, which is smashed into the flattop and cooked to order. The burger is topped with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle and served with piping hot french fries.
In a nod to Hermann’s German heritage, Tin Mill serves a Brewery Brat. Randy sources his bratwurst all the way from his next-door neighbor, Hermann Wurst Haus. The brat is served with your choice of sauerkraut or the Red Caboose beer cheese sauce and fries.
If pizza is what you crave with your brew, Tin Mill has you covered with St. Louis-style pizzas. Guests customize their 9- or 12-inch pizzas with up to nine toppings. Randy says his flatbreads are becoming more popular, including the colorful Garden Flatbread. The parbaked flatbread is topped with a mascarpone cheese base, basil pesto, artichoke hearts, spinach, black pepper and a light sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. The flatbread is cooked until it’s bubbling and delivered promptly to hungry customers.
“It’s very herbal,” says Randy. “That basil pesto comes forward with the mascarpone cheese. It’s very light, airy and aromatic.”
In addition to the Red Caboose amber lager, Tin Mill has three other year-round core beers including the German pilsner Skyscraper, hefeweizen First Street Wheat and doppelbock Midnight Whistle.
The other 16 taps at Tin Mill are filled with a rotating collection of what Tin Mill’s brewing team comes up with. “We’ll save spots for certain types of beer, but it changes throughout the year,” Randy says. “Right now we have a blackberry-cranberry sour, before it was blackberry-cherry sour and before that a Key lime sour.”
The exhaustive beer list includes ales, stouts, IPAs, ciders and lagers. Locally made root beer is also on tap, along with mixed drinks using spirits sold across the street at sister store Black Shire Distillery. The Blackberry Lemonade is made with Black Shire’s blackberry whiskey and Pink Gin and Tonic is made with Black Shire’s gin and hibiscus tonic syrup from Pinckney Bend Distillery in nearby New Haven.
Tin Mill stays busy throughout the year. Once visitors descend upon Hermann in March for WurstFest, there is at least one festival in town every month. Hermann’s German heritage will be celebrated with Maifest on May 16-18 with German music, dancing, food and more.
When Tin Mill opened 19 years ago, they started with just their four core beers. As Hermann’s tourism industry has grown, so has the brewery, according to Randy, who started at Tin Mill in 2016.
“Over the past 10 years, there have been a bunch of distilleries and other things built in Hermann,” Randy says. “The brewery has developed more and more over that time span as well. The whole town is very tourist-oriented.”
Randy says seeing the growth and evolution of Tin Mill is what makes him excited to go to work. “I’ve seen the evolution of and been around for the changes to the building and menu,” he says. “Being a part of the fine-tuning and curating the atmosphere and vibe we have here has been enjoyable.”