After a career spent at some of the country’s largest, best-known, and most-respected breweries and after being responsible for creating recipes that inspired—if only briefly—and other recipes that continue to endure and delight, you’d think Mitch Steele would be getting ready to slow down.
“I’m not that old, yet,” says Steele, perhaps best known as the former brewmaster of Stone Brewing, who recently opened his newest venture, New Realm Brewing Company in Atlanta. “At some point, I’ll slow down, but I’m not there yet. I like keeping busy, and I like what we’re doing.”
What he’s doing is heading the brewing operations at one of the country’s most-anticipated new breweries. When Steele announced in 2016 that he was leaving Stone after more than a decade, message boards lit up with speculation, and fellow brewers reached out with queries. New Realm officially opened in January 2018 with a 20-barrel brewhouse, a 5-barrel pilot system, a full restaurant, and four core beers. Initial reviews are what you’d expect from a brewery with Steele’s pedigree.