Miel Brewing — New Orleans with a Gold Medal and a Whole Lot of Soul

When people think of New Orleans drinking culture, they think of Bourbon Street hurricanes and hand grenades. Miel Brewing Company, tucked in the Bywater neighborhood, is what happens when a serious brewer decides New Orleans deserves better — and then delivers on that promise with a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival to prove it.

Brewer Shawna Hays built Miel’s lineup around the logic of the city: crisp, cold-conditioned lagers for the perpetual heat and humidity, and creative ales that match the culinary ambition of a city famous for its food. The Flor de Jamaica — a vibrant hibiscus sour with sea salt and cinnamon — took gold at the 2025 GABF and announced Miel to a national audience that hadn’t been paying enough attention. It’s a beer that tastes unmistakably of New Orleans: layered, warm, a little unusual, and completely assured.

The tap list runs deep: a Polish-style amber bock, a rauchbier, a kölsch, a schwarzbier with cold brew coffee, and seasonal surprises that show a brewer with wide-ranging curiosity and disciplined technical skill. The Bywater taproom has the casual, neighborhood bar energy that New Orleans does better than anywhere, combined with beer serious enough to draw out-of-towners who specifically plan around it.

New Orleans finally has a brewery worthy of the city. Miel is making the case that the South’s most interesting drinking town can brew as seriously as it parties.

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