Moontown Brewing opened its third location in Indiana here in the heart of Nashville in the beginning of October. The brewery is located at 60 Molly’s Lane in the building that hosted the first Big Woods location in Nashville back in 2009.
The brewing company also has locations in Whitestown — where the brewery is located — and Carmel.
“I love Nashville, I’ve been coming down here for well over 20 years,” owner Bobby Mattingly said. “My parents have a cabin off of Salt Creek Road, so I’ve been going down there for forever, went to Indiana University in Bloomington for years, so I’m very familiar with Nashville and with Big Woods.
“I have been coming here (Big Woods) since the opening in 2009, I’ve seen all the iterations and their growth. I always loved the location and we saw this opportunity here. We have been looking to expand and find unique spaces and manageable spaces,” Mattingly said.
Moontown Brewing and Big Woods’ Quaff On Brewing have a beer that they collaborated on called Handshake golden bock. Mattingly says it was in honor of purchasing the building and “passing on the torch — this building — to us.”
This location is their second food concept, they chose to focus on street tacos and other types of Mexican style cuisine like quesadillas, esquites and more. “We have Casa del Sol with Mexican food, but nothing like this so we thought street tacos would be legit,” Mattingly said.
Moontown also has between 10 and 12 different beers on tap at all times, with four that are offered year-round. In addition, they have canned beer and wine.
Moontown Brewing is open every day except Monday, 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.
“It’s been really great being down here so far … I think that people love beer and they love options,” Mattingly said. “I think that Big Woods has a strong hold on beer and food around here and I think there’s room for other breweries and taprooms to come in.
“But I also think it’s important to all be on the same page and cordial with each other. Nashville and Brown County have such a special place in my heart, I’ve come down here most of my life and I just love it. I love the town of Nashville, all of its quirks. It’s just a special place. We saw this opportunity and felt like this was a really good place to be and to join the community. We’re really excited, it’s been fun.”
Mattingly said Moontown is trying to assimilate into the Brown County community by getting involved and making its place among the locals. “I’ve been trying to talk to as many people as I can and it seems like locals are excited to have us here,” Mattingly said.
A fun and Indiana-focused series called “Pints for Parks” features the various state parks of Indiana, including Brown County. “We’re brewing a beer for every state park, it’s a special beer for each park,” Mattingly said. “Tippecanoe River is coming up, that’s going to be a West Coast IPA, we’re going in chronological order so the first was McCormick’s Creek all the way to, there’s like 32 parks. We’re on 13 or 14. We already did Brown County, it was number 7.”
The special beer for Brown County State Park is named “Brown County” and is a Brown IPA. The Pints for Parks brews are not listed on the menu at this time. Mattingly said they are planning on only listing the newer ones as they go forward.
