 Locals spend time at Mellow Mushroom last Thursday to work on joining the restaurant’s beer club. Members enter a competition to purchase and drink 60 different beers. Photo by Olivia Wilkes | The Appalachian Scott Blowers, 22, met the quota in only two weeks, beating out the competition on Mellow Mushroom’s fourth day of business.
“If it was not the happiest moment of my life, it has got to be close,” Blowers said. “It did cost me somewhere around $350 though.”
Mellow Mushroom customers over the age of 21 have the opportunity to join Mellow Mushroom’s Beer Club. Members are given the task of drinking 60 different beers in order to earn prizes along the way.
There are three prize levels to reach before the 60-beer tour is finished: 15, 30 and 45. The prizes include a koozie, a t-shirt of the member’s choice and a $10 food coupon, respectively.
Members who finish all 60 beers receive an engraved mug, their name on the wall and an extra four-ounce portion of any draft beer purchased from then on.
Current Mellow Mushroom bartender and Appalachian graduate Kate Pace said the club is a great way for people to sample beers they would not usually get a chance to try.
“It helps people who usually only get domestic beers to branch out and start trying local and micro brews,” she said.
Scott’s final beer of the 60 was the one he was looking forward to the most, emphasized by the Guinness tattoo on his arm. On the last night, he had each of the bartenders pour a bit of his Guinness draft into the glass so they could all be a part of the groundbreaking moment.
Now Blowers gets to drink out of the special mug any time he goes into Mellow Mushroom, and has become a local celebrity around the pizza parlor. The bartenders all know who he is and refer to him with nicknames such as “living legend,” “the one and only,” and “the champ.”
When asked how his drink tasted out of the engraved mug, Blowers said, “Beer tastes better with a hint of victory.”
The restaurant relocated to its current location on West King Street after closing last year. It reopened Aug. 1.
Story: RYAN NAGY, Intern Lifestyles Reporter |
