Mystery Brewing Public House

Very cool brewpub tucked away in a corner of Hillsborough. I was very impressed by the wide variety of beers and the intensity of flavors. This is definitely a great place to check out if you are looking for something new. The outside patio is dog friendly which is great and our server also happened to also love dogs which was much appreciated. The inside was somewhat crowded with people who had ordered BBQ from next door and brought it over but it was a very friendly crowd and good service.

Absolutely delicious beer. Lots and lots and LOTS of different kinds of tasty beer. If you can’t find something to like here, it’s because you really don’t like the taste of ANY beer. They have so many different varieties that there is one for you somewhere on the list. And, no matter who is behind the bar, that person can tell you what it is if you tell them what you want.
They do have 3 kinds of tasty wine for your friends who don’t want beer.

We just moved here in November and found this place after a Groupon-​inspired tour of their actual brewery… and we are fans!

I’m really impressed by both the huge selection and quality of their beers. Mallory and the staff gave us a great experience on Sunday, and we had a great time with friends on their sunny porch. The excellent Hillsborough BBQ Company next door delivered a delicious feast to us while we sampled flights. What a great way to spend an afternoon! We’ll certainly be back.

Cool place with a huge selection of beers and high quality compared to a lot of microbreweries we have visited in the area. Good outdoor seating, great bbq place next door to order from and Mallory took care of us!!!

Mystery Brewing Public House is dark and small but houses a surprisingly large number of draft beers. They pride themselves on being the First «in-​season» brewery in the US, meaning they only brew with «in season» ingredients or beers that will compliment «in season» foods. This is a great concept and they had some interesting items on tap: lots of basil, ginger, sage plays in addition to a mostly Fall themed selection. Overall, the beers that I tried were okay but at just okay and with as atmosphere, quiet and dark inside, it wasn’t a place I could see myself rushing back to. I loved their outdoor patio area and they have a huge selection of boardgames in addition to a lending library and shuffle board table. I think for a small town like Hillsborough, Mystery Brewing is doing it right, they’re trying to specialize in a concept but they definitely give off that small town vibe. Would I go out of my way to come back? No. Would I visit again if I’m in Hillsborough? Probably. It is the only option for craft beer currently, and they’re always changing their draft list, so yes, I’d stop by if I’m in the area again. I think the location might draw me back more so in the summer time, when I could utilize the patio space.

Travelling around NC checking out breweries along the way. This place has a home, backyard feel with comfortable people and awesome bartenders.
We have bought ourselves beautiful t-​shirts and two assortments of cans to take home. Tried the Karass, a lime basil wit. The boyfriend had king’s table II a historic danish ale and a gentlemen’s preference which is a blonde ale. All were excellent.
Not to mention post modern jukebox is playing on the speakers.

I attempted to return a keg but Mystery Brewing Co was unable to locate me in their system nor did they know how much I paid for the deposit, rather disorganized. I was hoping to buy a full keg and would think they could just swap the deposit on empty one for full, I guess not. I’m now the proud owner of an empty keg. USE CAUTION IF BUYING A KEG FROM THIS ESTABLISHMENT. The owner has my name and phone number — I will update my review if he is able to rectify this.
**My one star review has been upped to 4 stars. The owner contacted me an I was able to return keg. I was happy to see that a business owner followed up on a complaint and rectified it.

So, we moved to town not quite a year ago. A few months after we got here, my darling better half said «WE HAVE TO GO HERE. It looks really cool.» So we did.
From the moment I walked in man, did I feel like I was home. Friendly patrons and staff, fun décor (Doctor Who posters– it’s like they know me), and of course fantabulous beer. I love that Mystery doesn’t do flagship brews; they change things up quarterly and every batch is interesting and different. I’ve tried a wide variety of porters, sours, bretts, and saisons that knock my socks off.
The public house also has a great outside seating area in back with a newly-​installed performance stage. It’s a lovely place to listen to music, and that also includes their smaller indoor stage.
Mystery doesn’t have a full menu but they do have some nice tapas, and you can have food delivered from various places, including the Hillsborough BBQ Company next door.
This is a gem in a small town. Don’t miss it.

Good atmosphere. I didn’t notice anyone playing shuffle board, but they have a good shuffle board from what I could see. My wife is out of town right now, so I didn’t play when I went, but that was a pleasant surprise because we love to play shuffle board.
Now to the beer — their beer, not the guest beer. 1. Flavor was there on the attack, but lacking on some beers in the evolution and finish. 2. Color was great. 3. Clarity was great. 4. Foam was not there. You might see some at the beginning for about 30 seconds, but this is in pretty good proportion with flavor. The ethanol content was not that high –standard around 4/​5%- so either they have too much detergent sticking to the glass or they have something else going that is interfering with the protien-​iso-​alpha-​acid interactions. 5. Wholesomeness was lacking due to part four, but I am a big advocate for a good balance with C02 and protein. i.e., foam, lacing, vigorous pour.
The atmosphere gives the place an extra star, but I hate to say that the beer without the atmosphere gives the place two stars.
The claim is their beer is of great quality control. If they want their beers to have a nice high alcohol content and sweet flavor-​you should go here. But, not the best out there.
My review. My opinion. My justification.

What a nice find. Come grab a really new brew at a cool place while you are waiting for BBQ.

I’m an avid home brewer and I think I know good beer when I see it and taste it. This beer is less than average. The live band was good though. Shiloh Hill.

I don’t understand how I haven’t reviewed mystery before now!
The bartenders are wonderful — they each have their own personality and are all fun to talk to in different ways.
The beer is really really good.
They have games and books there to entertain yourself with.
There’s a BBQ place next door that will DELIVER.
My favorite place to go in town, by far :)

Really good beers and a cool place. Server is welcoming and attentive. Kind of off the beaten path but near civilization at least. Maps find it ok. A fav.

An awesome selection of very well made beers. We will need to make more trips here to try all of them. Favorites from today were Rosiland — a fantastic saison and the Triple Ginger Tripel — if you like ginger, you will love this beer. Totally relaxed atmosphere where you are welcome to bring in your furry friend and some yummy food from next door.

Go check out Mystery Brewing Public House! They have multiple beers on tap, and a flight of 4 of their seasonal beers. The pub contains several tables to sit and relax, as well as a bar. The most fun part was the bookshelf that contained board games to play and books to read! This would be a perfect hang out place for a Saturday afternoon.

I’m not sure where Mystery Brewing came up with their name. It could be a tribute to what seems like regular «mystery beers» flowing from the taps that only those in-​the-​know realize they can ask for. Or perhaps it’s a question of why a brewery would choose to open in such a deserted spot in North Carolina (seriously, where is Hillsborough’s downtown anyway?). One thing is for sure, though – it’s no mystery why I haven’t seen a lot of their tap handles in local bars throughout nearby Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh.
Their beer isn’t that good.
On the night I visited, there were no less than 10 of their own brews on tap, so at least they’ve got the variety part down. The only problem was that for most of the styles, I couldn’t really distinguish one from the other. Don’t get me wrong, the beer definitely isn’t bad – it’s clean and crisp and doesn’t seem to have any off flavors – it’s just not good. Most varieties taste thin without enough body or hops to give it any distinguishing characteristics.
I tried all of their wares and I will say this; at least there were two that were worth the drive. Those would be the Six Impossible Things (chocolate breakfast stout) and the Brewers Session I (a Belgian single). The former was rich and thick and exactly what it was supposed to be while the latter picked up quite a bit of nose and floral complexity from the temperamental yeast strain.
I also enjoyed the space. It’s simple, rustic, and cozy with a full-​length shuffleboard – which you almost never see anymore – and a kick-​ass back patio that must be raging during the summer. That particular night, however, I was unable to really enjoy the setup because of a local band’s CD release concert, which had drawn a surprising number of people and completely overcrowded the bar.
But hey, I can’t fault a place for knowing how to bring in customers. I can, however, fault them for not having more bartenders on duty and making me wait no less than 30 minutes for a drink after walking through the front door.

I feel like I’m not going to do this review justice, as full disclosure: I was here celebrating a good friend’s birthday and not the driver, so I’m pretty sure I went from «feeling fine» from my couple of beers next door at Hillsborough BBQ to «I want to try them all» in a fairly brief period of time.
The first thing I noticed is that the public house has a slightly unfinished feel to it. I didn’t mind. The floors were natural wood, and it was very sparsely decorated. The tables and chairs seemed cheapish and scattered around the floor with no rhyme or reason. Again, these are not important things to «get right» when considering the feel of a good place to drink craft beer.
The second thing I noticed was the shuffleboard table, which my group commandeered for the better part of the evening despite never having played before. (Smartphones+ Google FTW.) That made for a really fun, possibly obnoxiously so time for a couple of hours.
Obviously, the point of all of this is the beer and I’m stalling. I don’t really remember their beer. And therein lies the problem: if there ever were a double edged sword in running a brewery, it’s the quality of your guest taps. Among a terrific selection of six or so happened to be included Founders All Day IPA, not an easy find in NC and my personal favorite IPA. As if that weren’t enough, they also had, at a very reasonable price, one of my hubs holy grail beers: Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marrón. With choices like that, and for the first time we’ve found either on tap, there was really no choice but to start there. And after you’ve imbibed those two on draft, it’s really hard to make it very far into their house beers (or to remember what you thought of them).
So, loved the vibe, the staff was cool but not snotty, and we had a great time, but the beer is still a mystery to me. (Everyone roll your eyes and groan in unison.)
If we lived in Hillsborough, I could see becoming a regular.

It’s no Mystery that the beer is awesome! Now that I got the terrible pun out of my system I’ll begin the review.
This is a great place to go for Mystery’s Beers, and enjoy a lazy Saturday. Go around lunch and have some BBQ next door (great place as well). They typically have around 12 – 16 beers on tap, with the norm being 12 Mystery and around 4 taps of other locals (if I recall correctly). The bartender is a great guy, very talkative and knows a lot about the beers. He was great at recommendations, and even was nice enough to let us try a few that intrigued us. Once he even poured us a try as we were talking about it. :) I’ve never been lucky enough to have such personal service at a bar ever, I suggest going during the off times for the same level of service. They also have all of the growlers of all the different beers they sell, even a few that aren’t privy for growler distribution.
In summary, great beer, good selection, great variety, worth every single second of time heading to Hillsborough to go for a couple of pints.

When I was visiting family in NC, they suggested trying a new tap house in Hillsborough. I must say, it doesn’t get much better than this… the house beers are fantastic, the atmosphere is welcoming, and the staff is awesome. My favorite beer was the Beatrix Spring Saison. But I also enjoyed the «I Cannot Tell a Rye», the «St. Stephen’s Green», «Queen Anne’s Revenge» and the «Gentlemen’s Perference» blond ale. Needless to say, I spent several hours at Mystery during last weekend :-)
The inside seating and bar areas are nice with cool art on the walls and a shuffleboard table. The outdoor area is HUGE and a great place to spend the afternoon having a few beers with friends while playing some board games. We played Cards Against Humanity for hours!
Mystery is very laid back and you almost feel like your drinking at a friend’s house. The staff was very friendly and helpful when explaining the various types of beers they had available. In addition to their Mystery house beer, there were a couple guest taps, as well as great wines for the non-​beer drinkers.
If you live in NC but aren’t able to get to Hillsborough, Mystery’s beers can be found around the state (
). If your neighborhood bar keeps craft beers on tap, ask them to order Mystery. You will not be disappointed!