A holiday-flavored beer made for NEPA…
This Friday, November 21, Susquehanna Brewing Company (Pittston, PA) will roll out its newest seasonal creation: Pittston Mule, a holiday-themed brew built on orange, cranberry, and ginger. It’s the kind of beer that doesn’t just show up on a tap list — it arrives with a sense of timing, of season, of place.
No cans in stores yet. No taps flowing. No one outside the brewery has had a sip. But for those of us who grew up here in the 570, in the neighborhoods where family gatherings spill from kitchen to porch, where the first snow actually means something, where holidays land with a mix of nostalgia and chaos, and the anticipation alone feels like a warm light on a cold night.
A seasonal beer arriving at the perfect moment…
NEPA is in that in-between stretch:
• The furnace is already running.
• We’ve had our first snow — just enough to warn us what’s coming.
• Holiday markets are starting up.
• Wreaths are appearing on Main Street lamp posts.
This is exactly when people start craving something different in their glass, something with comfort and brightness all at once. Pittston Mule seems engineered for that moment.
SBC describes it as citrus-bright, cranberry-tart, and rounded by the gentle heat of ginger. Even without tasting it, you can sense the profile: festive, cozy, celebratory. The sort of beer that fits right in at Friendsgiving, a December family dinner, or the first holiday gathering where someone inevitably shows up with cookies that didn’t quite survive the car ride.
SBC: A brewery that reflects the region…
Susquehanna Brewing Company has always felt less like a brand and more like a mirror held up to the people who walk through its doors. Hard-working, family-driven, no-nonsense. That’s NEPA, and it’s SBC.
They brew beer the way the region works: with pride, with consistency, and with an unspoken belief that beer isn’t just beer here, it’s what you bring to the tailgate, the block party, the baby shower, the backyard fire, the kitchen-table wind-down after a long week.
SBC’s seasonal releases have become something of a local fixture. They don’t chase gimmicks or try to out-weird the craft beer world. Instead, they focus on approachable beers with personality, beers that reflect the seasons and the people who drink them.
A holiday release like Pittston Mule feels like a natural extension of that philosophy.
A beer already wrapped in holiday energy…
You can tell a lot about a beer from its ingredients, and Pittston Mule reads like a holiday playlist:
Orange — bright, lively, reminiscent of those citrus gift boxes your grandparents used to get every December.
Cranberry — tart, festive, unmistakably tied to the season.
Ginger — warm, spicy, the flavor equivalent of stepping inside after scraping frost off the windshield.
Together, they make a trio that tastes like the moment NEPA shifts from late November to early December. Families gathering, ovens on, neighbors helping each other shovel before the coffee even finishes brewing.
What to expect this Friday…
When SBC opens its doors and Pittston Mule finally hits the tap, chances are it’ll bring that first-sip magic that seasonal beers are known for. People will shake off the cold, wrap their hands around a fresh pour, and toast to what’s ahead: the holidays, the winter, and the small joys that get us through it.
If SBC’s track record holds, Pittston Mule won’t just be another beer on the board. It’ll be a piece of the season. A little bit of home.
Pittston Mule releases Friday, November 21.
Bundle up, bring some friends, and make room in the fridge.
