Tap Handle #851: Miskatonic

3/14/2025 12:22:00 PM

Tap Handle #851: Miskatonic

Tap size: 10"

Rarity: 25 or less seen

Mounting: internal 3/8" nut

I'm a big fan of writer H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu stories - I own several board games and books based on his writings - so when I first saw this tap, even though it isn't as figural as many other taps in the collection, I felt like I still had to have it. Featuring a small black obelisk with recessed yellow runes on the side and the name of the brewery on the adjacent side in recessed yellow "rune-like" letters, it also features a Victorian woman's silhouette, which includes a creepy set of tentacles. This Cthulhu-inspired character, who was created by the brewery, is known as "Cecelia", and she is the brewery's logo. After doing research on the brewery, I read on another site that the runes on the side of the tap are Scandinavian, and form actual words. According to the brewery's owners, each word is part of what they feel goes in to making beer. I created the image below to explain the literal translation:

In modern English, this translates (from top to bottom) as yeast, hops, wort, water, mind, heart, hands, and "those who walked the path before". The branch rune that appears after "mind", before "hart", and before "wokd", is what is known as an "Elder Sign". In the Cthulhu mythos, the Elder Sign is a form of protection against evil, in this case protection from evil influence of the mind, heart, and the path being walked. I found this fascinating and shows how much care and creativity went into the design of the tap. The front and back of the tap are identical, as are the adjacent sides to each other, so I have reduced the number of photos taken. This tap represents all of Miskatonic's beers (I have chosen to profile their West Coast Wizard). This Miskatonic tap is surprisingly rare; I've only seen between 12-15 hit the secondary market, with none appearing since 2023. Occasionally selling for $10-$15, the average price is about $30-$40, with a high of $65 (at the time of this writing).

Miskatonic Brewing was founded in Darien, Illinois in 2015 by Josh Mowry and John Wykiewicz. Both men were homebrewers who were unhappy in their day jobs. Wykiewicz had spent several years as a brewer with Goose Island, long before AB InBev purchased the brewery in 2011. Later he joined Gordon Biersch, but began to crave the freedom to experiment that he enjoyed at Goose Island. Mowry had worked his way up from packing boxes at Two Brothers Brewing in Warrenville to the head of the canning line, but the need for stability had put him back in a law office as a paralegal. Combining their packaging and brewing experience, the two men decided to open a brewery together. Their clout put them in a position to have an agreement with a distributor before they opened their doors. Four other breweries gave Mowry their business plans to help guide him in writing his own. In just over two months of operation, they surpassed their goal for new accounts in a city where taps are hard to come by.

In 2016 the brewery began canning their beers. Sales were about 55 to 60 percent packaged beer and 40 to 45 percent draft. Due to his experience in packaging, Mowry knew their brand had to appeal to buyers, so he settled on a Gothic set of labels featuring creatures inspired by the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. Their logo features a Victorian woman's silhouette...named Cecelia, she flaunts an intimidating set of tentacles in true Cthulhu style. The brewery itself is named for a fictional river valley created by Lovecraft. A secondary theme began to emerge with their beer names, based on the "Dungeons and Dragons" role-playing game. In 2018 the brewery expanded distribution to northeast Ohio, with plans to enter the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati markets. They also held private events and guided tastings at the brewery.

In 2023, the brewery opened a full-service restaurant at a new location in downtown Naperville. The restaurant occupied the former home of a Restoration Hardware retail store. When Mowry and Wyzkiewicz started Miskatonic, they initially considered including a restaurant component, but they had never worked in a kitchen and didn't know that side of the business; over time, they picked up the knowledge to make it happen. The restaurant, described as a modern beer hall, has table seating for roughly 100 people and bar seating of about 20 to 25 stools. The menu is simple, with between 15 and 20 items such as sausages, wursts, and schnitzel. There are at least five kinds of sausages on the menu, all which are made in-house, while fresh produce is locally sourced as much as possible. As many as 12 different beers brewed by Miskatonic are on tap at the restaurant at any given time. Wine and cocktails are also available. Naperville was the logical choice for the restaurant, as both Mowry and Wyzkiewicz live in Naperville, and envisioned hosting community events in the beer hall, such as Oktoberfest festivities.

Miskatonic's West Coast Wizard is brewed with twelve pounds of hand-picked Montana Spruce tips and dry hopped with Mosaic and Simcoe. This beer offers a refreshing and aromatic experience like no other. Classic resinous hop tones meld with impressions of ripe melon and peach in this bright, easy drinking West Coast IPA, with the Simcoe hops adding a touch of earthiness and a bold, resinous finish.