It is amazing how a good local brewery can reinvigorate a sleepy town. After all, a brew pub can be a place for locals to gather and get together for a fun time. It can be a home away from home for good friends, and a place to go on special occasions for families.
And breweries can help bring people from out of town to come see a new place and try the beer. They might just stay a while and see what else an area has to offer, and in the Pennsylvania Wilds region, there usually is a lot.
Yes, for all these reasons and more, a good craft brewery can become a source of pride for a town or an area that has a lot to give but maybe hasn’t had many opportunities lately to show it off.
Lee Powers had these kinds of things in mind when he decided to build Floating Feathers Brewing Company in Mill Hall in late 2021. For those who don’t know, Mill Hall is a beautiful small town in Clinton County near Lock Haven, just north of Centre County. Fishing Creek flows right through the town and creates a water gap through Bald Eagle Mountain. Floating Feathers sits smack dab in the middle of all the natural beauty, located right along the “crick,” and it is a wonderful place to watch the river flow while enjoying a bite and a craft beverage.
“We are just trying to give something for people to do in Clinton County. People from all over the country come here now, but we are trying to be something for people to do here, because there is not much to do around here. People come here to camp and to fish, but there is not much else,” Powers says.
Powers should know. He grew up in Mill Hall before heading out to play soccer at Marywood University. He had planned to become a dentist, just like his father, but a required course in business led him on a different road. Then winning a Shark Tank like competition through the school encouraged him to turn his turkey call making hobby into a business.
“After winning that competition, I made turkey calls for Donald Trump’s kids. I made them for Ted Nugent, all these crazy people. Eventually, the people on my advisory board said, ‘You know, you can go to dental school at any time; why don’t you just run with this for a while?’ I was 21. I was like, ‘Heck yeah, let’s go make turkey calls,” Powers says.
As his business grew and he had a few other successful business ventures, Powers went on to complete a neurology program, and eventually moved back home to Clinton County with his wife to open a chiropractic business with his brother. He continues to work in neurology in Clinton County, State College, and beyond, but he always wanted to give something back to his hometown, and Floating Feathers is it.
“I moved home and pretty much all my friends had moved away, because there is not much to do in Clinton County. So, I said to my wife, ‘I am going to make something that is cool for everyone to do here,’” Powers says.
Then, during the COVID-19 lockdown, when businesses were closed, he got to work on that plan. He bought a 250-year-old building that is now home to the brewery.
“I redid it over 10 months, just my brother and I and some Amish,” Powers recalls. “Now, we are in some of the biggest venues. They serve our stuff at Beaver Stadium and in different places around the state.”
The space he redid still feels its age in a good way. It is open and rustic, giving it the feel of a place to have an all-out good time in.
I visited on a cold day, but sitting outside near the creek would be great during warmer weather. Powers recently expanded the indoor seating area, and a rebuilt patio is in the works for the spring. Nonetheless, the indoor space was warm and inviting, the perfect place on a Friday night. It was worth the drive out from Centre County after a long week of work.
Having grown up in Clinton County, my partner, Becky, was especially pleased that some of the products were named after local things, like Beech Crick Vanilla Cream Ale, Lock Haven Logger lager, and Cub Mango Pilsner, named after the Piper Cub airplane that was famously made in Lock Haven.
On warmer days, folks are encouraged to wade into the stream with their fishing poles and see what they might pull out. A text from the kitchen will let them know when their food is up and ready, and, really, what could be better than a craft beverage and a tasty bite to eat right by the stream? Or you might paddle on over for a meal after a day of floating down the stream.
Powers makes craft beverages for every age and taste, from beers—porters, sours, pale ales, IPAs, and more—to hard sodas, teas, lemonades, and ciders to non-alcoholic sodas and lemonade. There is something for everyone, all made in the mountains of central Pennsylvania.
The Floating Feathers owner tries to source local grains as much as possible and is proud to produce locally. “We used to have Piper, which was an aircraft company. We used to have Woolrich. Now, there’s nothing. So we are the only product made in Clinton County from Clinton County by somebody from the area,” says Powers. “Being that I grew up here and this is my hometown, that is sort of a big thing for me.” T&G
Vincent Corso enjoys drinking local and meeting new people at central Pennsylvania’s many interesting establishments.
