CHELSEA — A local brewery crafted a beer in honor of Saugus’ orange dinosaur. This fall, it’s coming out of extinction.
In March, Chelsea-based Mystic Brewery created a double IPA named after the 20-foot, 6,000-pound dinosaur with a dark orange color to match. About 80 cases, or 1,920 16-oz. cans, sold out in a single day. Now, the brewery is making plans to bring it back this fall.
“We were driving by it all the time, and it’s just kind of hilarious,” said Tripp Nichols, director of sales and marketing. “It’s just a dinosaur sitting there on Route 1.”
The brewery, which was founded in 2009 by fermentation scientist Bryan Greenhagen, is known for giving its creations wacky, seemingly random names. Nichols said he and his coworkers were trying to give a nod to something local when the idea clicked.
“It’s a little darker than normal so it has a little bit of an orange color,” said Nichols.
The 8.5 percent double IPA is brewed with mosaic and amarillo, then dry-hopped with simcoe lupulin powder. It exudes aromas of mango and passion fruit, according to the brewery’s website.
The orange dinosaur is known for the decades it towered over Route 1 Miniature Golf & Batting Cages in Saugus. The golf course property was sold in 2017 to developer TB Holdings, Inc., an entity managed by Michael Barsamian and Michael Touchette, for $1.4 million. The pair had already bought a vacant 1.2-acre site next to the golf course in 2013 for $3.3 million.
When the golf course closed, fans of the dinosaur seemed to come out of the woodwork, worried about the creature’s fate.
“There is definitely a nostalgic factor,” said Nichols. “We didn’t really know that before we did all this. We had people emailing us asking if we could ship to South Carolina.”
Nichols said the beer is expected to reappear in the brewery’s taproom in November. About the same amount of the beverage will be made available, he said.
