Pilgrimage: Three Floyds

Last Saturday we took a road trip from Indy up to Munster, Indiana to have lunch at Three Floyds (3Floyds, FFF). There are a few things to keep in mind if you decide to go. We didn't know these things ahead of time so I'm telling you in the hopes that you can learn from our experience.

1. There will be a line to get into the brew pub. The line is just a courtesy kind of thing and because I think people have a natural tendency to form lines while they wait. When you get there, be sure that someone in your group goes inside and puts your name on the list. We'd been there for about an hour when we realized this was how it was done. Oops. The nice thing is once you put your name in, you can get into the real line for the little shop area and buy some beers and other goodies to take home.

2. Go on a nice day. You'll be waiting outside and there's no cover. It would be bad in the rain. Also, pack sunscreen. The Professor had just shaved his head to raise money for children's cancer research. Pretty sure he got sunburned all over his head.

We planned the trip before we knew they were releasing I <3 Deesko that weekend, so our timing was unintentionally perfect. Everybody got some beer to take home, and a few t-shirts made their way back with us as well.

 

**If you look closely you may see Ghostbusters playing on the screen behind us

Once you're in the brew pub, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. The beer selection on tap is fantastic,both with the FFF selections and the guest brews. My favorites of the day were Sand Pebbles, Tonnere Neige, And Jinx Proof all by FFF. If you can make it through the first three pages of the menu, all beer, to the last page, you get to see the food selections. Pork rind nachos? Absolutely. Cheeseburger on a pretzel bun with a fried egg? Don't mind if I do. Think gourmet pub food that really pairs well with the beer. We came just for the beer and expected to have something to eat while we were there, but I'm just as likely to go back for the food.

Lots of heavy metal in the background and a movie playing on the wall add to the fun atmosphere. We didn't do the tour this time, but it's definitely on my list. All in, we had a great time, and I'm already looking forward to going back.

O-Dawg: The Big Guy and I did one of these a year back during the week.  A couple of stark differences between the two?  Lines... Lines... A coke addict's wet dream, LINES!  It may have had something to do with Crown Beer Fest...  or not?!  I tend to lean towards the ridiculous food and beers, but that is just me.

If you ever get a chance to stop in.  PLEASE DO IT!  You are missing out on this great combo of food/atmosphere/beer combo.  It is like a great brewery got into a bar fight with a foodie at a Death Metal concert held in a Drive In Theater...  Yeah!  Wrap your head around that one...!

 

Best FFF Taps:

Tonnere Neige (4)

Honey apple nose. Light with a sweet taste. Dry finish. Like a beery cider?(bottom left)

Battle of Charro (4)

That is the best amber I have had to date. Light honey nose. Not crazy malt. Light and chugable! (bottom right)

 

Best guest Taps
Spoontanfranfig by Mikkeller (4)

Sour vinigar fig sweet nose. Sour start. Fizzy to dry finish. Pucker and savor the afterglow of fig. (bottom left)
Good JuJu by Left Hand (4)

Ginger nose. Fizzy bitter sweet. Grassy notes. Dry finish. (bottom right)

 

The Big Guy: Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!!! We had a great time other than the line sitting. The brews were awesome. We ran into Jake, a friend of the blog and writer for Indiana Beer, who stopped in to grab some Deesko as well. Apparently it was where all the cool kids were. My favorite beers of the day were the Toxic Revolution and the Tonnere Neige. Tonnere Neige was not available in bottles but was damn good so check it out at the brewery if you can. Honorable mention for me was the Supa Rice Ronin of Death, an awesome Japanese rice lager. The food was awesome. We had nachos made out of pork rinds, and an awesome poutine dish (gravy and cheese covered french fries). All of us had some sort of burger and they were absolutely fantastic. Odog and The Little Lady had one with a egg on it (below left), Prof Beer had one that was ground up short ribs (below right) and I had one covered in more meat than you can shake a stick at (no picture). They were all done to perfection. I recommend staying for lunch or dinner.

 

I felt like one of the kids with the golden tickets in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I picked up two of everything and three or four of some other things. I got shirts and glasses and damn the food was good. If you haven't been up there yet, it is well worth the drive.

Prof. Beer:  It was a long drive up and we spent more time in the normal Saturday lines (which we hadn't know about in advance) than we had hoped (plus the car trouble on the way home), but the Three Floyds Brewpub was well worth the trip.  As has already been mentioned above, the food was excellent, much better than I expected from a brewpub.  The chicharrón nachos were excellent; replacing chips with pork rinds is much better than it sounds (even if you think it sounds good).  I also recommend the hesat slayer burger (though the other burgers looked great as well).

They had a large selection of Three Floyds beers on draft, as well as some good guest taps.  I tried Three Floyds' Toxic Revolution and Evil Power, and had a Good Juju by Left Hand Brewing.  Also, I got a taste of several other beers.  I ended up buying two of all the limited-availability beers, and four of the Deesko (as well as two Rabbid Rabbits and a shirt).  Three Floyds was a lot of fun, and I'm definitely looking forward to making another trip there.

The Scene: Indy Motor Speedway

No matter where you go, Indianapolis is known for one thing above all others: Racing. This weekend, the 97th Running of the Indianapolis 500 will be taking place. Whether you are a race fan or not, there is no denying that this is the biggest party in town.

Now you will not be able to buy good beer at the track... You will not be able to buy okay beer at the track... You will only be able to buy boring domestics at the track. Lucky for all of us beergeeks we are allowed to bring in our own beer. There are a few regulations about your cooler and what you can bring:

• Coolers must be no bigger than 18x14x14
• Purses and backpacks must be no bigger than 14x14x14
• Food and beverages are allowed, but no glass containers
• Carts and wagons are allowed everyday BUT race day
• Personal items are your responsibility, the Speedway does not care if they are lost or stolen 

To help you determine what to pack in your cooler, we put together a short list of our favorite canned beers. We were also looking for beers that you can have a few of while you are outside in the hot sun. This meant checking for sessionable brews and what we have no dubbed "American Sessionable" (under 5%abv). There's a lot of beer out there in cans, but some is clearly better than others. If it were up to us, we'd have coolers full of the following selections:

• The Big Guy: Sixpoints, Apollo, Kristalweisen. Damn its good on a hot day, sweet, sour no real hop flavor to it. All around a cool and refreshing brew
• O-Dawg: Two Brothers, Sidekick Extra Pale Ale, American Pale Ale. Just enough hop floral and bitter to keep you interested but not heavy and complex enough to make your head spin under the heat/sun of the track
• El Duque: 21st Amendment, Hell or High Watermelon, watermelon wheat beer,
• Professor Beer: Sun King, Wee Mac, Scottish Ale. Malty but not too heavy. Easy drinking even in the summer

Honorable mentions:

• Sierra Nevada, Torpedo, Extra IPA. A classic in the craft beer community
• Coorse, Third Shift, Amber Ale. Something a little bit different
• Sun King, Sunlight Cream Ale. Crisp and easy drinking. You can drink this thing fast and hard.
• New Belgium, Fat Tire, Amber Ale. Great beer, a little bit heavy but remember always drink in moderation.
• Abita Purple Haze. Crisp American style wheat beer
• Brooklyn Brewery, Summer Ale, Pale Ale that comes in light and refreshing
• Schlafly American Brown Ale is a sessionable light bodied easy drinking brown

I hope everyone has a great time out at the track this weekend. Just make sure you don't sacrifice quality for convenience when it comes to your brews...So, what will you be putting in your cooler this year?

The Scene: Ale Emporium

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Oh Ale Emporium, how I love thee!  Not only do they have the BEST deep dish pizza in town, they have chicken wings that are a solid "I don't feel like pizza" side bar.

They have a beer list a mile long with local and not-so-local stand outs in constant rotation.  I would like to interject that  they have had Dreadnought IPA on tap every single time I have been there. What they don't have on draft is in bottles, what they don't have in bottles is on draft.  If this were a weapons emporium, Crazy Achmed would always find something he wanted.

The Bar is modular (I $hit you not...)  The old Ale Emporium started as a nice all wood bar, Cheers based in Castleton to paint you a picture.  Then the younger crowd was all like "WTF MATE!  I CAN HAZ BANDZ WID MAY KRAFT BEERZ?!"  So the owner ate... err bought out the space next to the bar and made another bar... this time with fully equipped stage for live music on Fridays!

If you are not into the whole "Raise you lighter while Free Bird plays live" thing, they have wall to wall HD flat-screen TVs! Hockey, Football, American Football, ESPN, Local Teams, etc.  If you are way too overly stimulated... Front, if you are young and fun and need distraction... Back!

In recap:

1. Cheers/Traditional Bar up front, Newer Bar/Live music in the back
2. Best pizza and wings combination in town
3. A TON of Craft Beers on draft and bottles

Food: 4

Beer List: 4.5

**Would you still drink your beer if your friend licked it?**

<3**Love you too Honey!**

New World

Creation: New World

Style: Belgian Tripel
Masterminds: Samel Adams
Location: Boston, MA
ABV: 10.0%
IBU: 17
Hops: Tettnang Tettnanger, Saaz
Availability: Year Round
Drinkability: Light enough to prance around and act like a sessionable beer, but has the ABV of a complex beer that will catch you unawares and leave you with your head in the toilet.

Served out of the bomber, cold right out of the fridge.  Pours  a light gold, fizzy onslaught with medium head.  Head will stick around for the entire flavor trip from full pint to empty glass.  The head makes the lacing deceptive, because there is minimal to no lacing present at the end.

Yeasty fruit spice nose.  Notes of apples, pears, cinnamon, peppery clove.  I didn't get the pineapple notes as described by others.

Has distinct flavors.  A very noticeable first, second and finish.  The flavor trip starts with pear, then  to apple, ending with a cinnamon pepper clove with a slight boosey heat.

Ever so slight bitter yeast with a honey sweetness dry white wine finish with a slight toastyness.  Highly drinkable, but high ABV will rein you in to just a few

Serve Warm(er):

Let it warm up to help the complexity of flavors come out, if served right out of the fridge the apple will overpower most other flavors and be very sharp and bright.

O-Dawg: 4

Post-Mortem
To be Frank (not O-Dawg) for a moment, I had this first off of draft at Mo's Irish Pub here in Indy last winter.  It was an interesting lead up to Winterfest which neither me nor my compatriots could attend (or so we thought until The Professor scored last minute VIP through a friend.)

Morose and wanting to hang, the gang got together at Mo's for a Tap Takeover that was supposed to be Upland on all taps.  When we showed up it was half Upland and half Sam Adams.  Since we #drinklocal we went through the lineup of usuals and one seasonal that Upland had to offer.  Komodo Dragonfly BIPA, Double Dragon Fly x2IPA stole the show for me.  Their Winter Warmer... well... lets just leave that one till later shall we.

Feeling adventurous and a little bit curious as to what Ol' Samuel Adams had up his sleeve I started through their Small Batch Series, Barrel Room Collection, and Limited Release Beers that were on tap.  The ones that really stood out for me were New World, Tasman Red, Dark Depths, and Grumpy Monk.  This really surprised me because I love (and still love) Uplands beers.  I did not think a Nationally distributed brewery could withstand the onslaught of awesome local beer.  I stand corrected.

Getting just a taste of the New World I knew I wanted to snag a bottle of it.  Cut to a few weeks ago...  Yes even because Ol' Sam stated it was a year round brew, the little bugger didn't show up in Indiana until just recently.  Go figure?!  Why don't you go get yourself a bottle and see why I kept looking for it as long as I did!

The Big Guy: O brought a bottle of this over earlier in the year. It was one of the better Sam Adams beers that I have had lately. It was a solid Belgian with a big abv, and I have one cellaring right now. After having it for a second time at the Sour Wild Funk Fest though, I am not as in love as I thought I was. I hope it ages well. I give it a 3.

Flat 12 Amber Ale

Take me out to the ball game take me out to the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I ever get back.

I don't care if I ever get back either. Other than actually playing the game, the best part of softball is beer in gallon jugs. Not only do they have your traditional domestics, they have some local stuff too. Not every bar is willing to carry local stuff, so I have to give a shout out to Midwest Sports Complex in Indianapolis. They do a great job with the game and the beers.

Tonight I had the pleasure of doing a GALLON of Flat 12 Amber Ale. Flat 12 Amber, or Hello My Name is Amber, is a 5.8% abv. The jug did not have IBUs. It's a tasty amber. It has a beautiful red-brown color with just a little bit of head on top even after being poured into a jug, then out of a jug. The smell is bready with some caramel. Despite the aroma the flavor is surprisingly crisp and there's a pretty strong hop profile for an amber. I was expecting more malty characteristics that you find in traditional amber ales. This one was more like a pale ale that wasn't so pale. The moutfeel and overall vibe was lighter than your average red or amber. The malts are light and toasty but have a slightly burnt flavor to them and are not too sweet which was nice. The hops are strong in this one. Giving you a distinct finish to the beer.

It was light, but even still it may have been too heavy to drink while playing softball. After three of us had half the jug I was moving pretty slowly and I move slowly to begin with... by the end of the game and the end of the jug I just kinda wanted to die, but that's my fault not the beer's. It is never the beer's fault

This is a great summer amber. It has a unique flavor for the style. If you are into the hoppy beers I totally recommend you give this a try.

I give it a 3

O-Dawg: I have had the distinct pleasure of having this little wonder off of both the Nitro draft, regular draft, and bottles.  Each and every time I have had it I always come to the same conclusion, "Nice Solid Amber!"  Not something I would actively seek out, but if it is on tap I would have one.

If I were doing the labeling I would have sprung for something more like Brigitte Nielsen in Red Sonja meets The Girl Next Door.  Wait, that is kinda what they did didn't they...

3.5 Above the average and great compliment to the line up at Flat 12 Bierworks!