Indiana brewing rep

I was talking with an old roommate of mine who has recently become big into beer. The conversation was about what beer states are the best in producting the best beer in the nation. The following is our list:

1. California
2. Colorado
3. Indiana (yeah, it was in both of our top 5's)
4. Michigan
5. Louisiana

As an interesting note, people in California love Three Floyd's beer like Indiana used to like New Belgium back when we had to travel to Illinois or Ohio to buy it. The Dreadnaught is infamous out here and people want me to bring out a case next time I come back as they can't get it here. Way to go Three Floyds!

Also, Boulevard Brewing company is huge here but is not distributed here. You can get it all over the place in Indy. They go out of state and bring it in. I think its a great brewing company, but I wouldn't go to that extreme for the beer...

THE FOLLOWING LIST IS TOTALLY F@$(%'ed in my opinion
According to Matador Network, here are the 20 best beer cities in the US(http://matadortrips.com/20-best-beer-towns-in-america)
1. Boston, Massachusetts (Sam Adams)
2. Portland, Maine
3. New York, New York (Brooklyn Brewing)
4. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
5. Asheville, North Carolina
6. Tampa Bay, Florida
7. Atlanta, Georgia
8. New Orleans, Louisiana
9. The Triangle, North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill)
10. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
11. Albuquerque, New Mexico
12. Cleveland, Ohio (Great Lakes Brewing)
13. Chicago, Illinois (Piece Brewing, Goose Island)
14. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
15. Missoula, Montana
16. Denver, Colorado (Flying Dog,
17. San Diego, California
18. Seattle, Washington
19. San Francisco, California
20. Portland, Oregon

First off, Denver is ranked after Missoula, Montana. WTF? Second, Ashland, NC is ranked 5 and I couldn't even tell you of a single beer that come from there. That instantly bumps it to 10 or lower. NOT 5th best city for beer. I can name at least three breweries below this one on the list. Who paid to have this group make this list???

According to msnbc (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15642039/), these are the following best cities in the world for beer lovers:

1. Amsterdam (Hellz ya! been there)
2. Berlin (been there)
3. Brugge
4. Burlington
5. Dublin (been there)
6. Mexico City
7. Montreal
8. Portland
9. Prague
10. Sapporo

New location for Barley Island

There is a new location for Barley Island Brewing company in Indianapolis. I would highly recommend coming to this place if you are interested in local beers. Not only do they have Barley Island's beer, but they also try to carry a lot of local ones. They even carry local wines! That's pretty baller.

Barley Island Restaurant & Brewhouse
South Side of College & Broad Ripple Ave.
701 Broad Ripple Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
(317) 257-5600

Mad Anthony brewing company

On my way to Cleveland, I drove up through Ft Wayne, IN and stopped by Mad Anthony Brewing Company. If Applebees, Harry's Chocolate Shop, and a fraternity basement had a love child, that is what this place looks like.

The ruby raspberry wheat was the best as it used cascade hops litely with an English pale ale. More full bodied than some rasp wheats. Not overly fruity.

The ol woody pale ale was the hoppiest at 40 IBU's of cascade. It's very mild for a hopped beer.

Called munchie emporium for the restaurant and is located 2 doors down from 20 past 4... I think I can guess their target market.


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Non-brewery visit

Warning: the following will be rated higher as the beer is not from a single brewery, but a choice selection from several great breweries.

Drank:
Omegganga 3 Philosophers Belgian 'true Belgian-style' quadrupel
Rating: B
Comments: a very good belgian style beer coming from America. Up there with the big leaguers, but nit blow my socks off awesome.

Jolly pumpkin Oro de Calabazza
Rating: A
Comments: F@&@'in awesome! Way to go Dexter, Michigan! Tastes like very young young Pinot Noir aka vey tannicy, but has the budding, full tastes of a light red wine in a beer. I thought it tasted like a white for a while until I really thought of it. It is a young Pinot noir with a Belgian quadruple!

Weyerbach Hops Infusion
Rating: B+
Comments: it is a sweeter, hoppy beer and reminds me of Gumball Head. It is the Tom Brady to my Peyton Manning: very good but will never beat the great one.

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Revalation

Dos equis amber and negra modelo are both Vienna style lagers which is the same style as the great lakes brewing company's Elliott Ness. Never would have guessed...

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Watkins Glen, NY - Rooster Fish Brewery

This brewery was hard to find since we were looking for the 'Rooster Fish Brewing' and not the 'The Wildflower Cafe' or 'The Crooked Rooster Brewpub'. We were making our way through the Finger Lakes and were unable to hit this brewery at 11:30 as it was closed, but yet they served lunch... Not the brew's fault, but the location where we were trying to buy it.

After a day of hitting the wineries in the Finger Lakes (I'm a big enophile), we hit up the brewery we were not able to hit before hitting these wineries. They had a sampler of 8. I was surprised such a small/new brewery had an imperial IPA. I had over a 90+IBU which was pretty good. I'd put it up with a Ruination. Not near as hoppy as the Superfly at Greenwood's Oaken Barrel, but pretty damn hoppy. Loved it.

They had a Dunkelweizen which reminded me of college. It is like a dark version of a Hefeweizen which is a very approachable way of introducing people into dark beers who only like light or wheat beers. Their hefeweizen was bananas as that is exactly what it tasted like. Yes... Bananas.

They have Reason.tv behind them talking about how buying microbrews promotes choice in America. VIDEO I would totally agree. BUY LOCAL!!!! Reason.TV is awesome, btw. Go Drew Carey Project.

The atmosphere was pretty cool. It was in a small New Englandish town than seemed to be built in the 1900's. The beer was good. They were too small to bottle as they started in 2007 and they are woking to grow larger in the not so distant future so there was no artwork outside of the initial logo.

Artwork: NA
Beer: A-
Atmosphere: B
Food: B+

http://www.roosterfishbrewing.com/index.php
301 North Franklin Street
Watkins Glen, NY 14891
Ph: 607.535.9797

Buffalo, NY - Pearl Street Grill & Brewery

On my way to Ontario Canada, I had to make my way through Buffalo, NY. The Brewery was right by the highway so it was very convenient. One of the unique features of the brewery was the belt driven fans on the ceiling. There was a lot of history to the location and you could request to take a tour of the 4 different floors. If you are in Buffalo for the night, you can enjoy the multi-tiered patios from the 4 floors. Looked fun, but we weren't able to stay.

The beer was pretty good. I would give the brewery a B for the beer and an A- for location as it was a cool atmosphere. The labels had great artwork (A) and I am a sucker for people who pay attention to these kinds of details. I feel like the art gave me a feeling of what Buffalo was about in not only its history, but its attitude. Very cool.

Recommended Beers: Double Hopped Ale (Palatte killer) or the Cherry Wheat (a little thin, but good).

Images for this coming later.


http://www.pearlstreetgrill.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92&Itemid=117