New Albany, IN - New Albanian Brewing Company

The New Albanian Brewing Company was great! They had some stellar beer here. After a house warming party for two friends who are getting married, we went to this brewery. They had a wide selection of beer which included not only their own in house beers made locally, but beers produced from other breweries. I didn't try anything that wasn't local of course (but they did have a few Saison's in the selection...)

The best beer was the Hoptimus Prime. The beer was not only a palatte killer, but incredibly drinkable and approachable for someone who is not into super hoppy beers. My guess is that the IBU on this was over 100.

Good story to this beer: We ended up buying a growler of this to take back to our friends house and give them the growler as a house warming present. When my wife and everyone else went to bed, one of my best friends and I were playing Wii baseball. With a full pint glass in his path, he took a huge swing and pulled a Sammy Sosa homer on that glass. We cleaned up the mess, but he left some paper towels soaked with beer. Oops.

The artwork was incredible! Every beer seemed to have a story behind it. There is a beer that uses a sexy she-devil which is always good to see on beer. Our friends knew the guy who brews the B-52 beer. The artwork on this was 1940's WWII propaganda-ish style.

The location looked like a pizza hut (Grantline location). There are two brewery locations so I can only speak for this one as I never made it to the second. Nothing too awesome, but the brewing tanks were visible and the food was tasty. Get the pizza as I liked it a lot.

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

Overall: B+

New Albanian Brewing Company
3312 Plaza Drive
New Albany, IN 47150

Indianapolis, IN - Broad Ripple Brewpub

This award winning brewpub is located in the fun, young district of Indianapolis known as Broad Ripple. This pub has a lot going for them like the fact that most of the population in the area is in their target demographic. Founded in 1990, they were the first brewpub in Indiana. This is not to be confused with the first brewery in Indiana though.

This brewery has had many brewers who later went on to open great Indiana breweries. The first brewer, Greg Emig, founded the Lafayette Brewing Co and the second brewer, Ted Miller, founded the Brugge Brasserie¹. They have large vegetarian menu which is cool. To top it off, their phone number is (317)ALE-BREW!

Although they have good beer, the food that we tried was just alright. If you like beer cheese, avoid theirs! The best way to describe it is to say that it had strong hints of keystone light and velveta cheese... yeah...

Their beer at time of visit: (lots of English style)

• Lawn Mower Pale Ale- GRADE: B
5.0% ABV


• Violet's Strawberry Blonde Belgian- GRADE: B
5.2% ABV. This is a good beer for people who don't like beer. Like the name implies.


• I.P.A. India Pale Ale- GRADE: B+
6.2% ABV


• Kolsch- GRADE: B-
4.6% ABV. Its a crispy, hoppy beer.


• E.S.B Extra Special Bitter- GRADE: B+
5.6% ABV. They are known for this beer.


• Black Heart Lager- GRADE: B+
5.9% ABV


• Diving Duck American Brown- GRADE: B
4.7% ABV. English style cask ale.


• Dual Citizenship Ale- GRADE: B+
5.5% ABV. English style cask ale.

This brewery gets a B. If they look really busy outside on a nice day, still find a parking spot (can be very hard) and go since there are a lot of people who drink outside of the pub.

Broad Ripple Brewpub
842 E 65th Street
Indpls, IN 46220