Brew Review: Hunter's Brewing

Always on a search to try new breweries and wineries, we checked another off our list.  Hunter's Brewing is a relatively new nanobrewery in Chesterton, open Thursdays through Saturdays (and occasionally now on Sundays too!)  There are high top tables, a couple couches, and the bar to sit and enjoy beer.  They have prepackaged snacks and lately The Rolling Stonebaker wood-fired pizza food truck has been there on Thursdays.

Of course you know I tried a flight, which was 8 beers, just over $11.  It seems that Hunter's doesn't offer any light summer beers yet, so they were all relatively heavy.  The Khao Hom Mali, a jasmine rice cream ale, was probably the one I liked most.  It's definitely creamy and the jasmine gives it quite an interesting taste.  Mild Child, the English brown ale, was also good.  Even though I do love a good flavored stout, the others were a bit too heavy for me.  Of course that doesn't mean we won't be back to try more.  The owners were extremely nice and they participate in all of the local brew fests so we will see them soon at Beers Across the Wabash!

Crown Brewing Company

As you know, Carl and I are steadily working our way all around the local breweries.  Fortunately, I don't think we will ever run out of places to try since there are so many in the Chicago, Northwest Indiana, and Southwestern Michigan areas. 

Crown Brewing Company hosted the beer festival I blogged about here, so I'd known for awhile that I wanted to head out to Crown Point and try a whole flight full of their beers.  My gut feeling did not lie.  Crown Brewing is definitely one of my favorites around! 

My flight consisted of Crown Blue, Crown Brown, Weizenhammer Weiss, Industrial Porter, Raspberry Creme Java Porter, and Plead the 5th Anniversary Imperial Red Ale.  Crown Blue was a very light blueberry that is definitely a summer beer.  I also really enjoyed the Crown Brown because unlike other brews that boast a nutty, caramel flavor, I could actually taste both flavors impeccably well.  The industrial porter was very smooth, much smoother in fact than my normal stout picks.  And my absolute favorite was the wonderfully delicious Raspberry Creme Java Porter.  It is so good.  You can smell the hint of raspberry the second your glass is raised and it has an incredibly smooth finish for a porter.  I added to our growing growler collection (SunKing, Figure 8, etc.) and landed one of these to go.  I can't like 'em all, so naturally I was not a fan of the red ale; it really came off as more of an IPA taste to me.  With that said, I can't believe I thoroughly enjoyed five out of the six beers I sampled, so we will definitely be returning to Crown Brewing.

As a side note, they are in the same building as Carriage Court Pizza, so you can enjoy some carbs to soak up the good beer.  I recommend the margherita pizza, but skip the beer cheese appetizer (not the best we've had.)

Overall, I definitely recommend trying this place; I'm ranking it right up there with my Three Floyds review.  Enjoy & let me know which beer is your fav!

Beer Fest Bonanza

If you follow me on Instagram, it was probably pretty clear Carl & I went to a beer festival last weekend .. what with the "Crown Beer Fest" pint glass, pretzel necklace, and all.  And it was fabulous.  So much fun - I definitely recommend going to one!  It's almost always a sure thing that I'll love any local wine or brew fest. 

My Top Tastes:
- Back Road Brewery's Blueberry Stout - sounds odd, but it works..it really, really works. (For being so close in La Porte, Indiana we'll definitely be making a trip out to the brewery in the near future to sample a flight.)
- Brickstone Brewery's Cherry Ale  - absolutely delicous!
- Flat 12 Bierwork's Cucumber Kolsch - talk about a refreshing summer beer! 
- Crown Brewing's Apple Ale & their Green Tea Dee-railer - both SO good!

There was such an amazing abundance of great beer that these are only a few of my favorites!

And finally, another great discovery last weekend was that the company BrewFest Partners does a whole slew of local beer festivals!  Check out the line up for the great lakes region here.  I've been looking at all the details; sign me up for the Great Lakes Brew Fest in Racine, Wisconsin.  That one sounds amazing, definitely worth a trip a bit North.  Bottoms up!

Brew Review: Goose Island Brewpub

I attended a function Wednesday afternoon that was held at Goose Island Brewpub's Clybourn location.  The atmosphere was laid back and the beer was great!  The food was a bit bland, but I believe you'll have that when a restaurant aims to please 50 people with only a couple options. 

www.gooseisland.com

For appetizers, the cheese selection the brewpub carries is tastey.  That says a lot coming from me since I am not a cheese person (and I married a man from the cheese state of Wisconsin..crazy, right?! haha).  On the other hand, I normally love any type of hummus but this was super bland.  It won't be something I order again.  The main meal was rotisserie chicken - also bland - accompanied by brussel sprouts.  Although the chicken was bland, the brussel sprouts were amazingly seasoned and I could not get enough of them.  With that said, I totally think anyone who knows how to make brussel sprouts hit the spot can make a mean meal.  Towards the end, four different dessert bars were presented and I was a fan of all four.  I've checked out the standard menu options and I seriously cannot wait to go back with Carl.

Beer wise, they have so many stouts that it was hard to choose and you all know I love a good flavored stout.  I settled on the Imperial Coffee Stout, Resolutions, and let me tell you - this stout does not disappoint!  It was so good; very dark with a powerful espresso flavor.  From there I wanted to try a Goose Island barrel aged selection.  I ordered The Albatross, a Rittenhouse Rye Barrel-Aged beer.  The whiskey taste from aging in a barrel was faint along with a slight chocolate taste; also a great beer.  I did have sips of the other two barrel aged picks - Grand Delusions and Triple B.  I'll admit Grand Delusions made me forget it was beer; the whiskey taste was so strong I thought I was sipping whiskey on the rocks.  Triple B didn't taste as strong to me, it just wasn't my favorite flavor among the three.  Overall, I'm happy with the beer choices I made.  Next time I will definitely get a flight so I can try more!

What's your favorite Goose Island beer?

Indy: Wine & Brews

Fortunately, I was lucky enough to get away to Indianapolis this past weekend to catch up with several of my closest girlfriends from college!  Yay for a well deserved girls weekend!

After grabbing a bite to eat, we spent Saturday afternoon enjoying Easley Winery and Sun King Brewery.  They're both on N. College Avenue, literally right across the street from each other.

At Easley Winery, it was $5 for a ten minute tour and a tasting of seven wines.  Everyone was extremely friendly; they had no problem recommending restaurants for us to do lunch at & mapping out the area too.  Our guide was knowledgeable, interesting, and easy going.  He didn't even mind taking several group pictures (pretty crucial when a group of sorority girls get together, right?!)  Tasting wise, rather than choosing the seven wines you'd like to taste most, Easley divides their wines by "barrels" pairing two per barrel and you chose which wine from that "barrel" you'd like to try when the employee comes by.  I'm not a huge fan of dry wines, so naturally I was more drawn to the sweet wines.  I liked the Sweet Barrel Red and the Reggae Red was a big favorite among all five of us!  We walked away with several bottles.

Across the street at Sun King Brewery, we walked in, showed our IDs, and were handed three tickets for house beer samples and three lids for the seasonal beer samples.  It was pretty packed and had a laid back, awesome atmosphere.  We were able to sample Sunlight Cream Ale, Wee Mac Scottish Ale, Osiris Pale Ale (all house beers;) and Bitter Druid ESB, Foxy Jam Pants, and Batch 888 (all seasonal beers.)  The six beer samples cover a variety of tastes from light, to medium, very hoppy, and even a seasonal ginger beer.  I liked several of them and actually ended up buying a 32oz flip top growler and the Batch 888.  It was super reasonably priced - just over $12 for both the growler and the beer!

All in all, we had a fabulous time.  You should definitely put these on your to-visit list!

Restaurant Review: Three Floyds

If you live in the Northwest Indiana/Chicago-land area, have you been to Three Floyds Brewing Co?  If not, you should definitely go!  The brews are awesome and the food is good too.  If you happen to go on a Saturday, you can even get a tour. 

Visiting breweries and wineries is something Carl and I love to do together.  With that said, this is where we had our Valentine's Day meal with a couple beers and a sampler flight.  Yum.  On the sampler (consisting of four of their beers), the Pride and Joy was definitely my favorite.  It's an American Mild Ale and the menu describes it as a "smooth, medium bodied session beer with bright citrus hop aroma and finish."  Out of the others that we had ordered glasses of, I favored the Czech Booty Kamp, a Czech-style pilsner and Carl loved the Gumballhead, their traditional wheat beer with a citrus finish. 

Food wise, we got the Triple Threat and the Schnitzel.  The Triple Threat is a spicy pork sausage...seriously spicy, but good if that's what you have a taste for.  The Schnitzel was awesome.  We also ordered two sides of their Crispy French Fries (with herb butter) and let me tell you...you must order these if you go!  We are not particularly 'fry' people; we can usually take them of leave them.  But not these, we finished every single fry!  As a bonus, since we both had our military IDs, they gave us a whopping 50% off our entire bill, including the drinks and sampler flight!  I do believe that's the best military discount we've ever received.  Big props, Three Floyds!

What's your favorite Three Floyds beer?  And have you tried the food?  I'd love to know!