Brewpub
Date and time reviewed: Thu, 27 Oct 2016 14:09:08 EDT
Overall Score: 88.3
Selection: 4.5 | Service: 4.5 | Atmosphere: 4.25 | Food: 4.0
Reviewer: Curmudgeon
Traveling the US of A has some advantages and dis-advantages.
Unknown hotel rooms and their “quirks” — suspect restaurants that advertise gaily their dishes with glowing adjectives only to be served the same omelets, burgers, etc. — roads that your trusty GPS instructs you to travel only to find yourself in the middle of a corn field with not a silo in sight.
Advantages?
Well, when you’re goal is to visit as many “under-rated” breweries as possible (and most popular), that can soften considerably the quest to escape that deserted field of corn.
In Indiana, we stayed outside Chicago in Matteson only to spend the better part of the afternoon at 3 Floyds brewing, home of the elusive Dark Lord, a Russian Imperial only to be had 1 day of the year in April.
This being October, there was no chance in hell of acquiring a bottle; still the brewery has an excellent reputation and wife Persimmon & I were not about to pass by.
Packed at 2:00 in the afternoon, we were still able to sample several delicious brews and grab a good bite of food before returning the the suburbs 10 miles away & get back on the road again (Hmmm…good song title!)
Even so, we sampled Robert the Bruce (Scottish), Space Station Middle Finger, Zombie Dust and Crack the Skye, a Russian Imperial that, if it is any indicator of Dark Lord, then the brewers have a winning formula to tweak in a variety of ways. This is quite the bold brew that attacks the palate and throat with chocolate, vanilla, molasses, caramel and the right balance of bitterness (almost non-existent) on the swallow.
Our waiter told us that because of inclimate weather the last few years, “Dark Lord Day” may be moved up to May in years to come. Still buying a ticket to stand for hours in line along with 6000 of my closest friends is questionable. There must be another way…and the hunt is on!
3 Floyds is just one of several in Indiana but it’s reputation keeps bringing the folks back for taste after taste.
For as long as we’re on the road, it will have a big green dot on my USA map…for “absolutely returning.”
Source:Three Floyds Brewing LLC