Was able to finally return to Three Floyds on a trip through Chicago to Purdue. While the review below clearly shows my love of FFF, this trip made it it one of my very favorite spots. It helped that my wife was along to DD this time, so the tasting was a more intense, but it was also the fall line up of beers compared to the summer brews that I had last time. Drinking Behemoth, Artic Panzer Wolf, Zombie Dust and Spazzerack! took all of my energy so that I didn't even get to Dreadnaught--one of my favorites.
But what really put it over the top was the food. I had pizza last time, which was very good. Maybe it's improved as well--didn't have a chance to try this trip. We really liked that they offered small plates so the meal was a more appropriate size. We started with the butternut squash soup--amazing--black truffles, hazelnut yogurt and pickled squash made this a soup to remember. After that, I had the mac n cheese. Doesn't sound too adventuresome, but the old fashioned comfort food with American cheese was spiced up with pickled onions and bread crumbs. I know--onions in mac n cheese? Just have to try it.
The basic format of the bar hasn't changed in the last few years, but they seem to have settled in with more beer paraphernalia and other decorations on the walls. The big screen TV with a kung fu movie playing was a nice touch--and nice to watch with dinner over the brew house. Not sure how, but it adds to the attitude of the place. Not fancy--just good. Fits my personality exactly. I feel lucky that FFF is directly on my route to visit my alma mater, and hope to make this a much more regular stop in the future to one of my very favorite brewpubs anywhere in the world.
8/1/07 review from my first visit: Three Floyds is an Indiana legend with Alpha King, as they should be. Lots of attitude, unique, and surviving by just brewing beer too good not to drink, similar to Stone of CA and Surly of MN. This was such a good stop, I simply drove home to Minnesota instead of hitting the rest of my planned stops.
Needed lunch, and ordered the five cheese pizza as the main veggie option. It was very good--and big. Two or three people at least to eat. It was also good cold for dinner half way through Wisconsin.
Jumped in with a half pint (thanks FFF for pouring halfs) of Remus: Bravo. This was a paired brew with Remulus: Apollo. They beers were idential APAs except for the Bravo and Apollo hops. Remus the better beer for me--cleaner and smoother compared to the Remulus that had a bit of a grassy taste, unusual for FFF beers in spite of the very large hops bill that must have annually. Next was a draft of the famous Dreadnaught IPA, an Imperial IPA that is worth the travel. The bottle I took home was just as good though the bite was a bit different and lacked the balance of the draft for me. The final beer (so I thought) was the Fantabulous Resplendence (aka X), FFFs tenth anniversary ale. Not really sure what the style should be labelled but it was 100 IBUs, so a DIPA range, but lots of Belgain characteristics, probably from the yeast. Very easy drink with lots of kick. In spite of eating most of the pizza and sitting for three hours, the accumulation of the beers forced the long wait before hitting the road again.
And, then, a FFF worker tapped a new beer--Gorch Fock Helles--and handed me the test glass to make sure the tap was working properly--then dumped it and repoured another for me because it didn't look quite right to him. To me, this emphasized FFFs commitment to quality at all levels and it is easily seen in the beer.
Hoping to return for an evening to check it out as well. The only downside of the pub (not for me but for others maybe going there) is that it's basically a thrown together in a corner of the brewery. And, the whole place is in a warehouse district south of Chicago that's a bit out of the way and I found to be hard to find that day. Personally, I like the comfortable college dorm furniture feel that concentrates on beer or form, but maybe not everybody will like that. If you're there to drink good beer--go; if you want a pretty place, head downtown.
Reviewed on: 10-26-2011 03:17:30
No comments:
Post a Comment