Upland brewery

I've been to Upland a number if times. Their food is amazing. Mostly local produce, and local farm raised antibiotic and steroid free proteins. Their line up of beers is very tasty. They usually have on 7-8 beers, 5 or 6 are year round, plus a seasonal or 2.

 

Upland has above average pub food. Much of it is seasonal and locally sourced and they have a few vegetarian options. The menu is online at Uplandbeer.com. They are busy nearly every night, so expect to wait at least a little bit. A lot of folks love to sit out on their nice patio this time of year, too.

As far as beers, they always have Wheat, Dragonfly, and Bad Elmers on tap. Right now they also have a Belgian pale ale, an standard pale ale, their imperial red (Ard Ri), and maybe something else. They are all fine beers.

 

Flat 12 brewpub/tasting room in Indianapolis. Food made to order from Smoking Goose 'meatery' across the street - amazing stuff. Hours may be tricky.

Agree with the above average pub food at Upland.

Is the guest chef still at Three Floyds? The menu looks nice here too...

 

I would +1 stopping at Flat12 if you can swing thru there while they are open.

 

Not only do you get good food and drink at Upland, but while you're in town there are a few excellent beer shops to stock up at and bars with good tap selections to enjoy a nightcap at... all-in-all Bloomington has a lot more going for it than Munster, although to be fair FFF is a wonderful brewpub. Upland also has a counter-pressure growler station to help your tap fill-up survive a bit longer on your journey.

 

There isn't much of a tap-list comparison, FFF is hands down your best hoption (it was originally a typo, but I decided to keep it). The other opinions above I'd agree with. Flat 12's beer is similar in quality to Upland's aside from the lambic aspect. Tough call, but if you're pinched for time you can always just go to Flat 12 and then get some reasonably priced growlers at Sun King. Bier may be worth a stop as well.

 

FFFs and Flat 12 are the way to go. Uplands got good food, but besides the sours and a few they never have on draft (ie TBK or Bal aged winter warmer), their beers are average at best. Flat 12s regular selections include some excellent choices. Their porter, milk stout, and half cycle ipa are great. They also usually have a few fantastic special beers and offer samples of everything.

 

See everyone saying flat 12, and its great, but hitting up Sunking (no food) would be worth the stop as well

 

I frequent Upland as I live here in Bloomington. With that said, I can't recall the last time I actually had a growler or six pack of their beer at my home. I do go there to eat frequently and I never shy away from any of their beers. They're all above average but none are out of this world.

I typically make a trip to Indy to stock up on Flat 12 and Bier Brewery beer at least once a month. I think Bier is making brew every bit as good as Three Floyds, they sample their entire lineup for free, and are fairly (read: not cheaply) priced for growlers/bullets. They were also the winner of the Indiana Beer Cup, if that says anything at all.

Flat 12 also does a free lineup tasting and has great prices. They do porters right there and their barrel aged stuff is fantastic as well if they have any available when you go. The atmosphere is more enjoyable at Flat 12. It's on the must stop list every time we're in Indy and many of our friends are regulars as well.

I'm a bit of a Sun King hater although I still go frequently. They typically don't have as wide of a selection and I think their house beers are average at best. With that said, I've had a few tastes of their specialty brews and they truly are phenomenal.

Lastly, if you find yourself in Bloomington, I'd suggest stopping into Bloomington Brewing Company as well. Good beer and great food there, just like Upland.

 

I just can't send anyone to Bloomington Brewing for anything other than food. 10 years ago their beer was pretty damn good, but nothing at this point is worth my money. I wish they would turn it around as they used to make a better product than Upland.

 

Never had a beer that wasn't average or better there. I guess I couldn't necessarily see going to one and not the other, them being about a mile apart.

 

I'll second this. The restaurant at BBC is amazing, but the beer is mediocre with big quality control problems. As many others have said, Indy has some great breweries and won't be as far out of your way. Upland has amazing food, but they very rarely have anything terrific on draft.

 

This. Make your stop in Indy then get on 70 to get to MO. You can spend an evening tasting 20 beers between Sun King and Flat 12 without necessarily spending a dime. (Though you WILL want a growler from F12).

I went to Upland weekly when I was getting my undergrad. at IU. Staff is absolutely wonderful, atmosphere is perfect IMO, food is pretty good pub fare mostly, beer is below average.

 

I was at Sun King and Flat 12 on Saturday. There were only four beers on at Sun King and about seven or eight at Flat 12. However, they are are 0.5 miles apart, so that helps.

 

SK usually has their 4 (now 3) regulars and 3 specialty/seasonals when I am there on most Fridays to fill growlers. Flat 12 I practically live at, and they often have 6 regulars and 4-5 specialty/seasonal. So on a particularly off night you can only try 12 new beers for free at 2 pubs within a mile of each other. I have never seen such a thing outside of Indy. (now you can also hit Fountain Square Brewing, about a mile down the road, who also offer free small samples or generously priced 4 oz pours of all of their beers (7-8).

 

Not sure why it didn't occur to me sooner but if you went to Indy, you could also stop at the Upland tasting room there and kill many birds with one stone. Sun King, Flat 12, Upland, and then Bier Brewery would be a good few hours of beer tourism in Indy. I might even add 20 Tap for lunch, which is about 4 blocks north of the Upland tasting room (great food, great beer selection, less than average service). If I only had to hit one of the above mentioned stops, Bier Brewery is my personal favorite with Flat 12 ever so slightly behind.

 

Mine are vice versa, but I live about a block away from Bier, so it wins for convenience sake.

Also I agree with/second everything you wrote.

 

My buddies and I used to walk (after we learned driving was a bad idea) to BBC on Sundays for dinner and $2 pints. The brewer at the time seemed cool, but I know they were going through some potential brewer changes at the time. That was '06-08, so maybe there is a new person in charge of their beers? Or maybe the $2 pints made me turn a blind eye.

 

I've lived in Bloomington for nearly 4 years and have gone to BBC a total of one time. Never had their food, but the beer is definitely targeted for the masses. I'll echo what others have said about Upland: food is above average, beer is...decent (at best). One of my favorite things about Upland is their outdoor patio- a great spot to hang out on a nice night.

After doing a small brewery crawl in Indy this past weekend, my favorite spot was Bier brewery. They had the best variety and most consistent draft lineup. Staff was super nice too. Unfortunately our visit was abbreviated by a large group of hilljacks that came in and started downing the 3-4oz sample pours like shots.