Hi All, I'm making a day/night trip to Indy tomorrow and would love to know everyone's favorite Beer Bar in the area. I'll be staying at the Sherton Hotel in Keystone Crossing and will definitely try to make it to one or two for some beers I can't get in Nashville, TN. Any suggestions?
Here's a good rundown, however, a lot of it is west side/downtown. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/indy-500-weekend.293677/ Right where you are, there's not a whole lot "Beer Bar" wise. Some very good restaurants, but short on the pubs. There is one place just over the bridge (to the east) off 82th St, called the District Tap. Beer selection is decent. Food is decent. Pretty good atmosphere, but far better options if you don't mind driving a bit. Ale Emporium is a short drive to the east. Great pizza, wings, and excellent beer selection. http://ale-emporium.com/ After that, if you want some really good places, you need to head south to Broad Ripple.
If you are willing to drive south about 10 minutes, make your way to Broad Ripple. It has, at one end, Brugge, which does a range of Belgians and has some great food, too, and at the other our local Hop Cat, with a ton of beers on tap. Plenty of other options are around the area, which is a major night spot, but these are the two places I'd recommend focusing upon. Or, as others have suggested, hit Ale Emporium.
Twenty Tap (10 minutes south of where you're staying) or Pint Room (10 minutes north of where you're staying). Made it easy for you.
You'll find a fairly similar experience visiting Pint Room (Carmel) or Hopcat (Broad Ripple). Both have 100+ taps, are in nice new spaces and have mediocre-decent food. They both have their taplists online though I've been burned by Hopcat's online list a couple times (they don't include a "last updated" date). Pint Room's online tap list includes a date. Twenty Tap (Broad Ripple) posts a new tap list (38 taps) daily on their website. IMO they easily have the best food of the three. It's a much smaller space and likelihood of a wait is the highest there, though mid-week you'd hopefully be fine. Broad Ripple and Carmel are about the same amount of time from your hotel so no difference there.
If you're looking for bottle shops, and especially if you're heading to the Broad Ripple area, swing over to Kahn's Fine Wine & Spirits at 5341 Keystone Ave. It's probably 10 minutes from your hotel and has a good selection. I'm not sure if they have 18th Street Hunter Orange and/or BA Hunter, but if those are priorities, they have them at the Crown liquors downtown.
Seconding the recommendation for Twenty Tap, the food is excellent and though the beer list is shorter than HopCat or Ale Emporium, I would argue that there is generally less pedestrian beer on their menu. Even though it's always busy, it has a much more relaxed vibe than either of the other two.
There's a dive over in that area called Tilly's Pub, it doesn't have good beer, but you might see Larry Bird there.
