Does anyone have any thoughts on the Carmel Tap House and Broad Ripple Tasting Room locations? Is one more recommended than the other in terms of their tap list and beer selection? (I realize the Tap House serves food). My main objective is to try some Upland sours. Are sours typically available at these locations? (I'm not referring to the public bottle sales, but rather, availability for on-site consumption). Any insight would be much appreciated!
I've only heard of the sours being on tap at the Carmel Tap House (i could be wrong). The Tap House is a much "nicer" atmosphere for the Carmel yuppies versus the college feel of the Broad Ripple tasting room, think no matching furniture. Plus, Carmel traffic sucks. There are other great beer bars close to the Broad Ripple location. I would call both locations and ask if the have the sours on, or follow their social media accounts. Carmel also has more draft lines if i recall 10 versus 6 at BR Tasting room. I like the BR Tasting room better because it is more relaxed, but that's like, my opinion man.
There are never sours on tap at Upland, EVER. With the exception of May, in which you could order pours or even flights of sours (all bottle pours though), it has been rare to even be able to drink a sour on-site at any Upland location through the years. And in May, it was advertised as being a special thing just for the month and I can confirm it is over as I've been to the Carmel location since then. You're equivalently likely to find something decent from them on at either place. Generally speaking, what's on tap at any Upland location, overall, is disappointing. If you're lucky there will be 1-2 of their better seasonals on at a given time. If you're not lucky, there will be none (their standard line-up is underwhelming). That said, was at the Bloomington location on the 4th and they were pouring Coastbuster which I personally think is an excellent double IPA. If that's making the rounds at all locations, it's worth drinking. In strictly comparing the Indy locations, Carmel is easier to get to, in a nicer area, has a good outdoor seating space, and serves food (Upland's food is solid). The Carmel place gives you a similar feel to the original Bloomington location rather than the hippie-centric style going on in Broad Ripple, where they don't have any outdoor seating and no food. Unless you're hell bent on going to Upland, I'd recommend skipping it and hitting one of the better beer spots in the area unless you're looking for good food as well.
Since you used ALL CAPS I'll mention that I had Paw Paw on tap in Bloomington. They have really ramped up production of their fruited sours so I could see this happening more in the future. Agreed that there are better options in Indy. I gave up trying to get Upland to post a tap list so I pretty much only go there when I'm muling sours.
Fair enough, and that sounds awesome. I can simply say this; I lived in IN from 2003-2011 and in that window, which includes multiple years where the sours were being produced, I never heard of a time that they were available on draft. I moved here again this April and have heard nothing of sours ever being available on draft. My best friend lives in Bloomington (has for years), goes to Upland all the time, and never told me he had an Upland sour on draft, and he would have if it happened for him. I thought I heard 5 or 6 years ago, from Upland in some capacity, that all the sours were never on draft because they were all bottle conditioned and that was a process that was unlikely to change. For some reason I even feel like I had some bottles a long time ago that had stickers on them that said they were bottle conditioned. I digress...ultimately, I still think it's safe to say that a random trip to Indy/Bloomington in hopes of having an Upland sour on tap would be roughly impossible. Would be great news if that changed as I've never understood why the brewery wants to serve a group of people who simply want to show up and quickly pick up their sours and leave immediately every few months. You'd think the brewery and the associated tap rooms would become more active beer destinations if they actually had their sours available on draft (a la Russian River, Cascade, etc.). Maybe they're just trying to build more hype for the brewery by floating all these bottles out there in the trade market/proxy scene? I don't know.
I mean yeah, if you're just shooting for the sours, you're likely to be disappointed. If you're looking for an awesome "beer spot" with tons of options, then there are better options in both Carmel and Indy that are quite close to the Upland locations. That all said, I live just a few minutes from the Broad Ripple taproom, and I love going there. Totally relaxed vibe that totally fits what I imagine its intended function to be: a neighborhood bar to chill in, have a few beers with a friend or two, and relax. They aren't trying to be HopCat or Twenty Tap or the District Tap, and that's okay with me. I think you're right @mayorQuimby that they could easily become more of a "destination" if they kept back some kegs of the sours and had them even semi-regularly, but I get the sense that that just isn't really what they want to be doing.
The Broad Ripple spot in and of itself is a totally different animal. The vibe, etc., is different than just about any other beer spot I've ever been. I get what you're saying re: that location. That said, I just cannot rationalize a thought process where they wouldn't push to have more of their quality offerings available all the time. The standard lineup is mediocre at best, yet generally speaking that's all that is available when you go to Upland. Some of the seasonals are excellent. The sours are, on the whole, excellent. Coastbuster is excellent. And yet, 4/5 times that I visit Upland, I'm lucky if there is 1 of the 5-8 good/great beers they make outside of the sours, and it's more or less a guarantee there are no sours available...I can only think of how great it would be and how often I'd visit Upland if they had 2-3 sours pouring, along with Coastbuster, TBK, Barrel Chested, and you can even leave the Porter and Wheat in there. I go to Upland regularly because I like the food a lot, but most visits am disappointed with the beers available. Any business' goal is to make money. I just think the consumer would be happier if they would have better beers on (which they already produce yet sparingly make available on draft), I know I would, and Upland would get the benefit of greater patronage and more $ in hand.
Thanks for the insight guys, really appreciate the info. Think I'm gonna pass on Upland. It's too bad they don't offer the beers that have made a name for themselves... Tried their regular offerings when they hit the Chicago market circa-early 2103...felt they were mediocre at best. Currently headed to Indy for a wedding and don't have much time for beer excursions, but was considering hitting up Upland on way out of town tom... Just made Three Floyd's stop (on way to Indy), and planning minor detour to Greenbush (and Journeyman Distillery!) on way back. Both of these places are easy treks from the city, so was hoping to hit another brewery that was in the Indy area (and not so close to Chicago)... Oh well. Can't go wrong w 3 Floyd's and Greenbush!
And I'll stick up for the Carmel location. The menu is similar to Bloomington; the nachos with pulled pork are total fucking godhead. Sundays they have $2 pints of all the sub-7.5% ABV beers, and while some people dog them here, the "regular" stuff is solid if not workmanlike and usually pretty solid stylistically. I live close, so my view is colored by the fact it's a couple miles away, but it's a regular spot for us and I feel like the get unnecessarily dogged for not being quite exciting enough. There are so many bad breweries in central Indiana at this point that just having some solid pints for $2 is revelatory. FWIW, as of last Sunday there were ~ 4 cases of Peach lambic available for carry out.
