Visiting Indianapolis

Big Lug has good food and solid beers, nothing that will blow your mind, but it's worth a stop if it makes sense for you. Don't bother with Two Deep.

 

Thanks! I see Bier Brewery has a couple World Beer Cup golds this year so I may try to squeeze them as well.

 

I'm a bit surprised by the love for La Margarita. The taplist is typically pretty good. The food, imho, is dressed up strip mall Mexican at highly inflated prices; they can do that because it's in the trendiest neighborhood in Indy.

For some $$$ Mexican on the way to Deviate from the airport, Carniceria Guanajuato on the west side, or REALLY close to Deviate (~1.5 miles apart, both on Michigan Rd), you can hit Don Ramon Taqueria and Tamaleria (fka Tamaleria Lupitas for the locals -- was bought out last spring). $ homemade street tacos and tamales at a fair price. The Don Ramon/Deviate combo is a staple in my life.

The Jockamo's / Black Acre combo is an excellent recommendation as well.

 

I'm not a connoisseur of Mexican food by any means but their steak tacos are delicious and the house salsa is awesome. Definitely going to try Don Ramon on Friday when I go to Deviate to fill my growler. Never heard of it but you've got me salivating now.

And yes, Jockamo's is next door to Black Acre and has awesome pizza. Black Acre keeps a pretty updated snapshot of their tap list on their website. Here's a pic from 10/21:

http://blackacrebrewing.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/IMG_1638.jpg

 

Don't expect any frills (or table service), just fantastic food. The homemade salsas (both green and red) are on point. I'd recommend passing on one of the plated meals and just go a la carte with some tacos and a tamale (or multiple). They throw the corn tortillas on the flat top while they cook the meat; because of that alone I'd recommend eating there so you're getting the tacos while the shells are still really hot. Lots of people are always in there carrying out though...

 

This is gonna sound like an ad, but...

I just wanna throw in for the Sun King downtown tasting room. We get a lot of the "gateway beer" thing on BA, so a few months back we expanded the lineup quite a bit, and you can generally count on at least one barrel-aged beer and a sour or two - GABF-medal-winning stuff.

Today, for example...

Cherry Busey Oud Bruin (GABF Silver two years in a row)
Fistful of Hops Fall 2016 / "Red" American IPA
Free Bears American Brown Ale
Hop Up Offa That Brett Dry-Hopped Sour Ale
Mr. Timmie's Opus Opus One Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
Oktoberfest Vienna Lager
Osiris Pale Ale
Sunlight Cream Ale (GABF Gold 2015)
Velour Soccer Mom Mixed-Fermentation Raspberry/Hibiscus Sour Beer
Waimea Smash American Pale Ale
Wee Mac Scottish-Style Ale
Wet Hopped Osiris Wet Hopped American Pale Ale

We've also expanded the weird with the stuff we're doing up at our Small Batch Brewery - including a lot of collaborations - in the past few months we've worked with 10 Barrel, Arizona Wilderness, Wicked Weed, and Kodiak Island. Those tend to go pretty quick, but you never know what you might stumble across. (Full list of Small Batch releases is here).

Oh yeah. Everything is $5, and we don't really accept tips.

 

My main objective for places to grab a bite while up will be whether they have a solid taplist. I'm fine with mediocre food if they have a great beer lineup. If it's mind blowing food but the beer list is not good then I'd much rather steer clear so I'm not taking time away from visits since who knows the next time I will get up to Indy. I want to try as much good local IN brews as I can. I find it also real nice that a lot of the restaurants/bars everyone has mentioned has their taplist available online whthere it be on their website or a site like taphunter. A lot of venues are going the way of Untappd so it would be nice to be able to view those as well but the features only allows one to view Verified Venues within a 45-mle radius from their current location. Guess I'll have to wait until I get in town to check that out.

Thanks again for all the great info so far!

 

For Mexican in the Deviate area I usually grab a burrito from Leonardos right across from Lowes just south of 86th st. on Michigan Rd. Burritos are like $5 and they are huge and super authentic and delicious....and they're open 24/7 with a Drive Thru option......but it sounds like i also need to check out Don Ramon now

 

The food at La Margarita is generally good, not great, depending upon the dish. The tap list is small but very good, usually a Three Floyds and Bare Hands option. The tequila and mezcal list is superb.

As alternative to eating somewhere and then going to Deviate, I would suggest going to Deviate and order delivery or to go on the way. They have a few menus there since they do not have food or a kitchen. Grilliant Foods On 96th St has BBQ and remnants of encased meats when they were an Eastern European market. There is also Hyperabad which is an Indian to-go restaurant south of Costco which has very good food. The Thai Papaya across the street from Deviate on 96th has good food but expensive for what you receive. These are all less than 5 minutes from Deviate. Your options abound.

 

Starting to put together more specific plans since I will be flying in town Saturday. Will probably stick with the list of brewery stops below to begin with, in that order, and then by speaking with patrons and staff at the while there then I can alter if needed. Mapping looks like the loop is about 60 miles and drive time along will be about 90 minutes with 20-25 mins or so between each. Will give me a good start on the afternoon. Food really is up in the air and I'll check the sites later in the week so see what on tap at a few spots. Any releases, tappings, etc I should know about happening on Saturday? Thanks again for the great direction so far!

- Koelschip / Central State
- Daredevil
- Deviate
- Black Acre

 

Went to Deviate tonight, the Russian Imperial with coffee and coconut was great. Also had the Caramel Apple Scottish Strong, another good one. Such a wonderful apple aroma from a beer. Didn't have the Hop Supremacy IPA tonight, but its also amazing. Enjoy your visit, and afterwards let us know what you liked and didn't like. I rarely get any feedback on my Indy recommendations on here. Cheers.

 

Making rounds now. Been to Koelschio, Daredevile and now at Deviate. Living the beers here. Will give a more detailed review later but quick question. Any good sports bar between here and Black Acre with a good selection. Would like to catch a game in ESPNU and with it being Virginia Tech / Duke I doubt it will be a highly sought after game if there's only a few TVs

 

Scratch that....found the Stacked Pickle conveniently next to Parti-Pak

 

Ended up making a pretty good dent in my stops yesterday. Right after landing I headed straight to Koelschip and grabbed lunch (Goose Sandwich) from next door at Goose the Market. Fantastic meats. Had a pour of Cast Now Shadow on Liberty IPA. It was solid. Next headed to Dardevil for NEx. I wouldn't call is a New England IPA but more like just a really nicely done wet hop IPA. Deviate was up next and was by far my favorite of the day. Their beers were on point. Finally got around to have time for flights. Lots of blood orange in Blood Bath, caramel apple in Sticky Fingers and Key Lime was liquid Pie. The coffee in Milk of Paradise was more bitter than I was expecting and really masked the coconut a lot. Still solid though. Black Acre was just ok for me. Had a flight including Raaaaaandy, Lager, Hallertau Blanc and Noxious Beast. Dinner at La Margarita and it was packed. Good american mexican food. Had Three Floyds - Knut of the Living Dead. Really wanted to grab Birthday Bomb but after a day visiting spots I didn't think I could take a 13%.

Stopped by Parti-Pak on 96th next to Stacked Pickle. Got a mix six of IN beers to have last night and tonight. Dates on some were definitely old. The YumYum they had in the cooler was bottled in June. Alpha King was end of September so grabbed that. Head Hunter was July bottling. Grabbed some from Carson's, Devil's Trumpet, and Flat12