A Detour to New Albanian

On my way to Kentucky last Friday, my cousin and I made a little detour on I-265 in New Albany to hit the New Albanian Brewing Company for some lunch and beer. Ever since tasting their Hoptimus at Brew-Ha-Ha, I've been really wanting to get down there to check them out.

The joint is pretty cool. They have an attached restaurant and catering facility, which is wierd, but the pub part is pretty kick-ass. It's like what the faux-Irish pubs try to do, but NABC succeeds at it. Leather chairs and couches, old style pub chairs, and even their famous "Red Room", which is, as you can see, named not only for the color of the wall, but also for all the Soviet and Chinese communist artifacts. It's actually quite a collection - for a history buff, it's pretty cool stuff. And the beer is pretty cheap. I mean, we were drinking imperial pints of Hoptimus, which comes in at 9-10% ABV, and only paying like $3.50 for them.

So it's obvious I love the Hoptimus. It's easily a 5 mugger. (Damn, I'm giving double IPA's really good ratings lately). I also tried their Elector, an Imperial Red Ale coming in around 7%. It was pretty good, too, but after drinking the Hoptimus first, it tasted bland. That's completely because of the high hops content of the Hoptimus, and is not a reflection of the Elector.

The food was pretty good, too. Both my cousin and I were happy with it. The service, while not horrible, did leave a little to be desired in the friendliness factor. But that's about the only non-positive thing I've got to say about the place. They also have a pretty extensive souviner area, with a cool t-shirt that says, "These machines kill facists" with brewing equipment underneath. Had to get one of those. Also, growlers are a great deal - $10.50. A half gallon of Hoptimus for $10.50! So I left with a full gallon of Hoptimus.