As I made the walk from our South and Delaware Street tailgate headquarters towards the N.K. Hurst parking lot, I quickly realized that it wasn't going to be as easy as I had expect. Miller Light? There's a LOT of Miller Light out there. Bud Light? Same thing. The occasional Coors product? Sure. Anything else? Not until I got to the Barley Island sampling tent.
Are you out there, Colt-loving craft beer fans? What are you drinking on? Where are you hiding? I'd like to try this again soon - hopefully with better results.
How we roll: At least one opposing team inspired beer choice - Three Floyds (Gumballhead) is a lot closer to Chicago than Indianapolis - then a bottle of BBC Jefferson Reserve, Schlafly Coffee Stout, North Coast Brother Thelonius, and Founder's Breakfast Stout. I expected colder weather.
Rodney represents Chicago with a bottle of Goose Island Honker's Ale
Primo Tailgate Dining
Beats walkin'
Jason's pre-game face
Jason's long lost brother
Not everyone in our party is on the Hoosier Beer Geek program... Yet.
Leiny is closer to the right track
An entrepreneur near our tailgate has started a business of issuing day-passes to porta-potties. $3 covers you for all day. And this is the stamp that proves you've purchased a pass. When I asked to take a picture, the gal asked "you know what this is for, right?"
While we're on the subject, this is pretty much what you can expect for beer choice near the stadium. Unless..
What's this? Four yellow taps in the shadow of Lucas Oil Stadium?
Barley Island and World Class Beverages brought out four kegs of their finest for free samples of true Indiana beer. They set up shop just south of the stadium in the N.K. Hurst parking lot. The Indiana beer theme will continue all season long, so you can look forward to free samples from other great Indiana breweries at all Colts home games.
"We match!" "We DO NOT match." "We do too match!" "Shut up and help me with the cooler."
Hell yeah Honker's Ale, Rod! I had one while watching the game last night. And then a GI Harvest Ale after that (which is the style available at Costco right now).
ReplyDeleteOf course, I wasn't actually trying to support Chicago, so maybe I was bad karma last night.
We walked down from our house to check out the Barley Island tent even though we weren't going to the game and it was definitely worth the walk. Had never tried their IPA before and it was pretty solid along with the standbys such as Dirty Helen.
ReplyDeleteHow was the crowd around there, Justin? I stopped by just as they were setting up (which was like 4-5 ish) and there weren't many people in that lot yet.
ReplyDeleteWe got there at like 6:30 and crowds of 4-5 people came in waves every couple minutes or so, but we were able to basically stand next to the tent continually trading out our delicious sample cups, two at a time.
ReplyDeleteNice - did you have a favorite?
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to take Barley Island for granted because they're so close and reasonable priced, but it really seems like the do really nice session-able beers with enough character that they're always worth revisiting.
Yeah, we just moved from Bloomington this summer so we have not had that much exposure to the Barley Island line and were very impressed. My wife really enjoyed the Dirty Helen Brown Ale, and I was a fan of the Barfly IPA. The Sheet Metal Blond is also a very nice summer beer.
ReplyDeleteThe Barfly IPA is one of my favorite "everyday" beers. An underrated IPA in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteOkay guys, when I see the opportunity to shamelessly brag about something, I take it! Actually, my bragging rights are a litte outdated (November of 2006, I think) but I thought I'd share this anyway. This is my last Colts experience. I too was looking for better beer ... in the owners box! (found Sam Adams) Anyway, here's the link to my post from back then - http://beerphilosopher.blogspot.com/2006/11/colts-are-calling.html
ReplyDeleteShawn, are you a Southern Illinois grad?
ReplyDeleteYep, sure am.
ReplyDeleteI'm a SIUE grad.
ReplyDeleteHmm.
Shawn - Lucas Oil Stadium still uses Centerplate for catering, so you won't be finding a better beer selection any time soon.
ReplyDeleteOut in the concessions there'a Ram booth at a couple points on the first floor, but other than that it's the typical fizzy yellow stuff. The Butthead Amber I had on Monday tasted woefully under-carbonated.