Beer Diary - Lunch at Zing

It was gorgeous outside at lunchtime in Indianapolis. So nice that a co-worker of mine and I decided we needed to do some outdoor dining before the upcoming rains turned al fresco dining into al wetto dining. We pondered our choices.

I recalled from a recent roundtable that I had dined and drank inside Zing, but the weather wasn't suitable for enjoying their large balcony with its views up and down Indiana Avenue.


Plus, much like my last visit, it was a Tuesday, which means Indiana Beer Night. Which is good all day. So it was Indiana Beer Day. We're drinking at lunch!

The lunch menu at Zing is different from their small plates dinner menu. They have big salads, sandwiches, and other entrees. I opted for the mahi mahi tacos off of the appetizer menu. I love grilled fish tacos. Oceanaire used to good ones, until they replaced it with a battered fish taco. Then Rock Bottom had good ones, until they recently removed them from their menu. So I am yet again searching for a good fish taco. Three tacos were $9. They were good and tasty, with a nice avocado sauce, but a little small for my needs. And they served the tacos in a fried flour tortilla shell, which makes it puff like a taco salad shell. An interesting take, but I'd prefer a regular soft taco shell (my next stop for fish tacos...Adobo).


But this isn't Hoosier Fish Taco Geek (yet), so let's talk beer.

My co-worker had a bottle of Three Floyd's Gumballhead, which he has had before and frequently enjoyed. I selected a recent addition to the tap menu: Mishawaka Brewing Company's Four Horsemen. I know I have had this in the bottle previously, but this is the first time I have had it on tap.

Mishawaka calls the Four Horsemen an Irish style red ale. Beer Advocate defines it as an APA. I can understand the confusion.


It is darker than a "red", looking more like a brown. It does taste like many reds I have had before, but it has more of a malt base, again leaner towards a brown ale. But on top of that, it is kicked up with a good amount of hop spice. No wonder there is confusion in its definition. Of course, I had a brewer tell me recently that Red Ales are a sort of catchall category...not malty enough to be a brown, not hoppy enough to be a pale ale, so just call it a red and be done with it.

Ignoring categories, the Four Horsemen was an enjoyable beer on this particular sunny day. And as it sat in the sun and warmed, the flavors improved. A smell also came from it, one I couldn't quite identify. Not good, not bad, just...there.

Four Horsemen, three bucks, on draft, on Indiana Beer Night...Day...Lunch...whatever, at Zing.