The Bounty: Lafayette Brewing Company

Maybe it's the disturbing amount of time I've spent here over the years, but I find that Indiana is a little-known gem in the world of awesome grain-based beverages.  Every time I find myself wandering this weird little state in the middle of the country looking for beer, I find it.  And every time I figure that, this time, I'm probably getting to the bottom of the barrel.  When I come back, I realize that there is more beer underneath.

For today's post I had to venture far from the welcoming lights of Indianapolis, but not too far.

Lafayette Brewing boasts award winning beers brewed locally.  Not exactly a unique stance for a local brewery, but well deserved in any case.  The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of different styles they had available during my visit.  There's something about staring down at three sampler trays that makes you slowly push your car keys to the other side of the table and steel yourself for a long battle.

They were plentiful and, for the most part, they were excellent.  As I go through the line there were, I think two that really didn't resonate.  Really, I don't think they were bad as much as I don't think they weren't as good as their siblings.

Overall I was impressed.   There's a bunch to talk about, so let's not stand on ceremony.  Time to pull up a pint... or two...

...or twelve.

HMS Porter: Pretty standard charcoal and coffee aroma that hides something a bit unusual for a porter. The flavor is heavy on some bitter herbal hops with some bitter coffee flavors that blend surprisingly well. The flavors are propped up with some creamy sweetness that leads to a very nice and rather complex porter.

East Side Bitter:  I couldn't pick up much of an aroma here. This turned out to be a pretty simple, nice session beer. Toasty caramel sweetness with a bitter herbal back.  Nothing earth shattering but very nice.

Black Angus Oatmeal Stout: I picked up a little liquorice on the aroma here.  The flavor had lots of bitter for a stout beer. I picked up lots of smoky, woody flavors along with a pretty heavy herbal flavor.

Take Flight APA: American Pale with a heavy citrus floral aroma.  This is one of the few I didn't really dig since it was pretty heavy on the hops dancing dangerously close to triggering a hop bomb. It would be okay for an IPA but it was too much for a pale.

Electric Oatmeal Stout:  They do love their oatmeal here.  This also presented with a woody aroma, but the flavor and mouthfeel were much smoother.  This stayed on the sweeter side of the equation and mixed the woody leather flavors with some coffee and sweet chocolate.  Nice contrast to the Black Angus.

Cask Aged Hazelnut HMS Porter: I picked up a very light herbal aroma here, a different variation from it's draught brother. The flavor was also richer with a heavy dose of vanilla to mix with the coffee and chocolate with very little to none of the bitterness shown from the last.

Tippecanoe Common Ale: Light hoppy aroma here.  This the hop bill on this one was similar to the pale although not half as intense.  The citrusy, floral hops and the light malt made this one feel more like a pale.

Marley VSOP:  There was some debate on the meaning of the acronym, VSOP.  I don't think two members of the bar staff gave me the same answer.  It's a very special... something or other at any rate.  The light chocolate aroma of this dark beer was very nice, but the flavor was quite complex.  I picked up hints of coffee, chocolate, red wine flavor and the slight bit of herbs and vanilla.

Star City Lager: Now for something completely different, a light beer with a hint of hops in the aroma.  There was nothing much light in the flavor, however.   There were some sweet, bread flavors right off the top with some grassy pine hops that follow fast and hard and made for a surprisingly flavorful light beer. 

Bumpy face Agave Wheat Wine: This is where things got interesting.  The aroma had just a bit of sweet, light fruit that I could just sit and smell all day.  I picked up apple, pear in the heavy-bodied light malt and it finished with a touch of citrusy floral hops.  

Otis Brown:  Actually I lied.  I don't know if it was the heavy flavors from the bumpy face or if the last two beers in the sample were just kinda.... meh, but it tapered off here at the end.   This brown ale had no aroma I could find.  Light sweet caramel flavor with a medium body and that's all one can really say about it.  It avoided being watery which is so often the hazard with this style, I'll give it that.

Phantom Sun:  No aroma again.  This beer combined some sweet toasty flavors with a decent amount of   citrus floral hops.

I made it through.  Was sober enough for a pint of the Bumpy Face before it was time to venture into that good night.

I woke up three days later with this blog post scrawled on a hobo's chest.  He didn't seem to mind.