Upland Brewing’s Carmel Tap House Proves That Giving More Is Always Good For Business

Welcome back to Beer Scout Basics.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed some local craft brews on shop local Saturday.  I know I did.  But that will appear in a later edition. 

I went a little out of the norm this time and visited a tap room versus an actual microbrewery.   I took a visit to the Carmel Tap House of Upland Brewing Company of Bloomington, Indiana.  

And I am glad I did.

The tap room has the ever-popular chrome, wood and glass décor as you are seeing in a lot of the new craft beer joints.  Upland has a nice big bar and lots of seating for lots of guests.  I had the old Indiana standby of a breaded tenderloin and fries for lunch.  It was pretty good, but I will look at other items the next time just to see.  The barkeep was a great guy who was very knowledgeable about each of the beers.  He explained what he liked and why.  He even gave me some insight on the sours that Upland is known for, even though I didn’t try one on this particular trip. 

On to the good stuff.  As you know by now, my mode of operation for this article is to grab a flight of different beers and rank them based upon what I like best.  I find that most breweries have four or five, (4 ounce) pours per flight.  I try and get a nice sampling of the available brews.  Upland takes it up a notch by offering you seven.  Yes, I said seven different beers with six, (yes, I said six) ounce pours on their flight for about what I normally pay at other places for their four ounce flights.  The seven pours are served on a circular flight with bottle caps of the selections marking what you are drinking.  What a great deal.  Make sure you order food because you are going to need something to soak up some of those high ABV’s.

Bear with me here as we have seven beers on this flight.  All were good, some were great.

1. Coast Buster is an 8.5% ABV, Imperial Double IPA.  This beer was delicious and for being 8.5% it was pretty darn smooth.
2. Teddy Bear Kisses is a 10.2% ABV, Russian Imperial Stout.  I could drink this on a cold, snowy night watching the game or even just sitting by a fire all night long.
3. Bad Elmers is a 5.0% ABV, American Porter.  This is a very tasty porter that is not overpowering.  I see this one on the store shelves a lot.
4. Easy Chair is a 5.25% ABV, American Amber Ale.  I enjoy good Amber Ale and this one fits the bill.  Try this with some salty fries.  That’s what I did.
5. Nut Hugger is a 6.2% ABV, American Brown.  Gotta love the name.  The bar tender told me to mix it with the Coast Buster to get a Nut Buster.  Well that might happen next time just for fun.
6. Harvest Ale is a 5.5% ABV, Harvest Ale.  This beer was good and would be enjoyed by craft beer newbies who are not ready for a heavy or hoppy selection.
7. Sweet Myrtle is a 6.3% ABV, Fruit Ale.  There was nothing wrong with this one, but it just did not stand out to me.  I kind of thought it might be a little unique but not so much.

So that’s it for this installment.  Thanks for checking out BeerScoutBasics.  And remember when keeping it to the basics; drink what tastes good to YOU!

For more information on the other beers I try or where I may be next, follow me on Twitter at @BeerScoutBasics.