Archive for September, 2012

Back Road Brewery Fall Fest 2012

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

My busy season at work is about ready to hit full stride in the next couple of weeks, so I’m trying to get in some last-minute play time before the poop hits the fan.  My husband and I made an impromptu trip up to La Porte in the northwestern corner of Indiana on Saturday to visit a small brewery.  It was a wonderful surprise to discover the brewery was hosting a small fall festival, and had invited several other breweries to participate. In attendance:  Back Road Brewery of La Porte, IN  –  Four Horsemen Brewing of South Bend, IN  – Crown Brewing Company of Crown Point, IN  – Three Floyds Brewing of Munster, IN   –  One Trick Pony of Lansing, IL  –  Shoreline Brewery of  Michigan City, IN.

And there was a cool German polka band, Ein Prosit German Band . The accordion player pictured above was one of my favorite characters of the day. I was completely amazed by the band’s ability to drink beer and play at the same time.

 It was a toss-up between Accordion Man and Pink Tuba Girl.  She was polka grooving so hard we never did get a clear picture of her.

My husband is a plumber (among many other things), and since he’s not a craft beer drinker and my designated driver, he always zooms in on the brewing equipment when I drag him along to visit a brewery.  Back Road Brewery is a small operation housed in an old factory building along some railroad tracks.  My dad would have loved the combination of beer and the occasional train rolling by.

This was me at the beginning of the day, with my nose in my glass. Of all the brews I sampled, my favorite of the day was a Three Floyd’s offering called Snow Weasel, a fantastic dry hopped porter. My second favorite was Back Road’s Blueberry Belle Gunness Stout, which reminded me of some really tasty blueberry coffee I used to buy.

This is a representation of me by the end of the festival, when I decided I couldn’t feel my teeth any more.