The meadery is run and owned by a husband and wife team. They make their own mead out of local ingredients. New Day opened in 2006 and seems to be going strong, since while we were there around thirty other people went in and out of the doors. Currently they use wildflower honey only in their meads, but are looking at using varietal honey for their straight meads.
The meads we had to choose from are as follows: Johnny Chapman, actually a cider, Washington's Folly, a cherry mead, Free Thinker, a spicy mead, Dry Blueberry Mead, Semi- Dry Mead, a straight mead, Semi-sweet Plum Mead, Semi-sweet Blackberry mead, a bottle came home with us and a mulled mead. They are very good meads, but we both agreed that it they switch to varietal honey for their meads the level would jump up to great. This is another place worth visiting in Indy when you visit.
Last place for the day was Fountain Square Brewing Company, recommended by people at both Sun King and New Day. In fact the owners of New Day said to tell them "hello". This friendship and willingness to interact with other craft beer, wine and mead outlets was a nice to see. Yes these places are vying for probably the same customer base, but wish no ill to the other businesses.
After a short walk we arrived at Fountain Square Brewing Company http://www.fountainsquarebrewery.com/. This brewery just opened its doors at the beginning of this month, so they are still making finishing touches on the tasting room and brewery. In fact their yeast lab is currently little more than a room that has yet to be finished. They have a great tag line "Bringing Science to Art." The owners felt it was fitting since they all have a science background in microbiology, chemistry and automation. With that background they feel they have what it takes to beer great beer consistently.
We walked up to the bar in the tasting room and were greeted by one of the owners; he serves beer as well as running a brewery. Since this was our fourth stop of the day and had to pick up our daughter and drive back to Bettendorf we just asked if we could sample the beers. We were told that we would be more than welcome to just do that. They have six beers on tap: four house beers Blonde, Pale Ale, Amber Ale and Porter, also two seasonal taps IPA and Oatmeal Stout. For each beer we both received about a three ounce sample and we were able to discuss the beer with our server. Since they were recently opened he was very interested in feedback. The porter was a brown porter so it featured chocolate more than roast and was slightly sweet with an offsetting amount of hops. The pale ale was based off of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, so needless to say it featured Cascade hops. The IPA was very hop forward in the aroma but was far from overly bitter; in fact it leaned towards the malt side with a noticeable sweetness that balanced the hops. This is an IPA that my wife liked, which is saying a bit since she is not a hop head. The oatmeal stout was roasty, but very smooth and easy to drink.
Somewhat surprisingly they have their beer all ready on tap at least twenty establishments in and around the Indy area. Another surprise to my wife and I was that the six samples we each had cost a big fat zero. We were told it is just a part of doing business. Pint prices were not out of line if I remember correctly they were priced around $4 for a pint. Another worthy stop when you are in Indy.
Of the four places we stopped at I would gladly revisit every one of them again. Also during our day we found out that there are around eleven breweries in the Indy area. This just begs for more exploration in Indy, hopefully we can talk some friends into making the trip over with us next time. Indy is not one of the cities known for great beer or a great craft scene, but from our quick one day visit I would suggest it is working its way into being one. Possibly within the next five years Indy will be a must stop for a beer pilgrimage. Just remember where you heard about it.
QC Beerguy
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