Breweries offer unique taste

There’s almost nothing better than the cold, refreshing taste of beer in the
summer.

Luckily, Bloomington is home to a few delicious microbreweries to quench your thirst.
A microbrewery is a brewery that produces a small amount of barrels of beer per year.
 
The largest microbrewery in the state of Indiana — Upland Brewing Company — is located in Bloomington at 350 W. 11th St.

Upland kegged and bottled a little more than 8,500 barrels of beer combined in 2010. This is about 264,000 gallons, head brewer Caleb Staton said.

Of the beer produced, seven are always available on tap. Upland Wheat Ale is the top seller.

“This keeps beer lovers happy,” Staton said.

Tom MacMillan, an Upland customer and IU student, said he enjoys the Wheat Ale.
“It tastes almost like juice,” MacMillan said. “It goes down so smooth.”

Upland also serves locally produced food and has full lunch and dinner menus.
And, of course, both menus come with a full page of beer options.

Another microbrewery and the first brewpub in southern Indiana is Bloomington Brewing Company — located at 1795 E. 10th St.

Unlike Upland, BBC only produces about 900 barrels of beer per year.

Fortunately, Mark Cady, an employee at BBC, said the brewery is opening an additional production site in hopes of expanding sales.

The BBC also has three different serving systems — carbon dioxide pressured gas tap, nitrogen pressured gas tap and a hand-pulled tap.

The carbon dioxide tap is the same carbonation as most other beers. The nitrogen tap makes the bubbles finer and gives the beer a creamier taste, whereas hand-pulled tap is like having a finer quality of flat beer.

The newest and smallest microbrewery in Bloomington is Cutters Brewing Company — located on 1927 S. Curry Pike.

Because Cutters opened its doors this summer, lots of questions are waiting to be answered about this microbrewery.

All of these microbreweries offer a unique taste of Bloomington, so go out and take a sip.