Three Floyds

Half of our (Matt, Paul, Tom and I) Saturday brewery adventure involved visiting Three Floyds (FFF from now on) in Munster Indiana. We jetting over there from Flossmoor Station (post coming later this week) to catch their weekly tour. They are in an industrial park in Muster, so pretty far out of the way, but that didn't stop the place from being packed. When it comes to FFF, I find them to have what I call a cult following. Not the "drink the cool aid, comet chasing" cult, but that cult movie crowd, not your mainstream blockbuster watching crowd. There is probably a much better way to describe it, but I don't have it. To me this can be seen in the artwork for their labels, the decorations in the pub, the destination the brewery in the middle of nowhere Indiana and the way the brewery is maintained. They definitely picked their target and went for it, not a bad thing, just not necessarily for me.

As far as FFF goes, I enjoy some of their beers, but wouldn't say that they have a stellar line up. Their beers in my mind are generally "big beers" with a lot of hop characteristic and not necessarily to style, once again, not a bad thing, just what they chose to do. As far as the brewery and the tour, I came away very unimpressed. They did give us $1 Alpha King Pale Ales during the tour, which no one could complain about (unless you were looking for free beer, but even then, come on, $1). Number one complaint about the tour was the presentation and information. FFF gives one tour a week and the guide we had to me acted like he had already given six tours that day, he didn't really give a shit. For one hour a week I feel that a brewery could get someone to talk to 30-40 people in a way that would make people excited to be there. In general, the tour didn't give people the basic understanding about the brewing process that you would expect when at a brewery. Refer to my post about Two Brothers and go on their tour if you would like to know what a good brewery tour should be.

The brewery itself was the second thing that left me unimpressed. It wasn't that they were lacking space or state of the art equipment, because the place was huge with great equipment. The facility came across the same way as the tour guide, don't give a shit. As we discussed this point when leaving, Matt mentioned that it seemed like they were a big brewery that didn't want to act like a big brewery. True, they aren't a big brewery in the grand scheme of things, but as a business, they aren't a garage brewery anymore. Even if you don't want to be a corporate brewery, cleanliness and organization are just good business practices. To me it comes down to another life lesson that I learned from a movie, "Act as if" (Boiler Room for those scoring at home). I will leave it at that.

The pictures I took don't convey the overall vibe of the place and my video camera died mid-recording, but I put in some unnecessary media anyway.

60 bbl Fermenters, the foam in the bucket and on the floor is yeast coming from the fermentation

Me with the Alpha King, we went strait to the symphony after this that is why I look classy and not like a bum brewing student

Thanks to uncle Tom and Paul for coming and helping facilitate the brewery tour, especially getting us back to the train with plenty of time to spare (15 seconds maybe).

I know I will continue to drink FFF beers when I have the chance, but I just can't get over the fact that a brewery that has been given so much hype and praise in the beer community would be such a let down in person.