Barley's Smokehouse & Brewpub - Columbus, OH

Finally made it back on the road for some brewery trips...this time Columbus & Akron, OH. Our first stop was at Barley's Smokehouse & Brewpub for lunch.  Barley's also has just a brewery located about 10 minutes away.

For lunch time, it was pretty dead. Not complaining...I like uncrowded places.  This place is really big with plenty of seating and a giant bar.

They had about 8 of their own beers on tap, lots of guest beers and a huge bottle list, but we got a sampler of 4: Christmas Beer...really good Christmas beer with a lot of the good flavors you expect from that kind, Alexander Russian Imperial Stout...we both really enjoyed this and was as good as most Russ Imp Stouts I've had and at only 7.6% it was great for me, Bitter Dan Extreme IPA...this beer was 103IBUs and you could tell! It was smooth and tasty, lastly was the Highland Hammer IPA...just too sweet for me for an IPA.

For lunch, I had the slider sampler which consisted of three different sliders...pulled pork, brisket and pulled chicken.  The brisket was a big stand out for me.

All in all, very solid place, good service, not overpriced, they had a few merchandise items just typical t-shirts and pint glasses.  Check them out...smokehousebrewing.com

Ithaca Beer Company - Ithaca, NY

This week we decided to take the drive to fellow NY brewery Ithaca. Being a giant fan for years of Flower Power, I was very excited to check them out.  The building is newer and expanded greatly. From what I was told there used to just be a small tasting room, but this is just the opposite.  It is tucked very far back, plenty of parking, a giant bar, tables inside and plenty outside.

-They have plenty of merch from t-shirts to glasses, they also have a giant section where you can buy your favorite Ithaca beers in cases or six packs.

-As for the beer we did all three flights they have listed.  Apricot Wheat was the favorite of the lady...it has a great smell and you taste the apricot for sure, the Nut Brown was decent, Cascazilla was good as usual, Pale Ale was very nice..hoppy and light (we got two growlers of that to go), Flower Power just as good as I expected, Partly Sunny wasn't bad, and I lost my list but we had a couple others including an Imperial Stout they just put on.  All the beers were good, only 1 or 2 were just decent.

-We ordered a pizza in which some of the toppings are fresh and picked right from their own garden.  It was delicious and I would highly recommend it.

-Lots of space although we got there right around opening and by the time we left it was getting crowded.  I highly recommend making the drive if you can, the workers were really knowledgeable and really nice, the ambiance and scenery is just worth the trip I've never been anywhere like it. It's going into my top 5 favorite breweries I think. Check them out...ithacabeer.com/‎

Northbound Smokehouse Brewpub - Minneapolis, MN

Next stop was the Northbound Smokehouse Brewpub. Not in the nicest area of Minneapolis, but we parked went in and it was slammed.  No where to sit, we lucked out and got a couple bar seats.  There is a lot of tables in the place, but it was dinner time and people were hungry I guess. We had dinner plans for later so we didn't eat here except we got a Salmon Dip to go..it was very fishy smelling and didn't taste all that great, wasn't worth the price, but hey this is a Smokehouse so I won't judge them on that.

-As for the beer we had Honey Wheat which was eh, Hefe was decent, Pride Red decent, Light Pail Pale Ale was hoppy not bad, Big Jim IPA was smooth and nice, and the Smokehouse Porter was smoky not bad.

-We weren't there too long, kind of a tight fit and not relaxing.  The beer didn't do much for me, and the food experience wasn't too good, BUT I would say check them out for their smoked food and judge for yourself, however if you're on a brewery tour and are running low on time I think you can skip this one.  www.northboundbrewpub.com/‎