MISHAWAKA, INDIANA

Tucked into the Indiana prairies and mere miles from Notre Dame University, MISHAWAKA BREWING has been in operation since ’91. Next to the corner malls off Main Street, this freestanding tan-brown-bricked facility had front garden deck and dark interior with left side dining and rear bar storing brew vessels, August ‘06. Pub fare was offered alongside upscale dishes: Beef Wellington, porterhouse steaks, and ossobuco pork.

Brewer Rick Schmidt poured sun-bright, lemony orange, coriander-spiced Shag Bark Belgian Wheat, vivacious piney-hopped orange-grapefruit-reared Lake Effect Pale Ale, leather-grassed hay-dried honey-buttered citric-dashed Mishawaka Kolsch, and corn-sugared raw-grained Wall Street Wheat. Slick raspberry-sweet citric-licked grassy-hopped wheat-bottomed Raspberry Wheat Ale was OK as dessert fodder.

At least as consistent were barnyard-wafted, honey nut-sweetened, wild oats-toasted, rye-fig-backed Four Horsemen Irish Ale, dry red-orange-fruited, grassy-floral-tinted Indiana Pale Ale, and black coffee-roasted, black cherry-dried, cocoa-powdered, nut-roasted Founders Stout.

By December ’08, Mishawaka Brewing shutdown brewpub and restaurant operations, relocating at a Grape Street cornershop serving growlers, kegs, and 6-packs of its best brews to South Bend/ Mishawaka locals and Notre Dame fans.