Experience before you go . . .
93 Octane, love the name because it kinda gets your attention and makes you think of the possibilities. I know 93 Octane because that's what I pump into my cars....premium gas! So when you relate it to beer you think premium beer, a notch above the competition! On a personal level you think to yourself, yes I deserve premium beer just like you're a high performance V-8 Lexus engine and you require premium. Just like health enthusiasts require organic food and anything else is sub par. Better beer is better for me. I'm not sure if the owners paid big bucks to a marketing think tank to come up with that name, but if they did it was money well spent.
So here we are the Three Musketeers, Three Amigos, Three Stooges, Huey, Dewey and Louie, The Good The Bad and The Ugly....okay you get the idea there's three of us and we pull up to 93 Octane Brewery and what we have is construction. The parking lot which is pretty small is all torn up right in front of 93 Octane. Brad lets Wendell and I out and tries to park in front of the Auto Parts store next door and is told to move, which he does and finally gets her done. Now the hard part, trying to get into the brewery. We first hiked through the construction mess only to find out the brewery front door was locked and the bar keep and folk already in the brewery drinking beers point to our left indicating the way in. We walked that way only to find more locked doors and we finally got to the last business, a burger joint, thinking how in the heck does this get us to the brewery. We actually shut the door and went back down checking all the doors one more time and made our way back to the burger joint.....at this point we were losing our mojo and we all had to pee like a race horse. We walked in and the staff behind the counter pointed to our right so we went right and believe it or not there was a secret hallway leading through a liquor store which was between the burger joint and the brewery, and I just about spent $200 bucks on some high class bourbon, talk about impulse buying just like the check out line at the grocery store. We navigated the liquor store and went around a blind corner and boom.....the brewery!!! It was like we were in the desert and the brewery was a mirage on the horizon and the more we hiked the farther the horizon was but this story has a happy ending because there it was, front and center....the brewery. And of course we worked up a sweat so we were very thirsty and very hungry.....the perfect customers. John behind the bar was a little taken back at first because in our quest to tour breweries we've been known to get a little animated and jovial. There were three bar stools at the corner of the bar.....perfect!!!
Bada bing bada boom.....the Hoppin Brewery Tour strikes again for the 113th time!! Now I don't care who you are, 113 breweries...that's a lot of brews!!! We settle in and we order beer. We put John to work by all three of us ordering 93 Octane flights, all different and all scrumptious!! He pulled it off w/o a hitch which was very impressive! We were all over the board with our samples and when it was all said and done I believe we tried everything they had! Some of the highlights were Triple Dry Hopped - Triple IPA (11%) hoppy hoppy and hoppy with a Joe Lewis punch; 10W-30 - American Stout (7%) dark, rich and sweet with a full body; DDH Double - New England IPA with Kveik Yeast (8.2%) Norwegian yeast fermented at higher than normal temperatures, creating flavors of lemon, tangerine and melon; Hugger Orange Whip - Wheat Ale with orange, vanilla and lactose, gotta take her for a test drive, dreamsickle; and the Kuarter Mile Kolsch (5.1%) light, bright and refreshing with a fruity finish.
It was time to eat and even though there was a menu in front of us I was looking around trying to seeing where all this food was made. Well come to find out the burger joint two businesses down supplies the food and from the looks of it you can get a Classic Burger with all the fixings and fries for $6.49......sign me up!! We all order the classic and I gotta tell ya that burger was fabulous!! Food arrived, conversation stopped and nourishment was inhaled!! The customer service approach at this fine establishment seemed to be we're all in this together with 93 Octane serving the great brews, the burger joint bringing the protein and I was wondering when the liquor store was going to bring over some of that high dollar bourbon.
93 Octane is owned by a second generation family thats been in the gas station business for years and found out they had a passion for beer and believed in the old adage "If you're going to do something, you might as well do it right"! On their website their Master Brewer is highlighted and I just gotta include Alex's Bio because it explains a lot, right off the website.......... "Alex started Home brewing when he was 18 with his Father and quickly realized that he wanted to become a professional brewer. He passed the Cicerone Exam a few months after his 21st birthday and at the time he was the youngest ever to obtain that certification. He first started at Finch's Brewing Co in packaging and eventually moved onto Two Brothers starting in the packhall department then worked all the way up to Head Brewer. During that time, Alex took a sabbatical from Two Brothers and attended the Siebel Institute of Technology earning the Master Brewer Certification. Through that program he studied at the Doemens Academy in Graefelfing, Germany. Now at 93 Octane his vision is to brew WORLD CLASS American and German Style Beers through innovations in the brewing process that he has been developing for the past five years." 'nough said!!
Besides John, "Shout out to John", we met some fun folks at 93....there were Ian & Ashley and Jack & Diane, yes you heard that right, Mellencamp singing the little ditty 'bout Jack & Diane!
Hopefully by now the construction site has disappeared and the brewery's front door is swinging again, so gas up your car, truck, moped, riding lawnmower, whatever it is and head down to 93 Octane and get busy tasting the beers and eating the burgers and tell John that Huey, Dewey and Louie sent'cha!!!
Until next time and remember.....
Go get'cha one!!!
