(Editor’s Note: This is the first installment in our new, weekly feature “Craft Beer to Cross the Border for,” which highlights craft beer only available in Indiana, Michigan or Wisconsin. We hope this feature will help guide your next beer-inspired road trip across the border.)
If you’re passing through Indiana, a hunt for an 18th Street Hunter is worth the time.
Though there are a half-dozen varieties of the double milk stout, the two bottled versions, Hunter and Hunter Coffee, are well worth the effort. The original Hunter provides the base for a series of barrel-aged versions (vanilla, coffee, cherry, orange) found on tap at festivals and the pub.
18th Street Hunter delivers a great balance of cocoa nibs and sweet lactose, neither of which is overpowering. For as solid of a beer as that is, Hunter Coffee – the first in the brewery’s vertical series – steps it up. Adding the punch of Metropolis Coffee’s Redline Espresso beans, it delivers a roasted coffee smell and taste, but doesn’t lose that creamy lactose base.
As an added bonus, Hunter Coffee comes in its own unique burlap sack.