Starr Brothers has been a long awaited brewery that recently opened in the northeast part of town. Although they opened the restaurant with guest taps several months ago, they only just recently released their own brews. With only four beers on tap, it's a little challenging to get a read on the quality and consistency of their brewing, but we'll give it our best! We started with the flight of four, even though they had other beers on tap, we're here for Starr Brothers' beer:
Zepplin Red
Thunder Ale
Starr Struck IPA
Lampshade Porter
The Zepplin Red was a decent beer, although we wouldn't have considered it an American red; lacking the overly hoppy flavor we expected, it was much maltier and more of an Irish or English style red and frankly closer to an Amber. The malty flavor of this beer was very good and easy to drink.
The Thunder Ale was classified as a "west-coast transplant IPA" which basically means the hops should be very prominent. Oftentimes an American IPA is characterized as west coast more so than east coast because the style is known to be very hoppy, whereas an east coast IPA has more of a well-rounded, malt mixed with hops flavor. Either way, this beer was definitely an American IPA, very hoppy and similar to Marble's IPA (review soon to come).
The Starr Struck IPA on the other-hand was very lack luster and bland. Didn't smell like anything, didn't taste like anything, and really just disappointing. The color of the beer was so golden and inviting, but the flavor just left an utter emptiness that needed to be filled by something darker...
The Lampshade Porter was just in time to take over from the not-so-Starr Struck IPA. This beer had the look, the smell, and the taste a porter ought to. It smelled pretty smokey to start, but the taste was just right. There was a slight smoke or coffee flavor at the start and the finish was very nutty, a very well-balanced and delicious beer.
This flight (and blog post) just felt too short...good thing there was food! The very full menu all looked delicious and the happy hour deals were great. Some of the food was a little pricey but there were deals to be had for sure. Pints were a little on the expensive side as well; typically a pint is about $4.50-$5.00, so paying $5.50 for a pint at a brand new brewery, you better have some good beer to back it up.
The overall venue was pretty simply designed, nothing major stood out at us except for the technology. Although it was almost hidden, Starr Brothers does have a pretty advanced beer menu (if only the beer on the menu were as advanced). Their monitors show real-time keg levels for each tap and is connected to Untappd; an app for the beer enthusiast!
There was no music playing in the background, which was a little awkward at first, but once the people started filling in, we could see why; it gets pretty loud (and we were there on a Wednesday night, we can't even imagine a Friday). The TVs were very well positioned and there were plenty of them around the room, so that was nice, and being that the owners are big soccer fans, I'm sure that will be the place to be every four years for the World Cup.
The service started out alright, but once we were finished with the flight, it was difficult to find the server, and even once we placed our order, it was difficult to get the beers. They had several guest taps which was good to fill their menu, however, the majority of their taps were Boxing Bear Brewery's (also review soon to come). Having guest taps can be great in providing more options, but have some variety; are you a Boxing Bear taproom?
Megan's overall opinion: Not my favorite. This was another brewery where the IPA (Starr Struck) was my least favorite beer, but I did enjoy the Red Zepplin. The food was very good and they had quite large portions. The high-tech menu was pretty neat, and the servers' iPads were very convenient, but nothing else really stood out. Overall, I was just kind of bored there.
Randy's overall opinion: Ok, so they are new and it's very hard to be at the top with a new place considering the big time competition around here. However, with such a long-awaited debut, I would have liked to see their beers be more prominent instead of being lost in a sea of guest taps. The quality needs to be improved, although I did find myself choosing between the Red Zepplin and the Lampshade Porter (which I thought was very awesomely decent). Big thumbs up for having food, good food. Thumbs down for selling a $26 Ribeye; this isn't the place for that. Everything is just a tad on the expensive side. With some refinement, this place could be one in the rotation, but for now, it's just a check on the list.
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