Lafayette Brewing Co.

FtownThrowDown

Ohio

4/5  rDev +4.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | $

Made the point of stopping here on a recent roadtrip. What a pleasant surprise. It's a very nice brewery near the Purdue campus.
Nice atmosphere inside the brewery. We sat at the bar and had a couple of pints. On Wednesdays they have very good drink specials, $2.50/pint. Both the service and selection were very good. We parked directly in front of the building on the street, but I didn't see any adjacent parking lots.
The beers here are very good. I had their Oatmeal Stout and their IPA. Both were very solid.
If this place were closer to my home I would frequent it very often. If passing through the area it is a must stop.

12-29-2006 01:31:13 | More by FtownThrowDown

GJ40

North Carolina

3.5/5  rDev -8.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

I stopped by while traveling to Chicago.

It's in a nice historic area of West Lafayette not far from Purdue University. The interior is fairly traditional pub decor with low light, good space and a comfortable atmosphere.

The beer was decent. I had a pale ale and a scottish ale. Both had a real cask like feel which I like but may not be for everyone. Great 20oz tulip glasses.

The food is good. We had a couple of apps, the pub burger and the brisket sandwich. There were no disappointments. The service was good.

The reviews for LB seem varied. I thought it was pretty good but not remarkable.

07-02-2012 00:15:03 | More by GJ40

wisrarebeer

Wisconsin

3.6/5  rDev -6%
vibe: 2 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

Lafayette Brewing Company is a cavernous place broken up by a mock wall that separates the bar from the general dining area. Food was decent but nothing unusual or outstanding. Mostly American-style food.Definitely cheerful and very good service from Kait. Biggest disappointment was the second floor where a band or DJ was playing - the bass music was so loud that you could barely hear the piped in music in the bar area. Very distracting. Only two beers available in bombers at the time I was there.

02-15-2012 02:12:59 | More by wisrarebeer

bozodogbreath

Indiana

4.33/5  rDev +13.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

Stopped in at the LBC for lunch with my wife and son right after noon on a Sunday. One of my son's professors talks up the fish and chips so we thought we would give them a try. The dining area was wide open when we arrived but began to fill as we were nearing the end of our lunch.

They were playing Led Zepplin I when we arrived and Bruce Cockburn's Stealing Fire when we left. Gotta love some classic rock with lunch!

I was impressed with our waiter's understanding of the available beers on tap. It was obvious he had an understanding of hops and malts.

We thoroughly enjoyed the fish and chips with waffle fries and cole slaw. I also enjoyed a pint of their Scotish Ale.

We will certainly make our way back to the LBC in the coming months.

01-29-2012 23:54:37 | More by bozodogbreath

salvo

Indiana

3.6/5  rDev -6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3 | $$

Hadn't been in for at least 6 months. Stopped by and enjoyed the new Cascadian Christmas Ale and the Battleground Double IPA. Both excellent and a full notch up on the professionalism meter and my taste-satisfaction than my disappointed memories. Shared bar-b-que wings and pub-cheese snacks -- again, both were well executed, delivered hot, tasty, and generally good, respectable offerings. I will return and try some of the bar-b-que offerings, which are new on the menu (See above: I hadn't been in a while).

Some insider advice: There are a lot of servers, some of whom know nothing of beer. LBC is a firt job for lots of local teens/21yo, so I forgive less knowledgeable staff. Also, it's a huge space and when crowded, tables can get lost. Speak up. Go to the bar for beer questions: most of the bartenders are knowledgeable. And the Brew Crew at the upstairs bar on Thursday evenings are a fun group to hang around with. And the pizza upstairs is quite good, and there's a full bar.

I'm especially looking forward to the upcoming Harrison American Pale Ale, with all Michigan-grown hops. LBC had been lagging in its experimentation: this is a happy sign of return to creativity. The whole place was clean, the staff better trained than I remember, and everything was just better than I remember: closer to what I have always expected of them. Yay!

I've been a fairly disappointed irregular LBC customer over the last few years. I thought the brewery and restaurant had really declined over the last year and hadn't been in for months. But I was really pleasantly surprised that the food was a full notch better than I remember and their beers are growing more adventurous and up-to-date. More American hops may change the character of the English style malty brews on offer, but the Brits themselves have been more adventurous. Anyway, give LBC a try and let me know if you agree.

12-04-2011 23:04:19 | More by salvo

FightingEntropy

Minnesota

3.7/5  rDev -3.4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3.5 | $$

My wife and I hit Lafayette Brewing year or two when we head down for an annual football game at the alma mater. LBC is easy to find in the downtown area, and generally easier to park across the street or farther down on side streets. When we've been there, the place is generally packed in the post football game hubbub and seems to enjoy a good reputation locally. Generally, there's one new beer on tap to try, and the rest stay pretty standard through the year. All of the beers are good to very good, but nothing to really test the beer limits of many geeks. Nice if you're in town, but I wouldn't go too far out of the way for it. We would've skipped it this trip, but Chumley's down the street is a bar only, and our freshmen Boilermaker niece wasn't allowed in, so we headed down to the more family friendly LBC.

Go to beer for the place is the Black Angus Oatmeal Stout, which I like drinking, in part, for the irony that I'm a vegetarian. Of which, the food choices are bad for veggies--two entrees, a salad and a couple of appetizers. No food this trip because of the earlier pizza run to Arnie's, but have eaten at LBC before and not been disappointed. New beer for this trip was an Aussie Red Ale called Bushmen's Bitter. Not bad. Hoppier than I expected, and I assume with Australian hops because of the extreme fruitiness of the nose, but the amber ale was very light and almost watery. Great transition beer since nothing was 'scary' except the hop forward character of the beer.

Good stop, nice place, sure bet if you're visiting Purdue. And, unlike the bar down the street--LBC is smoke free; evidently, not a given in Indiana.

10-26-2011 01:58:01 | More by FightingEntropy

boilermakerbrew

Indiana

4/5  rDev +4.4%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $

Went here for dinner on a Friday night. Food selection was ok, a lot in the line of what I like to call traditional Indiana food. Burgers, chicken, BBQ pork, and the usual line up of salads and sandwiches. Fish and chips and some more pub-type food was there too.

Beer selection wasn't huge, but the quality of my brew was good. I only had a pint of their Black Angus Oatmeal Stout. Pretty darn good.

Beer prices were ok, but the food prices were pretty good. Growler $4, fill $9, with specials on different days of the week for fills also. They offer a 1-liter growler also, which I had never seen before.

Overall, I'm going back and recommending this to friends. It's a good place to just go and relax without needing to get dressed up, but still can count as a nice meal too.

10-23-2011 18:11:33 | More by boilermakerbrew

ElizabethCraig

Indiana

4.53/5  rDev +18.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4 | $$

I started going to Lafayette Brewing Co before we started home brewing and before we started our appreciation for craft beer.

Through the years we've changed in our food tastes (from fish and chips to their lighter dinner salads/entrees) and our beer tastes (from "grab us something" to "Any cask conditioned beers today?"). We've watched the kitchen staff change, and the people working on brewing their beer change.

I've brought the kitchen staff loads of candy on Halloween. I've bonded with waitstaff about things as diverse as online games, big weird dogs and dealing with other customers. I've seen the same core waitstaff there for years, which is exceptional in such a fluid industry.

So, where I'm going with this is that, I can't be neutral about LBC. Though our experiences and memories associated with a place always color our reviews, I'm REALLY not neutral in this case.

The beer is good to very good - I prefer maltier beers generally and theirs don't disappoint. The opening of People's Brewing Company in town really upped their beer selections, I think they're branching out and their recent beers (Oatis Brown, the Bumpyface agave beer) have been excellent.

The food perception depends on what you like and how you like to eat. I avoid a lot of wheat, and fat/fried things - so there's not always a lot here for me. That being said, I always find something that I want, and always enjoy it muchly. =) Their smoked meats are exceptionally good, as are almost all of their soups. Two things that are so easy to mess up.

On Thursdays they sometimes have their upstairs open and have their pizza. Their pizza is *quite* good. If you happen to arrive when there is a show upstairs, generally it's an interesting band that offers something different. Go see them. =)

If you are looking for good, and very well respected beers along with good food and some interesting conversation, head to Lafayette Brewing Company.

06-28-2011 16:19:19 | More by ElizabethCraig

mrnasty

Indiana

3.63/5  rDev -5.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4 | $$

Been here a few times. First beer I had there was the Prophet's Rock Pale Ale. I really enjoyed. Also had the Tippecanoe Common Ale and the Eighty-Five. Really enjoyed all of them. I love going to this place because they are one of just a couple places in central Indiana where I can get my favorite appetizer, scotch eggs. I usually get those and the fish and chips and am never disappointed. Never heard a complaint about the food. Its a great place to hang out with friends and chat with a good brew. Definately recommend.

05-20-2011 02:51:08 | More by mrnasty

jamescain

Texas

3.08/5  rDev -19.6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3 | food: 3.5 | $$$

The atmosphere varies depending on the night. Some nights they have live shows upstairs and if you happen to be there before the show you are treated to the wonderful melody of sound checks. If it wasn't for that it would probably have been more enjoyable.

The food is decent, better than most places you would find in Lafayette, IN. I had the jerked chicken sandwich which was tasty and my girlfriend had the blue cheese bison burger. Her burger was more so a blue cheese burger than a bison burger.

The service is not the best. The waitress we had honestly was not that knowledgeable about what they served. My girlfriend asked her about how the oatmeal stout was and her answer was "its a dark beer." Thanks.

Their selection was about 6 beers, none of which are really all that outstanding.

It was not that expensive, but for Lafayette, IN it was a little pricy. In my 4 years at Purdue I only went there once.

05-11-2011 15:17:42 | More by jamescain