Tin Man Brewing Company

Gooddays2

4.62/5  rDev +67.4%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.25 | service: 5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

I wouldn't drink a Coors light if it were the last beer on earth, but do consider Blue moon to be a very drinkable , readily available beer, so classify me as you wish.
Did I love all of Tin man's beer offerings? No, but I don't love everything Bells puts out either.
The Alloy is a very drinkable IPA-Period! If you want a hops explosion in your mouth like a SN Torpedo or a hop slam this is not the IPA for you. If you want a smooth, slightly hoppy beer with a pleasant finish that doesn't give you heart burn for 3 days, this beer is right up your alley- this beer strikes me as a perfect "dinner" beer, an excellent compliment to the meal, but not overpowering.
The pilsner is also very drinkable with a slightly sweet finish- very refreshing, a beer I look forward to enjoying on a balmy summer's afternoon after working in the yard all day. The key is the drinkability- a very smooth finish.
The stout was a bit much for my taste but I'm not much of a Guinness fan either-just not what I prefer. Same for the porter, I'll let others discuss.
Bottom line, Tin man has a wonderful selection of beer offerings that will satisfy most paletes. I look forward to to trying the seasonal offerings that I hear are coming soon.
I'm ecstatic that Tin man is here in Evansville and look forward to sharing in their growth and expansion as they evolve going forward.
Cheers!

01-25-2013 16:59:21 | More by Gooddays2

sairvin

Indiana

3.98/5  rDev +44.2%
vibe: 4.75 | quality: 4 | service: 4.25 | selection: 3.75 | food: 3 | $$

Just changed their food menu and haven't tried it but its an overall great place. They are sticking with session beers right now which is smart for a town with limited beer knowledge. Maybe we will see a hop bomb or a milk stout soon. I'm glad they are here in Evansville. Let's see more breweries.

03-16-2013 13:58:41 | More by sairvin

Shatrat

3.95/5  rDev +43.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5 | $$

I think this brewery is off to a strong start. Their initial offering was aimed at inoffensive beers that wouldn't scare off the general populace, and they are starting to add in stronger and more flavorful beers as they go. The Bourbon Barrel Rye Porter is as good as anything I've tasted. The BBQ on the premises is also really impressive.

02-02-2013 23:23:59 | More by Shatrat

steinhammer

Indiana

3.25/5  rDev +17.8%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3 | food: 3.25 | $$

For months I waited patiently for this place to open, following the progress of their construction and preperation.
Then the day came, they were open! I expected great things. I had to worked the first few days of opening, opting to wait a few days anyway to clear out the initial crowd and allow for first day bugs to get worked out.
Upon entering I was impressed with the remodel of the old building, it was modern and spacious. Then things fell apart. I noticed they were out of the porter already and several menu items. I was a little disappointed by the order at the counter method and even more disappointed by the staff who knew nothing about the beer when asked. The order-taker went so far as to say, "I don't really know anything about the beer. I just work for the food part." This was a proble
I was not so upset about the beer though. I thought the Rivet Red and the Alllow were both good beers, not the waterey mess other reviewers make them out to be. I even went back a few weeks later to try them again and sample the Black Ale, which has been my favorite so far. The beers are not the intense slap you in the face craft brews some would prefer, but I don't think they need to be either.
I thought the menu had a suffiecient amount to choose from. The food was good and the service was very prompt. I would go there again. I just wish that the staff knew somethng about the beer they served and the company as a whole would be a little more prepared . They have yet to distribute their product to local retailers. Apparently they are months behind schedule after talking to employees at the WInetree and Liquor Locker.

02-07-2013 05:06:28 | More by steinhammer

KeepCalmDrinkBeer

2.65/5  rDev -4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 1 | selection: 3 | food: 2 | $$

Tin Man was one of the highly anticipated openings in the Evansvile area. We planned on Going opening night but over 7000 people beat me there. We went on their second day. We planned on meeting 8 others there to eat and try their beer. The only problem is, if you don't show up with your whole party at once your going to be eating a different times. You wait in line and order your food, leaving everyone to eat at different times. Food was GREAT!!! The have Great BBQ. We had roughly 10 people in front of us and it took 10 minutes to get through.
As for the beer. It lacked deapth and flavor. The amber was my favorite but I'm usually an IPA guy but you couldn't taste the the hops. I didn't care for the nitrogen beer but its just not my thing.
I will be going back, the atmosphere is amazing and I can't wait to drink eat and listen to music.
My suggestions would be..
1. Take orders at table. We have already opted out once because its difficult to get everyone there at the same time. Also we were going to order food to go the day we were there but didn't want to wait in line again.
You would also increase revenue because people would drink while waiting.
People would also order more beer if they did not have get up to get it.
2. I think they will get feedback and beer will be fine, I just hope it doesn't take long to do so.
3. More options, most brewery's have more options

Everyone should give it a shot, my taste might just be different than most.

Enjoy

12-05-2012 03:07:45 | More by KeepCalmDrinkBeer

FlussigkeitMut

Indiana

2.58/5  rDev -6.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 1 | service: 4 | selection: 1.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

Brand new brewery in Evansville, Indiana. Food is great, service is fine, the place looks really nice, and they use proper glassware for each beer.

Being brand new, one shouldn't judge the beer too harshly yet. BUT IT'S SUBPAR. Weak across the board. They had four beers to sample: the Red Ale was drinkable but bland and thin, the IPA had no particular hop character, just an indistinguishable hop bitterness that faded away before you could swallow and was also very thin. The Dry Stout was horrible, there was a faint perception of roastiness but that also was gone before the swallow, leading you to wonder if it ever had any flavor at all. The Pilsner was horrible as well; thin, bland, and without any traditional Pilsner character whatsoever. I also learned that they had chosen to dump their Porter before their opening. Man I'm scared to think what THAT beer tasted like. An additional note is that EVERY beer is also available on a nitro tap. What respectable brewery considers nitro IPA's and Pilsners to be at all desirable???

I will give them some time to work the kinks out before I write them off. I just hope they receive honest feedback.

11-29-2012 18:30:04 | More by FlussigkeitMut

BigBRookie

2.55/5  rDev -7.6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 2.25 | service: 3 | selection: 2 | food: 3.25 | $$

Tin Man Brewery could be a great thing for the city of Evansville. But right now I don’t think Evansville is ready for what they are putting out. They did a fantastic job with all the advertising with billboards saying “ordinary beer don’t compute” and “you will become one of us”. The advertising was excellent, the building is amazing and the inside is perfect. The building made is a renovated industrial building down Franklin street in Evansville and they’ve done a great job with a paint job and renovating the inside to give it a classic brewery and old style setup with long tables, and a large gathering room on the second floor.
When Tin Man First opened up I was totally excited about that place I bragged about it to my friends , I retweeted everything they tweeted about, I was sold. I tried all of their beer the first day they opened I got a sampler and even tried a brisket from Gunslinger BBQ which was fantastic. The beer on the other hand was great at first. I tried it several times after that and when I realized they came out with a black ale which was a mistake to begin with it was a batch gone wrong. That batch gone wrong was in my opinion the best beer that they have put out and it was in limited quantities. The Red ale which most of my friends like was flat and not carbonated enough and the same could be said about the rest of their beers as well. The IPA had no hop character whatsoever; the stout had no roast or coffee flavor and was way to watery none of them put off the aroma you would expect from a stout or an IPA.

02-02-2013 05:50:58 | More by BigBRookie

jmarsh123

Indiana

2.5/5  rDev -9.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 1.5 | service: 3 | selection: 2 | food: 3.5 | $$

Located in an old what seems to be industrial building, the decor is pretty cool. Big ceilings with some small tables and one long large table for bigger groups. Menus were lying around and orders were placed at the bar. Separate line for food and beer which was kind of awkward. Service was good, but the ordering process seemed kind of disorganized.

We split some of the sandwiches which had good meat, but the buns were a bit too big and buttery. Nothing on their normal sides menu really seemed appealing, but the side of the day (beans with pork) were good.

The beer on the other hand is quite frankly bad. I got a sampler of 5 beers. $6.50 for 5 5 oz pours. They had their Bohemian lager, red, IPA, stout and a seasonal "black ale". All beers were watery. The only one that had any body at all was the black ale. The lager, red and IPA had little flavor at all and were indistinguishable from each other. The stout had a ton of off flavors and was way way too thin. The only pour I finished was the black ale which wasn't great, but at least drinkable.

Glad to see another new brewery popping up in Evansville. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and try again sometime after they've had some time to work the kinks out, but my first impression was a huge negative especially after just coming from Turoni's and having some beer with flavor.

12-23-2012 23:43:13 | More by jmarsh123

BigJim5021

Indiana

2.43/5  rDev -12%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 1.5 | service: 3 | selection: 2 | $$

I was guardedly optimistic about Tin Man as soon as it was announced. They have long made the claim that they would be different. "Ordinary Beer Does Not Compute", they plastered upon countless billboards. Well, now that they've opened, apparently ordinary is exactly what they're going for.

I'll get the positives right out of the way. The building looks amazing. Presentation is top notch all around. All of the beers are served in appropriate glassware and the whole building just screams big city. Whoever tackled this aspect of the brewery/restaurant absolutely nailed it. And as for the food, I didn't try it. It's handled by a separate entity operating within the confines of the brewery. For what it's worth, I haven't heard many positives about the BBQ.

As for the most important part, I tried a sampler of their Rivet Irish Red, Alloy American IPA, Circuit Bohemian Pilsener and Dry Cell Irish Stout. They give you the option to have any beer on nitro, and since they didn't have their porter (more on that later) I got a nitrogenated Rivet. Every single beer was devoid of aroma. There was literally nothing as far as nose was concerned. The same could be said for the body. The only beer of the bunch that had any discernible flavor was the IPA. I understand that these first few recipes are supposed to bring fringe drinkers over to craft, but seeing as you can get superior beers from the likes of Anheuser/InBev and Miller/Coors, I don't see any of these beers doing that job.

All of this would be fine if the people behind the business weren't taking massive shortcuts, misinforming those they seek to educate, dismissing the detractors as little more than haters and just being generally smug and disingenuous about their piss-poor beer. The porter that I spoke of earlier apparently didn't come out right, to the point that they chose not to serve it. Well, they chose not to serve is as a porter. Instead they slapped a different name on it, called it a black ale and pretended as if it was an entirely new beer. Their so-called Bohemian pilsener is made with ale yeast, which is simply a fallacy that will only confuse new drinkers trying to learn about different beer styles. Any person that doesn't like their beer has been written off as a "beer snob" by the head brewer. Worst of all, they have brewery employees post on the beer app Untappd, giving their beers stellar reviews in an attempt to skew scores in their favor.

I'll go back six months down the line to see if anything has improved, but as it currently stands, I have no desire to visit a brewery that has such obvious disdain for myself and others that want flavorful local beer. The dishonesty at play is incredibly unattractive as well, and will have to be ditched for a far more humble and honest approach before I'll consider giving them any more of my business. I truly want this place to succeed, but if they continue on their current path, that simply can't happen. Until then, there's always Turoni's.

12-27-2012 21:13:56 | More by BigJim5021

Chaney

District of Columbia

2.43/5  rDev -12%
vibe: 4 | quality: 1 | service: 3 | selection: 2.5 | food: 3.5 | $$$

PREFACE: IF THINGS CHANGE HERE WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR OR TWO, I WILL HAVE NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER CHANGING MY REVIEW.

In early 2012, I heard about this place through research and word of mouth from family, friends, and Facebook. How exciting to have a craft brewery in my own childhood hometown! I followed them feverishly, and drove by the place every day when I came to the area to visit back in August of 2012. So cool!

Fast forward to the present. Sure, I had heard some blurbs about "beer snobs" being unhappy with the quality of the beer, but I certainly know lots of "snobs" in my hobby and just dismissed the claims as mere arrogant rantings of a couple of craft beer spoilers.

Atmosphere: My wife and I arrived at a beautiful, modern, highly innovative environment on an icy cold weekday afternoon. We were both in awe of the cool robot in the foyer, the cleanliness of every inch of the building, and the table layout. Did I mention the cool swag?

Service: Our bartender waited on us very attentively, seemed to be proud of the place, and to be a part of such a noble venture. Also, our food came out in a timely manner and the attitude by the server(s) seemed great.

Food: My wife had some qualms with the amount of gristle on her pulled pork, but she's not a big BBQ fan to begin with, so I took that with a grain of salt. As for me, I enjoyed my pulled pork sandwich with slaw. Sufficient and reasonably priced.

Selection: When we were there, they had a pilsener, IPA, Black Ale, and Irish Stout. Additionally, they had nitro pours of a couple of these. They were out of the porter and Irish red. I've heard stories on both of these, especially the porter.

Beer: Seriously, I honestly couldn't believe it... some of the most gnarly, flavorless, sorry excuse for beer I've ever tasted. The IPA had no hop character whatsoever, the stout had no roast or coffee flavor, and was watery to the 10th power. Also, my wife keep referring to the pilsener as a "mead." After going through the sampler platter, we both decided to give the full glass thing a try. She ordered the pilsener and I got the IPA. Neither of us finished, we settled up, then drove to Turoni's.

I honestly couldn't get my experience off my mind all day, so I took advantage of my confused state during my beer shopping stint (I love bringing Indiana goodies back to Washington DC with me, especially FFF, Upland, and New Albanian!) Every store I went into (Frontier, Winetree, University, Turoni's, and many others) I asked about "Tin Man." The responses ranged from, "They're working the bugs out" to "Not sure what they're thinking." Needless to say, I've learned a lot about "Tin Man" in the past couple of days.

One thing I've learn is that they have a lot of disdain for us craft beer celebrators. So much so that they (the head brewer[s]) actually go out of their way to address us as "snobs."

What the public needs to know is that they're not actually serving craft beer. A couple of peeps I spoke with in the past couple of days told me that the test batches of their beers were very good. Why not start there? Supposedly, their philosophy is to dial everything way down and serve them a version of the macro muck that they have already tried before. That's not the way you do it. People who hate IPAs will always hate them. People who hate hefeweizens will always hate them. Why not just give show your A-game and let the chips fall where they may? Many more people than you think know craft beer. Don't play dumb with them.

I so want this place to succeed. It's awesome on so many levels. The only thing lacking is its major commodity... beer. Kinda important, huh? However, I am 100% certain that if the brewer continues to poo-poo the craft beer community while serving his imaginary base, this business will fail.

NOTE: I found it odd that the bartender here was also our bartender during our evening meal at Gerst Haus.
NOTE 2: Worst beer I've sample all year, and I've sampled A LOT!

12-28-2012 07:08:29 | More by Chaney