Crown Brewery: A Local Hangout Where Everybody Knows Your Name.....And They're Always Glad You Came........

Psst....Gumballhead here. I just gotta tell ya about the place where I hang out the most. It's called Crown Brewery, and it just opened this summer (June 13). It's located in Crown Point, IN - hence the name.

Built in what was once upon a time the boiler room (or trash incinerator - I'm not sure) of the old Lake County jail, a lot of the old-time architectural interest, including a huge smokestack, remains.

We waited a long time for this place to open. In fact, last spring, while the snow was still flying and they were filming a big, fancy Universal Pictures film about John Dillinger nearby, my people did not care very much about seeing Johnny Depp (although they did sneak just one tiny peek at him) or Christian Bale.

Nope - they snuck through the ropes to peek in the windows of the brewery-to-be!

Jeff & Deb happened to be around the day that the big stainless steel crown was being installed on the top of the smokestack. Love the way the sunshine sparkles on the crown:

And then these letters were added to the smokestack. It has added some real punch to the Crown Point cityscape.

It's a cozy, small brewery/pub with the kind of ambience my maker says ya just gotta love. She says it's so small that you can't help but talk to people you don't even know. The owner/brewer, Jim, is one heck of a nice guy, and so ya can't help but want this place to be successful.


And, as a sidenote, the guy makes really great beer. He learned how to do it at some pretty successful breweries: Goose Island (Chicago), Three Floyds (see my previous post), and Firestone Walker (in California).

He says he wanted to open a small brewery that has that neighborhood-bar kind of intimacy, and I think he has captured it very well. Heck, we were just there today to watch a football game, and I don't even like football!!

(Excuse the raindrops on some of my photos (no, they're not cat pee) - it's been raining like crazy lately and we've been outdoors a lot!)


On the outside is a nice, cozy patio where we have enjoyed hanging out on warm summer evenings. It has a brick paver "floor," wrought iron tables and chairs, cool strings of lights overhead, and potted palm trees (which could, if you think about it, serve nicely as litter boxes).

It has a little bit of European flavor, which I really miss after my journeys overseas.

In the distance, you can see the Old Courthouse clock tower. Pretty at night, too!

It's a pretty quiet place to hang out and enjoy a nice, refreshing beer, perhaps a pizza or a stromboli, and good conversation. Jim makes a supreme effort to get around and talk to customers, and the wait staff for the Carriage House Pizzeria (I'll explain this relationship in a minute) are warm and friendly.

(Above is a snapshot of the pizza side, before it opened. It looks a little better now, with wallpaper and artwork, but I don't have a photo of that! And besides, I just love the purple light in this pic! Jeff took this photo, as well as the exterior shots of the smokestack and crown).

So, you ask ----is it a brewpub or not???? Well - depends on how you define that. Crown Brewery and Carriage House have what I think is a unique relationship. They have separate spaces, to be sure, but the wait staff for the restaurant will take your order, whether you are sitting in the restaurant, out on the patio, or in the tap room of the brewery. You can order food from the restaurant and beer from the brewery, and it will all go on one ticket. Or (preferable in my opinion), you can just walk into the tap room and order a beer from whomever is working the taps.

Inside, the place feels nice and cozy - on the restaurant side, some nice artwork by local artists, a quiet, relaxed atmosphere; on the brewery side, simple furnishings, brick walls, a window looking into the brewery and its shiny brewing tanks (in the evenings, Jim turns off the fluorescent lights in there in favor of more subdued atmospheric-type lighting, which is currently red, and surprisingly doesn't distract at all). And there's a nice flat-screen HDTV. ;)

This here is a funky light fixture in the tap room, made out of beer bottles! Come on! You love it, don't ya????

Jim is currently working on expanding the capacity of the brewery; he only has 4 tanks right now, and is using two for serving, which limits the number of beers available at present to two. But, since they opened in June, they have gone through the first few brews. So far, we've enjoyed a refreshing, crisp Hefeweizen, a nice, basic brown ale, and then a pale ale that had a killer hop aroma (yeah! we loved it!) and a nice summer blonde with a surprisingly floral aroma (a great palate cleanser after drinking something hoppy). The two beers on tap currently are: (1) "Powerderhorn," a really wonderful porter that he's dry hopped like crazy - the first week or two it had a killer hop aroma; that has tamed a bit now, allowing a little chocolate nose to come through and making it seem like an even more complex beer than we originally surmised - it's delightful! Also on right now is (2) "Sarah," a mild blonde ale for those who really enjoy the style, or who aren't into really intense beers. Coming soon: Oktoberfest! And soon after that (I hope): an IPA!!!!

Here's me, chillin' with a nice, hoppy pale ale a few weeks ago.

If you're looking for a quiet, local hangout where you can meet up with some friends to chat or make some new friends; if you're looking for a place to try new beers but big places with tons of options overwhelm you; if you're looking for a nice, European-style outdoor patio; or if you're looking for me, Gumballhead - the doll (not the beer) - this is it!

Open 7 days. To get here from I-65 - exit US 231 (Crown Point exit; mile 247). Left at the light at the end of the ramp. Continue into town. Left onto East St. (one block BEFORE the courthouse square) - then look for Crown Brewery on your right. It's a brick building with black awnings, the smokestack with the crown on top, the patio, and it does have its own parking lot. Their website is: http://www.crownbrewing.com/. Enjoy!