Best New Breweries, No. 8: Outliers Brewing Company

For all his success as the owner of Brugge Brasserie (famous for its Belgian-style ales), Ted Miller was too savvy a businessman to witness the American-style craft-beer boom here without thinking, Why not me? Outliers, on a once-forgotten block off of Mass Ave, is his answer. For now, the production brewer with a makeshift taproom inside is only open to the public from 4–7 p.m. on Fridays and noon–3 p.m. on Sundays. So mostly, you’ll enjoy the beers at Brugge and other bars around town.
Blau Machen Pilsner, a hoppier-than-usual yellow brew with 5.5 ABV, is the best session beer we had at any of the places we visited. Whitcomb Rye (a malty beer, not one of those increasingly popular rye pale ales) and County Brown (with dry, nutty flavors) carry even less alcohol at 4.5 percent and 4 percent, respectively. All three share a signature, pleasantly light-bodied taste. The only beer here that disappoints is the Buffalo Jacket IPA. Given that IPAs are the bestselling craft variety in the country, and there are dozens of great examples in Indy, a slightly skunky one like this won’t stand out (at least not for the right reasons).
If a good beer always whets your appetite, you’ll soon have the option of dining at The Owner’s Wife, an attached restaurant operated by Recess’s Greg Hardesty that is scheduled to open “in the near future.” The eatery and the brewery frequently will produce entrees and beers designed to complement each other, offering a more regular version of the occasional beer-pairing dinners we’ve been seeing lately. Compared with most pub grub–serving beer places, The Owner’s Wife is sure to be an outlier.
534 E. North St., outliersbrewing.com