First Impression: Books & Brews

Books & Brews is a new concept in the Indy area, it’s a used bookstore and nanobrewery combined. The front half of the store is a bookstore, and the brewery is in the back. I headed over there with Tamre from Tiny Table to see how the concept played out. I wasn’t expecting to be writing a post about my experience so soon, but I really enjoyed so expect a follow up with more details down the line.

The Bookstore

The bookstore is cute, but small. If you are looking for rows and rows of  shelves like Half Price Books,

The answer of course is 42.

The answer of course is 42.

Books & Brews is not it. That’s not to say they have a bad selection, in my opinion the limited space has made their choices seem more curated. The prices of these books are crazy low. Paperbacks are $2-3, hardcover books are $5, and magazines are $1. A portion of the proceeds from these books goes to Indy Reads.

There are discussion questions scattered across the bookstore, which I love. It’s an interesting way to encourage people to talk and build community.

The in-house beer selection from Books & Brews.

The in-house beer selection from Books & Brews.

The Brewery

We spent most of the time back in the brewery. First of all, I was surprised to see there was food. I’m used to going to breweries and seeing food trucks. So having food at the bar was a nice change. The food is locally sourced where possible, and looked really good. I need to go back to have lunch.

The beers themselves were solid.  What stood out most to me was the Lord Byron’s breakfast ale, which is an English mild ale. It’s a true session beer, and is a style I haven’t seen around before. I’m going to ask my husband to brew some for the summer because it’d be an excellent pool-side or lawnmower beer.

Overall

Books & Brews seems to be doing awesome for being recently open, and I’m really excited to see how they grow. The atmosphere is great, and the staff is friendly and willing to talk either books or brews with you. The northside has been needing a place like this, and I’m hoping it’ll be around for a while.

Books & Brews is located at 9402 Uptown Drive Suite 1400, Indianapolis, IN. Over by the Home Depot on 96th and I-69. They host a variety of events throughout the week, keep an eye on their Facebook page for the latest.

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3 Responses to “First Impression: Books & Brews”
  1. Haley Mills says:
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