Evil Czech Brewing, ‘Basebeer’ Cards, and the World’s Greatest Growler Filling Station

In my travels around northern Indiana for my “day job,” I’ve come across one major problem that ruins the beginning of my work week each and every time. Most of the breweries up here are closed on Mondays.  So…I broke out myIndianaOnTap.com brewery map which is by far the most comprehensive online map of all of Indiana’s breweries and brewpubs (shameless plug), and I found the perfect solution: Evil Czech Brewery and Public House in Mishawaka. Not only are their hours favorable to those seeking a local beer on a Monday, but they have a great food menu and more importantly, an expansive and strong beer list.

Look, I’m not a “foodie” but I feel like I could come here 20 times and be happy with 20 different selections. After being strongly tempted by their gourmet mac ‘n cheese and a lot of other delicious sounding foods, I decided on a pizza and settled down to make my all important beer decisions. They have an ingenious way of organizing their beer list here.  They use beer cards. They are like baseball cards, but the picture on the front is the design for the beer and on the back is a description with ABV and IBU stats. The front pages of the menu are plastic sheets with 16 slots to hold the beer cards, which are organized into pricing tiers. It’s possible other places use this system, I just haven’t come across it before. It seemed perfect for a constantly changing beer list.

In all fairness, I’ve been to Evil Czech a couple of times now, so I have tried most of their options. After a lot of research (it’s a hard job, I know), I decided my perfect flight would consist of the following:

Dracula’s Bite, a Habanero Black IPA

John The One-Eyed Belgian Dubbel

Voodoo Vanilla Rye Porter

Rasta’s Smokey Express Jamaican Coffee Stout

Chucky Imperial IPA