Constant Spring Bar

For many of you, what is the first thing you think about when someone mentions Goshen, IN?  I won't fault you for saying "Amish," I do it too.  Aside from an Amish-like ending to my evening, which I'll get to later, I'm going to attempt to dispel our preconceived notion.

Last night, Dark Horse Brewery rode into Constant Spring in downtown Goshen for a special night of great beer in bottles and on draft to celebrate two years of the Michiana Beer Nuts blog being partnered with the Elkhart Truth.  Never having visited Constant Spring, and only experiencing a few of Dark Horse's offerings previoiusly, I wasn't sure what to expect.

Constant Spring is another one of those rare pubs in the Michiana area that cares about craft beer, which is evident from having several of them on tap and many more in bottles.  In addition to the Dark Horse I was drinking last night, other heavy hitting microbrews they had included Rogue, Dogfish Head, Stone, 3 Floyds, Left Hand, Brooklyn, Bell's and many more.  Not only do these guys have great beer, but they actually know how to serve it.  I've grown far too accustomed to many local pubs that serve certain beer far too cold, or much worse, in a frosted glass! The beer I received came in the proper glass and at the correct temperature.  When you combine the right serving elements with really good beer, well, it doesn't get much better than that.

The atmosphere was very cool with rich wood tables, exposed brick walls and many of their drinks written in colored chalk on blackboards.  Although I didn't have anything to eat, I've heard good things about their food and the service was top notch.  To give you an idea of how much I enjoyed my stay, I intended to write a post about Dark Horse, with snippets of Constant Spring woven in, but after leaving, I knew both deserved to be featured independently.   

Oh, and you probably want to know more about the Amish comment I made earlier.  As I had finished the last sip of my Dark Horse IPA, the lights suddenly went out.  Maybe their Amish influenced lifestyle only permitted lights to be on until 8:30?  The cause was much more simple than that; a blown piece of electrical equipment outside.  According to the Michiana Beer Nuts blog posting, this didn't hinder their great service, or the flow of beer, but instead everyone continued to have a great time by candlelight.  I made this trip alone last night, not wanting to impose 90 minutes of driving on others while not knowing anything about this place myself, but next time will be much different.

-Andy