When you take a James Beard Award-winning chef like Justin Aprahamian from Sanford restaurant and a beer aficionado like John Lavelle who share like minds in building complex flavors and brewing science, some magic is bound to happen in the trendy age of breweries. Although Aprhamian recently announced he was leaving Like Minds, his gift for balancing flavors to bring out each ingredient will continue to shine in his collaboration with Lavelle.
Since opening its doors in the former Hamilton Cocktail Lounge, Like Minds Brewery (823 E. Hamilton St.) has been making a mark in the brewery industry with beers that are as bold as some of the food pairings offered. The menus for tap beer and food are not extensive or fussy, but offer layer upon layer of flavor with good quality ingredients. Take for instance the draft selections of 10 beers, ranging from the 5% ABV (alcohol by volume) in the DK-67 American Pale Ale to the 9.5% ABV in the deliciously chewy Imperial Stout of Intelligentsia’s El Gallo Breakfast Cold Brew.
The menu lists the alcohol by volume and the descriptions and glass sizes take you on the journey from barrel to tap. Take the Amarillo Brillo served in a snifter with a description referencing charred grapefruit, barrel aged sour dry hopped with Amarillo hops. Another brew, the rhubarb sour, is a sour wheat saison with rhubarb (saison meaning seasonal in French) aged in a wine barrel.
The flavor doesn’t stop in the brewery and continues with a menu that is as intriguing as the beer itself. The suggested pairings for the upscale bar food make for a delightful experience. Especially good are the spent grain scrapple, mushroom bitterballen and the coffee cake made with stout and pomegranate, not to mention their version of the Wisconsin butter burger on a Miller pretzel roll with foie gras butter is. The prices range from a $3 spiced nut snack to a $20 bavette sirloin and the taps are a good value too, with most costing $6.
Like Minds opens at 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Saturday at 12 a.m. for the taproom with food service beginning at 4 p.m. Sunday the taproom alone is open noon-5 p.m.
