Sitting just off of US-75 in Allen is another very well known brewery to the craft community that we thought we’d check out. Armor Brewing Company hasn’t been around for all that long, but they’ve racked up some medals, so we knew we had to stop in.
As you pull in to Armor Brewing, you pull into a good size parking lot, and you see a ton of outdoor space and the unmistakable silo with their logo. When you walk in the front doors, you come to one of my huge pet peeves for a brewery, a hostess stand. The bar is straight ahead but there’s a large selection of restaurant seating in between. To the right is 2 booths with dart boards, which seems like too few if that’s an attraction you promote. Behind that seating area are some very nice bathrooms, and the to-go fridge is along the back wall. The interior is designed kind of like a modern log cabin with tons of wood accents. I only noticed 3 TV’s, so you may have to sit outside if you want to catch a game. Speaking of, the outside area is just as big as the inside. There’s a huge covered patio and a small stage with an artificial turf space in-between. They have a huge food menu, and even a full service bar, which is another pet peeve of mine. In general we like the way the space is designed, but hate that they’ve moved towards the restaurant style of brewery. If you have more food items on your menu than craft beers, you’re absolutely doing it wrong.
We’ll start off with the Danke, a 6.2% ABV Marzen style Oktoberfest lager. This is one of the better Oktoberfest’s I’ve had this year. Very clean, toasty, and bready, maybe just a bit light on the richness and bodiness, but still very good. I’d have to put this in the top 3 of Oktoberfest’s I’ve tried this year.
A fairly new trend that I really love is infusing smoke flavor into craft beers. That’s exactly what they did with El Fumador, a 5.8% ABV hefeweizen that’s conditioned on Spanish cedar. It’s still wild to me that it’s possible to infuse a smoky flavor into a liquid, but that’s exactly what we have here. When it first hits your taste buds you get the slight banana flavor you expect from a hef and then the smoky flavor follows. It’s a nice little hef but the smokiness comes so fast it’s hard to taste the actual beer. The El Fumador is well done and exactly what they want it to be, I just don’t think a Hefeweizen mixes well with a smoke conditioned craft beer.
I love sour beers and I had never tried a dark sour before, so I had to try La Petit Mort, a 5.5% fruited dark sour. They brewed it from second runnings of their La Mort Noire, a Belgium imperial stout brewed with fig, vanilla, and cocoa nibs, and aged on fresh pomegranate. A second runnings beer is made from the leftover wort from a first run from another beer, and then customized to create a new brew. This is a very unique tasting beer, you get some of the vanilla and cocoa nibs, but it comes off with a sour aftertaste. It’s almost a play on sweet and sour. If you’re not a fan of sours, you probably won’t love this, but it was a fun little brew to sip on.
I’m not going to review this beer because I could only take a sip, but I want to highlight it because of its uniqueness. Fire for effect is an 8.0% ABV Imperial oatmeal stout that, for whatever crazy reason, they aged in Carolina reaper and ghost pepper hot sauce barrels. It’s HOT, but it’s just crazy what they can do with beer.
Overall we had a good time at Armor Brewing. They have a very relaxed vibe, and I really like the modern log cabin feel. They have some great beers and are definitely pushing the envelope with unique and different brews. The brewing tanks were not visible, which we hate, and the restaurant atmosphere drives us nuts. We’ve said this before, but we hate when a brewery tries harder to be a restaurant than a brewery. You can focus on your food, but don’t turn that into a restaurant that has great beer, make it a brewery that has great food. Because of that, and a few of the brews being less than expected, we are giving Armor Brewing 7 🍺. If you’re looking for a place to check out on the Northeast side of DFW, definitely stop by and Always Drink Local!
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