Despite the size and affluency of the city, Frisco is fairly sparse in terms of breweries. We decided to try one out though, which led us to a little place on Main Street in downtown Frisco called Three Empires Brewing. This is another brewery that began with the owners home brewing and eventually opening their own spot.
Downtown Frisco doesn’t have a ton of parking anyway, and Three Empires doesn’t have a dedicated parking lot, so be prepared to walk a bit. Their building is kind of the classic dive bar, just a long, thin rectangle building with an entrance on either side. If you come in the front, you’ll walk right through long tables for seating, and the actual brewing area is to the left and out in the open. A huge plus as you probably know already. The bar sits on the back wall, with merchandise to the left, and a chalkboard menu above. There’s two single use bathrooms to the left as well that are nice enough. They have a very basic and small food menu, but it’s better than nothing. You can walk out the back door and into a field with a few picnic tables if you’d like to be outside, which is nice. The decor is simple and not much too it, but it does give you a relaxed, dive bar type feel. And there are TV’s around here to catch a game if you’d like.
I want to start off the beer reviews by saying that most of them had a bit of a tin flavor on the aftertaste, which generally means there’s something wrong with the tap system. So that definitely needs to be remedied. Also, the one brew we really wanted to try was the peanut butter stout, but the draft system also wasn’t allowing for that brew to be poured.
Sours are one of my favorite styles, and with a name like Save the Tatas, how could I not try it. I assume there’s a breast cancer tie-in with this brew, but there wasn’t an explanation at the brewery or on their website. This is a 6.3% ABV wildberry sour, and it’s an excellent brew. It’s got a nice balance of berry flavor and tartness, but it’s not pucker your mouth sour. It’s definitely a very refreshing brew.
Another popular style we’ve hit several times recently is the coffee stout. The Rise and Grind is their 6.0% ABV version of the coffee stout, and it’s got a nice little taste to it. The coffee isn’t too prominent, and you get some chocolate and roastiness common with stouts. It’s slightly weak on flavor however, so definitely not one of the better coffee stouts we’ve had.
The favorite of the day was the 5.2% ABV nut brown ale called Deez Nuts. Nut brown ale’s are dark beers with distinct nutty & sweet flavors, and a creamy, toasty aroma. This is exactly that, a great representation of a nut brown ale. You’d think this was brewed with nuts because there was definitely a distinct nutty flavor, but this type of brew is generally not brewed with nuts. They definitely nailed this one.
Three Empires Brewing is definitely an interesting place, and I’m a little torn on how to judge them. I can tell that their beer is good, until that metal taste hits your tongue. But that should have been fixed before serving to the public. The space is nice and serves it’s purpose, but there’s nothing to write home about. We’re going to give Three Empires a 4 🍺 rating. I hope they fix their draft system soon because they definitely know how to brew. And Always Drink Local!
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