Three Floyds To Stop Bottling Pride & Joy

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Sep 15, 2014 3:00PM

Let’s pose a question to Chicago’s beer drinkers: do you remember the last time you drank a Three Floyds Pride & Joy? I can’t, and wonder sometimes if the cask-conditioned mild ale gets lost in the shuffle in the rush to stock up on Zombie Dust, Dark Lord and Three Floyds’ other offerings. Besides, I always preferred Pride & Joy on draft over bottles.

Competition for shelf space at retail outlets is one reason Three Floyds has decided to stop bottling Pride & Joy. Three Floyds’ Nick Floyd spoke with DNAInfo’s Mark Konkol about the decision.

“Pride and Joy was always meant to be a cask-conditioned beer — a partially carbonated ale from a hand pump served at 50 degrees — but we put it in a bottle anyway. It’s got a lot of old-school Three Floyds fans, so it will still be around in kegs,” Floyd said.

So don’t fret, Pride & Joy fans. The beer will still be around, only in the manner in which the Floyds originally intended. The Munster brewery also announced they will begin bottling their “Yum Yum” American Session IPA for retail purchase. This beer was previously only available at Three Floyds’ Munster brewpub and, like all of their beers, quickly gained a zealous following. Session ales have made a big splash across the Chicago market these days as beer drinkers are becoming more educated and steering away from the high alcohol content hop bombs that spurred the growth in Chicago’s craft beer scene for years. Three Floyds was at the vanguard of that hop bomb assault for years and, between Yum Yum and Zombie Dust, it’s nice to see them adapting with the times.