Your Friday Drinking Instructions Return to the Four Hoursemen

Welcome back to another Friday afternoon, in which we tell you where to drink. It's Notre Dame week - believe it or not, I love getting out to South Bend for a game. It's almost always rainy (I have never seen the sun there, snark aside) but it is a beautiful town. And, most importantly, they've got the Four Horsemen there. I'm not talking about Armando Allen's eight years of elgibility or what Irish fans drink every time Tommy Rees throws up a duck.

No, I'm talking about my favorite brewery in the Midwest, outside of Michigan of course. If you're in South Bend for this game, SPEND THE AFTERNOON AT THE FOUR HORSEMEN or just drink tons of it. My goodness, you will be happy.

A little digging reveals that beyond their delicious Irish Red Ale and their other mainstays, the Four Horsemen have recently released, in small batches, their fall brews. Three absolute doozys. They have a raspberry ale that is fanastic, their Headless Horseman pumpkin ale, and my personal favorite, Blanton's Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout. Holy wah. I love bourbon and I love beer and I love stout beer on rainy South Bend fall afternoons. I'm hoping the weather at gametime Saturday will be about 60 and rainy, but it'll most likely be hotter - if so, go raspberry. I know there's a tiny convenience store called Grid something or other that also sells this stout, but go find it on tap.

But not all of you can get down to South Bend, nor do you care to surround yourself with Irish, be they the fighting or actual variety. We here at YFD can understand that. Luckily, there are plenty of fantastic local options for your evening viewing. I'm just going to walk you through an ideal day of couchdrinking, because, well, you've earned it.

12:00 - Yikes. Your marquee game? TCU and UVA. Not much to write home about here, unless you want to see two lost offenses going against much better defenses. Start your day off right with the last of the summer brews at the supermarket or just swing into October the right way with one of the Sam Adams fall samplers - their hazel brown is particularly excellent this year.

3:30: Yeesh. Still nothing great, but hopefully you're comfortably through your first six-pack. At this point switch to something lighter, or, actually, because the best game is going to be Mizzou-South Carolina, just go outside for a bit. Yeah, actually, just go outside. This is where you go cheap. Something drinkable yet light - I prefer Shock Top to Yuengling in terms of cheap crafts, but I don't really have a preference. Toss a football, piss off a frat, do what you need to do.

That takes us to the night games, where I'd return you to either an Ann Arbor brew or some of the fine choices from Four Horsemen. Enjoy your weekend, folks.