If it’s time for a beer, it must be Midnight in India: Classic CLE Eats & Drinks

AKRON, Ohio – Beer drinkers have been wild about IPAs (India Pale Ales) for many years now , and Northeast Ohio offers many wonderful renditions of them. But there's one darkly intriguing brew that doesn't get mentioned with those the way that it should.

Missing Falls Brewery in Akron makes a black IPA called Midnight in India, a smooth Cascadian dark ale brewed with Earl Grey tea – which lends a bergamot aroma to the beer's citrusy hop character. It surely doesn't like a typical IPA, but it allows more than enough of what makes that style great.

It also has a worldly-inspired flavor profile.

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With a medium, black-brown body and maltiness, it's a dark beer for people who don't like (or know if they like) dark beer. It's delectable and positively quaffable. At 6.7% ABV and 75 IBU, it's impeccably positioned for any scenario – t-bone to tailgate, reuben to reunion, picnic to pizza.

Midnight also works well as a year-round brew. There's an elegant balance with Midnight in India on the palate. You get roasted notes and bitterness, subtle tannins from the tea and a finish that's semi-dry – without heft, body or heavy handedness of a porter or stout.

The beer's name is seemingly two-fold: Outside of the obvious play on words, it offers a nod to Aug. 15, 1947, when India and Pakistan won independence from the Mogul Empire.

After three centuries in India, the British finally left – partitioning two independent nation states: the Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Independence came at (wait for it) midnight.

All of these things make Midnight in India a classic, but there's something extra special about quaffing a few in the company of the Akron-Canton Tottenham Hotspurs' Official Supporters Club .

The hearty group of 150 Summit County-based "Coys" meet at Missing Falls for regular matches of the English Premier League footie team. Despite being 3,750 miles away from the pitch, they're every bit as loud as the fans at the stadium. Sometimes those gameday meetups happen on Sunday mornings.

We digress. Time zones aside, whether it's 9 a.m. in Akron, 2 p.m. in London or 7:30 p.m. in New Delhi, a pint of Missing Falls' Midnight in India in hand surely means "It's 5 o'clock somewhere."