Beer Gear: Growler Carrier

This is the new carrying case from Sun King. It's like a six pack for growlers. This thing is strong, robust and well put together. It is not insulated, which is my only real complaint about the carrier. I would still take one of the soft coolers that holds two if I was running around the town, but this guy has style and panache. I dig it.

Frog's Hallow Double Pumpkin Ale

If you haven't figured it out my wife and I really like pumpkin beers. The Hoppin Frog's, Frog's Hallow Double Pumpkin Ale is 8.4% ABV. That is my kind of ABV!

This was a pretty damn good Pumpkin Ale. It had no head to speak of with a pumpkin orangey color. It had nice malty bready spicey smells, like a pumpkin pie.

Upfront it was a strong malty flavor with a lot of nice fall spices. It reminded me a lot of a pumpkin pie batter before it was put into the oven. There is a hint of caramel in the body of the beer. It finishes an alcohol bitterness that is not overwhelming but does seem to announce that the beer is complete. The bomber of this can get even a big guy in a good mood for a night of drinking.

I give it a festive 4

Batch #1

Batch #1 is Triton's anniversary beer. It's a bourbon barrel oatmeal stout. The beer was brewed in August of 2011 for Triton's opening. They brewed it and then put it in used Heaven Hill bourbon barrels to age. Once it's time for an anniversary celebration they pull out the barrels, top them off, and add CO2.

There are at least 8 more years of beer currently aging in other barrels somewhere in the back. As the beer ages the beer begins to evaporate, in distilling this is called the angels' share, more beer is added to replace what has evaporated to reconstitute the beer and keep it close to the intended ABV and flavor. Batch #1 was aged for 13 months. A beer like Kentucky Bourbon Barrel ale is only aged for 6 weeks. You can imagine how different the flavor would be.

The ABV is between 10.5% and 12.5% and it has 20 IBUs. It poured out a dark mahogany color with a tan to khaki head. It smells like caramel and chocolate with just a bit of an alcoholic aroma.

Up front it has rich chocolaty tones with heavy sweetness and a nice boozy flavor that I find intoxicating. There is a pervasive bourbon flavor with hints of oak throughout the entire beer. The woodiness of the oak against the sweetness of the malt makes it a nice complex drink. It finishes up with just enough bitterness to make it taste like semi sweet chocolate. The bear had a heavy mouth feel like any good stout should. It is warm and round with a great body.

This is not available for growler fills. Get in there and get a pint because it is damn good.

I give it a 4.5

Painted Ladies

As I continue to try as many pumpkin beers as I can, there have been a bump or two in the road. Painted Ladies Pumpkin Spice Ale was brewed up for us by Tyranena Brewing Company. It is 7.5% ABV.

It poured out a dark reddish orange with just a little bit of white head on the top. It had a pumpkin spice and clove smell that was right up front.

This was not my favorite of beer that I had so far. It had a sweet maltiness with some serious spice flavoring. It had a sweet lingering taste at the end of the beer that was almost syrupy. There was a heavy clove flavor that stuck with the beer through the entire pint. There wasn't any major hops to speak of but it did finish up with some weird astringency. 

This beer is far from balanced. If you are looking for some cinnamon  clove in your face with a little bit of toffee and caramel backing it up, this could be your beer. It has no roundness or fullness. The beer itself was even a little bit flat.

I give it a 2

Zombie Dust

Creation:  Zombie Dust
The artist formerly known as: Cenotaph
Style:  Medium Bodied Single-hop Undead IPA
Masterminds:  3 Floyd's Brewery
Location:   Munster, Indiana
ABV: 6.40%
Hops: Citra hops from Yakima Vally, Washington State USAAvailability: Road trip to Munster, Indiana for most!  Tails of shops selling 6-Packs and guest taps at bars close by.Year RoundDraft and 6-Packs
Drinkability: All Night Long!
Awards: Third at Night of the Living Ales (NOTLA) 2011
Label Artist: Tim Seeley

 ::que Tha Metal:: 

Served Cold: right out of the fridge for a Hoppy floral nose... I could huff this stuff all day!!!  Do you think they make air fresheners with this smell?
Pours with a rich orange gold color with an undead foamy head. Starts off Hoppy with a Citrus lemony grapefruit notes and finishes off with a ever so slight bitter grassy hopness with a hint of zesty lemon.
Leaves the mouth dry with a lingering ghost of grapefruit hop permeation. Well balanced hops with a slight sweet malt and worth the roadie to the Brewery in Munster, Indiana for me!
 Serve Warm(er): to enjoy more of a hops flavor that doesn't go run and hide behind that great Citris gold!  Flavor tends to mello out and not be as sharp.
 O-Dawg: *4 (one of my favorite beers)

*add another half when serving fresh off the tap





The Big Guy: Decent hopped up IPA, but nothing to write home about. I give it 2.5 heads

Smashed Pumpkin

It is about that time of year again, it is time for PUMPKIN EVERYTHING. Get your pumpkin lattes and your pumpkin muffins, get ready for pumpkin pie, but most importantly go get a pumpkin beer.

Shipyard Brewing Co. put together their Smashed Pumpkin. This a hybrid of a pale ale, a wheat with some Munich malts. It is made from Willamette and hallertau hops. Its abv is 3.64.

This stuff is freaking pumpkin pie in a bottle. The beer itself tasted like a cinnamon kissed Oktoerfest that had sat inside a jack-o-lantern. It had a great light flavor with a nice spice to it. The malts were sweet and very forward. It had a nice strong hop flavor finishing it off. This helped round the beer out and give it a solid balance.

The mouth feel was nice and light. I wish someone would put one of these in my halloween bag.

I give it a 4.

PDG vs. DFG IPA

Creations:

"Pritty Damn Good" PDG IPA
"Damn Fuck'in Good" DFG IPA

Style:
American Imperial IPA
American Double Imperial IPA

Masterminds: Bier Brewery
Location: Indianapolis,IN

PDG
ABV:  6%
IBU:  45
SRM: 7.6

DFG <to be updated>
ABV:  9.2% ?
IBU:  --
SRM: --

So this large man in a tight suit walks into a chateaux...

Hops:  Heavily dosed with American Hop varieties

Drinkability: "But these speakers go all the way to eleven...!"

Awards:  Someone please correct me... seriously... either of these haven't received an award yet?!

DFG
Serve cold, right out of the Bier Hydroflask (this thing has saved my beer more than once!) for a hoppy floral nose that just screams "I'm tha Jugga-naught BITCH!" with hints of citrus fruits and pine that just overwhelm the senses!

Pours a dark gold which swirls with pimp cane delight with a frothy head.  You better watch yourself when transporting it in the Hydroflask, Growler or Bullet!  This stuff is effervescence/carbonation on steroids!  My bullet distended and warped, my growler almost shattered, my Hydroflask could barely contain the AWSOMENESS!  It must be the metal plating... NO CHARLES YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY! (Juggernaut reference, anyone?)

So much hop forward when drinking this.  Citrus fruit notes (like all of them) with berry and sweet toffee malt.  It's intense, yet balanced.  Friends who hate "Too much hop forward" were commenting on how much they liked the balance and almost drank my poor Hydroflask dry.  /sadpanda

Left the mouth with a bitter hop finish that just sat there like a fat kid with cake.  I would have drank this stuff all night if I had more of it...  Damn you 1 Growler Limit!  Like one of my friends likes to say about his favorite beers "It's like Angels Dancing on your Tongue!"

O-Dawg:
PDG *3.5 <- doesn't go to eleven...

DFG *4.0 heads

*add half head when serving fresh off the tap.  Yes Bier does pint nights and they are DELICIOUS!

Postmortem DFG:
First time I snagged this was for a friends graduation party. Now, now! I know what you are thinking, but this was a master's degree in business! No, seriously! The Big-Guy's wife did Penn State's MBA program full time AND work full time! I think this was the first time I saw her cut loose in 2 years!

Needless to say this beer hit the spot and was a crowd pleaser. I still can't believe I snagged it on a Friday. Bier in the past has tapped this on Saturday afternoons and nothing is left at the end of shift. If you can't snag the DFG, you can try out its little brother PDF IPA.

Postmortem PDG:
Sooo I was in the mood for some more DFG but alas it was not to be! After killing a growler of the little brother the impressions that stuck out the most:
-not as robust a flavor as DFG
No seriously, that's about it. 

If I had to pick an everyday IPA that was not a limited release (such as DFG or Full cycle IPA from Flat 12) this would be it. Friends who hate my hop head tendencies love this beer more than me due to its balance of hop/malt and absence of too bitter a finish and not to intense hop floral nose.

Wee Muckle

Hip - Hip - Hooray!!! Hip - Hip Hooray!!! Hip - Hip - Hooray!!!

I am always pretty excited when I can get my hands on a few cans of Wee Muckle by Sun King Brewery. A Wee Muckle or Wee Heavy is the strongest of the Scottish Ales. This one comes in at 8.8% ABV. Since it was a can, I have had trouble finding the exact IBUs. It has a heavy caramely malty smell right when  you crack the can (as you can see, I was able to grab this in one of Sun King's pint cans. They are the perfect size to fill your favorite pint glass). You can smell the booziness of the alcohol as you are pouring it into your glass.

It poured out a milk chocolaty brown with about a half inch of tan head floating on top.

The beer has a very complex flavor. Right from the start you get hints of chocolate but they fade away as the more complex flavors of caramel, vanilla and dried fruits. Not surprising with such a hgih ABV you could also taste the alcohol in this, which is not something we expect from our average over the counter beer. The beer is very sweet and very heavy. I have a feeling finishing the entire four pack would fill you up and start getting you tipsy. The beer is not quite as heavy as a syrup or liquor in your mouth, but maybe as thick as a port wine.

This is an amazing beer for fall time. The beer is hearty and comforting. The added alcohol value warms your whole body from your stomach out to your arms. It is full of flavors that remind you of the harvest and settling down for a long cold winter. It is a touch sweet, but other than that it is very well balanced Wee Heavy.

 I am saving a can for the first real snow, because nothing would be better than sitting in front of a fire with a can of this watching the snow fall.

I give it a 5

The Big Guy's 30th Birthday: Bourbon Trail

Yes this is the Beer Barons not the Bourbon Barons (but it may be a good idea for a spin off), so I will make it quick. My wonderfully amazing wife took me down to Kentucky to hit the Bourbon Trail for my 30th birthday. We hit 6 out of 7 distilleries in a weekend (we would have hit all of them but they added a 7th in October of 2012). Sadly, we missed Four Roses. The upside of that is that we get to go back and do it again.

As we were heading down to Kentucky, I was struck by how beautiful the MidWest really is. As a sales guy, I travel all the time and really have grown accustomed to some of the Rockwellian landscapes that I see on a daily basis and have apparently started taking for granted. On the trip down to Kentucky I was not working; I was not on the phone. It was just me and my wife, and we were in awe of how beautiful this part of the world really is. We live in a place of where things are grown and stuff is made. We live in a place where you can get all natural, because so much here is natural.

To be a bourbon whiskey, there are several rules but the biggest of them are, the mash must be made out of at least 51% corn. The bourbon must be aged in a charred white oak barrel that has never been used. There are specific proofs entering and exiting the barrel. The final proof may vary as will the length of time used for aging. There may not be any additives to the whiskey (this is what excludes Jack Daniels, they run their whiskey through a maple flavored charcoal to filter out impurities making it taste cleaner and sweeter). Lastly and most importantly it is a spirit that by law must be made in the USA. This has made it more than just a drink, but a true American tradition.

In the craft beer industry we have started a similar tradition. The craft beer movement is one of the few growing industries even during this God-awful  recession. It is proof that the entrepreneurial spirit of America is still alive and kicking in this generation. It also shows that there are those of us out there who appreciate something that has been made so thoughtfully. We are no longer a lite beer nation, we are a people who appreciate quality, flavor and a hand made approach.

    

Like the production of Bourbon we have started creating our own standards and traditions. There is something distinctly american about an overhopped APA, or a bourbon barrel aged beer. Anytime someone goes against the norm and tries something different, I am proud to be part of an area and nation that celebrates them. For my 30th birthday there was nothing better than being shown all of this again.

I had my wife and my best friends driving through Kentucky for three days. We got to drink together, eat together and celebrate. It made me thankful for everything that I have been given. I am truly blessed with some amazing people in my life. Thank you for taking the time to read what we put up here, also thank you for supporting the men and women in Indy that dare to brew something different.

This was an amazing long weekend. Here are the highlights.



Favorite Bourbons were by:

Heaven Hill
Makers Mark
Woodford Reserve
Wild Turkey
Jim Beam
Town Branch (Altech)

Best Tours:
Makers Mark
Woodford Reserve

Heaven Hill

Jim Beam
Wild Turkey
Town Branch (Altech)

Coolest Facilities:
Makers Mark
Heaven Hill
Woodford Reserve
Jim Beam
Wild Turkey
Town Branch (Altech)

I came back home with nearly twenty bottles of hooch for friends and family.. and myself. Not saying I have problem or anything.

The Deuce

Indianapolis's Sun King Brewery has gotten together with Oskar Blues from Colorado to create The Deuce. It is their second CANlaboration, and it is a limited release that you can only pick up at Sun King and select liqueur stores. The Deuce is a hopped up brown ale. The beer was made with signature ingredients from both breweries (Sun King used their pop corn from the Popcorn Pilsner).

The beer pours out a dark mahogany brown with a lacy tan head. It has a hoppy smell similar to the black IPA that Sun King has had on tap.

The Deuce has an ABV of 7% and 69 IBUs. That is a bunch of IBUs for a brown ale.

The beer has a citrus hoppy start followed by some maltyness with a hint of smokeyness in the body of it. The hops close it out with a clean finish that lingers just long enough. 

All in, the hops totally dominate this beer to the point of drowning out most of the sweetness. 

The beer is about $18 per 4 pack of pint cans. It was pricier than I would normally go for something with this sort of flavor profile, but when Sun King puts out a limited release, I have to jump on it.

   

I give it a 2.5

Stiff Upper Lip

Creation: Stiff Upper Lip
Style: Brown Lager
Masterminds: Sun King Brewery
Location: Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana
ABV: 4.9%
IBU: 30
Hops:
Availability: Seasonal 2012, Draft ONLY, Month of Movember
Drinkability: Great tailgating beer
Awards:

"The Official Beer of Movember Indy. Stiff Upper Lip is a brown lager with a toasty malt base, just enough hops to keep it honest and a crisp lager finish."  Sun King Brewery

Served Cold: right out of The Bräuler. Pours with a light amber color with minimal head.

Very subtle carmel sweetness, cereal malt nose. It shouldn't put off any self respecting man, but don't be shocked if it isn't life changing.

Starts off with a clear crisp lager taste that has a toasty maltness to it. I would drink this over other lagers I have had.

Finishes with the usual clean crispness that the red blooded American male has come to accept with tailgating lager beers...

Leaves the mouth with a slight sweet tartness that gives way to the toasty malt characteristic noted earlier. It sticks around for almost a minute.

Serve Warm(er): On second thought, don't.

O-Dawg: 2.5

Postmortum:
Stiff Upper Lip is an every man's beer. Not too hoppy, not too malty, crisp & clean with a taste profile any man could drink. That being said I think it is a great beer for the month of Movember!!! Please have a pint/purchase a growler and a koozie/T-Shirt to help support Sun King's Movember efforts. Cancer kills... I have had too many friends & family members affected by cancer in it's many and varied forms to not assist in finding a cure/raise awareness. Carry on Mo Bros and Mo Sistas!

The Big Guy: I like big rebuttals and I cannot lie...

OK, now this may not have been life changing but it had a great balance of sweet malty goodness, with a hint of smokeyness and a bitter hop finish. IBUs were respectable for a brown lager. Sweetness was nice. Maybe not going to completely change your life, but most beers won't, if you're normal. If you don't like this beer you are supporting cancer.

I give it a 4.

Professor Beer:

A solid brown lager, though nothing extraordinary about it.

Though I'd give them an extra point during Movember.

Judy Blue Eyes

Judy Blue Eyes was put together by Bier Brewery. I had a taste of this in their taproom. It was fantastic. I had to take some home with me for the guys.

This is an imperial brown ale. It is 21.3 IBUs and 8% abv.


Everything about this beer is bigger and better than your average brown. Imperials are standard beers that have had added malts to increase their abv. Normally the brewers then add hops to make the beer more balanced. Everything has been amped up, and micro breweries are doing it with just about every style.

I have had a few different imperials in my time but this one was great. It was as dark as night and sweet as sin with an angelic white halo of head. The head basically disappeared before I even started drinking it.

This had strong caramel and chocolate flavors with just a hint of nuttinesss. There was a smokeyness to the malts. It was subtle and well balanced so as to not overwhelm the flavor of the beer. It reminded me of  s'moore at a campfire. It had a nice clean hoppy finish that was a nice sharp bite on the tongue.

I give it a 4. Well done Bier.

Total Disorder Porter

The Ram's Total Disorder Porter is an American Porter with 5.10% ABV.  Its bitterness is 28 IBU, and the color is 80 SRM.

The Total Disorder Porter is very dark brown.  It has a very light brown head, which settles fairly quickly with light lacing.  There is a coffee flavor to the aroma.  The taste has roasted malt and hints of chocolate, but is dominated by coffee, with a dry finish.  This is a medium bodied beer, and is reasonably high in carbonation (though, for some reason, after sitting in an almost empty growler for several days, the last glass had lost quite a bit of carbonation).

Fairly mild for a porter, except for the strong coffee flavor, the Total Disorder Porter goes down easily.  The ABVs aren't too high for a porter, which, along with it's mildness, make it easy to drink quite a few of these in a night.  This is probably my favorite of the Ram's normal lineup.

Oktoberfest

So I tried to get some Teddy Bear kisses and the best I could do was a sixer of their Oktoberfest. Upland is the second largest micro brewery in Indiana. Lucky for me that means that I was able to find this without a growler.

Oktoberfest has a 6.8 abv.

The beer poured a nice clear orange color. The head was white and faded away fast, leaving lacing as I drank. It had a malty bread sort of a smell. The mouth feel is very smooth and light.

Up front the beer is very sweet. It has hints of nuts and caramel mixed with a heavy bready malt flavor. There is just a little bit of bitterness at the finish of the beer, but the sweetness lingers past it with almost a nutty aftertaste.

I just got back from the Bourbon Trail in KY for my 30th birthday and they explained that you shouldn't take a sip until you can no longer taste the beverage on your tongue. Like many fest beers this one lingers with you for a while. If you wait for the flavor to completely disappear it may take you a while to finish your bottle.

All in this was a decent Oktoberfest, but not my favorite.

I give it a 2.5

El Gallo Negro

Well, we are midway thruogh the football season. I had to turn the heat on last week. My garden has all died from the frost. That means it is officially no longer summer. For hop heads everywhere this can be a difficult transition. There are tears and great sadness, as they anticipate the coming spring and the return of their bitter hoppy brews. Sun King  has brought us something a little bit different to make the transition easier. El Gallo Negro is a Black IPA.

Possibly he best of both worlds,

  possibly not...

The El Gallo Negro pours out a dark opaque brownish black color with a tan head that lingers, lacing the beer as you drink it. It has a nice floral hop smell. It has an abv of 7% and 84 IBUs (well above my normal preference).

The flavor is nice and malty. It tastes a bit like a baking chocolate with just a hint of smokiness. It finishes off with a sharp piney hop flavor. The bitter finish lingers in your mouth. It reminds me of a nice dry red wine. It is robust and full bodied, with a slightly syrupy mouth feel. It has a crisp finish that turns bitter as it sits in your mouth.

I would say that they have mad a great effort to make this best of both worlds. It has the thickness and heavy feel of a fall beer, but that hop bitterness and aroma is distinctly summer. This beer is great for sitting back and lamenting the end of summer.

I give it a 2.5

Professor Beer:

Despite IPAs being one of my favorite styles, I'm fairly picky about which ones I like.  I felt like the hops in Sun King's El Gallo Negro were overpowering.

Movember

It appears that Movember is upon us, and the Beer Barons will be participating this year.  Movember, the month formerly known as November, is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health.

Men’s health is a cause that we care about. Our commitment is to grow a moustache for the month of November and by changing our appearance, raise vital awareness and funds for men’s health, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives.

To highlight the importance of what we are doing, take a look at these statistics: 

• 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime
• This year 242,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed 
• This year 8,290 men will be diagnosed with testicular cancer

If anyone would like to help support our efforts, there are several ways you can help.  Join Movember and become a fellow Moustache Merchant. You can grow a moustache as a Mo Bro, or join as a Mo Sista to show your support and help recruit other Mo growers to the team.  If you join Movember, you're welcome to join the "Indiana Beer Barons" Movember team, the more the merrier.  You can also support our efforts by making a donation to support our moustache growing efforts.

The Indiana Beer Barons Movember Team: http://us.movember.com/team/585657

The Big Guy's Movember profile: http://us.movember.com/mospace/4335453

Professor Beer's Movember profile: http://us.movember.com/mospace/1283454

O-Dawg's Movember profile: http://us.movember.com/mospace/4337865