Itzamna

I picked up this beer because I was heading to a friends Christmas / "we survived the end of the world party". Itzamna was named after the Mayan creator deity who lived up in the heavens looking down on his people. If anyone was going to come back for the Mayan apocalypse it was going to be this dude, so Sun King made sure of it.

  

Since I brought it to the party the first set of pictures are not great and in my faithful former friend, the solo cup. The beer was well sampled, but I kept most of it for myself. Itzamna is a schwarzbier and had 26 IBUs and an 8% abv. High booze, low hops is normally my kind of beer.

Itzamna poured out a dark brown with a tan to brown head. It smelled like coffee and chocolate with some smokey malt to it.

The beer was heavy on the sweetness and very light on the hops. Flavors were heavy on the chocolate and coffee with some nuttiness and a mild chili flavor at the end. Not as much chili as I was expecting but this did help spice the beer in an absence of a serious hop profile. The beer was thick and rich with a pretty heavy mouth feel. There wasn't much carbonation to break up the syrupy liquid. It had a pretty solid boozy finish, but it was not overwhelming with minimal aftertaste.

This would have been a solid beer to have if the world was truely at an end.

I give it a 4

Beer Gear: WilliamsWarn Brewing Machine

I was at Bier Brewery the other day,  when I struck up a conversation with a delightful Aussie gentleman regarding new beer technologies.  These type of impromptu conversations  have been happening to me ever since I started toting around my BRÄULER™ and Hydro Flask Growlers.  Must be my sparkling personality, that or people love to chat over a pint about the next big thing!

Ever since economic development planners got wind of the micro brewing market the winds of beer change have been blowing at gale force strength.   While overall beer sales are down, craft beer sales have jumped from 1% overall 2011 to 12% in just the first half of the 2012 year!

The Big Guy has been into home brewing for a little over a year now, thanks in part to a loving wife who got him his first brewing kit with  classes at Great Firmentations and in no large part to myself weening him off his High-Life addiction and turning him on to craft brews.  Long distance high-five to his Mrs. and Self High-five!  /evil cackle while petting hairless cat

Enter WilliamsWarn Brewing Machine

Ian Williams and Anders Warn have solved a problem faced by millions of brewers around the globe and produced the world's first personal brewing device

The process of brewing can take a variable amount of time, the average is 4 weeks.  The WilliamsWarn brewing machine takes this time table and shrinks it down to 1 week.

From their website:
"Homebrewers have a longer process because they all make flat beer that then needs to be carbonated. Breweries don't do this. Homebrew is different to large scale brewing in this respect...until now. With our system it’s more similar with respect to not taking any extra time to carbonate the beer. Why would you want to bottle beer and wait 6 weeks...?"

That is to say the WHOLE process.  Bottoms up in 1 week or less!

At a 5.6k price tag it's a little steep for the new brewer... but Bless my Soul it does sound sexy!

Merry Christmas to me?!

Diesel Oil Stout

I had not tried anything from Power House Brewing in Columbus, IN, so I was pretty excited to dive into the Diesel Oil Stout at Twenty Tap. Sorry the picture is so dark, but I was in a bar, so not a ton of lights. The beer was also super dark, which didn't help.

The ABV of the Diesel Oil Stout was a whopping 6.6% with 33 IBUs.

As you can imagine with a name like Diesel Oil Stout, this is a dark heavy beer. It pours out black like its namesake with a brown head that disappears quickly. It has a chocolate and smokey smell.

The beer was not as sweet as I expected. It had chocolaty flavors, but it was more like bitter bakers chocolate then milk chocolate or semi sweet chocolate. There were some coffee undertones to it as well and the smokey flavors of the malt was also very upfront. The beer had a bitter hoppy finished that pushed past that to an aftertaste.

The beer left me with a bitter dry taste in my mouth, but it was definitely unlike anything else I have had. They took the traditional rules of a stout and changed them up. Although the changes may not be up my alley, the beer was unique and well put together. This may be better for the hop heads out there.

I give it a solid 2.5

Eats'n Treats: Beer Flats

Beer Flats Crackers
Beerflats.com

So I am having a few friends over for a shindig/get together/party over the weekend.  What does a host and his beautiful hostess do to prep for the festivities?  Why go shopping for beer and eats of coarse!

A new Earth Fare natural food market opened up close to us that was begging for the cursory walk through.  It is something my wife and I do kind of like Sunday driving, walking the mall, etc.  No real agenda just out and about to see what is to be seen.  What wasn't found here would be purchased elsewhere.

After running the gauntlet that is the fresh produce section (seriously what is the idea of 90% of markets having this section first!?) and sampling the fairs being peddled by the kind old demo ladies we found these gems on an end cap in the back next to the cheese!

Porter or Pilsner are the flavors.  I took home the Porter style.  Delicious and durable are the words that are evoked when munching and crunching into these artisanal flatbread crackers.

Made with whole grains, butter, and of coarse craft BEER!  The cracker is dense like a potato chip or pita chip not airy like a Ritz.

They can withstand most everything from  thick and tough dips/cheese balls to soft and smooth spreads.  You heard me, no more loosing half that cracker to the dip gods!

The Porter style had a roasted rye taste  with a nice full-bodied crunch.

I'll post an update when I or one of my compatriots try out the Pilsner!

Preservation Pilsner

I finally got down to 20 Tap in Broadripple this weekend, and started hitting some beers that I hadn't had or hadn't had in a while. The Preservation Pilsner by Upland Brewing Co.is a beer that I haven't had since before I really got into craft beers. I remembered liking it, but that was when I was more into pilsners and lagers, mostly made by the big boys.

The Preservation Pilsner is a Bohemian Style Pilsner. It has 36 IBUs and 5.2% abv.

The beer had a fruity and grainy aroma that reminded me of Bloomington, IN. It smelled light and sweet. It poured a light yellowish color with a thing white head. The flavor was crisp and fruity with hints of pear and some citrus. It reminded me of a dry white wine because it finished so cleanly. This was a totally chug-able beer.

All that being said it was lighter than I wanted it to be. A little more maltiness would give it an overall stronger flavor and would pair nicely with the sweetness that was already there.

It is funny how our tastes change. Five years ago I had only had a few craft beers and was normally looking for something light and mild. The Preservation fit the bill. After trying so many other beers and styles the pilsner just seemed boring.

I give it a 2.5, not because there is anything wrong with it, but because there isn't much to it.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone and a big thank you to all our readers. Enjoy the holidays with friends, family and of course beer. Be safe and be good because Santa is always watching.

The Scene: Twenty Tap

It took way to long for me to get my suburban derier down to Twenty Tap in the Broadripple area. I should be flogged in the streets because I did not know what I was missing.

When I walked in at 6 pm on a Friday, the place was packed. I put my name in for a table for two and then went into the bar. I never made it out of the bar area...

It took almost an hour before they called my name, but by that time a table had opened up in the bar and I had already finished my first two beers and an appetizer with the Professor. The atmosphere of the bar is fun and modern with enough traditional elements to make it very appealing in Indy. The menu is full of fun fusion foods. We started off with the fried cheese curds. They came with house infused aole. The curds were great, but I don't think anyone can mess up frying cheese. The aole was good, but could have had more flavor.The Professor had the mushroom Ruben. It was mushrooms with sauerkraut Swiss and thousand island. I had the Cuban sandwich and it was excellent. It was probably one of the best Cuban sandwiches I have had this far North.

  

They had a ton of local and craft beers. This is by far the best local beer menu that I have seen around town. The brews were from small town local breweries to large craft breweries. Everything was fresh and on tap. Beers were very well priced, more reasonable than I am used to for craft beer. I had 35k from Against the Grain Brewery, Diesel Oil Stout from Power House and the Preservation from Upland. It was fun having so many different options.

I give the food a 4 but the Professor may disagree

I give the beer line up a 5

Our Special Ale 2012 (Anchor Christmas Ale) and the Vertical

Tis the season to be jolly! Nothing gets me jollier than a good dark Christmas beer.

Anchor makes a new Christmas Ale every year. It is a treat to see what new flavors they have brewed together, every holiday.

This year the beer poured dark brown almost black, with some light head. Once it was poured into the glass it smelled like winter. Ok... so that is not as descriptive as you might want, but it was a mix of piney hops, ginger, nutmeg and cloves and it just smelled like the holidays. The abv is 5.5%.

The beer flavor is a mix of molasses and chocolate tones with a nice sour hint of cherries or other winter berries. These flavors are accented by all the spices that were in the nose especially the ginger. I really enjoyed the sour characters of the berries. The hop profile comes in hard and overpowers the sweetness pretty quickly helping to balance it all out. Sometimes holiday beers are basically just deserts, so this was a nice more complex option. The mouth feel was surprisingly light. It has a pretty dry finish, but it fit the general pallet of the beer.

I give it a 3

Now the best thing about having awesome friends is they will invite you over to try awesome beers. In the spirit of Christmas, the Little Lady and I got together with another couple and they had prepared a vertical of Our Special Ale 09, 10, 11, and 12.

 

We lined them up and started tasting! Similar characteristics were displayed in every beer, but there were some differences. All of the beers got better as they warmed up a little bit. It helped take the piney edge off just enough and let the big malty character of these awesome brews to really shine through.

I rank them in this order: 2009, 2012, 2010, 2011. 

Since it is the season of giving, I will not dwell on the beers that I did not like as much, none of the beers ranked below a 3 and most of them were 3.5. 

The 2009 was my favorite! It was sweet with heavy flavors of molasses upfront, that lead you into the fruitiness of the dried cherries. It had a  rich smokiness throughout that made it more unique than the rest of them. It did not have the extreme pineyness that I found the 12, 10 and 11 to have. This one had an almost creamy quality that helped cancel out some of those harsh hop flavors. The 2009 was a fantastically balanced beer. If I could this would become my yearly Christmas beer of choice. Thanks to Justin for setting it all up.

I give the 2009 a 4

Alpha Klaus

I admit that I am totally biased towards beers brewed here in the great state of Indiana. I am also super biased to Three Floyd's, since it was the first brewery that I made an effort to visit. I consider their Christmas beer, Alpha Klaus, to be a gift given directly to me from them.

Alpha Klaus pours out a dark red almost black oily color with a light tan head. The head sits atop the beer like dirty snow covering a dark mud puddle... sorry not my best analogy. It left lacing up to the top of the glass like frost on the window... better. It had a abv of 6% and 38 IBUs.

The beer smells like chocolate and grapefruit hops with a bit of piney-ness. It smelled hoppier than most of the Christmas beers I've had this season. It was also a bit thinner and more effervescent than I expect from a Christmas porter.

The flavor has a citrus hop flavor up front, which when mixed with the aroma this can be pretty intense. It moves into a chocolatey malt flavor with some nice winter spices. In a lot of holiday beers the brewers go a bit overboard with the spice. I get it, spice is what makes it a holiday beer, but make sure it tastes like a beer first. This one did a good job with that. From that spicy note it moved back to the citrus and pine hop flavor. It closes with a subtle dryness that reminds me of bitter sweet chocolate. It leaves a bit of a bitter flavor on your tongue that just seems to make me thirsty for another sip.

This is a fun and unique holiday beer. I don't know that I would be excited to drink it all the time, but it will always make me smile during the holiday season.







Hoppier than I like but I give it a 3.5

Santa's Wishlist: Christmas Beers

Just in case you are tired of bringing boring wine to Christmas parties, we put together a list of some (mostly regional, but all available at your Indiana liquor store) beer options that will knock their socks off. These are not in any particular order. Most of them have reviews that will popping up in the next few weeks.

Three Floyd's Brewery brewed up Alpha Klaus. It is a dark Christmas porter with tons of chocolaty flavor and some pretty intense hops at the end. This is a great beer that is sure to impress any causal beer drinker who can stomach the dark stuff, and if you are in Indiana it is pretty easy to get your hands on. (full review to come later)

Hoppin Frog brewed up Frosted Frog Christmas Ale. This is a pretty intense dark brown ale. It has been beefed up with cinnamon  brown sugar and some great gingerbread flavor. It is very very sweet, and my wife fell in love with it. The sweetness makes it easy for anyone who is not into the craft beer scene to have a glass of holiday cheer. (full review to come later)

Anchor Brewing brewed up Our Special Ale (Anchor Christmas Ale 2012). This one is going to be different from all the rest. It pours out dark, but the taste is surprisingly light. It has nice malty flavors but a pretty strong dried cherry flavor helps cancel them out. This is a very well balanced brew. If your guests don't like the heavy stuff this is the one to go with.

Bells Brewery brewed up Bell's Christmas Ale. This Christmas ale is a pretty easy going brew for another dark beer. It has nice sweetness up front followed by a tasty round of holiday fruit flavors. The beer is heavy, but the sweetness mixed with the fruit flavors does a good job to round it all out.

New Belgium brewed 2 Degrees Below. This has always been one of my favorite winter beers even though it is a hoppier winter beer. There is going to be some serious bitterness mixed in with flavors of liquorice and other holiday spices. The beer is dry but well balanced, a seasonal favorite for the holidays.

Santa and our friends in the craft brewing industry have not forgotten our friends celebrating Hunakkah.

He'Brew brewed up Sweet 16 Anniversary Ale. I liked Origin, but this one is even better. This is a malty beer that has some nice seasonal fruit flavors. It also has a nice oak flavor that some of the other beers are missing. This helps balance the whole beer out. All this is to try and cover up the huge abv. Beware a few of these will get you celebrating.

Whatever you decide to share, or just to have on your own, enjoy the holiday season! What are you drinking this time of year that isn't on our list? You know we're always willing to try something new.

Bashah

It's always fun to find something that you haven't seen before, especially when it's a limited release and you may not see it again for a while. I was lucky enough to score one of these while cruising around through Payless Liquers on 96th and 37. (If you're in Indy anytime soon, definitely worth stopping in!)

Bashah is a Black Belgian Double IPA made in collaboration with Stone and BrewDog. Normally I run from something that sounds this hoppy, but I like Stone and it seemed well worth the risk. I poured it out of the bottle into a pint glass even though it probably should have been a tulip. My pour was terrible. Not sure why I had so much head, but it happens. Bashah was 8.6% abv.

The poured out black like a cup of coffee that you cannot see through with a light tan head that lasts for a long time (although my totally amateur pour may have had something to do with that). The beer has a sweet coffee aroma with just a bit of fruity hops. The beer was lighter than I expected based on the color, but I think that was the Belgian in it.

The flavor was sweet and roasty. It tasted like someone had figured out how to smoke semi sweet chocolate out back in the smoker. There were hints of toffee and a bunch of coffee. It had a mildly hopped up finish with just the right amount of bitterness and dryness, so you didn't have the lingering sweet aftertaste of some malty Belgians.

I am really not sure what I would call this beer. It looked like a heavy stout, it was bitter like a porter, but it had more hops than a porter. I expected a heavier hop profile since they called it a double India pale ale and it was from stone. It was complex and not something that's part of my normal rotation. The flavors were all so different from each other but they were well  fused together.

All in it was a great beer I would drink again in a heart beat. If I stumble across more of this, I will pick up every bottle that I can find.

I give it a 4.5

Movember Wrap-Up

Well, Movember is over (yeah, yeah, I know it was a couple weeks ago;  I've been busy mourning my lost moustache), and I would call it a succes.  The Beer Barons were transformed from this sad bunch:

To this glorious moustachioed crew:

In addition to the three Beer Barons, we had four other members assisting us on our Beer Barons Movember team.  Between the seven of us we raised $740, meaning out team was ranked 4,823 nationally.

I'd like to congratulate the rest of the Beer Barons team for helping to change the face of men's health.  I hope to see you all (with your moustaches) next year.

Nitro Porter

Ok, so when a man meets a beer, and they decide they love each other and its time to make little manbeers they go into private and have special alone time...

That is the time I had with Nitro Porter from Flat 12 Beerwerks. My wife and I both got one along with some soft pretzels at one of my favorite places to grab something to eat . This porter had a beautiful dark coloring and a ton of head, but that was to be expected since the porter was coming off the nitro tap. A nitro beer has had nitrogen added instead of carbon dioxide. This makes for a different feel a little different flavor to the beer. I love it on anything heavier.

The aroma was sweet and bready with a hint of chocolate. When I tasted it, I started to feel guilty, like I was somehow cheating on my dinner. It had a wonderful sweetness and roasted malt flavor to it that almost made the beer taste like a chocolaty ice cream Sunday. It had hints of nuttiness and caramel. It was rich and creamy, although some of that could have been because of the nitro tap. This was an excellent porter verging on a stout. There was not much hop flavor to the beer, but it seemed well put together and balanced.

The head was even rich and creamy, and it never seamed to leave...

Ever...

That was great head!

The beer took a little bit longer to come out because it was a nitro, but it was well worth the wait. Anyone with a serious sweet tooth needs to grab one of these no tap and just enjoy.

I give it a 4 1/2

The Scene: The Local Eatery and Pub

This place is right down the street from me, and it is probably my favorite week night spot for a beer. The Local Eatery and Pub provides great local, sustainable food from nearby farms and excellent beers from breweries in the Midwest. They strive to bring adventurous food to central Indiana with a home style twist.

I have held off doing a review of The Local because I do like it so much. My wife and I love grabbing a quick bite here on a Wednesday or Thursday night. The atmosphere is clean, modern and upscale. The restaurant is split in two, half for families etc, and the other half is the bar. The bar has plenty of TVs without being overwhelming. There are tons of spots at the bar as well as booths and high top tables.

My favorite thing about The Local is their seasonal menu. It changes regularly (normally every other time I am there) and it does a good job of representing the season. Even their standard menu does a good job of changing around, although I miss their goat burger that used to be on the regular menu. This weekend I had a salad, and their rabbit pot pie. The pot pie was outstanding and something that you aren't going to find most places.

Their beer selection is strong. They always have two or three selections from Sun King and other local breweries. They also do a good job of bringing in some solid beers from Michigan and other parts of the Midwest. I also enjoy the fact that all of their beers come in a mason jar. If you or your significant other is not into beers, they do a bunch of great custom cocktails and they have a solid wine list. Really there is something here for anyone looking to quench their thirst.

I give the food a 5

I give the drinks a 4

Beer Gear: Hydroflask

Hydro Flask

Similar to the food grade steel of The BRÄULER™, but not as modular... The catch? Keeps anything hot for 12hrs. or cold for 24hrs.!

Take back your growlers! No more smashed glass growlers! No more good beer lost in transit!  Light?  Never going to see my beer!

So you are telling me that I can hit the Brewery up in the morning and keep my beer cold till I get home after work and/or from picking up the kids?!  Come one, come all!


You can checkout Hydro Flask's website direct or support your local Indiana Breweries and check out Bier Brewery to snag one!

My 2 Cents:
I have been using mine since I snagged one from Bier Brewery  earlier this year.  I must say it is kinda awesome if not downright temperature resistant!  I stacked it up against the The BRÄULER™ that  Streetcar Bistro and Taproomis is selling out of its taproom.  I think it is almost as good as the BRÄULER™.  I think the Hydro Flask excels at giving you the flexibility to pick up and enjoy your beer cold within 24hrs is a big plus for me.  It really excels when I am on the go and trying to fit in the end of the day beer run for that new limited release beer right after work, but not having the time to take it home before hitting the gym.  If you are like me in this respect, this is the growler to go with!

O-Dawg: 4.5 heads!

The Scene: AMBERgeddon!!!

AMBERgeddon!!!

Winners!

1st:  the RAM - "Buttface Amber"

2nd: Half Moon - Nameless entry

My Favorites of the Event

Flat 12 [who doesn't love a little Joe in their Beer?!]

3Wisemen [This shocked me... Seriously!]  

Shameless I know... Go to their website! 

TheBigGuys card.  

He was looking off of the Professor!

And I got Photo bombed... 

 "Welcome to Mid-EVIL TIMES!"

 That's Right... TheBigGuy wants a slice too or 

did he already eat the other half of the pizza AND Spice Box?!

The Professor with a Chewbacca from 

Der Pretzel Wagon!  Get the Vader TOO! 

"Gggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrlllllll!!!"

Shots are on me! 

Featuring the elusive photo guy, O-Dawg!

I finally know what Michelle was talking about all those years ago...  

JOE!  Being bitter... as usual...   

The Crew! Plus 2 minus 1! 

Swag! 

I dub him SIR Noodle... 

The boy can double pour with the best of em! 

SHEEEp! 

MOOOO! 

Ducks go Quack! 

The molecular structure of this fluid seems to be too volatile to... nope its beer.

Der Pretzel Wagon! 

People!  Not the Brewery... /sadface 

"Which should I vote for?" 

BEER! 

1st:  the RAM - "Buttface Amber"