Thursday, January 30, 2014

Happy Anniversary Fountain Square


It seems like it must be the popular thing to open a brewery in Indiana when it's freezing cold outside! We have been going to anniversary parties and grand openings non-stop, and with the number of great breweries popping up, it doesn't look like it'll be slowing down anytime soon.

This past Friday was the Fountain Square Brewery's second anniversary luau party. I was lucky enough to go to their anniversary party last year by accident with the Little Lady and El Duque. It was so much fun, I had to make sure I didn't miss it this year. The brewery was packed with barely any room to move without shoving someone, but the bartenders did a great job keeping lines moving and getting beer to all the excited patrons. There were two bands, the first one was called Embryonic Fluid and the second one was El Guapo. Surprisingly, I was a big fan of El Guapo. They were a metal surf rock band without a singer... and I promise it was pretty impressive.

The reason I keep coming to Fountain Square's parties is always the beer. This year did not disappoint. They had the following on tap:

-Smoked Porter
-Escape from Alcatraz Bock
-1221 Imperial Stout
-Bourbon Barrel Aged 1221 Imperial Stout
-Flahute Belgian Pale
-Soul Ride IPA
-Count Nibula Chocolate Milk Stout
-Coffee Hour Amber
-Dubbel Dog Dare Belgian Dubbel
-Barrel Aged Belgian Dubbel
-Bourbon Barrel Aged Shelby St. Strong Ale
-HOP YOUR FACE
-Mounds Porter

Last year my favorite beer from these guys was the 1221 Imperial Stout, made in honor of the end of the Mayan world. I liked it so much I had to buy the shirt. (and yes, again I am that guy that wears the brewery shirt to the brewery). This year I was thrilled to see a Barrel Aged version. Sadly, it didn't come out until the end of the night so I'm not comfortable giving it a full review. I can say that I absolutely loved it.

Honorable mentions this year were Bourbon Barrel Aged Shelby St. Strong Ale, and their Smoked Porter. The BBA Shelby St. was rich and complex with a ton of malty toffee goodness. The sweetness balanced out the high ABV and the barrel really mellowed the whole thing. I was also a fan of their smoked porter. At my last tasting it was called Up In Smoke, an obvious nod to Cheech and Chong, but they've since left it at Smoked Porter. Whatever they decide to call it, the beer was great. It has a mild smoked flavor with a great roasty malt bill. Its nice, because its easy drinking even with the smoked flavors. HOP YOUR FACE is always outstanding, and I hope that someday they start bottling it because it would make an amazing seasonal. I think its one of the best DIPAs in town. I was not expecting to like the Mounds Porter, because so far I've been underwhelmed with the amount of coconut flavor most brewers get into the beer. Fountain Square knocked it out of the park. The beer totally tastes like a mounds bar. It would have satisfied anyone's sweet tooth.

The party was awesome. We got a few more Barons there this year, and we really had a blast. Congratulations Fountain Square! Can't wait for next years party.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Daredevil Anniversary Dinner

We have  had some wonderful opportunities to celebrate the anniversaries of several breweries this month. Among those, one of my favorites was a dinner hosted by Daredevil Brewing Co. to celebrate their first anniversary. We joined the Daredevil team at Black Market restaurant down on Mass Ave. at one of the several celebrations they had around town.

The Big Guy and I had high hopes for the menu, having been to Black Market for dinner before. We were definitely not disappointed. It was interesting to compare this dinner to another beer dinner we went to last month. I don't know how the planning for either event was done, but it seemed like the first event we attended was about fitting the beer to the food, but this one was abut selecting a menu that would best highlight the beer. I enjoyed this second approach much more. I think everything fit together better, even when the purpose of the pairing was to bring out the opposite flavors in both. Here's a bit of what I'm talking about. 

We started the dinner with an open reception and our drink of choice. I decided to try the Raspberry Muse, their regular Muse Belgian golden ale infused with raspberries. I'm a sucker for anything raspberry, and this was a great kick off to the whole thing for me. I also ordered another at the end of dinner, firmly locking this beer in place as my favorite of the night.

Our first course was an Indiana perch ceviche with pomegranates served over chicherones. For those of you not familiar with them, chicherones are basically super fancy pork rinds- but fried and light as air. This was paired with their Carnival Saison.


The second course was a red curry poutine paired with Liftoff IPA. The Big Guy loved this one. I definitely enjoyed it, but there was just a little too much heat coming off the curry for me. I'm not great with spciy things, but the hops in Liftoff played really well with the curry. Definitely a pairing I would look for again.

The main course paired a smoked porter with glazed pork cheeks served over vegetables and baked herb polenta. I tried making polenta at home once- emphasis on once. This had a creamy texture and great light flavor to balance out the richness of the pork. The smoke on the porter was light enough to give character, but still allow the beer flavors to come through. A lot of the other smoked beers I've had are almost overwhelmed by the smoke and I sometimes feel like I'm missing the actual beer. Definitely not the case here, and a great compliment to the dish.

Of course there was dessert. We were given fried waffle batter with a trio of citrus fruit preserves, salted chocolate sauce, and creme fraiche. All of this was paired with an American Barley Wine. Between the sauces you could choose for yourself if you wanted to compliment or contrast the flavors in the barley wine.

We had a great time. The food was outstanding, the beer was delicious, and we had some great company at our end of the table. We're so excited to see more Indiana breweries celebrating anniversaries and we're already looking forward to this event next year.

Congratulations and happy anniversary again to everyone over at Daredevil!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Have You Ever Wanted Your Beer to Have a Bit More Kick?


Has the polar vortex been keeping you inside? Have you been wishing for a day over 32 degrees Fahrenheit? Well maybe you just need to start  using the cold to your advantage.

Eisbocks, or ice beers, are beers that have been frozen and then thawed to make them more alcoholic than normal beer. The alcohol thaws fastest, so that is collected and the watery slush is left behind. This makes your beer super fortified. If the name didn't give it away the Germans started this practice back in the 1800's. Its something we continue today, i.e. Keystone Ice, etc. Normally this is done sometime after the fermentation process. Breweries like Brew Dog and Brewmeister in Scotland have used this process to create beers that have higher ABV than a lot of liquors. The current record holder is Sanke Venom at 67.5% alcohol.

I decided I wanted to make my own. A friend, skjellyfetti on IG, did just that, so I followed his lead.

To turn a solid craft beer into a beer liquor bomb of epic ABV, you just set it outside to freeze. It helps when the weather outside is a negative bazillion degrees (-10 most of the day I did it thanks to the snowpocolypse). Once the beer freezes, you bring it somewhere with a standard temperature and let it thaw through a funnel or something else that allows the beer to stand upright and keeps the larger chunks of ice from falling into your glass. The alcoholic part of the beer thaws fastest because it freezes at a lower temperature than water.

Let this thaw until you're left with fairly clear ice in your bottle. Then, what you have left should be a huge alcohol version of whatever you were drinking originally. Note: we haven't added any alcohol or fermented anything extra, all we've done is cut out the watery part of your beer. The part that we separated just gives us more alcohol per sip, providing something between a wine and a liquor with a ton of flavor.

 

I took a Bell's Oracle and a Founders Breakfast Stout and put them out in the Polar Vortex.

The Oracle: I left the Oracle outside for about three hours and it froze pretty solid. I looked for ice in the body of the beer not just the neck. You can see the filtration (above) of the Oracle. We were left with the liquid in the glass and the ice crystals in the bottle. As you can see it was about fifty fifty ice to booze liquid that we've extracted. The extracted beer was basically a hop syrup, almost sticky sweet and tons of hop bitterness.

 

Breakfast Stout: The Breakfast Stout took about four hours and I ended up wrapping a wet paper towel around it, as this helps facilitate the formation of ice crystals according to my scientist friend Parker. When I filtered this out, I got a deep dark chocolaty syrup. It was thick, way thicker than the DIPA. I think this is because the Breakfast Stout was a lower ABV so when we iced it, we got more booze but also more of the sticky sugary elements of the beer. This stuff was good! Wow, I wish I had ice cream to put it over because it was syrupy, sweet and very tasty with a ton of booze.

Now cheer up, this cold isn't all bad!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Green Flash Palate Wrecker Review



Green Flash Brewery is one of the newest breweries to enter Indiana (beginning in July of 2013) and hails from my hometown of San Diego. I'm excited to see a brewery from one of the beer meccas of the world enter the state, and I'm surprised that more San Diego breweries haven't landed here just because of the sheer number of them that exist (~80 and that number pushes to over 100 if you count the ones "in-planning").

Currently, only Stone, Green Flash, Mission, and Lightning (very limited distribution) are around these parts, but there are others that are distributed to surrounding states (e. g. Alesmith and Ballast Point). It's not surprising that Green Flash came to Indiana considering how much they've expanded (distribution in 48 states now) and they're also one of a handful of breweries that are planning on becoming "multi-regional" with a planned 2nd facility in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Green Flash is probably best known for their West Coast IPA. In general their beers are assertively hoppy; and the beer featured in today's review is a prime example of that. Originally brewed for Hamilton's Tavern (a San Diego craft beer landmark) 2nd anniversary, Palate Wrecker is a double IPA that packs in 6 pounds of hops per barrel- I don't know how other IPAs compare, but that sounds like a lot to me.

Within the last couple years Green Flash made Palate Wrecker a regular offering and has plugged it into their new seasonal rotation with the recently released Green Bullet (Sep. - Dec.) and the yet-to-be-released Road Warrior (May - Aug.); Palate Wrecker fills the Jan. - Apr. slot, but watch your bottle dates as April rolls around. 

Review time! Palate Wrecker pours a deep copper with a nice 1-finger beige head; it leaves decent lacing on the glass as I work towards the bottom. The aroma is strong pine, apricot, mango, and citrus. On the tongue all these things are present (along with resin), but the citrus becomes more defined with grapefruit pith and lemon. The malts aren't too present in the aroma, but in the taste there are notes of biscuits and caramel. Lastly there's a good dose of booziness, which is somewhat surprising considering this "only" clocks in at 9.5% ABV. The mouthfeel is medium to heavy, with soft carbonation, and a slow drying finish that also warms a bit. 

This beer is brutally bitter and lives up to it's name. I drink IPAs probably 2:1 over all other styles combined, but this was numbing even my taste buds. Personally I enjoy it's stablemate Green Bullet much more as the hop flavors come through more than the hop bite. That said I think this is a well done beer, and would recommend it to those who want to be punched in the mouth (by hops of course). 3/5

The Big Guy: I agree with the Brewnibomber. I've only had the Green Flash beers that we've been able to get here in Indy since their release last year. That being said, I was a big fan of Green Bullet, their last seasonal DIPA, so I had great expectations for this one. I've heard a lot of hype about it in the past from friends who've tried it and confirmed that it truly lives up to its name. After drinking a couple, I can attest to the fact that it does. It was one of the most agressively hopped IPAs I've ever had.

I know when you call an IPA "Palate Wrecker", I probably shouldn't be talking about balance, but that was my big problem here. It reminded me of RuinTen by Stone, but I felt it lacked the complexity of flavor to carry that big angry hop bomb. It was a good beer, and an interesting experience, but I'm glad I only got 1 four-pack. I give it a 3.5 for daring.
 
More Reviews:
 
Resources:

http://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/packaging-distribution/green-flash-brewing-distribution-debuts-indiana/
https://www.google.com/#q=what+san+diego+breweries+distribute+to+indiana%3F

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Flat 12 Winter Cycle Review

Winter Cycle is Flat 12's annual release that coincides with their anniversary party. This year's release will be the 3rd edition (I can count!) of this big (9.3% abv) hoppy (107 ibu) beer. To be exact this is a double IPA, with "6 hop varieties from 3 continents and "it's like Half-Cycle's pissed off viking cousin." according to Flat 12. Winter Cycle is only available in the taproom and is sold in 4-packs.

This is the first year that I've gone to the party or purchased Winter Cycle, but it always seems like this is a release that flies under the radar. Maybe the epic-ness of the party overshadows it or maybe it's because most Indianapolis beer releases outside of Sun King tend to be quiet events, whatever the case I wanted to make sure I grabbed some before starting in on the rare party offerings. 

Into the glass this pours a cloudy reddish-orange with a 1-finger beige head. There's lots of suspended particles that hang out in there (as you can see in the picture), and leaves nice lacing as you work your way through the beer. Aromas of onion, juniper, and grapefruit smack you in the nostrils. Much of the same notes are in the taste along with honey, biscuit malts, and a finish of grapefruit and earthy bitterness- yep this is Half Cycle's angry viking cousin all right. This is medium-bodied, with not much carbonation, and a dry finish. 

To me this and Half Cycle have very distinct onion and herbal notes, which is not my preferred hop profile, but I can also appreciate that this is a well crafted DIPA. 3.5/5

The Big Guy: I will be upfront and say that I love most of what Flat 12 does, but Half Cycle is not my cup of tea. I also don't really like gin and the whole juniper berry flavor in general. Needless to say I was a bit nervous about picking up a four pack of Winter Cycle, DIPA with juniper, this year at the anniversary party. Lucky for me I was pleasantly surprised. Winter Cycle was really quite tasty. The hops were well balanced by the big malt character of the double IPA. The juniper berries blended very well with the rest of the hop profile not overpowering anything. All in this had a very winter flavor to it which is great because standard IPAs always make me think of summer. Flat 12 did an outstanding job making a big DIPA that feels like the season. This thing is basically perfect for fighting the snowpocolypse! I'm going to agree with Brewnibomber and give it a 3.5



Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Outliers: Exceptional Indiana Open House

Outliers Brewing Company  has been burning up the Twittersphere with their hashtag #ExceptionalIndianaBeer. Because of all the hype, I really wanted to see what they were bringing to Indianapolis with their beer and their vibe.

Between the open house and them doing some tap takeovers at various bars, I've been able to try their Buffalo Jacket IPA, Whitcomb Rye and their County Brown. So far, all the beers have been worth trying. I was especially impressed by the County Brown. Its a surprisingly flavorful session beer. Not mostly sessionable, it's totally sessionable, all the way down at 4% ABV. They did an awesome job giving it some serious flavor in such a low ABV package. Now, I really haven't had enough of their beer to do a full review, but we will get to one in the near future. 
I can tell you that their open house party was exceptional. They had all four house beers on tap. The brewing space is huge, and it was set up with tons of room for people to hang out and drink brews. Der Pretzel Wagon, O-Dawg's favorite food truck, was parked inside of the brewing space. They brought in a DJ, a photo booth (see picture above) and some cool games. There was a frisbee golf tee set up that gave attendees the opportunity to win some brand new Outliers glassware. They were selling merch up front in a little shop area next to the production brewing spot. 

Sadly, I was only able to stay for a little bit, but everyone was having a great time. They party was great, and I really look forward to seeing what else these guys put out there.


The BrewniBomber: Yes, yes a lot of us having been poking fun at the Outliers' hashtag. Questionable marketing aside, I've been looking forward to seeing their space and trying more of their beer.

I've had their IPA and the brown, which are both decent, but I'd been hearing that the Whitcomb rye was generating some buzz so I grabbed that at the open house. The rye had some peppery notes (as expected), but I also picked up on some citrus notes as well even though Outliers calls this a "rye beer" and not a rye-PA, which has become popular of late (think Sierra Nevada Ruthless). I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind revisiting it again in the future.

As the Big Guy mentioned, the open house was fun and my favorite part was the disc golf. I usually play disc golf every day during Spring-Fall, so a chance to play to win glassware? Right up my alley. Ironically, I was the last of the 3 in our group to win. Overall the setup was nice and I could see the place being a popular spot in the Mass Ave area once the taproom opens up full-time in late February.

Outliers seems to be a part of a new wave of breweries that put a lot of focus on marketing, promotion, and merchandise... I just hope they will make some beer that lives up to all that. They're off to a good start, but hopefully once established they'll push past the 4 standard offerings they have now.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Fistful of Hops Winter Release



A few months ago I reviewed Fistful of Hops Fall Release. Now we have the Winter IPA by the guys at Sun King. Fistful of Hops addresses the difficulties of getting hops year round, by using the same malt bill in each version but changing the hops up by season. This makes the IPA different each quarter, but still kind of the same. It's a really cool experiment related to how changing the hop profile completely changes a beer.

I was a big fan of the fall release as you can see in the post linked above, and had high expectations for the winter release when I heard it was going to feature Chinook and Centennial hops, because my homebrew IPA uses a ton of Centennial hops. I think they are the classic IPA hops, and no matter how many cool new varieties come out it will always hold a special place on my tongue. This one is a lot like the last release, nice smooth light malt bill with a big old "fistful of hops." It pours out a beautiful light golden color with a thick white head on top. It smells awesome, with a huge hit of that Centennial hop citrus aroma.

This release was super smooth. The malts and the hops complimented each other nicely. There was just enough bitterness to let you know it was a heavily hopped beer without being over powering. Now don't get me wrong, this beer has 70 IBUs and is by no means a malt forward beer. It has a really nice heavy hop profile, but the specific blend has a lot of flavor without too much bitter kick in the teeth. Some of you might appreciate that, others might not.

Now to kick it up a notch, we decided to run Fistful of Hops Winter through the Randall. For those of you who don't know what a Randall is, its a term for a hop infuser. It is like making tea. You have a "water bottle" like device with a strainer on top of it. You put whatever you want to infuse your beer with in the bottom then add the beer. You let it sit like this for fifteen or twenty minutes to soak up some of that added flavor. A lot of breweries use them to give their IPAs a big fresh hop kick. We used Dog Fish Heads Randall Jr. but instead of filling this contraption up with hops, we used fresh grapefruit, since we all love the Grapefruit Jungle by Sun King.

Using a Randall doesn't always make your beer better. You can get some really weird combinations, but this time we hit gold. The infusion blended perfectly with the already existing IPA. The grapefruit added a subtle yet bright sweet and tart flavor. It played off the hops nicely and really turned out wonderful. If you don't have a Randal, you can get similar results from a French press coffee maker and even soaking your beer than straining it. The Randall really made this beer shine big time for me. On its own though, I would give it a solid 4.







The BrewniBomber: A lot of breweries having been playing with "single hop" beers to highlight how hops varieties are so different. While this is not quite the same, I'm glad to see Sun King experiment with a "hop series" of their own, especially using an IPA recipe (I think SK does IPAs well, but hasn't done enough regulars).

This beer pours copper with gold highlights and a fluffy 3-finger off-white head. Leaves some lacing behind, but less than I would've expected. Taking a whiff I get pine, herbal notes, grapefruit... and do I smell a bit of smokiness?

Sipping gives grapefruit and a nice bready malt before finishing with some flowery bitterness. The smokiness is still there and reminds me of a bit of peat (Chinook?). I would never call this beer "smoky" and this isn't a major note anyway- it's just barely there, but adds something distinct. The mouthfeel is light and clean with good carbonation before finishing slightly dry.

I generally prefer my IPAs to be more citrusy (I liked our Randall version better), but this beer is so well balanced with a clean hop bite that it's hard not to like it. The (very) light herbal smokiness I get may be all in my tongue, but it's interesting. 4/5.

Professor Beer:
The Fistful of Hops Winter Release featured Centennial and Chinook hops, which I generally associate with overly bitter beers.  Unfortunately, the Winter Release was no exception; the bitterness overpowered most of the other flavor.  I much preferred the Fistful of Hops Fall Release, and I'm looking forward to what the other seasons bring.

However, I do agree that our Randalled version worked very well, making the bitterness less overpowering.  Randalling the Fistful of Hops Winter Release with grapefruit improved my rating by more than a full head.

I give the normal (un-Randalled) Winter Release:







For more reviews and other perspectives about this beer, check it out on Beer Advocate.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Love & Hip-Hops

You know how much all of us at the Beer Barons enjoy sharing craft beer. Fortunately, we have some great friends who are willing to let us share with them. From time to time we'll bring you a guest post featuring their opinions and experiences. Today's guest post comes from a good friend and colleague of El Duque.

Science and I don’t get along very well. However, I am quite a fan of beers so when the two are mixed together…actually I do not know what I would get, but what I do know is that beer makes science tolerable, especially when drinking it is involved. As a result, I decided to do a little science experiment with El Duque involving ten different types of hops and a case of Bud Light. More specifically, we took our ten hops added roughly a gram to various Bud Light bottles and let them sit in the fridge overnight. Now if I were you I would be asking two questions: “why do I want to hear about the taste of Bud Light?” and “wait, wasn’t it flat?”

The first question I'm going to have to answer with another question. What does Bud Light taste like?...NOTHING and that's the point. Bud Light's flavor and aroma are next to none; because of that, we can get an actual sense of the hops without worrying about any other flavors of significant influence our senses. Really any type of light beer would work for this experiment. As for the second question, we saved all of the bottle caps and after adding each hop pellet we recapped and put it back in the fridge. This conserved a majority of the carbonation.

After we tried every bottle, we separately wrote down the aroma and taste of the beer and then discussed. Below are the ten different styles of hops and my impressions of each one.

1. Motueka - This hop has a light prune aroma and leaves a very light lemon-lime coating on the palate. Its flavor was subtle and is clearly meant to add a nice aroma and not any significant tastes or bittering.

2. Amarillo - The smell has light citrus floral notes. While I could smell and taste undertones of grapefruit, orange was the dominant flavor. It also had a light-medium level of bitterness that did not overpower my pallet. It reminded me a lot of the hops Centennial and Simcoe, but more on that later.

3. Citra - It had very light passion fruit, citrus and grapefruit, notes in both taste and aroma. It had low levels of bitterness. There is really not much to say about this one. Its name does all the work for me.

4. Mosaic - Mosaic has a fantastic smell, a very strong tropical fruit flavor and medium bitterness. It tasted as if someone set off an atomic fruit bomb in my mouth. This resulted in two sentiments. First the bitterness was suppressed by the fruit flavor and secondly, I more smell it than drink it. In relation to other hops, it tasked like Citra on roids.

5. Falconers Flight - Its floral characteristics were lemon and grapefruit. While the flavor and bitterness level were lacking, it was clearly intended to add more aroma than anything else. It is important to note that Falconers Flight is a hop blend and while the recipe is a secret, it was created as an aroma hop. It was probably my favorite aroma out of all the hops used.

6. Nelson - This hop had a bright white grape taste but added little aroma. It almost tasted like watery white wine with a smooth bitter taste that lingered on the pallet.

7. Simcoe - Just like the Mosaic, the Simcoe reminded me of the Citra except more bitter and with a more subtle aroma. Since the aroma was so subtle, I was left disappointed.

8. Centennial - What I enjoyed about the Centennial hop was that it had a great flowery aroma, citrus taste and could be used to add higher levels of bitterness. It basically tastes like a more intense Cascade hop. I know I am not reviewing that particular type of hop, however, if you have ever tried a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, then you have experienced Cascade first hand (in case you haven’t tried it, imagine a lot of grapefruit and mild hops levels).

9. Palisade - Palisade had one of the most interesting tastes to me, mostly because it was so different. Its flavor and aroma were both subtle and complex, leaving my taste buds asking for more. What stood out the most to me were the earthy and sweetly floral notes that paired elegantly with the citrus undertones. While it was probably my favorite tasting hop used, I wish it was slightly more bitter.

10. Columbus - Last but not least, the Columbus hop. This reminded me of Centennial’s taste, but with earthy undertones to the citrus and slightly more bitterness. In addition, its aroma was where most of the earthiness could be found and smelled bitterer than it tasted.

Now we have to ask ourselves, “What have we learned?” For starters, I always thought that the big attraction towards hops was bitterness. According to this experiment, great hops do not equal strong levels of bitterness. So then why do the bitterest beers always have a hoppy pun title? Well there are two reasons.

The first, and simpler to explain reason, is that I bought hops that were more known for aroma/taste. This feeds nicely into the second reason, putting the hops in beer that has already undergone the brewing process (and at least begun fermentation) is a hoping method called ‘dry hopping’ and brewers do not typically use dry hopping to achieve strong levels of bitterness. Rather, they add hops during the boiling process. The longer you boil hops, the more bitter the beer will become (maybe I will go into more of the science behind this in a later post, if you are lucky). However, what dry hopping does add is the hops aroma. There is some taste involved, but I felt as if it was because I was tasting the aroma.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Harwood Myth

Porter was invented by Ralph Harwood as a substitute for "three threads"... or at least that's what most beer writers have been parroting since 1802. In 1802, John Feltham put out a guidebook called The Picture of London, including a section on porters (which was appropriate, it being an extremely popular style of beer in London at the time). Feltham made this claim about the origins of porter, which is not backed up by any evidence. This origin story was most likely based on a lack of technical knowledge and a misunderstanding of terminology by Feltham, explaining why there are no sources in the over eighty years since the origin of porter and Feltham's claim. So, despite the claims of most histories of porter for the last 200 years, Ralph Harwood inventing porter is a myth, leading to another origin story (or the origin of a name, at least):

Urban Chestnut's Harwood Myth is an English-style, Brown Porter with 5.5% ABV and 28 IBU.

I enjoyed Harwood Myth served from a bottle. It poured a very dark brown (not terribly surprising, it being a porter). The thick, light tan head had good retention and lacing. The nose had roasty malts. Harwood Myth has nice roasty and malty flavors, and finishes with some chocolate and a very light hoppiness. It had medium carbonation, and a light body (possibly a little too light).

I have always found many beers labeled as porters to be much more light-bodied than I'm expecting based on their aroma and flavor (I'm not going to get started on the difference (or lack thereof) between porters and stouts). This has always been a little bit off-putting, but I found Harwood Myth to be a very good porter.  I'll be keeping an eye out for Harwood Myth at my local stores.

I gave it a 4.








The Big Guy: This was a pretty impressive version of a porter. So often dark beers turn into big sweet malt bombs. Not true with Harwood Myth. This porter from UCBC has huge roasted flavors. It comes off like unsweetened dark chocolate, roasty notes and some nutty flavors. The body is surprisingly light and crisp, which is very nice. Its almost sessionable, but it packs a ton of complex flavors in a very easy drinking brew. This is a very complex and tasty 3.5








References:
Martyn Cornell, "Porter Myths and Mysteries", Brewery History.
"Porter (beer)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 10 Jan. 2014.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Congratulations Daredevil!

Congratulations Daredevil on your first birthday!!! These guys have lit the Central Indiana scene on fire since they opened up in Shelbyville IN, and have done an awesome job here in Indianapolis for a brewery an hour plus away from the city. They've brought out some great beers in kegs and even started canning their flag ship IPA, Lift Off all in their first year. What a huge accomplishment for a new brewery. These guys are a growing juggernaut around here, and I can't wait to see whats next.

If you haven't made one of the stops already you should check out their anniversary tour. Yes, as you can see on the left, I am the guy who wears the shirt of the band to the concert, PCU be damned.



The anniversary parties will be at:
  • Tomilson Tap Room on January 17th
  • The Tap on January 18th
  • Black Market on January 20th (rsvp for this one)
  • Pizzology Pizzaria and Pub January 21st

Each party has a some special brews put together by Daredevil and some fun pint glasses with their anniversary tour info on them. This will make an awesome set of vertical glassware when there are six years worth of this glass. A few of the Barons braved the snow last week and went to the first event at 20 Tap. Sadly the Rare Devil beer wasn't finished so we didn't get to try it. Even without the rare beer, we were treated to Lift Off, Muse, JWP American Stout and Carnival Saison. This may not shock any of you, but I'm a huge fan of the JWP. Its a big bold stout, but still drinkable. I will be hitting up the Black Market dinner on the 20th with the Little Lady and the Brewnibomber. We will let you know how it goes! Cheers!

 



Monday, January 13, 2014

BREWniversity: The Hangover

No this is not going to be a movie review. Since everyone just finished with their New Year's Eve celebrations, I'm willing to bet there were a lot of people who woke up with the all too familiar pains of the hangover. Since this is a problem that affects beer drinkers, wine drinkers and your every day alcoholics all the same, I thought it might be important to show you some remedies to cure this most vile of self induced illness.

A hangover is anything from a nasty headache (normally caused by dehydration or constricted blood vessels due to alcohol), an upset stomach (because boozing causes your stomach to produce more acids) or even some crazy amount of disorientation and general foggy mindedness.



Before you drink: Make sure you have a solid base. This means eat something with plenty of carbs and protein. This is helpful in two ways. First off the prime cause of a hangover is the acetldehyde a toxic chemical the body filters out of booze. A big meal allows the body to absorb the toxins a little bit more slowly and at an even rate. That way the bad stuff doesn't hit you to hard. Secondly it gives you a good base that makes it so you can't pound beers too fast because your already a little bit full.

While you drink: Drink water while your drinking beer. A guy in my tasting group drinks a full glass of water for every glass of beer he puts down. Yeah sure, he pees every five minutes, but it forces him to pace how much alcohol he's drinking as well as keeps him hydrated. The more beer you drink, the more dehydrated you get. This leads you to start drinking brews faster and faster and even the most experience beer drinker can become a out of control freight train of fun.

Before you go to bed: Take a multivitamin and if your hangover normally has a belly ache along with it make sure you pop a few tums. Stay up a little bit longer, and maybe even do something to keep your metabolism going strong. This helps work the booze out of your system. Drunken sex, although sloppy, does a great job getting the blood flowing before you pass out. Doing this before you go to sleep helps mitigate the pain you'll feel in the morning.

When you wake up: HYDRATE! hydrate is the number one way to fight your hangover. Now most of you are saying, "no shit." Every freshman college student in the dorm knows this. What you may not know is to avoid coffee. Caffeine and other substances in coffee cause it to dehydrate you big time. Now while you think you're getting yourself back to normal all you're doing is continuing to dry your body out.  Coffee also irritates the stomach and can accent any queezy feelings you had before. Chemicals in alcohol make you seem hungrier than you actually are. What your body really needs is sugars, not necessarily food. Drink sugary juices with plenty of vitamins. Avoid fried or fatty foods... this is my favorite hangover cure but it really doesn't work. Trying to digest fats puts extra strain on your stomach and can make you feel sick longer. Fats may be a no no but salts are a must. Make sure you start replacing the salts in your body just like Olympic runners have to do. This makes energy drinks great for re-hydrating after a long bender.

So to hell with the science. Sometimes an old wives tale is better than modern medicine right? I decided to ask everyone to pass on their personal hangover remedies:

The Big Guy: My remedy has always been scrambled eggs with plenty of salt, on toast with a huge glass of juice. I'm also a big fan of tums and ibuprofen, some people avoid pills but I embrace modern medicine as much as possible.

The Little Lady: My remedy comes from my mother, who's a former nun so you know it has to be good. She and I both swear by cheeseburgers, super salty fries with extra ketchup, and the largest cola product you can find. I also add in a long shower to help jump-start the rehydration process.

El Duque: I don't usually get hungover, so when I do, it's pretty severe, so I have a multi-step process to kick my ass some more.

1.) Brunch: I know that fats only increase the amount of time a hangover lasts, but the delicious grease in a big brunch of salty eggs, bacon, and taters helps calm the tumultuous stomach.
2.) The Holy Trinity: Water, Coffee, Greyhound (vodka and grapefruit juice).  Some people like a Bloody Mary, but I like the sweetness of the juice to help with recovery and balance out the salty umami of my brunch.  Hair of the Dog doesn't really help, but the addition of fresh, unprocessed alcohol makes the liver switch to the easier breakdown of unprocessed alcohol and not its byproducts, so it gives me a small window to cram my body full of water and nutrients before the hangover comes back.
3.) Post Meal Recovery: Beer stein of cold water, coconut water if I have the gumption to get some, and a BCAA drink.

By the end of this now routine process, I have all the wonderful sugars, salts, proteins, and essential and non-essential amino acids to help my body recover from me poisoning it.

Guest Suggestions:

Beerdaddyblog: You can see all of his opinions at his blog, but he swears by Pedialyte in between beers. Its a unique way of double fisting.

Redheadedfilm: My film making brother, needs energy drinks and a nice long run. Getting electrolytes back into the body and then forcing oxygen into your muscles helps sweat out the toxins.

D_jermz: Menudo, mexican soup made with cow stomach,

Gsimonson01: Eat before you sleep. Then put a huge glass of water by your bed, and everytime you wake up to use the little boys room, take a drink of the water. Follow it all up with a big ass breakfast including a banana and coffee.

Mreyez1: Three Excedrin migraine or tension headache and a bottle of pedialyte, followed by a bomb ass burger and fries from Five Guys.

Marathondan: Nuun Hydration, I use it for running. It works equally well for hangover prevention / recovery. Also, a Hoosier classic, biscuits and gravy in the morning.

Jake from HBG: Arizona Sweet Tea


Bibliography:
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/interactive/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=487&g2_tab_id
http://greatist.com/health/13-legit-ways-stop-hangover
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/5089.php

Thursday, January 9, 2014

All Tied Up With Figure 8 Brewing

Recently, Figure Eight Brewing had a tap takeover at Tomlinson Tap room and the Barrons were invited to come enjoy their beers and hang with their head brewer, Mike Lahti.  I tried to remember where I had consumed their brews before, as they have had only a peppering of taps in Indy.  Then I remembered that somehow, through the gossamer daze that was the Microbrewers Fest this summer in Broad Ripple, I had liked their beers enough to drink two of them... out of the 55 I had that day.

The best part about writing about beer is that most people in the industry are exceptionally charismatic, or contain that "I'll do what I want" cowboy attitude that usually comes off as genuine, not asinine.  Figure 8 and Lahti are a wonderful example of when those two attitudes of passion and fuck all come together and express them perfectly in the brews they make, and the culture they create.

"Everyone squat low so that Lahti looks tall!"
I started with the usual brewer first pitch.  What did you do before you became a brewer and how did you get started?  Lahti's answer was surprisingly interesting.  He began his career as a Wildlife Biologist specializing in wolves.  Epic.  Home brewing was not the usual gateway for him as it is a lot of guys these days.  "I've probably home brewed maybe three times?  It's just not something that interests me." he explained.  A true brewing professional, he cut his teeth at breweries around the US and locally at Upland before heading up Figure 8.  Lahti brings a clean professionalism made obvious in his beers.

This naturally led into a discussion of where he felt F8 fit into the brewery belt buckle that wraps around Lake Michigan and that Northern Indiana is lucky to be apart of.  He elaborated on about how awesome it is to be in that path and how with new and exciting breweries popping up in Michigan as well and NW Indiana, a "Beer Trail" similar to the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky has formed.  "Just from Chicago to Grand Rapids, you can hit twelve solid breweries." Lahti explained.  Despite this regional coagulation of craft breweries, Lahti is looking elsewhere for future collaborations.  Lahti explained it well,  "I'm looking to collaborate with breweries out of state.  Bring new, awesome beer here and bring our name into another state."

Given the Midwest's German brewing heritage, to follow, or not to follow style is always the question.   "I make beer that I want to drink.  I haven't won any awards, or medals, but my sales numbers and production numbers are telling me that I am making good beer." Lahti told me with his index finger emphasizing the well made point his excited eyes were making.  "I'll look at the style guides and I'll follow them... and then I deviate."  This fiery, Grateful Dead lovin' brewer won me over with his "no fucks given" attitude.  It exuded from him as more of a confidence in his craft and a pride in his artistry and business, which was totally backed up by the beers I was drinking between Lahti's smiled filled answers.

The crew at F8 are a warm and welcoming bunch
With cans becoming more prevalent in the brewing world, the question of "Cans or Bottles?" has become the brewers equivalent of "Boxers or Briefs?"  Lahti was very eloquent about his reasoning.  Right now they're bottling, but they want to switch to cans because he likes the light-fastness and because of their proximity to Dunes State Park, where glass is not allowed, it would mean people could take F8 beer with them to their beach excursion.  Working with that same fact, Lahti is trying to get Nalgene growlers at the brew pub so that people could even bring growlers, not just bullets, to the park.  Great to see the Wildlife Biologist has never left his heart.

The future is bright for F8.  New production ideas, and creating out of state connections to make more awareness of other low flying breweries are all adding up to what looks like a great few years for F8.  Lahti, who confesses that Belgians are his favorite to drink and brew, bolsters his passion and genuine pride by spending a majority of the conversation praising other brewers and breweries in the state and abroad.  When asked who his personal favorite brewer in Indiana is: "Liz (Laughlin) at (Rock Bottom) College Park.  Hands down best brewer in Indiana."

The crew at F8 are a warm and welcoming bunch.  Bolstered by their great beers, the conversation was easy and jovial.  I don't know how many times, in the midst of laughing, the phrase, "That's off the record." was uttered.  Figure 8 has definitely left an impression.  Those from the North I'm sure already know this, but I cannot wait until F8 beers like Ro Shampo or Raven Tor start to penetrate the already saturated and competitive Indianapolis market... and succeed.




Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Happy Anniversary Flat 12 Bierwerks!


We had the opportunity to go celebrate this weekend with the team at Flat 12 as they celebrated their third anniversary. Between the company, the uncensored tour through the actual brewery, and a truly impressive beer list, we couldn't help but have a great time.

It all started at 10:45 when the Big Guy and I parked the car right in front of their door for the 11 o'clock festivities. Yup, we were basically first in line for everything.

Not that we totally planned it this way, but it gave us a chance to pick up some swag and fill a growler (or two) and then put everything in the car so that our hands were free to shake, high-five, and of course- hold beer.

There was so much beer, so many unique varieties, so many different things that I'd never had before. It was a list that rivals some festivals we've attended. If you look to the left, you can see a picture of the beer list we were given when we arrived. It was huge, and yes we took notes. There was a map on the other side of the areas where different beers were stationed, and even where the live music would be. It had everything!

We tried as many as we wanted to, and as many as I could handle safely since I was driving, and had a few stand outs.  Among the notable brews of the day were:
  • Haggard Jo, Jo Brahma a brown ale/milk stout hybrid with coffee aged in bourbon barrels
  • Majestic Emu, the Walkabout Pale Ale aged in Imperial Magpie barrels from New Day Meadery (we brought some home in a growler)
  • Briar Patch Pinko 23, Russian Imperial Stout aged in 23 year Pappy Van Winkle barrels with raspberries and blackberries
We also brought home a four-pack of the Winter Cycle Double IPA, which is a wintery version of their Half Cycle IPA with juniper and 6 different types of hops.

The Big Guy: The thing people have to understand about Flat 12 is that when they throw a party, they THROW A FREAKING PARTY! This anniversary party had more beer options than a lot of the smaller suburban festivals that are springing up. There were more than 50 different beers, mostly variations on their already excellent brews.

My favorites were almost all variations on their existing beers. Each one of these is amazing, all different amounts of 5 rated beers.

My favorite beers of the festival were:
  • Haggard Jo, Jo Brahma a brown ale/milk stout hybrid with coffee aged in bourbon barrels
  • Briar Patch Pinko 23, Russian Imperial Stout aged in 23 year Pappy Van Winkle barrels with raspberries and blackberries
  • Dark and Stormy Milk Stout, Lacto-Matic with ginger and black rum soaked oak chips
The beers were epic, but the really impressive part of the party is how all out Flat 12 goes out for their fans. They had live music. They had food trucks everywhere. The brewers were out in force shaking hands and talking to the people. They guys that work there were kind enough to give us a full tour of the brewing area and their barrel aging program. It was one of the best parties I've been to in a long time. Thanks for doing it right Flat 12.

Professor Beer:  Flat 12's 3rd Anniversary Celebration was a great time, with a truly impressive beer list.  Fortunately, they were offering 3 oz. pours of the beers, as there would have been no way to try most of the over 50 beers drinking full pints.  In addition to the beer, Flat 12 was offering complementary Smoking Goose appetizers.

Some of my favorite beers of the party were:
  • Briar Patch Pinko 23 - I'm not surprised this made The Little Lady's and The Big Guy's lists as well.
  • Wine Barrel Farmageddon - There were several excellent barrel-aged versions of Flat 12's Farmageddon Black Rye Farmhouse Ale.
  • Haggard Jo - Another one you will notice above.
I'd also like to give an honorable mention to a couple sours that barely missed the list:
  • MUDDER Funker - Blend of two sour stouts aged in bourbon barrels.
  • Jailbait Brown - Sour brown ale with tart cherries.
El Duque: Flat 12's creativity is never really lacking, but it was definitely on show.  To quote Flat 12's sexiest employee, Erik Fox, "I work here and I haven't seen half these beers!"  I was blown away with how many there were it was like a mini festival.  In addition to everyone's favorite of the Briar Patch Pinko, Majestic Emu and Haggard Jo, my favorites were also:


  • Nitro 2013 Rye Barrel Big Black Dog 68 - American Style Rye Stout aged in Rye Whiskey Barrels.  So smooth and perfect for the cold weather.
  • Farmaryemageddon - Black Rye French Farmhouse Ale aged in Corsair Ryemegeddon Barrels.  Such a perfect balance of booze and intense flavors.
  • Kiwi Saison- wonderfully crisp with the sour kiwi to complement the farmhouse funk.
Honorable mention: Strawberry Moustache Ride Red - There were so many BIG BEERS there that these little notes of balanced sweet and ale really stood out and gave contrast to a great selection of close to 60 beers.

The BrewniBomber: I'd have to say this is one of the best events I've been to and it's going to take a lot for someone else to top this in 2014. As everyone has said already the beer list was amazing, but I'd have to say my favorite parts were getting to talk to people in the indy beer scene and going on an impromptu "special" tour of the brewery... I got to see (but not touch) Josh's barrels! Plus I finally got a Flat 12 snifter!!

My favorite beers of the day?
  • Haggard Jo
  • Farmaryemageddon (took a growler home of this)
  • Triple Smoke Barrel Aged 12 Penny. A scottish session ale aged in Corsair Artisan Distillery Triple Smoke whisky barrels. 


Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Three Floyd's Permanent Funeral Review

In a day and age where IPAs and Double IPAs run rampant, it takes a lot for one to stick out. Fortunately Three Floyds is really good at sticking out, whether it's their label artwork, beer names, metal band collaborations, or more importantly their beers. Permanent Funeral is one FFF's latest metal band collaborations with Pig Destroyer (do the bands actually show up to the brewery and help?) and is labeled as a "pale ale". While yes, it is pale and an ale, it is most certainly not in the "pale ale" category and recently won silver at GABF in the Imperial IPA category.

The beer pours a golden orange with a dense 2-finger off-white head that leaves some lacing. Lots of fruit-forward hop notes with tangerine, pineapple, and mango; in general there's some nice robust bitterness here. There are some honey and biscuit notes provided by the malts that lend some balance and sweetness... and let's not forget some decent booziness as well. The body leans towards the heavy side, but soft carbonation and a dry finish keep it from getting too syrupy.
Overall this is a fantastic double IPA or pale ale (yeah right) and is definitely worth seeking out in short order. 4.5/5

The Big Guy: Damn I love this beer! This one won a silver medal at the GABF this year and it totally deserves it. Big tangerine, apricot and mango flavors make this sweet and bitter in a great way. The malt back bone is just slight enough to highlight the big hops and really make them the star. The beer is 10.5 abv and its really well hidden. The big citrus flavors do a great job hiding the heat. I give it a big time 4.5

O-Dawg: I had heard about this brew a few weeks after Dark Lord Day 2013. I was told that 3Floyds was pairing up with metal bands to put out some great beers. Naturally I was interested. I had made a trip or two up to Munster, IN to see if I could snag one for myself. After a lot of misses I got a hit and had it on draft. To quantify: Think Pliny the Elder/Heady Topper only WAY better! Sweet citrusy, sour pucker finish, slight resin/pine, acidic rind finish. Rivals Grapefruit Jungle and single-handedly beats the socks off Stone's Ruination and "Enjoy By" series. Because of the silver at GABF this is going to be one of those bombers you will have to pay in the $15 range. I give it a 5

Monday, January 6, 2014

POURsuasion: Dating and Getting Fresh with Beer

No, I'm not suggesting you take your favorite beer for a night out on the town... maybe a movie, some dinner, someone gets a little drunk and the wax comes off... okay no. What I'm suggesting is that more, if not all breweries, need to start putting "bottled on" or "drink by" dates on their packaging.

There's been a lot of things that have been bugging me that have led to this post; the most troubling incident happened over the Christmas break while in was Michigan. The girlfriend and I were visiting her family for the holidays and as usual I was trying to escape the house to track down beers not available to me here in Indiana... I know I know DRINK ONLY WHAT'S AVAILABLE HERE!!! (that's a rant for another day).

Of particular interest this trip was Lagunitas Sucks, which is their highly acclaimed double IPA/Hoppy strong ale/style-bending beer. I knew that the beer was recently released in early December, but not being familiar with Michigan distribution patterns or the best stores, I wasn't sure when Sucks was going to show up in SE Michigan. I headed to the store that was recommended to me as a close and decent option and luckily I found one last 6-pack of Sucks on the shelf and purchased that along with some local beers. At the register I asked the liquor store clerk how old the Sucks was, to which he replied "maybe a couple months?". I thought this was odd considering Sucks should've only been a couple weeks old, but I chalked it up to the clerk not being familiar with all of their beers and when they came in. I also didn't think to check for a bottling date so off I went with the beer. I got back to the place where I was staying and noticed that there was beer residue down the side of one of the bottles. I use to work in the beer industry so I know that this likely means the beer got dropped at some point and foamed over; this wasn't freshly spilled sticky residue either, this was crusty dried discolored stuff. I started to wonder how old this beer really was, so I started checking for a bottle date. After some internet research I found a ten digit number on the bottle of the neck (actually 2 different numbers depending on the bottle):

0379010340 and 0379010350

Let me pause here for a second to make a point about bottle dating. It shouldn't look like numbers that are apart of the Pi sequence. Make it easy for people to figure out when the beer was bottled (Lagunitas has since switched to an easier, but not completely clear date format).

After about 15 minutes of research and requesting help from the online beer community, I found out that the beer was from Feb 6th 2013 (or thereabouts)... so nearly a year old and way past it's prime. There was no way I was going to drink a 10 month old beer that is meant to be consumed fresh. I was pretty upset about being sold a potentially "damaged" and out of date beer, and also being lied to about how old it was, so I was going to do something I've never done... I was going to try and return beer. I went back to the store that night and talked to the clerk I bought it from; luckily he was understanding and was willing to let me exchange it for other beer. I really wanted to try something different from Lagunitas since I like their beer and haven't had the opportunity to try that much of it. 

I looked through all the Lagunitas beers on the shelf (about 6-7 different ones) and just about all of them were bottled at least 6 months ago, but I did end up with some Brown Shugga since it was only 6 weeks old. After telling the clerk that nearly all his Lag beers were past prime, he still claimed that his distributor brought him the Sucks 2 months ago and that he's had "other problems with them", like receiving 2012 Goose Island BCBS instead of 2013 (that doesn't sound like a problem to me). As I was leaving with my new beer the clerk said he was going to sort through the Lagunitas stock and "do something with the old beer". I may not shop at that store again, but I may go back to see if that old beer is still there.

This long winded story has a point- It's difficult for breweries to always ensure that the consumer is getting the freshest beer possible. This is especially critical with certain beers that are intended to be consumed fresh, especially if that beer is halfway around the country. It is my opinion that the best ways to police beer freshness is put a "bottled on" date on the packaging. This will help distributors, stores, and consumers. Let's look at this from the bottom up.

Consumers- Some beers taste better properly aged, but "drink fresh beers (DFBs)" taste okay at best past when old and some taste awful- I've poured many a beer down the drain because it was old and I might as well have thrown my money down the drain. Letting a DFB sit in your fridge too long is on you, but you have control of the situation at the store. I've run into indifferent distributors and stores who want to move that beer off the shelf regardless of freshness, so that means you need to pay attention to what you're buying. Some tips:
  • Looking for a DFB that is brewed year round? No bottled on or drink by date? Leave it on the shelf. If you know the store and trust what the clerks tell you, ask them when it came in. This still doesn't mean it's fresh, because it could've sat in the distributors warehouse for months. 
  • If you see something out of date tell the store; I feel like stores take advantage of consumers who aren't aware that some beers have a shelf life. Stores should know that we pay attention and do know this.  
  • Talk to your brewery about it and ask them why they don't bottle date if they don't currently.
Stores- There are some stores that you can count on to have the freshest DFBs, because they are high traffic, high turnover, reputable stores. Grocery stores are also safe bets most the time because beer merchandisers and salespeople in this division are supposed to take old beer off the shelf or they get in trouble (this was the case with the distributor I worked with, but I don't know if this enforced by all). The problem spot is that liquor store that's down the street that you go to because it has a decent selection and more importantly it doesn't require a 30 minute drive (or proper attire?). Not every person that frequents that store loves IPAs or (gasp!) craft beer, but that store wants to carry them because IPAs are becoming mainstream and everyone is making one. So said store orders enough from the distributor so they get a cheaper price, but maybe more than they'll actually sell within the freshness window... but chances are that beer is going to sit there... and sit there... until someone buys that last 11 month old hop dud 6-pack. That poor person who loves fresh Half Cycle, might hate 11 month old Half Cycle, again changing their perception of the beer and the brewery... but also the store it came from: "Why is my store selling old/bad beer? I can't count on them to have good DFBs". It also makes you wonder what other issues might be lurking in that store, such as proper storage. I frequent stores that have very old DFBs based on bottle dates (been seeing 8 month old Head Hunter frequently) and I would never ever buy a DFB that is lacking a bottle date and in some cases I've stopped going to those stores altogether, so they've lost my business. 

So how do bottle dates really help stores? With bottle dates the store at least has the chance to make a decision on "old" beer, whether to ignore the issue, let the distributor/brewery know they've got old stuff, or sell it at a discount and/or making sure the consumer knows what they're buying. Also, trustworthy or not you can't expect all liquor employees to know when a beer came in, but bottle dates tell the story. Understandably bottle dates can be a double edged sword as a store rife with out-of-date (OOD) DFBs doesn't look good, but they have to understand their consumers and what they buy. 

Some of this assumes that store employees know that there's such thing as "old" beer and that bottle dates are useful, but this is where training comes in... and you know what? distributors (and breweries) should help with this.

Distributors- To keep this short, it's similar to the store level. The distributor can make a decision on what to do with OOD beer and offer an outlet for it's accounts to do something with their OODs. I know my former employer gave away cases of beer near OOD to it's employees among other things. Without bottle dates this becomes more difficult to do. Distributors probably have less to lose, because they work behind the scenes and can remain blameless.

Breweries- They have the most to lose in this, but they also have the most control over the situation. The Big Guys (not the big guy) put dates on their adjunct concoctions otherwise know as beer for a reason. They spend millions of dollars on telling you how their beer will taste and they want to make sure it tastes that way; if it's OOD it tastes... worse and you might switch to another lager that tastes... less worse. Those dates are there to help distributors and stores (the consumers who purchase these beers rarely look at these dates) make sure that old beer is off the shelf and sent back to the pits of hell. 

Most packaged beer is DFB and first impressions are everything. The craft beer scene is a very competitive market nowadays and if you don't have your "A" game going, a consumer can move on to another craft beer or worse yet back to macro. Just like the big guys, craft brewers have specific flavors they want their consumers to get when they drink that beer, if it's not within that freshness window (or not stored right) the consumer may get something unintended; simply put "beer bad!!!" and you've lost that person... maybe not for good, but it'll take them awhile to return. It's not necessarily the brewery's fault that their beer is not selling before it leaves the window, but by putting dates on bottles breweries can give someone in the above chain a chance to stop that beer.

"Drink by" versus "Bottled on"

I don't think one is necessarily better than the other as they both have pros and cons. "Drink by" takes away any guessing on the consumers part, but some of the craft nerdier folk would no longer be able to have their pissing contests about how fresh their Pliny or Heady Topper is. While "Bottled on" might be preferred by those in the know, it requires the novice to understand when certain styles of beer are past their prime... those who struggle with math may also be at a disadvantage. Regardless easy to understand dates of some sort should be on the bottle in a clear spot... I shouldn't have to scour the internet to figure out what 1X67B823 means after I find it written in smudged black ink on a dark brown bottle neck.  

I haven't mentioned the extra cost of implementing a dating program, obviously it's not free, but as they say it takes money to make money. In all seriousness I would love to hear what people have to say about the costs involved.

Many have foreseen a craft beer "bubble" or ditch as I like to call it, that will lead to breweries closing, so now is not the best time to put a bad foot forward. By no means, am I'm trying to say that "no bottle dates = brewery closing", but it's something to account for. I was fortunate that Lagunitas bottle dates (cryptic as it can be), because I would've opened that Sucks and it would've really sucked, changing my opinion of the beer and Lagunitas. I'm also fortunate that I was allowed to exchange the beer in Michigan, because that is a no go here in Indiana. Once you buy it's yours regardless of any issues the beer may have.