BREWniversity Style Guidelines: Maibock

It's May (although just barely), so it felt appropriate that the next style in our BREWniversity series is inspired by the month. Today we're looking at the Maibock, or Helles Bock.

Appearance: The beer should pour out a deep gold or a light amber with good clarity. There should be a creamy white head that persists while you drink.
 
Aroma: Expect a moderately strong malt aroma with some toasty qualities along with a moderately low spicy hop aroma. Overall the aroma should be very clean.

Flavor: The dominant flavor will be from the malts, but with very little carmelization. You may get some toasty notes, or a slight DMS flavor. There should be a moderate noble hop flavor with a possible spicy or peppery quality. There may be a moderately dry finish with both malt and hops.

Mouthfeel: This is a medium bodied beer, with moderate carbonation. It should be smooth and clean.
 
Local Example: Black Acre Goat Race- I had the chance to try Goat Race this past weekend. If you have the chance to hit up Black Acre, this would be a great beer to try. I thought it was refreshing, and really fit the style well.

In order to get a better idea for the style, and not be too biased in my representation, I looked at a few sets of guidelines. Links are below in case you're interested in delving in a bit more.

• BCJP Style Guidelines: http://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php
• Beer Advocate: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/style/162/
• Brewers Association: http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/business-tools/publications/beer-style-guidelines
• GABF Style Guidelines: http://www.greatamericanbeerfestival.com/the-competition/beer-styles/

Cheers!

Scarlet Lane Brewing Launch and Dorian Review

Scarlet Lane Brewing  located in McCordsville is one of many breweries opening this Summer around Indiana. Deticated to brewing high quality, yet humble beer, SLB got a jump on things this past Wednesday and with their official launch party at Fire by the Monon (ahead of their brewery opening sometime soon). The event featured 3 of SLB's beers: Saison de Silas (Saison), Dorian (coconut stout), and making it's debut was Vivian (Red IPA). All 3 beers are solid and indicate a promising future for SLB; my personal favorite was Dorian, which you can read about in detail below.

The event itself was fantastic despite a couple soaking rain showers (ironic considering the event was rescheduled to avoid rain). The SLB crew was making the rounds and it's always exciting to talk to the people behind the beer. There was also free SLB glassware, snifters in fact, which is always an intelligent choice. Despite the rain, Fire by the Monon was packed with people enjoying all things SLB and overall it's a good sign of things to come. 

Dorian Review

As mentioned above, my favorite SLB beer was Dorian, so much so that I made a point to go to Tomlinson Taproom for a 32oz bullet fill of it. 

From the growler into a snifter, the beer pours a deep reddish brown with a very thin khaki colored head. The pour off draft that I got had a more appropriate 1-2 finger head, so this is a growler thing more than a beer thing. 

The beer gives off aromas of cola, roast grain, and light coconut; the latter gets stronger as the beer warms. The taste is similar, but the coconut picks up and a note of semi-sweet chocolate shows up; cola note is still present, but there isn't a real sharp roast grain note. The body is on the lighter side, with some prickly carbonation, but there's a sense of creaminess in the mouthfeel; the finish is really hear nor there. 

The best way to describe this beer is a mounds candy bar in liquid form. Usually "coconut beers" don't have enough coconut, but this does and it still strikes a nice balance with the malt character. A very approachable stout and the strong coconut note makes this an appropriate summer stout. SLB is a fan of stouts as am I and if they keep making them like this I'll be a big fan of SLB. 4.5/5

The Big Guy: Scarlet Lane have been great friends to the blog for most of this year, and my worst nightmare was that I would like them as people but hate their beers. Thank God that this beer is outstanding! I was lucky enough to try a sneak peak before they ramped everything up to production scale. I was nervous that the small scale beer would be better than the full scale version, but the full scale brew was even better than the home brew version. The beer is dark and roasty with a nice chocolate malty sweetness. The coconuts are perfectly balanced to give you great aroma and a really nice light flavor on the back end. I couldn't stop thinking about my favorite Girl Scout cookies, Samoas. The beer is basically a liquid dessert, without all the heaviness that you get form a typical dessert beer. You can have as many as you want without getting the gut rot that some sweeter beers give you if you drink too much. At their Launch Humdinger I tested that theory and had as many as I could drink. I also give it an enthusiastic 4.5. This could easily become a new local favorite.

Indy Beer News

In this week's episode I've got info on how you can help out the Gerard family from Bare Hands Brewing, Plus events this week from Taxman Brewing Company at 20 Tap, Mead & Knead at New Day Meadery, Flat12 Bierwerks Beer:30 tapping, Daredevil Brewing Co, Pint night from Hoosier Beer Geek and a new event from Indiana Girls' Pint Out, plus many more!

Event Review: Sour Wild Funk Fest

Andrew, Steve, Luke and I had the chance to attend this year's Sour Wild Funk Fest, put on by Upland Brewing Company.

The event was held at City Market, upstairs in Tomlinson Tap Room. I have to admit I was a little nervous about how the space would hold up to the event, but the crowd moved through the space better than I expected. There were only one of two places where things were uncomfortably crowded.

This was my favorite event last year of all the festivals we attended, so I had some pretty high hopes for what I'd get to try. There was a great selection of breweries, and all brought some unique offerings. A few of the breweries were tapped out before the end of the event, which I'm taking as a sign that I wasn't the only one enjoying what they had to offer.

Of all the beers I tried that afternoon, here were my favorites:

• Kiwi Saison, Flat 12 Bierwerks
• Saint Dekkera Reserve Sour Blueberry, Destihl Brewery
• La Folie (Lips of Faith), New Belgium Brewing Company

The team at Upland put together some exclusive components to the event for the members of the Secret Barrel Society and the event VIPs. Great additions- a VIP lounge with bathrooms, lunch before the event and dinner after, a presentation by Caleb, samples of the upcoming Upland and Oliver Winery collaborations, and an after party in the catacombs. I didn't even know we had catacombs. The only critique I have is that it made for a very long day to have things at the front and back of the event. Next year I'd prefer one or the other.

The Big Guy: I love this event. Brie laid it out pretty well for you guys, so I will just go ahead and list my favorite beers of the afternoon:

• Pink Ribbon Sour Saison by Triton Brewery
• Vinosynth White sour and wine blend by Upland
• Counter Clockweisse Berlinerweisse by Destihl Brewery

Indy Beer News

I've got news on on injury to a northern Indiana brewer, plus a new special episode coming out in the next couple days.

A bunch of new tappings this week plus events from Scarlet Lane Brewing, Indiana City Brewing, Twenty Tap, Hunter's Brewing, Sun King Brewing, Kahn's Fine Wines & Spirits, Daredevil Brewing, Flat 12, Books & Brews plus many more!

So what are you bringing to the track???

Last year I put together a post with some canned beer options to bring to the motor speedway. I decided to keep the tradition going and give you some of our great new Indiana options. The requirements are the same this year as they were last year as far as coolers are concerned:

Coolers must be no bigger than 18x14x14

Purses and backpacks must be no bigger than 14x14x14

Food and beverages are allowed, but no glass containers

Carts and wagons are allowed everyday BUT race day

Personal items are your responsibility, the Speedway does not care if they are lost or stolen 

Cans ONLY! no glass bottles allowed

Since we can't bring bottles into the Speedway we have to look to canned beers. There have been a ton of canned beers popping up in liquor stores in the last year, so there are a ton more options than we had last year. With all the options available now it can be hard to narrow them down. Not everyone has spent a lot of time checking out all the canned options we have here in Indy so for the second year in a row we've asked the Barons what are their favorite canned beers. So here are my favorite Summer canned options:

The Big Guy: 

1. Sun King's Fistful of Hops Green. Nice crisp hop profile with an easy drinking malt profile
2. Two Brother's Side Kick Pale Ale. Light hop profile with a clean refreshing flavor that makes it crushable sitting at the hot track
3. Daredevil's Liftoff IPA. Easy malt profile with a great big hop backbone. Get it fresh for biggest impact.

Russ:

1. Daredevil's Liftoff IPA
2. Bell's Two Hearted IPA. The classic Midwest IPA. Nothing says summer like Two Hearted
3. Two brother's Side Kick Pale Ale

Kevin:

1. Oskar Blues' Dale's Pale Ale. An almost perfect Pale Ale from Colorado that just came to Indy last year
2. Founder's Centennial IPA. A big Midwest IPA from Founders now in cans
3. Sun King's Osiris Pale Ale. An Indiana favorite, light clean and crisp

O-Dawg:

1. Brooklyn Brewery's Summer Ale
2. Founder's All Day IPA. All Day IPA because this is so light you can drink it all day in the blistering sun of the track
3. Two Brother's Dog Days Dortmunder Lager. A lager that goes down clean and smooth

El Duque:

1. Daredevil's Liftoff IPA
2. Sun King's Osiris Pale Ale
3. Sixpoint's Sweet Action Cream Ale. Light and easy drinking, perfect for a hot day

Professor Beer:

1. Sun King's Wee Mac
2. Sun King's Fistful of Hops
3. Daredevil's Liftoff IPA

Brie:

1. Brooklyn Brewery's Summer Ale
2. Sun King's Fistful of Hops
3. 21st Amendment's Hell or High Watermelon- If you could get your hands on this it would be amazing for a hot day at the track.

I would also like to give a shout out to Flat 12 for their Hinchtown Hammerdown. On their website Flat 12 says, "We live in a racing town. In tribute to one of the brightest racing talents out there, we created Hinchtown Hammer Down, a crisp and refreshing ale perfect for the month of May."  I haven't gotten my hands on it yet, but I will make sure it finds its way into my racing cooler. 

Why would you drink that???

Over the next few weeks we'll be going through what we remember from our first time drinking craft beer. For some of us, its been pretty recently but for others it's been a long time.

The first craft beer I had was a classic, Stone's Arrogant Bastard. O-Dawg was a big craft beer fan in college, I was not. I was more of a 30 pack of High Life kind of guy. I had grown up in a Miller family and had seen my dad drink all things Miller, my cousin loved MGD and even my mom would crack a Miller Lite on occasion. For me right after college, the destination was more important than the journey and a hoppy beer was the wrong direction for me to go. I hated it.

I remember taking my first sip and thinking why on earth would anyone choose to drink something that was so bitter and just plane nasty... yes nasty was the thing to say when I tried my first craft beer, it's been that long. The beer was thick and heavy like a syrupy mixed drink.The flavor was nothing but bitter. All I could think about was the bitter beer face commercials from back in the 90s. I couldn't wrap my head around why someone would like this weird flavor. In retrospect I should have known something was going on. I didn't like coffee until I started drinking lattes in high school, I didn't like whiskey until I started drinking Jack and Coke in college. Apparently, I need a sweet start to ease my way into bitter new flavors. Anyway, from that day on, I opposed craft beer. I avoided it and I spoke out against all things expensive and hoppy. I was pretty much an idiot.

A while later I was finally talked into trying something again, and the only reason I did was because it was local. I tried a Sun King Wee Mac. BC, or before craft, when I wasn't chugging light beer, I would enjoy a Guinness or other imported English style beer with a big malty character. I liked the roasted sweetness that you got from beers like that. It was like eating a tasty snack while drinking a beer. Wee Mac totally fit the bill and then some. It was more complex than anything I'd ever tried before. Obviously, I hadn't tasted a ton of interesting beers. The malty sweetness just kinda coated my whole mouth and lingered long enough to make me want to keep drinking. It was like a cinnamon raisin bread but subtle and way more interesting. It was big but not so big I couldn't slam a few back. It was really the perfect beer to get me started.

Although I've broadened my horizons quite a bit, and now even enjoy an Arrogant Bastard on occasion, I still love Wee Mac. Nothing beats a $5 growler fill on Friday at the brewery.

My first time...

For a lot of you it may have been under the bleachers at a high school, after prom, or maybe you waited until college... For some of you maybe it was in front of your parents... Your first beer. What did you think I was talking about? The discussion of "your first craft beer experience" comes up often in our beer group as I'm sure it does yours, so I wanted to share the experience(s) that got me into craft beer.

My first beer was had on a camping trip with my family while I was in high school. It was a Corona and it was awful. It's an incredibly vivid memory of such an awful beer, but it's a good memory in all, since camping in the mountains of eastern San Diego county was one of my favorite activities growing up. I do blame (credit?) that Corona for keeping me away from beer for awhile. 

I grew up in San Diego (a hotspot for craft beer), went to San Diego State for undergraduate (a notorious party school), and studied to become a geologist (a group known for their affinity to craft beer). You'd think with all those factors in play I bathed in IPAs every night... Nope, I barely even drank anything back then, let alone craft beer. Yeah I was a stick in the mud. I do recall one evening when I went out with some lady friends (one I had a thing for) to Karl Strauss and had a couple pints... So maybe my first craft beer was Karl Strauss Red Trolley? Who knows. I do know I missed out on some greats beers in San Diego. 

I really blame Indiana for all this. I left San Diego (still craft-beer-clueless) for Indiana in 2007 to pursue a PhD at Purdue. What is a 20-something supposed to do in a small college town during winter? Drink!! My friends and I spent a lot of nights at Chumley's in Lafayette drinking schooners full of beer. Hacker-Pschorr, Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, and Left Hand Milk Stout are the first craft beers I recall really liking. It progressed from there until early 2011 when this turned into a serious thing for me; there's no specific thing that happened I just know that's when I dove in. 

I've had a lot of experiences (and beers) in the last few years that have strengthened my love of craft beer, and quite honestly some that have made me reevaluate the hobby. Since I've left San Diego I've made up for my craft beer follies and spent a lot of time there discovering what I missed a dozen years ago. I've volunteered at events, gone to events, made a lot of great friends, traded, homebrewed, covered the house in glassware, and so forth. 

To be truthful I don't remember my first craft beer (where were you Untappd??), just a string of great memories. 

Binkleys Kitchen and Bar

"From 1928 until the early 70s, the corner of Kessler and College was home to Binkley's Drug Store, which served the booming Broad Ripple, Forest Hills and Meridian Kessler neighborhoods. Scores of youngsters got their first fountain drink, milkshake, banana split and, yes, cough medicine at Binkley's. Years later, many of those same youngsters stopped in to buy their first baby formula, fifth anniversary card and seventh pair of Foster Grants"

I used to live just outside Broadripple, and Binkley's Kitchen and Bar was my favorite date night spot. It has a strong blend of family friendly local eatery and high end bar. They have brought some good local brews and an occasional hard to find beer here and there. Recently, they've started bringing in a few big beers like their KBS tapping last month, and that's why I decided to check them out again.

They had run out of the KBS but I was able to get DFG by Bier, so it wasn't much of a loss. Beer was served in the correct glassware and everything. Russ would be so proud.

We were in a hurry so we got soup and entrees and skipped the appetizers even though there were some really tasty looking options. The soup was a lemon chicken soup that was perfect for spring. I got the slider entree, and they were perfectly done mini burgers. So often when you order a slider they show up overdone because its hard to get the temperature right on such a small patty, so it was great to see them come to me perfectly cooked. The cheese could have been left on a little bit longer so it would have melted. My meal was good but my wife's meal was excellent. Brie got a pesto gnocchi and it was incredible. The gnocchi was tender without being too gluey. The sauce was delicious. The pesto was nice and sweet with really big flavors. It was an outstanding dish.

This is a great place for a date if you're a beer geek because your significant other doesn't have to be. They have a huge cocktail list and tons of great wines. It can be a best of both worlds situation where you can get your beer and they can get whatever they want and it will be well prepared.

Indy Beer News

Bill is at it again this week. Check out his update on your Indianapolis craft beer scene!

Tomlinson Tap Room has opened their outdoor patio, it'll be open Thursday - Saturday.  Big Red Liquors is celebrating the grand opening of their downtown location, they'll have sales and tastings Thursday and Friday this week.

I've found 14 new beer tappings from the past week, and events from Fat Dan's Deli, Triton Brewing, Sun King Brewing, Flat 12 Bierwerks, Broad Ripple Brewpub, Carson's Brewery, Burn 'Em Brewing, Mad Anthony's and Mass Ave Pub.

Fistful of Hops Green

A lot of people don't know that the most difficult thing for new breweries is getting regular access to hops for their beers, especially exciting new varieties that are coming out of the Pacific Northwest. Sun King decided to solve that problem by creating the Fistful of Hops IPA. They put a new can color out ever season. Each color is the same malt bill with a unique hop offering. It keeps the IPA fun and fresh no matter what time of year you get your hands on.

The Green cans just came out last week and I was pumped. It has one of my favorite hop strands in it, Galaxy. I love the sweet tropical fruit and citrus flavor that galaxy brings to teh table.

It pours out a light copper color with an inch of head floating on top like a cloud. There are some nice citrus aromas coming off the beer with just a hint of the malt's sweetness. The smells just make you think of spring turning into summer, flowers blooming and hot summer days. There are big fruit notes and just a bit of grassy aromas. There's a nice citrus rind flavor up front. It gives off a subtle bitterness without overwhelming the overall hop bouquet. The malt flavor is a tasty compliment but subtle letting the hops really shine through. The citrus fruit hop flavors and aromas take over your senses while your drinking this one and I like it. The beer is light and hoppy in all the right ways.

So far my favorite Fistful of Hops recipe is the Winter Release. The Fall Release is a close second and this one comes in third place. Its still a great beer but they've really done some interesting things with this IPA release. I can't wait to see what the last release will be.

Great job Sun King. I give it a 3.5

Barrons Gone Wild: Turkey

Claustrophobic selfie in Cappadocia

So here I am in the Underground City of Cappadocia.  When you are the same proportions as an NFL lineman, you tend to avoid places that begin with "underground," but here I am, choking down panic attacks as I squeeze through tunnels made strategically small to make for a tight fit for a normal person, but I am not a normal person.  It fit me like a wet sweater made of mind numbing claustrophobia.

We emerge to a pretty spacious room and I sit down on the lip of this trough/cistern thing to give my head some space to breathe and to calm down from the birthing I just had from the dusty tunnels.  From the periphery of my personal pep talk, I see our tour guide glide her outstretched hand towards where I was sitting and with snappy English and awkward vowels explains to the group that this was a winery.  I smile, feigning interest and pretend to be not completely losing my shit. 

Being in an, albeit secular, Islamic country that is a cradle of civilization with thousands of years of wine tradition, I should have known my beer choices would have been... limited.

The real Efes.

In Turkey, the beer lover has few choices: Pilsner or Dark Lager.  Being Turkey's largest multinational brewery, Anadolu Efes Brewery has a large chunk of the beer industry.  Even with recent competition from Miller and Beck's, Efes advertisements are everywhere and on every menu.  According to their investor fact sheet, Efes totes themselves as the 5th largest European brewery on a combined production basis and 12th in the world market.  As those numbers may imply to the beer savvy, it is no surprise that they use rice and high fructose corn syrup.



Efes Pilsner: When you have had one Euro-Lager... you get the idea.  Pours a clear crystal honey with an appropriate amount of head.  Crisp and refreshing, Hallertau hops lightly dance upon your tongue and slightly linger with this pilsner's iron/mineral finish.  If someone were to ask me what it tastes like I would just say, "Beer."  It's taste is like generic clip art you put in to add humor to your bland Power Point presentation.

I polished off three of these without batting an eye.  It wasn't until the hotel barman brought us stale Doritos and Raki (an anisette liquor) that Efes Pilsner started getting interesting, but that was probably the Raki.




Efes Dark:  Not much more to say, other than "Euro-Dark Lager."  Malty goodness that was maybe a little too sweet and its mineral finish a little too tinny.  Of all the beers I had in Turkey, this was probably the best, but considering its competition, I was more interested in the Toblerone McFlurry from McDonald's than the beers Turkey had to offer.

Tuborg Gold: I realize it's a Danish company, but Tuborg Gold was the only other option I had besides Efes.  A Euro-Lager that I found surprisingly dense, but annoyingly grassy.  Not much to say about it other than it paired well the sleep meds to help me survive a fourteen hour flight.

Dark Lord Day

This year was my first year to get tickets to Dark Lord Day, or DLD as the cool kids are calling it. For those of you who haven't been, Dark Lord Day is really what you make of it because ultimately it's a big ass festival where you can pick up your beer, try some unique combinations if you're lucky enough to win your golden ticket, hear some music, and share a great experience with old and new friends.

My friends and truly I made the most of it. The doors opened at 10 am CST, so we decided that it would be best to get a spot in the front of the line. We arrived before 5 am and set up a table and coolers to tailgate while we were waiting in the line. We brought some epic beers and started the festivities around 5:30 with beer and sausage patty sandwiches on the grill.

The line is a crazy place full of beer geeks walking up and down the lines sharing different beers. I think I tried over fifty beers while waiting for the doors to open. Strangers came up and down the line with beers offering tastes. The sense of community was undeniable.

Since the line was so epic, I thought the party was going to be crazy once we got into the festival, but I basically just got in line. First I waited in line for glassware. Three Floyds doesn't actually provide those mini snifters that you see every year. They're provided by the coffee company they partner up with for the Dark Lord beer. This was the first year we got product from Dark Matter, a coffee roaster located in Chicago. The line was crazy. We were probably part of the first hundred people through the south gate, and we barely got glassware. Dark Matter made less than 1000 of each, so they went fast.

Once I got my glassware fix, it was just about time for the B group, which I was a part of, to go get our Dark Lord, so I got in another line. Luckily throughout all these lines people were sharing great brews from their local market, so the party slowed down a little bit but it never stopped. The line for the beer was quick and easy, but all in Brie and I spent about 3 hours in line since we got through the line we were waiting in outside the gates. It was turning out to be Dark Line Day.

At that point I was half popped and having a great time, so I told myself no more lines. I did not go through the take home line because it was mostly stuff I'd had. Friends had gotten a picnic table, so we had a nice base of operations. From there we could drink beer from Three Floyds on draft, awesome guest taps and some really great bottles we were sharing.

There was some excellent high end fair food. The Alpha Brat was incredible. It was a beer soaked brat that was crisped up nicely on the grill with some sort of chopped relish that was delicious. If you were looking for something on the sweeter side, they made ice cream out of the Dark Lord beer. It was sweet and malty and delicious. I wish they had sold pints to take home.

The beer was the most important thing to us, but there were a lot of people there for the concerts. Dark Lord Day is a big heavy metal concert. Once I was in the party mindset I went out and started enjoying the music. The festival trailed off at that point, but in a blur of excellence.

My first time at Dark Lord Day was worth all of the lines and the effort to get tickets and all the other hassles that went along with it. If you haven't been yet you should add it to your bucket list.

Indy Beer News

A huge congratulations to our man Bill at Indy Beer News! So happy everything seems to be going well with you and your new baby! Check out the latest edition of the podcast

• HopCat Broad Ripple will be opening this August. The Grand Rapids based craft beer bar will feature 130 draft lines.
• The Pint Room is now open in Carmel. 124 draft lines there.
• The Upland sour lottery for Persimmon and Peach lamics, as well as Darksynth will be open until May 7th. Winners to be notified on May 9th.
• Books & Brews has a new reading rewards program. Read books, get free stuff!
• Events this week from Broad Ripple Brewpub, Twenty Tap, Triton Brewing, Flat 12 Brewing, Upland Brewing, Tomlinson Tap Room, Powerhouse Brewing, Sun King Brewing and many more!