Bloomington Brewing Co. Persimmon Ale

We're always excited to be included in announcements from Indiana breweries. Take a look at some news we just received from Bloomington Brewing Co. Will you be heading out to pick up any of their Persimmon Ale as a part of this limited release?


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Contact:
Mark Cady, Business Manager
Bloomington Brewing Company
C 812-322-1287
E mcady@bloomington.com
www.bloomingtonbrew.com


BLOOMINGTON BREWING CO. RELEASES LIMITED SEASONAL PERSIMMON ALE


Summary:


Bloomington Brewing Company is releasing their Persimmon Ale in 22oz. “bomber”
bottles and on draft beginning October 30th. A special release party will take place at Big Red Liquors at their downtown Bloomington location at: 418 N College Ave. The beer will be bottled and sold on the same day, providing the freshest possible package you can find. Bottles will be available locally in Bloomington, at locations where Bloomington Brewing Company bottles are currently sold, the following day. You can also find Persimmon Ale on draught at the brewpub and in select local establishments where craft beer is sold. Look for the bottle statewide beginning the
first week of November.


As Indiana’s indigenous fruit, Persimmons can be found when the leaves begin to
turn and the chill begins to bite. Bloomington Brewing Company pays homage to
this sweet and slightly citrus fruit by infusing more than 140 lbs. of locally sourced
Persimmons from our good friends at Twin Tykes located in Orleans, IN. This batch
is very limited and is only available for a short time.


Ingredients include: Pale and Caramel Malts and Cascade Hops.
6.2% ALC/VOL • IBU 9 • 15.2 ̊ OG


Bloomington Brewing Company was established in 1994, and is the fourth modern-
era brewpub in the state and the first in Southern Indiana. This is their first year of
bottle production after 20 years of draught only service. You can visit the brewpub at
Lennie’s Restaurant and try their beers from one of their 15 draught lines, including
Nitro and Cask styles. You can also purchase their bottles or draught beer for
carryout seven days a week. Visit their website at www.bloomingtonbrew.com
or follow them on twitter and facebook at @BloomingtonBrew and Bloomington
Brewing Company, respectively.

Bringing Beer to Your Doorstep

I can't tell you how many times we've joked around about how nice it would be to have a service that delivers beer to your door. Forgot to plan for that party? Running out of cocktails and want to impress your friends? Delivery would be perfect in these situations. We were (mostly) kidding when we said these things, but apparently there's a company that can actually do it.

 

Drizly has recently announced that Indianapolis will be the next city where it will offer delivery service through a partnership with Big Red Liquors. Interested consumers can place their order via Drizly's app and in 20-40 minutes, beer arrives at your door. You can read the IBJ article here for more details about the partnership and the services offered.

 

I'm a big fan of convenience and this certainly fits the bill. But something about this feels a bit off to me. Is this really a good idea? The drivers have the option to refuse delivery if they deem that the consumer is already too drunk and needs to be cut off. That helps, but I'm not sure if it's enough.

 

We drink frequently, but we're always responsible about it. The Big Guy and I have an advantage in being a team for the different events we attend and the bottle shares we go to with friends. The advantage is that one of us stays sober enough to safely drive home, or worst-case scenario we get a cab. Even if that cab is $100 because we're just that far out in the burbs. Still worth it.

 

Does this app promote binge drinking and people being unsafe and taking unnecessary risks? Maybe I'm cynical and don't have enough faith in people. Either way, I'll certainly be watching this partnership to see what happens next, and I'm not going to completely rule out using it at some point.

 

Would you use this service? If you did, what kind of situation do you think it would best in?

 

For even more details, here's the press release we received this morning.

RESPONSIBLE ALCOHOL DELIVERY COMES TO INDIANAPOLIS AS DRIZLY ANNOUNCES EXCLUSIVE PARTNERSHIP WITH BIG RED LIQUORS, THE AREA'S LARGEST PACKAGE LIQUOR RETAILER

Leveraging Drizly’s proprietary ID verification technology, Big Red can responsibly provide unparalleled convenience to Indianapolis consumers for the same price they pay for products in store

 

INDIANAPOLIS, IN. – October 23, 2014 – Drizly, the technology company powering fast, convenient beer, wine and liquor delivery across the United States, and Big Red Liquors, the largest Indianapolis-area package liquor retailer, today have announced a strategic partnership to bring responsible alcohol delivery to consumers in the Indianapolis area.

 

Indianapolis becomes the 8th major metropolitan market served by Drizly, joining Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York and Washington D.C. Areas in Indianapolis where Drizly is now available to consumers include Broad Ripple, Brownsburg, Downtown, Fishers, Fletcher Place, Fountain Square, Geist, Irvington and Meridian-Kessler. Additional areas will be announced as they become available.

 

With a proprietary Forensic ID Verification technology, Drizly will offer Indianapolis consumers of legal drinking age Big Red’s extensive inventory of products right from the Drizly smartphone app or Drizly.com, all delivered conveniently to your door.

 

So whether you are watching the big game with friends, hosting a dinner party, or planning office happy hour, Drizly takes the trip to the store out of the equation with a convenient, safe and reliable solution for ordering beer, wine and liquor.

 

“Leading retailers across the U.S., like Big Red, are embracing cutting edge technologies to answer their customer’s desire for convenient alcohol delivery, if it can be done responsibly,” said Nick Rellas, co-founder and CEO of Drizly. “Big Red is particularly focused on doing delivery the right and responsible way, and with Drizly’s proprietary ID verification technology we were uniquely positioned to help them provide added convenience to their loyal customers.

DRIZLY: AS CONVENIENT AS ORDERING PIZZA

To use Drizly, consumers simply download the free app to their smartphone (iPhone and Android) or log on to www.Drizly.com, confirm they are of legal drinking age, and are then given access to thousands of products from Big Red’s inventory, all at the same price as in the store. With a few taps of the finger, the consumer’s beverages of choice are selected, paid for via credit card, and delivered conveniently to your door.

 

Before products are handed to the consumer, the Big Red delivery driver confirms the age of those accepting the order using Drizly’s propriety ID verification technology. If the consumer is not of age, or appears inebriated, the delivery driver does not complete the purchase.

 

“Adding the convenience of smartphone and Web ordering, and fast delivery, to the Big Red experience is something we are thrilled to offer to our loyal customers,” said Don Rix, President of Big Red Liquors. “But more importantly, Drizly’s proprietary technology enables us to meet growing consumer demand in a way that is safe and responsible.”

 

As a special welcome to new users in Indianapolis, Drizly is offering free delivery on all orders for the next 30 days. The free delivery, a $5 value, will be automatically applied at checkout. For these type of promotions and more, residents of Indianapolis are encouraged to follow @DrizlyIndy on Twitter.

ABOUT DRIZLY

Drizly is a technology company powering fast, convenient delivery of beer, wine and liquor to consumers across the United States. With a free mobile lifestyle app for iOS and Android, and an e-commerce Web site, consumers of legal drinking age simply log in, and with a few clicks, their favorite beer, wine or liquor is on its way. Delivery drivers authenticate and validate IDs upon arrival using proprietary Drizly technology. Backed by a world-class group of angel and institutional investors, the company has raised $4.8 million to become the premier alcohol delivery service in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C., and other cities across the United States. For more info, please visit www.drizly.com.

 

AVAILABLE ON iPHONE, ANDROID AND WEB

• iPhone: http://driz.ly/ios
• Android: http://driz.ly/android
• www.drizly.com 

 

HOW DRIZLY WORKS

1. Download Drizly to your iPhone or Android phone, or log on to Drizly.com.
2. Sign up and add your favorite beer, wine and liquor to your cart.
3. Check out, enter discount codes, pay and tip your driver, all right from Drizly.
4. In less than one hour, your alcohol will be delivered.

 

CONTACT:

Kerry McGovern, Sr. Director of Communications & Media, Drizly Inc.347.853.6009, Kerry@drizly.com
Matt Bell, on behalf of Big Red Liquors 317.910.7572, Matt.Bell@catalystpag.com


Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and on the web at Drizly.com.

# # #

 

When Smaller is Better

I'm back (I'm back!- Slim Shady!) I'm back. 

Another Upland sour lottery has come and gone, and as usual the normal complaining follows in its wake (this last round coincided with the 2015 Secret Barrel Society membership announcement- talk about a sourstorm of epic proportions). The lottery system is flawed; lots of locals don't win (and they should get preference), and lots of non-locals win and never see their beers. Don't like the lottery? Then join the Secret Barrel Society, Upland says. (No matter all the fancy math and club perks you throw at me the SBS is not a good deal.)... or wait for the bottle clean-up. Bitching aside Upland's sours are in high demand whether they're getting traded, consumed locally, or being used as a cleaning solution. 

I don't bother with the Upland sours anymore for 2 reasons: Price and drinkability (looking at you lambics). $25-30 is an expensive beer to take on alone, especially when it's going to rot your teeth and stomach lining. Take it to a share you say? Sure and I'm privileged to be apart of an awesome share group, but we have stretches where we don't meet and occasionally it's nice to drink something special on your own (stop waiting for that special moment). Also, not everyone has "those people" they share beer with. I started to wonder what would get me to enter the Upland lotteries again, and not surprisingly it's a lower price and higher drinkability. I don't expect either of those things to happen, so the next best thing I could come up with is format size. 

Upland put your sours in smaller bottles. The 375ml or 500ml format is calling your name Upland... and for that matter anyone doing big alcoholic beers in large formats. 

This solves a lot of issues in my opinion; price drops and there's less beer to deal with in a serving. In theory, breweries are going to brew the same amount of beer regardless of package format, so that means more bottles (or cans) to go around... Maybe twice as much. More lottery winners, more bottles at clean-up. Price per oz would likely go up a bit, because of the increased material and labor costs, but I doubt enough to cause people to even blink. 

Several breweries have done just fine offering special beers in smaller formats: Sun King, Russian River, Crooked Stave, Prairie, and countless Belgian breweries to name a few. Prairie and Jolly Pumpkin have recently gone from large format bottles to more palatable 375ml and 500ml bottles, and Upland, yes Upland, has put Teddy Bear Kisses in 12oz 4-packs. So Upland has already made the switch a bit, why not keep following that trend?

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

So Dogfish Head is officially around town, and if you were lucky enough to get out early on Tuesday you may have picked up their 120 Minute IPA. You may ask, why is it called 120 Minute. Should I drink it in 120 minutes? Should I age it for no more than 120 Minutes? Is it best when warmed for 120 minuets???

None of those guesses are even close to right. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA is boiled for 120 minutes. Most beers are boiled for about an hour. Bigger beers are boiled longer to concentrate the sugars and malts and set it up for a bigger abv. This bad boy does in fact have a bigger abv. The beer comes in at a whopping 18% abv... that's the same amount of booze as a bottle of Kahlua. Now they just call it a 120 minute IPA. Some sites call it an imperial or double IPA, but with such a high abv it almost seems unfair. This really is one of those rare beers that defies category.

As you might assume with a such a high abv this beer may not even drink like a beer. It pours out a nice rich copper color with about a finger of head. The head looks a bit more like what you expect from a stout or barleywine. It smells like hops, big rich resiny hops with a wonderful citrus backbone. The flavor is out of this world. Like you expect from such a high abv beer it almost seems like a liquor. The brew is thick and sweet up front. Rich toffee and caramel flavors with hints of light summer fruits. This all combines well with citrus and tropical fruit hop flavors. Its rich and heavy and completely intoxicating. It finishes with a spike of big resiny bitterness and a hit of boozy heat.

For such a crazy extreme beer its incredibly well rounded. All the flavors are intense, but its like Dogfish Head is taking you on a roller coaster ride. There is a definitive start and finish and the whole ride is completely mapped out. Each flavor plays off the last beautifully. This may be one of the most complex beers I've had, but its definitely the most complex IPA I've had.

I give this a resounding 4.5 its one of the most exciting IPA experiences I've had in a while.

Fall and Winter Beer....It's that time of year!

The air is crisp.  A slight chill slaps your face as you step outside.  The sun provides just enough warmth to remind you that summer is becoming a distant memory.  Instead of green leaves you see the rainbow of fall oranges, reds, and yellows dancing in the trees as they make their way to the green grass.  This change in season is one of the finest of them all.  We are smack dab in the beginning of fall in Indiana.  A glorious time of year.

With every change in season we seem to always have a change in beer releases.  Admittedly I am not a big believer in "seasonal" drinking.  No matter when beers are released, the vast majority of my drinking takes place in my temperature controlled house.  So I never really bought into the philosophy that a stout belongs in the winter and an IPA belongs in the summer....and so on and so on.

Regardless of this, the fall brings an amazing selection of beers to fit the season.  One of the most notable releases of the fall is Founders Breakfast Stout.  Hitting shelves now in the 4-pack format, this robust stout boasts strong flavors of coffee and chocolate and the oats provide that thick mouthfeel that keeps you warm in those crisp fall mornings...errrr...evenings.  It's stout season...am I right?  Soon we will have Three Floyds Alpha Klaus porter, Founders Imperial Stout, and copious amounts of Goose Island Bourbon County and the varieties that no one has a real shot at finding.  Lets be real.

This is the time of year when people start to drink their pumpkin and fall spiced beers as well.  Southern Tier Pumking, Shipyard Smashed Pumpkin, Cigar City Good Gourd, Schlafly Pumpkin and others are being consumed regularly now.  Of course these were all released a few months ago, but people who are stuck in the seasonal mentality are now able to release their frustration into their proper glassware and begin to lose some of their emotional pain with every tasty sip.  The flavors of nutmeg, cinnamon, and possibly some actual pumpkin (but not really) remind us of pumpkin pie, leaves falling, apple cider, and whatever else you attribute to the season.

Oktoberfest beers are also a frequent flier in this season of beer drinking.  It seems every brewery has their version of this classic Marzen style lager.  Sun King Octoberfest, Sam Adams Octoberfest, Three Floyds Munsterfest, and my personal favorite...Ayinger Octoberfest are all worthy of consumption this season.

All this to say that I want to discuss the beer that I feel deserves the most attention during this season.  A beer that I will do whatever it takes to purchase and consume copious amounts of during the fall and winter chills.  A beer that warms my soul to its very core.

Schlafly Tasmanian IPA.

I know what you are thinking here.  An IPA?  ANOTHER IPA?!?!?!   My answer....ABSOFUCKINLUTELY ANOTHER IPA!!!  This beer, in my opinion, is the beer you should be drinking all winter.  It is released in October and the last shipments usually drop in December.  This IPA is hopped with a plethora of Galaxy hops from down under and this year I believe they added a few things to make the flavors even bolder.  This is solidly in my top 5 of all-time favorite IPA's.  It's insanely crushable and has a deceptive ABV of 7.2% which will sufficiently keep you warm after a couple in the comfort of your temperature controlled living room.  Lets face it, nobody is getting their snowsuit on to go drink a stout in the piles of snow on your non-shoveled deck or driveway this winter.  Seriously though, that sounds like fun.  If you plan to have a beer drinking party with snowsuits on piles of snow....let me know....I'll bring the TIPA.

Cheers to the season!!

Kevin

Indiana's 2014 GABF Winners!

Big congratulations to some Indiana breweries who did a great job at GABF not just representing themselves, but representing our entire state. There are a lot of people in some big beer states that really only give Indiana credit for Three Floyds. Its awesome to see more Indiana breweries bringing home some hardware.

• Congratulations to Sun King for a gold medal on Lonesome Dove and a silver medal for Batch 666: Sympathy for the Devil, both in the wood aged strong beer category, both from the King's Reserve series. For anyone who hasn't had Symphony for the Devil, it will be released at the Sun King tap room on the 30th at Noon. Go get it! Sun King seems to really shine in this category. Last year they won gold with Afternoon Delight. Well played Sun King. Thanks for representing Indianapolis so well!
• Congratulations to Carson's Brewery for their gold medal on Red Dawn in the American Wheat category. This is awesome news for such a new brewery. Way to get started with a bang! I haven't had this beer but now I know I need to find it.
• Congratulations to Bier Brewery for a silver medal on Sanitarium, their Belgian quad. This is a once a year bomber release, This is one of my favorite American interpretations of a Belgian quad and I'm saving a few bottles to make a vertical because it ages very well.

In out-of-state news here are some of our favorite breweries that brought home hardware.

• Congratulations to Half Acre for their silver medal on Heyoka in the American IPA category. This is an outstanding beer. Next time you're in Chicago pick up a few. Its pretty easy to find in the city. Check out our review by Russ.
• Congratulations to Founders for their silver medal on their Porter in the robust porter category. This is probably one of the most classic American representations of an old school English style.

California was the best represented state. They had almost fifty medal winning brews. I was disappointed that there wasn't more to report about the Midwest. Our area keeps growing but we continue to miss out on the national spotlight. Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois didn't get the same amount of medals as just California. Cali has a head start with their beer scene, but we have great beer, and our brewers just have to keep on applying. Competitions aren't everything and a good score doesn't necessarily mean the beer will sell well, but the Midwest needs to keep on pumping out beers and we will start getting more notoriety.

You can see all of the winners here.

Upland's Oktoberfest

Indiana is pretty far from Munich but it doesn't mean we can't celebrate Oktoberfest in style. Upland brews one of the better Oktoberfest beers in town and they have a hell of a party to kick off the season.

Oktoberfest is all about the beer and the food, and Upland has kept to the tradition. They had all their flagship beers available in normal plastic cups or you could splurge and buy a beautiful 32 oz dimpled glass stein. Once you got the stein you could fill it for the same price as the "puny" 16 oz plastic cups. The only problem with the stein was that when it was full it was really heavy! I now understand why Germans have such huge forearms.

Upland didn't just bring the beer, they also brought the food. There were more than a half dozen of Indy's best food trucks. In honor of the holiday I went to the most German thing available, Der Pretzel Wagon. As always my sandwich was outstanding. Not quite traditional German sausages and kraut but still helped get me in the mood.

Tables and tents were lined up throughout Military Park. Thank God for the tables, I needed something to set my stein down on! It really gave the festival an authentic lager house sort of a feel. It also made it easy to hang out with all of your friends and even make a few new ones. In front of all the tables there was a stage with a few bands that were a lot of fun and a horse drawn trolley that went into downtown. Brie and I didn't take the trolley but everyone on it looked like they were having fun.

I reviewed the Upland Oktoberfest two years ago, but I wasn't as well versed in the style as I should have been. At the time I made a mistake a lot of newbie craft drinkers do and associated Oktoberfest beers with pumpkin / spiced beers. I knew they weren't the same thing, but I thought they should be closer than they really are. They aren't sweet beers, but are lighter easy drinking beers that would be great to have during the harvest.

Upland's version pours out a beautiful caramel color with a nice thick white head. It smells like toasted malts and toffee sweetness. The flavor is a bit like Cheerios (not the honey nut kind) with just a bit of that toffee sweetness that we got on the nose. Hints of nuts add an earthy flavor to the otherwise grainy base beer. The sweetness is balanced well with a nice hit of grassy hops which pair well with the nuttiness of the malt. There is just enough bitterness to round out the brew in a really pleasant way. The beer is rich without being too heavy. The carbonation is solid without being too effervescent. All in it's well balanced and a tasty American version of the traditional German style.

I gave this beer a 2.5 last time, and I really don't think that was fair to the brew. This is a really well executed beer. I think its should get at least a 3.5/5. It's a great beer that has become my standard Oktoberfest.