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.

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. 

Dogfish Head Kick Off

In case you missed the news last week, Dogfish Head Brewery out of DE is back in Indiananpolis! Zink Distribution has brought them back to our fair city and we want to welcome them with true Hoosier hospitality. Check out the release party line-up! We hope to see you at one or two of these.

Ralston’s Drafthouse: Wednesday, October 15th  from 7:30 to close. They’ll introduce all 15 DFH beers currently available in the Indianapolis Market. 635 Massachusetts Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46204

Twenty Tap: Thursday, October 16th  from 5:30 to close. 5406 N College Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46220

Yard Line: Thursday, October 16th from 6:00 to close. 6466 E 82nd  Street, Indianapolis, IN 46250

Friday, October 17th  Fountain Square Block Party!!! Like a proper block party it will go on all day. The beer will flow nonstop during normal business hours.

Block Party Headquarters:

• La Margarita – 1043 Virginia Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46203. We’ll enjoy DFH’s finest paired with the traditional family recipes La Margaritas is known for.
• Thunderbird – 1127 Shelby St. Indianapolis, IN 46203. We’ll not only enjoy the finest ales from DFH, but we’ll also experience the DFH cocktails created by the gifted mixologists at Thunderbird.

Lets give Dogfish Head a warm welcome and go check out some good beer!

CANvitational 2014

After having such a great time at CANvitational last year, I was pretty excited for this year. The weather was perfect and Georgia Street is just an amazing venue. It's cool to be drinking downtown with the city all around you.

For those of you who don't know, CANvitational is a festival hosted by Sun King that celebrates canned beer throughout the craft community. This brings beers from all around the US to our beautiful city. It's an awesome opportunity to try some beers that aren't distributed in the area. If you are new to beer, or haven't spent hours walking through a liquor store while on vacation this festival is a must attend.

Some of my personal favorite breweries like Cigar City, Rhingeist and Surly bring their basic lineups and now with the invention of crowlers, large cans that replace 32 oz growlers, some of these breweries were able to bring special releases. The special releases were the one thing that this festival was missing last year.

Since this is Sun King's festival they had better bring their A game. Lucky for us they did a great job. Sun King showed up with a couple different King's Reserve beers including one of my personal favorites Lonesome Dove. They also brought Grapefruit Jungle. Although this is an awesome beer, it was a little bit long in the tooth by now. I appreciate that they were trying to bring something special but I feel bad for anyone who had old GFJ as their introduction to the beer.

For me, one of the highlight was this year's collaboration which was with Solemm Oath out of Naperville, IL. Solemn Oath is known for bringing awesome Belgian flavors to inventive American beers. They called the collaboration, 30 Minute Coma, a Belgian session IPA. The beer was outstanding. The beer was light and summery with a nice American citrus hop flavor and a light Belgian yeast character. It was a nice blend of the two styles and had a great IPA punch even though it was a lighter beer. As fall is just around the corner and it's already getting colder here in IN, I'm not sure that I would have gone with a session beer, but at least it will be the best tailgate beer in the cooler.

I liked last year's Royal Brat collaboration with Three Floyds but I think this one is even better. Be on the lookout! this beer was released on Monday the 22nd in the Sun King tasting room. It's worth the trip to the brewery to make sure that you don't miss out on this awesome beer.

Other than Sun King these were my three favorite beers (in no particular order) that I hadn't had before:

• Country Western II, a brown ale with Kentucky sorghum and aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels. brewed in collaboration by two awesome breweries in Lexington, Country Boy and West 6
• Smog Rocket by Beavertown... with a name like that I had a hard time taking the brewery seriously but great lightly smoked beer. You can call yourself whatever you want if you brew beer like 
• 10 Ton and Flying Rye by Warped Wing out of Dayton OH. Maybe I cheated a little bit here but they were both great beers. I am pumped to try and set up a trip to check this brewery out in person. Both of the brews were great and the people were great.

I was worried this festival would have a tough time staying fresh. Most of the breweries bring their basic lineups that you can find throughout their markets. This isn't bad but I worry about exciting beers coming to the fest. With the advent of the Crowler and all the new breweries that start canning every year I don't think this will be a problem.

On the only really negative note, it was silly that Sun King didn't have enough tasters with 2014 on them. At the price point we pay to go to events we shouldn't be ok with stupid things like this. I know the beer is important not the glass, but this isn't a cheap festival. They need to take a lesson from Daredevil's Hops and Flip-Flops festival and not slack off on the attendee experience.

The festival was poop yourself good this year!

If you were there you get that... lol

Professor Beer:
While the CANvitational tends not to get many special or seasonal beers, there is an impressively large contingent of out-of-state breweries in attendance.  This festival is a great opportunity to try beers that are not easy to get ahold of if you do most of your drinking in Indiana.  DC Brau Brewing Company brought their own excellent music (they were playing Oysterhead the first time I stopped by their tent).

Sun King had a couple of their King's Reserve beers available (Batch 666: Sympathy For The Devil and Lonesome Dove), as well as 30 Min. Coma, their collaboration with Solemn Oath Brewery of Naperville, IL.  Some other beers I remember enjoying:

• Country Western II - West Sixth Brewing / Country Boy - Lexington, KY
• Zombie Monkey - Tallgrass Brewing - Manhattan, KS
• Tiny Bomb - WISEACRE Brewing Co. - Memphis, TN

The Sessionable Trend

I've always been a fan of big beers. I like high alcohol content and big rich flavor, but recently it seems like it's starting to be cool to be small. Brewers throughout the craft movement like Goose Island, Penrose, Founders and our very own Flat 12, Scarlet Lane and Mashcraft are taking time to create something tasty while keeping the alcohol content light.

Session beers are not a style in themselves, they are just any ol' type of beer with lower alcohol content. There are a lot of numbers that people will throw around when they're describing exactly what the ABV has to be for the beer to be sessionable, basically its a really low abv beer that you can have multiples in one drinking session, hence session beer. I personally look for a good session beer to be about 4.5% ABV give or take a few decimals.

For those of you that don't know much about the brewing process, I'll break it down for you really quickly. Alcohol comes from the sugars that you pull off the grain. The more sugar you pull, the more sugar the yeast can eat and turn into alcohol. Session beers use less grains, and therefore less sugar, so while most of the sugar is turned into alcohol there are a lot of non-fermentables which is where our beer flavors come from. Normally this means that the less sugar we are pulling for alcohol the less flavor we are pulling for our beer as well. With session beers the trick has become pulling the right flavors to make a complex beer even with less sugar.

Brie and I sat down to talk with the owner of Penrose Brewing up in Geneva IL, my wife's home town. Penrose is doing Belgian inspired beers just outside the city of Chicago in the west suburbs. They have a staple beer called Proto Gratis, which is a Belgian Single. Around here we constantly see Belgian Doubels and Trippels and even the occasional Quad, but not a lot of people do singles. (When you think of these Belgian styles a doubel has higher ABV than a single, and a trippel has higher ABV than a doubel etc). The Proto Gratis came in at about 4% ABV, so it is very sessionable. When we talked with Eric, one of the brewery owners, he told us that he likes to keep their beers light, because light beers are easier to drink in the summer. When we asked about the session beer trend he really just had one thing to say, and that's "you have to brew with intent." It's more important to consider every single ingredient that goes into a beer when you're dealing with a smaller malt bill. There is just a smaller number of flavors to hide behind when you make such a small beer.

So why are session beers becoming all the rage this season??? Here are a few ideas of what might be contributing to the beer's popularity:

1. The challenge - a good session beer is hard to make because you have less to hide any flaws, like Eric at Penrose said you have to brew with intent. 
2. It's summer - people like to drink lighter beers in the summer
3. Hop shortage - session beers have a smaller malt bill so they need less hops to even them out and give them a big hoppy flavor
4. Price gauging - brewers can make a session beer with significantly less ingredients then a standard beer and normally charge similar prices to their flag ships
5. Session beers are approachable - as the industry matures we get more and more new beer drinkers and most session beers are a nice set of training wheels.

There are a lot of reasons your local brewery may be looking to make sessionable beers right now, let's just hope that all the brewers out there making beers are challenging themselves to brew with greater awareness of and consideration for what goes into the beer, using each ingredient deliberately. I understand that the brewing process stays the same and there is still a lot of hard work and care that goes into making a session beer, so there is definitely value there.

Although I still love big beers, I've found myself giving a lot of session beers a chance. Founder's All Day IPA has become one of my favorite beers for sitting outside and now that it comes in a 15 pack you can really drink it all day.

Cheers to enjoying a little summer fun without passing out in the front yard!

18th Street Brewery is Now Your Street

You may have started seeing 18th Street beers around the Indianapolis area, or more than likely you may have just missed it. 18th Street hit Indianapolis and it has been met with some serious excitement from the craft beer community. Their bottles were flying off the shelves in hours, not days, most of the time.

In the last months we've seen their Sinister DIPA, Coffee Hunter Stout and Undercrown IPA in liquor stores and even more hoppy treats on draft at bars and restaurants. I was lucky enough to score Jade Pale Ale at the Pint Room in Carmel earlier this week and it's a hell of a beer.

Since this summer's Bloomington Craft Beer Festival, I've been dying to go check out 18th Street Brewery in Gary, IN. There hasn't been a lot of reason for me to go to Gary, but I was near Three Floyds and figured what the hell. The brewery is a cool little shop in downtown, right by the train tracks. Inside is divided into two rooms. One is bright and clean with a very modern vibe. The other has street art on the walls and a cool urban vibe. The bar is big enough to serve a lot of people without taking over the space.

Their head brewer, Drew Fox, is relatively new to the craft beer world, deciding that he wanted to get into it in 2008. He has worked with brewers in Chicago like Pipeworks and Spiteful Brewing. Drew started a kickstarter in 2012 and launched the brewery from there. I normally don't love breweries going the kickstarter route, but I'm really upset I missed this one. I would have backed it in a heartbeat.

I was able to get Sinister and Undercrown in bottles here in Indy. Sinister is an awesome DIPA. Not that you can tell by my picture, but it pours out a beautiful orange-gold color with a thick white head. (Sorry for the picture it was the only 18th Street Brewery glass that I have.)

The aroma was like a punch of tropical fruit flavor with just a bit of citrus and pine. On first tasting you get a ton of tropical fruits like mangoes, pineapples and a little bit of dank resin flavor. The malt backbone is sweet and thick with a huge bitter punch of pine on the back end. The bitterness is that intense bitter that stays with you until you take your next sip. It hides the big alcohol content nicely and really does a great job of rounding out the sweet tropical start.

When drinking hoppy beers we often get stuck with one or two notes of flavor, but these guys have made an incredibly complex DIPA. The sweet balances so well with the fruity and the hoppy. I'm excited to make their offerings part of my fridge all the time.

I give it a 4.5/5

The bottles go fast, so if you hear that they're in stores get after them as fast as you can.

News from Scarlet Lane

Chris Knott will be parting ways with Scarlet Lane Brewing Company. Scarlet Lane has quickly become one of our favorite breweries around and Chris has done a lot of work to make sure they got off to the right start. Chris has been a great brewer with SLB as well as with the Ram befor that. We wish him luck in whatever brewery be works for next. We are also excited for SLB's continued success. 

Official release below.

McCordsville, Indiana – Scarlet Lane Brewing Company and Head Brewer Chris Knott have decided to part ways. Chris joined Scarlet Lane Brewing Company in January as Head Brewer. During his time at Scarlet Lane Brewing, Chris oversaw production of Dorian Stout, Vivian Red IPA and developed Saison de Silas. Chris was a significant part of Scarlet Lane’s achievement of three medals at the 2014 Indiana Brewers’ Cup after only being in operation for 2-months. 

“We launched this brewery with a clear set of goals on where we what to go as a business and what our overall vision is for the market. Starting a brewery is extremely stressful and requires a high level of teamwork at every turn.” Eilise Lane, CEO & Brewer says.  “It’s extremely important that we share an overall vision of the business strategy”. 

“Chris is an amazingly talented brewer and we wish him success in his future endeavors..” said Nick Servies, Founder and CBO.

In the meantime, Eilise Lane and Doug Sheets will continue production and brewery operations and development. “Chris contributed a lot to the brewery. However, we had different mindsets on where we wanted to take the business and how we wanted to do it. I look forward to seeing Chris’s achievements as he moves to something better suited for him personally.” Doug Sheets, Owner & COO.

Hops and Flip Flops, Speedway's first beer festival

There have been so many festivals popping up this year that trying to get to them all can be tough, even for a true beer geek. We've missed a few, but I'm excited that we made sure to go to this one.

Hops & Flip Flops, or Hopsfest as it appeared in a few places, was a hoppy beer festival in Speedway. For those of you who don't know, Daredevil took the lead on setting this one up and Daredevil is a brewery that knows how to make a hoppy beer.

The festival was on Main Street in Speedway right next to the spot where Daredevil will be opening up next year. The breweries were set up in the Dallara Indycar Factory and there were food trucks and bands all along the street.

 

It had a neighborhood block party meets beer festival sort of a vibe, which I really liked and thought went over well with the crowd. Brie and I got VIP tickets, and I will say the VIP glassware was probably the coolest festival taster I've ever gotten. It really had a high end appearance. VIP entrance also got you a couple food and beer pairings where we discussed what flavors match with what beers. It was all reasonably priced, so I'd say do VIP at this one if you can. The overall fest was well put together and would've been really informative to someone just getting into beer.

  

So, I'm not sure why it was called Hops and Flip Flops, no one even mentioned the flip flops. I understood the hops part. There were plenty of people not wearing flip flops. Footwear aside, it was a pretty good new festival. There were about twenty breweries there including some appearances from Flat 12, Triton, Against the Grain and of course Daredevil. There were some great IPA's but not a lot of people brought things outside of the norm.

My favorite beers were:
Triton O' Rye N  Galaxy - rye malt and galaxy hops, soooo tasty!
Bell's Hopsolution - just a well built IPA all around
Sierra Nevada Harvest Equinox Hop #366 - cool single hop IPA with a unique hop flavor

It was obvious this was the first year of the festival. They did a lot of things right, but for next time I think it would be great if they encouraged more local breweries to attend. There were about five Indiana breweries and the rest were national breweries that brought in their basic lineup. There were a lot of people bringing basic lineups to this festival, and that's not necessarily a problem, but a lot of what was there could be picked up at the store down the street. Lastly, I would love to see something done with flip flops. Maybe some flip flops handed out at the door. Maybe door prizes for people in flip flops. Just something to tie the flip flop idea into the festival other than hosting it in the summer. I think a second go around will give Daredevil a chance to iron out some of the bugs.

Even  though there were issues, a hop festival seems like such a great idea. Speedway and Daredevil were both so welcoming to the beer community. I personally can't wait until they open the doors of their Main Street facility.

Stay Classy Fountain Square!

Fountain Square Brewing Company has delivered a heck of a beer with Stay Classy Scotch Ale, a Ron Burgundy inspired scotch ale. Before I even started drinking the beer, all I could think of was "I love scotch, sotchy scotch scotch, here it goes down, down into my belly." Fountain Square really brought the scotch for this one. It was a great wee heavy scotch ale with a ton of barrel aged flavor. The combination just made you think of the good stuff from the aroma all the way into the flavor and a hot boozy finish.

It pours out like a "rich mahogany" with a dark brown with beautiful maroon highlights. There is a nice fluffy tan head that turns into really nice lacing along the glass. The aroma has a ton of whiskey barrel oak and vanilla tones followed up by big malty sweetness. Some dark fruits and bread crust smells mix nicely with the barrel smells. The flavor follows suit. There are a ton of toffee and caramel flavors from the malt. Some rich roasty character with the barrel flavors complimenting the whole brew. My only really complaint is that this beer is pretty sweet, but luckily Fountain Square kept a big punch of boozy heat on the back end. It cuts through the heat like a trident through a rival news anchor. There are a few herbaceous hop flavors, but the hops really take a back seat to the traditional UK flavors in this brew.

This is the first time that Fountain Square has released a bottled beer that wasn't part of their main lineup. It was a great beer, but the fact that they're bottling none standard beers is incredible! From what I can see on the four pack box, it looks like their non standard offerings are going to be part of something called the Finite series. This could mean 1221 in bottles or even Hop Your Face in bottles. Stay Classy was a great beer, but FSB makes so many awesome brews its exciting to see that they may start making local shelves soon.

I give this an a 4/5, I wish I had picked up more than a four pack.

If you weren't able to grab a four pack of this, you missed out, but keep an eye on the shelves. Fountain Square is going to be bringing out more great things.

130 Indiana Beers! HopCat's grand opening

HopCat Broad Ripple has come a long way since we checked out the building progress in June. This Saturday marked their grand opening, and what better way to join Indy's craft beer scene than by putting 130 different Indiana beers on tap?

 For anyone who may have missed the announcement, HopCat is the newest beer bar in Broad Ripple. Indy is the first location outside of their home state of Michigan and we couldn't be prouder to have them.

HopCat also had a deal where the first 200 people who showed up got free "crack fries" for a year. That's 52 orders of their delicious seasoned french fries over the next year. As a big fan of french fries, and an even bigger fan of Indiana beer, I dragged Brie to get in line at nine in the morning. I've waited in line for beer releases and I've waited in line for events. I have never waited in line for a bar opening.

We arrived two hours early and we were more than one hundred people back in line. When we got there we found out two guys go to the entrance at 3:30 in the morning and literally rolled out sleeping bags and slept in line. The two hours we sat in the rain sharing beers with line goers was nothing. In the end it was all worth while when I got my card for free crack fries for a year! It says a lot about a bar that people get so excited to form a line as long as HopCat had.

 

When we got through the door, it was like when Charlie first got into the chocolate factory. HopCat was bigger than I expected, with two bars, tons of seating and an awesome patio. Sadly, it was raining, so no one was using the patio. Even with the rain they opened the doors and we got a table with a view. The rock star decor and the insane beer geek atmosphere made it kind of like sitting in on a Rolling Stones party. There is custom artwork on the walls and the bar has a great mash up of modern and traditional decor, while still being warm and inviting.

 

Four of us made it through about sixteen beers, passing them around and trying a little bit of everything. Sun King and Upland brought the mother load with thirty beers each. Sun King dominated with its Kings Reserve and barrel aged brews. My favorite from them was the Cuvee de Sun King, a lightly sour dark cuvee and the Isle Barrel Aged Wee Muckle, their Wee Muckle aged in scotch whiskey barrels. Other awesome brews, were Triton's French Toast Saison, and Three Floyd's Big Tiddy Assassin and the Upland Pineapple IPA.

There were so many beers that I feel like I barely scratched the surface. I would have loved to drink the entire list. I'm excited to see how long some of these great Indiana beers last on draft, and I know I will be stopping in this week to get whatever left overs they have. If you weren't able to go to the release, go soon! This is probably more Indiana beer options than we have at most festivals and I would be sad if anyone missed it.

Now, all these great Indiana beers won't be there all the time, but the food will and the food was outstanding. I got a pretzel breaded pork tenderloin. That's not a tenderloin on a pretzel bun, that's a tenderloin breaded with pretzel crumbs. The pretel crumbs gave it a really dark color, that almost looked burnt, but it was not even close. The pork was juicy inside and the pretzel really gave it a unique flavor and a crispy outside. The beer cheese soup was insanely good. It was so rich, that it was probably more like a cheese dip then a soup.

On top of all that, the crack fries were pretty outstanding. Their crack fries are a lightly spicy seasoned french fry. They are awesome standard but can be loaded and topped with some great options. Brie got her go to, mac and cheese, and was happy about the gooey cheese and noodles. Everyone at our table really liked the food and for as busy as they were the service wasn't bad. You'd think with a horde of beer geeks banging down your doors nothing would get done, but we were seated, fed and on our way home in less than three hours.

This is quickly going to be one of my favorite spots to do some drinking and some eating.

Upland's Secret Barrel Society

So you say you're tired of having to enter the lottery to get your lambics from Upland?
So you say, you never get as many delicious sour beers as you want?
So you say you wish there was an easier way???
There is an easier way. I am a big fan of the Upland Lambics, and Malefactor is one of my all-time favorites, so when the Secret Barrel Society (SBS) memberships came out my wonderful wife got one for me for my birthday.

I've really enjoyed everything about it, but as I was going through my last tour of the Upland sour beer program, it occurred to me that not everyone really knows how many additions have been made to the benefits of the Secret Barrel Society.

Upland has had their Secret Barrel Society going on since the end of last year. When it first came out there were a lot of people in the local beer community that were, let's just say unimpressed, but Caleb, their head brewer, has done a ton to make this a worthwhile program. I know they have some possible changes in the works for next year, but let's take a look what what members have gotten so far.

• Each member recieved 2 members only tulip glasses
• So far there have been two private tours of the Upland Brewery sour program with Caleb and samples of the sours coming down the pike. Members were able to bring a guest to those events.
• There has been one sour beer release party, hosted at the Bloomington and Carmel tap houses, complete with samples of new beers, meats cheeses and talks with employees working on the sour program. Members were able to bring a guest to this as well.
• Members got a free VIP pass to the Sour Wild Funk Fest (SWFF).
• After SWFF we were able to go into the catacombs for a special SBS party. Again members were able to bring a guest.
• Most importantly, members have been able to get up to 6 of each beer for the last few releases. That is a TON of delicious Upland sours.

Upland was really upfront when talking about their goals for the SBS. They wanted to grow the sour program enough that they were able to start putting some of their beers back on liquor store shelves around town. They cool thing is, they've actually started doing it. Big Red has gotten a few cases of the last couple releases.

 

There are tons of people who talk about "the good ol'days" when you could just go to the store and buy a lambic. Well, the extra money coming in from the SBS memberships and the additional sales of the beer is making the sour program strong. If this had been a kickstarter it probably would have been supported better, but kickstarter takes money away from the program. 

As a community we can be unforgiving when we feel like we've been slighted or taken advantage of. I know SBS didn't impress everyone when it first came out, but they've done a great job making it a great value for beer geeks around town. If you love their sours and haven't been getting as many in the lottery as you want, you should really check out the Secret Barrel Society.

Fistful of Hops Summer Release

So we've officially had all of the seasons of Fistful of Hops by Sun King Brewing Company. As I've pointed out every season, Fistful is an IPA that keeps the same malt bill all year long, but rotates the hops that it showcases every season. You can check out the reviews for the other seasons:

Fistful of Hops Fall (red can)
Fistful of Hops Winter (blue can)
Fistful of Hops Spring (green can)

The summer Fistful of Hops uses azacca and mosaic hops. Now I had no idea what azacca hops were supposed to taste like, so I hit up Great Fermentations, the local homebrew store that I buy my ingredients from. They told me that azacca is a pretty new hop to the market. It has some big citrus flavors mixed with some piney and earthy undertones. It leaves you with a crisp and bitter finish. I think it was well paired with the big flavors of mosaic, one of my personal favorite hops.

This one has such a big aroma. You start smelling it as soon as the can opens. It smells like when you used to get fruit cocktail as a kid, with big tropical sweet aromas right from the start. This is one of the best smelling IPAs I've ever had. The beer pours out the same good looking golden yellow color that all the Fistful of Hops beers pour out. The flavor is light and crisp with some nice citrus fruit flavors up front and a clean bitter finish. The bitter finish is that resiny pine flavor that is probably coming from the azacca hops. Its a really nice easy drinking summer beer.

I'm not trying to be critical but the aroma was so amazing, I was a little disappointed when the flavor of the beer didn't live up to the hype in my nose. It is a great beer, and the flavors were really easy to drink in the summer heat, but its verging on too light for an IPA. I like the beer, its not my favorite Fistful release but it's a damn good beer, and its about as good as it gets for this kind of weather. I give it a 3.5/5

Now that I've reviewed and tasted all four of this year's fistful of hops, I really thought I'd be able to rank them. Keep in mind these have all been really good IPAs and with all the variety Sun King has done a great job of making sure there is something for everyone who likes a good IPA. I couldn't rank these because they were all so perfect for the season. I think Clay nailed it and really made something outstanding for each season they were released!!!

Millions of Peaches, Peaches for me

First off, a big congratulations to Upland Brewing Company for their win at the Indiana Brewers Cup. They won pro brewer best in show for VynoSynth Red and they also won pro brewer of the year and the Grand Champion Brewer! Great job! Keep the sours coming!

According to the Presidents of the United States of America, peaches come from a can, but Upland Brewing Company in Bloomington, Indiana is proving that peaches can come in a bottle too. Upland makes a base lambic, and then age it in barrels. They have barrels that are more than a decade old sitting in their cellars. Each bottle of lambic that you drink is a blend of different aged barrels and fresh lambic to get the right level of sour determined by their head brewer, Caleb. That blend is then aged in a barrel with a whole lot of all natural fresh fruit. Upland is big on sustainability and sourcing locally for everything they can, so the fruit they use is important to them. Often though their sour lambics are so tart that its hard to find the fruit. I was pleased with the peach, not because it was a heavy peach flavor necessarily but because it did a good job of adding to the big sourness of the beer.

The Peach Lambic pours out a very light orange color with just a bit of haze and sediment and almost no head. All the lambic style beers by Upland are bottle conditioned with wild yeasts, so they have some floaties in the bottles. When pouring a beer like this, make sure you don’t pour the last inch or so out of your bottle. That lets you leave most the yeast and some of the heavier sediment in the bottom of the bottle instead of your glass. The beer has big, acidic-sour aromas with just a little bit of peach in there. The flavor follows it nicely. Huge tartness, and I mean huge. Upland makes these guys sour enough to take the enamel off your teeth, but in a good way. The fruit mellows the sour out just enough to make it incredibly enjoyable.

At this point I’ve had just about all the lambics that Upland makes and the Peach is by far my favorite. The hints of sweet peach fruit flavor compliment the sourness of the lambic so well. I encourage you to get your hands on any of these sours— this one most of all— but sour newbies beware.

I give it a 5 out of 5

Recently, Upland formed the Secret Barrel Society (SBS), a reserve club that gives members better access to these amazing beers. Members are helping the brewery ramp up their sour program and add more barrels of this amazing beer to their warehouse, so in the future bottles can be on shelves throughout Indiana. If you’re interested check out their website to learn more about the SBS.

SKB5: Who was the party really for?

Happy Birthday, Sun King. You really have been a huge force in getting national recognition for craft beer in Indy.

Last year, the Sun King anniversary party was one of my favorite events of the summer. The beer was excellent and there were tons of special release tapings. The music by St. Paul and the Broken Bones was insanely good. And of course the always loved Grapefruit Jungle IPA was released at the event. There wasn't really much room for improvement on such an awesome party.

The party was huge this year. They sold out at least a week before the event, so obviously their good reputation and whatever they did to promote the event worked great! As a beer geek and overall craft fan I thought the party fell short in a couple of areas compared to last year.

Last year was all about the beer, this year felt more like a concert that also had beer. We all know that Sun King is one of the most popular and well recognized breweries located in Indianapolis. They have beer in bars all over the place and at most of the stadiums for sporting events. They've started to become the beer of the people here in Indianapolis. Sadly (for us at least), that means they may not want to be the beer of the beer geeks around here. At some point a brewery has to decide on a strategy, sell to the hard core fans or sell to the masses, maybe some breweries can do both.

First and probably foremost for me as a standout from last year's event that was missing this year was the tappings. Sun King's Kings Reserve beers have been coming out almost every other month this year. Last year we got an awesome preview at the party of what was to come, this year we got Mellow Johnny, a raddler. For those of you who are not familiar, a raddler is a beer mixed with a juice or fruit soda. Although the raddler was well done, and perfect for the summer heat, it's probably the most approachable "beer" around and isn't nearly as exciting as some of Sun King's sours or barrel-aged offerings. Not only did we not have any King's Reserve releases, we didn't have any uniquely timed releases.  They had their standard canned line up, plus Popcorn Pilsner, Lavern, Shirley (which had been in the tap room), and Grapefruit Jungle.

The second thing that disappointed me was that Grapefruit Jungle wasn't available for takeout at the party. This is an awesome beer. This is one of those beers that I can drink a case of in a weekend. If you haven't had it lately, try and grab a four pack while you can.

Really minor things that could have been better were bringing back the picnic tables that they had last year. Yes the internet and invite all said to bring a chair if you want to sit, but this looked a lot more like a concert at White River than it did a beer event. I prefered the music last year, but that's totally a matter of taste, and the food trucks started running out of stuff pretty early this year (obviously not the breweries fault at all).

The final thing that set me off a little was the overall cost. The event is totally reasonable at a $10 entry fee, but once you're in you have to get $5 tickets for beer. Please note this is the exact same set up as last year, but last year they had some amazing beers being tapped and I would gladly pay five bucks to have a taste. This year we were limited to their house beers and some pretty basic releases. If I came in the day before I could have gotten any of the house beers in a growler for $5. A day later, after paying to come in, I have to give you five dollars for a can... this is higher mark up than a liquor store by a lot. It was even a mark up for GFJ, which I gladly pay my $18 per four pack for. If you're going to charge like I'm going to Deer Creek... Verizon... Klipsch... whatever, I should be coming for the concert not the brewery's anniversary.

All in, I still love Sun King and I think GFJ is an excellent beer that I will keep drinking as long as I can get it. Tons of people were rocking out to the bands and having a great time all around. Every beer was easy drinking for people that aren't really fans of craft beer which can bring a whole new crowd in. The party only disappointed me because I had such high hopes after last year. I know last year the tappings were limited and a lot of people got shut out, but at least the beers were there and people had a chance to try everything. As a beer geek, I felt like I spent fifty bucks just to try Grapefruit Jungle a couple days early. It all just begs the question, who was the party really for?

Rooftop IPA

In the last twenty years Bloomington Brewery has been flying under the radar with their awesome brewpub in the heart of IU's campus down in Bloomington IN. They've been making awesome beers, but they were mostly just available at the pub and a few other beer bars. In the last few years, they've really been stepping up and getting their beer in a lot more places. Last year they brought their IPA, Rooftop, to the brewers cup at the state fair and they brought home the gold. With that success in mind they've gone ahead and put it in some pretty good looking 22 oz bottles and started distributing it to liquor stores all around Indy.

Rooftop IPA pours out a nice light copper color with thick fluffy white head. The head pushes forth with big citrus fruit peal aromas mixed with a piney resin smell. Right from the get go, you can tell this IPA means business and the hops have come to party. It has a great sweet malty backbone that gives the citrus fruit hop flavor an almost orange slice flavor. Its big and juicy with a pretty even handed bitter finish. With all the hops in the nose I expected a ton on the finish, but this kept it nice and laid back. The beer was incredibly drinkable for being about 7.4% abv.

I give it a 4/5

We keep looking to new breweries that are springing up around town to change the market place. Sometimes we don't think about some of the guys that have been around for a while without distribution. This is an excellent IPA and I'm really excited that after twenty years in business BBC is starting to put it on the shelves. Keep up the good work guys, and maybe we'll start seeing more tasty treats on shelves around town.

Thunder, Thunder, Thunderbird HO!!!

Thunderbird is a trendy place in the Fountain Square neighborhood with upscale modern cuisine and an impressive array of custom prohibition style cocktails. In a classy bar like this, it shouldn't surprise anyone that they have a pretty solid  number of craft beer taps. Brie and I have been in a few times with friends and I thought it was about time I put up a review.

The atmosphere at Thunderbird is awesome. It has cozy booths along the walls with large communal tables in the center of the bar. There is a great horseshoe shaped bar in the center. There are even small bar areas in the windows that let you check out the people walking around Fountain Square. The decor is like a rustic ski chalet in the middle of Indiana. There is tons of dark reclaimed wood and bright hanging pendent lights. The ceilings are tall which opens the whole place up, and having the two windows up front allows a ton of natural light in.

The menu changes regularly, but what we've had has been outstanding. The croquette's are amazing. For all of you who are not used to yupy food, croquette is just a fried dough ball of stuff. The ones at Thunderbird have ham hock inside. Hush puppies were also excellent. They took a nice home-style dish and really did a good job elevating it. There service has been good whether we've ordered from a table or the bar. The servers are just as knowledgeable about the drinks as they are the food.

Now since this is a beer blog... It looks like they have about eight rotating taps, and so far they've done an impressive job of keeping some unique things on.
There are always a few local Indy beers and normally a bunch of interesting regional options. They are starting to get more active with things like tap takeovers and other beer related events. We were able to go out for an Urban Chestnut takeover and tried a bunch of exciting one offs. Although this is not necessarily a beer bar, they do a good job keeping fun options on the menu, and for those of us with significant others, sometimes its good to go somewhere that doesn't just have beer.

I give the food an outstanding 4.5/5
I give the beer menu a solid 4/5

Check them out on socail media:

Facebook: tbirdindy
Instagram: Thunderbirdindy
Twitter: Thunderbirdindy

Lets Give a Warm Welcome to HopCat!

Where can you find unique beers on tap in Indy? Right now you can count the great spots we have on two hands. With the huge boom in craft breweries here in central Indiana, it only makes sense that we're going to need a lot more places to drink that beer.

Our growing craft community has caught the eye of the big guy up north. HopCat, a titan in Michigan's craft beer scene, is opening their third location right here in Broad Ripple. HopCat, Grand Rapids, was rated as the number 3 Beer Bar on Planet earth by Beer Advocate and number 1 Brewpub in the US by Ratebeer.com. They have one hell of a reputation. Here they will have 130 taps available which will be the largest draft system in the state.

There are a lot of bars here in Indy that do a good job with craft beer, but not many that specialize in it. We have such great breweries that have been around for a while and that are brand new, it's awesome to see more bars that specialize in craft beer popping up. This will mean more unique beers on tap on a regular basis and more servers trained to talk about beer. It will help the overall education of the community. If we are going to keep the revolution moving we need more places pouring our beer all the time, where geeks like us can go in and try new things and talk to someone who really knows what's going on.

To bring a little more Indianapolis excitement HopCat had a hops planting instead of a formal ground breaking ceremony last week. Local news outlets came out to see the skeleton of the space that will hold the bar and restaurant. Clay from Sun King, and President of the Brewers of Indiana Guild came to talk about the new bar and what it would really mean for Indiana beer.

The official launch is August 16th and they are hosting a huge tap takeover with all 130 taps pouring delicious Indiana beer. That's more local beer than you see at some Indiana festivals! With HopCat already being engaged with the guild, I'm sure there will be some rare treats and crazy brews tapped at the take over.

"HopCat Founder Mark Sellers said the Hoosier tap takeover event will provide patrons with a chance to experience the incredible variety, artistry and creativity within Indiana's craft brewing community."

The first 200 customers in line before 11am will all get a magic card that gives them an order of deliciously addictive Crack Fries every week for the next year. For those of you who hate lines, everyone will get a free order of Crack Fries on opening day.

I'm really exited for another great craft beer bar. Hell, I'd be excited if we got ten more true craft beer bars. I'm excited for more great beers on tap regularly. I'm excited for a better platform to show off the great beer made here in Indiana. I'm excited for a menu that's all made to pair with beer. I'm excited to wait in line at HopCat Indy's grand opening!

Right now HopCat is hiring to fill more than 100 jobs at the Indy location. If you want to be part of the beer community here in Indy email them at indy.jobs@hopcat.com

Check out HopCat on Social Media.

Facebook: HopCat - Broad Ripple
Twitter: hopcatbr
Instagram: hopcatbr

Hinchtown Hammer Down

For all you Indy natives, you know the end of May means one thing, and one thing only, race week. People outside of Indy don't understand this is not just an event, it's the official start of summer around here. The track is open for two straight weeks so you can watch your favorite drivers practice and warm up their cars.

If you've never been to an Indy car race it's hard to describe. The thunder of thirty three engines all starting up at the same time and the roar of the cars passing your seats can only be described as awe inspiring. I'm by no means the biggest race fan but as an Indy native, I love watching the race live. There is something that goes beyond words about watching the speed and control of these cars flying around the oval. After 18 consecutive 500 races, I've learned a thing or two.

1. Never forget your butt cushion
2. Seriously, never forget your butt cushion!
3. Always bring extra beer because you never when you might make a friend

This year I had to turn around and go back for my butt cushion, but I didn't forget the extra beer. Local Brewery, Flat 12 Bierwerks, just changed their standard lineup, removing Upside Down Blonde and replacing it with Hinchtown Hammer Down Golden Ale, named after James Hinchcliff a great Indy car racer. Spoiler alert, even with a beer named after him, Hinchcliff didn't win this years Indy 500. Because this is supposed to be a race beer, the brought it out in bottles as well as cans, so you can bring it just about anywhere. I figured I should give the new brew a try, plus what better beer to take to the 500 race than one named after a driver.

Hinchtown Hammer Down Golden Ale was designed to be a track beer. If you've ever been to an Indy car race or a NASCAR race you know that you need a crisp flavored light bodied beer that will quench your thirst in the hot summer sun, and that won't get you sideways too quickly. It needs to be light and sessionable, but as craft beer lovers we never want to sacrifice flavor and total experience. Flat 12 did a pretty good job packing as much flavor as you can into this 5% ABV beer with a nice, light 27 IBUs.

Hinchtown Hammer Down pours out a crystal clear straw yellow color with a thick white head. It smells sweet and grainy with hints of corn. The flavor is light and crisp with a hit of cereal sweetness. The beer has a light mouth feel and is bright and effervescent.

This is probably one of the most approachable beers that I've had and it does a good job of maintaining a solid craft appeal. Next time you're packing up for the big race, or just a summer afternoon of yard work check out Flat 12's Hinchtown Hammer Down. You wont be disappointed!

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.