18th Street Celebrates First Anniversary

18^th STREET BREWERY SET TO CELEBRATE ITS FIRST YEAR

Three days of festivities include bands, beer and fresh food

One year after opening its doors, 18^th Street Brewery will host a three-day celebration featuring an eclectic mix of bands, house-made fresh food and award-winning beers from around the globe.

In just 12 months, the Gary-based brewer has made a major expansion and earned awards and acclaim that include “Indiana’s Best New Brewer” honors from RateBeer. The festivities at 5725 Miller Ave. are free to attend and open to the public from noon to midnight Friday and Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.

“We wanted to do something special to say ‘thank you’ to the community,” said owner Drew Fox. “The support we have received has been overwhelming and this is a way to celebrate our success with the people who have made it all possible.”

All ages are welcome to attend in the brewery’s front-room space, while those 21 and over are welcome in the taproom. Due to anticipated crowds, all food and beer sales will be cash-only.

18^th Street will offer its own unique and rare beer offerings throughout the weekend, while friends at well-known breweries are also planning to provide special select beers, in support of the 1-year anniversary. In addition, Chef Virgie will be manning the kitchen, with fresh-made food – including vegetarian meals – on the menu.

The weekend’s musical performances will range from rock to pop and blues to hip hop.

 

Music begins at 8 p.m. Friday, when the Corey Dennison Blues Band, featuring Gerry Hundt, take the stage. Dennison delivers dynamic blues and compelling soul, while Hundt is a multi-instrumentalist known for his work with the guitar, harmonica and mandolin.

From 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Northwest Indiana’s own Nomad Planets will rock the stage. Their rock music has been heard on WXRT, the Taste of Chicago festival and countless clubs in Chicago and Indiana.

Saturday night, Sweet Cobra hits the stage at 7 p.m. The Chicago-based band is known as a post-hardcore band that is known for both ripping guitars and rhythmic rock. 

From 2:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. Sunday, groove-heavy pop and dance tunes will come from The Diggity. Expect original and eclectic music that covers a 1980s-style techno-pop and experimental funk from the Northwest Indiana ensemble.

Sunday night, Free Ajents bring their hip-hop sounds, while CoJack & Co. will deliver thought-provoking raps, all from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Free Ajents feature a live drummer, bass and guitar players and two emcees, whose sounds are joined with hip-hop, rock and electronic samples that bring a raw and hypnotizing sound. CoJack & Co. relies on free-style performances that are simple yet inquisitive, tying together topics ranging from work to family and partying.

That diverse blend of music is representative of the diverse base of support 18^th Street Brewery has seen since opening its doors. Starting with self-distribution only in the immediate area, their beer is now distributed in the Indianapolis area and is also available in Denmark, where Fox has collaborated with renowned Mikkeller Brewery.

18^th Street Brewery has also increased its production capacity – creating even more jobs in Gary - and is now capable of churning out 1,000 barrels a year, up from just 500 barrels. They have also invested in new, larger fermenters and a canning line, which means faster production to meet the incredible demand and possible further expansion. 

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.

Indy Beer News, August 6, 2014

Happy birthday to me! This is the 50th episode and 1 year anniversary of Indy Beer News.

Lots from 18th Street Brewing, Burn 'Em Brewing, Scarlet Lane, Mass Ave Pub Flat 12 and that only takes up two days worth of events!

The Dump Buckets have a new video from the Indiana Microbrewers Festival.

Get tickets to GPO at Zink Distributing and Daredevil Brewing Hops and Flip Flops

18th Street is Expanding!

We tried our first beers from 18th Street Brewery at the Bloomington Craft Beer Festival earlier this year. We were impressed. That's really an understatement though. We liked what we tried in Bloomington so much, we made a special side trip the night before Dark Lord Day to go see 18th Street in person at their location in Gary.

We love to see great beer being created in Indiana and are always excited to see the new breweries having success. Below is a copy of a press release we received announcing some new things in the works for 18th Street. Congratulations to everyone there, and we can't wait to come see the new space and see those cans on our shelves!

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18^THSTREET BREWERY ANNOUNCES MAJOR EXPANSION

Larger tanks, canning line will double production capacity

GARY, IN – Less than one year after opening its doors, 18^thStreet Brewery has announced it will double its production by the end of 2014, while also becoming the first Northwest Indiana brewery to have its own canning facility.

Owner Drew Fox is investing in larger equipment and a canning line, combined moves that will allow the Gary brewery to increase production from roughly 500 barrels a year to more than 1,000. That growth will also mean an increased ability to distribute throughout the State of Indiana, as Fox has also reached an agreement with Starlight Distributors to deliver more of 18^thStreet’s beers in the Indianapolis area. 18^th Street has also reached Europe, after a recent collaboration with Mikkeller, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based brewer. Fox said he is now working to identify a distributor to continue that relationship and keep 18^th Street beers flowing in Europe.

The announcement comes just seven months after Rate Beer named 18^thStreet as the “Best New Brewer In Indiana.”

“Even before we opened our doors, we’ve had nothing but incredible support from so many people,” Fox said. “Since we opened last winter, that support has been overwhelming. We really can’t thank people enough for that. We’re ecstatic.”

18^th Street currently operates with nine 7-barrel fermenters at their production facility at 5725 Miller Ave. Over the next four months, each of those fermenters will be removed and replaced with nine 10-barrel fermenters.

Fox has also purchased a new canning line, currently being assembled by Calgary-based Cask Brewing Systems and set to arrive in late September. That will allow 18^th Street to transition from 22oz bottles to canning nearly all of their beer, with bottles reserved for special releases.

“It takes us about eight hours to bottle just one 7-barrel tank,”Fox said. “These moves will make us much more efficient, even as we’re growing.”

Unlike a mobile canner, the canning facility will be the equivalent of a small manufacturing facility emerging in Gary, creating four new jobs with it. It will be built directly across from the brewery.

“We want to be part of a cultural and economic renaissance in Gary, but we also want to help bring small manufacturing back to Gary,” Fox said, “By adding the canning facility, it shows that small manufacturing still has a place in Gary, Indiana."

Bloomington Craft Beer Festival

For the second year in a row, we had the opportunity to attend the Bloomington Craft Beer Festival. The festival took place at the Woolery Mill, which serves as a great back drop. The whole festival has a pretty chill, laid back vibe that you don't see with some other events. It's small enough that you can easily try something from each brewer, but large enough to provide a good variety.


The view from the Brewer's Hideout

We opted to get the early admission tickets and were able to get about an hour of tasting in before the "consumption crowd" arrived, though it was never so packed that it was hard to get around or get to the brewers' tables. Unless you wanted to have some Zombie Dust, then you had to deal with a really long line. I know there are some people opposed to early admit or VIP ticket options, but I always prefer them. I also tend to go against the crowd at the beginning, go to the furthest breweries from the entrance, and work my way back to the front.

 

Of the breweries that came, there were a few standouts for me.

1. Black Acre Brewing, Blood Orange Infused Bitter Life: An American IPA
2. 18th Street Brewing, Bitch Hands: An American Pale Ale
3. Against the Grain, HAmon HAmarth: A smoked beer

I was surprised that I'd had so many of the beers that were there. I know I've been busy this year trying as much as I could, but it would have been nice to see a few more unique offerings. If you want to see how this compares to what we thought of last year's event, read that post here.

The Big Guy: I'm always happy to head back down to Bloomington. The only hard part is not hitting Kirkwood. After this festival, thank God I didn't go to Kirkwood...thank G O D. The venue for this festival is one of the coolest spots around and the weather was perfect. It was a sunny 75 degrees and windy enough to cool the whole thing down to the perfect temperature.

Brie and I were the only Barons that made it to the event, but we met up with some friends from Girls Pint Out, Great Fermentations and our tasting group as well as some newbies from Brie's office. Coming to these things with new comers can be a lot of fun. I always have a great time watching how they react to the beers for the first time. A really hoppy beer can shock someone the first time.

So I think my wife and I hang out too much. My favorite beers of the show were:

1. 18th Street Brewing, Nubian Overlord: A double IPA
2. Against the Grain, HAmon HAmarth: A smoked beer
3. Black Acre Brewing, Blood Orange Infused Bitter Life: An American IPA

Honorable mentions include: Barrel Aged Scotch Ale by Fountain Square, Andrew and Drew Smoked Amber by Bluegrass Brewing, and The Dude White Russian Porter by Crown Brewing.

Flat 12 brought the crazy again with a carnival theme. Surprisingly the squid ink gose, Octogose, was pretty good. The briny quality of the squid ink was a very nice addition to the salty sour gose beer that is becoming more popular lately. Although this one was a win for me, the caramel corn was not.

The festival was full of great beers and some beers with really cool combinations of flavors. On a sunny spring day there isn't anything better than good friends, good beer and a designated driver. I can't wait to take a trip up to 18th Street and a drive down to check out Against the Grain.