Sanitarium 2014

So, I've reviewed this beer at least once here. I personally think it's an outstanding beer and gets overlooked by the beer geeks in Indy. Not that awards guarantee a beer you're going to like, but this brew has once a couple medals for Belgian beers. The one thing we can all agree on, is if a beer is winning medals it's probably well crafted.

When I talk with people about the beer, the main issue most people bring up is how boozy this brew is. It's hard to argue that fact because this beer comes in around 13% and the big Belgian malt flavors do an ok job hiding it but the only thing that can cure the alcoholic heat is a little bit of age. Many Belgian Brewers will actually leave their 10% and above beers in the bottle for a year before passing them on to distribution so you and I can enjoy it. I think time is critical. 

I drank this beer fresh and then had the year old version the next night. I wanted to do them side by side but I wasn't sure my review would be clear at that point, but I do what I can for you the reader. As a whole the beer is big and sweet with a lot of Belgian phenolic flavors typical of the traditional yeast strains. There are tons of dark fruits: plums, raisins and figs. It's accented nicely by a bit of bready malt and just a hint of something toasty.

When drinking these beers side by side ish. The big change is the level of alcohol on the back end and the amount of sweetness. The fresh beer almost has a liquor like burn on the back end that does a pretty good job of balancing out the sweet front end. The aged version has less sweetness and the booze like flavors have mellowed nicely. It's hard to find a. Beer above 12% that you can honestly call smooth, but a little age puts this brew right there. After a year, very little oxidation has set in. I think a little bit of be sherry character that comes from a few years of aging would be a great compliment to the dark fruits. I have a couple still from the first release, and I can't wait to see what 3 or 4 years does to mellow this beer out.

I'm thrilled that Bier sold out of this beer quickly because it shows that people are looking forward to its release. I believe in buying local, but only if it's good beers this is both local and good. It's the only packaged release Bier does. Compared to some of the other breweries special releases I think this one delivers ten ones over. You should give Sanitarium a try if you haven't, but bring a friend it's a great beer to share 

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.

Glassware Collecting

This is my first post to the Indiana Beer Barons blog, so I thought it would be a good introduction if my first post focused on something that I'm very passionate about… 

Just when you thought beer geeks couldn’t get any geekier, there’s a new niche beer geek. We’re the guys you see at brewery anniversary parties looking for the special glassware to commemorate the event, or seeking out the Three Floyd’s merchandise tent among all the beer whale carnage for the annual Three Floyd’s/Intelligentsia taster glass. We’re the glassware geeks.

So where did we come from? I’m sure there’s always been a few of us around, but as the scene has exploded and new breweries open every day, there’s been a proliferation of brewery glassware and naturally an increase in collectors. Certain breweries produce a vast variety of glassware, such as Stone Brewing Company who as of this post had 18 different glasses in their online store and at their last anniversary party produced no less than 4 different glasses just for that event.

Unlike beer, breweries can ship you their glassware directly if they’re willing to (not all are for various reasons) and in some cases it’s as simple as visiting their online store. Also, breweries like New Belgium, Samuel Adams, and Terrapin commonly give away glasses at events. The abundance of available glasses makes it seem like an easy item to collect, but that’s not always the case.

First, beer glasses aren’t as widely distributed as beer and are generally only available at the brewery, sometimes at liquor stores, or at specific events. Secondly, certain glasses are only made in very limited numbers. For example a new brewery out of Oregon only made 71 of their tulip glasses available, and a very popular Oregon brewery made 500 glasses available for their most recent anniversary party.

Glasses like the Cantillon Iris wine glass, Left Hand Brewing “Wake Up Dead” snifter (I get unsolicited offers for mine all the time), Pretty Things “Our Finest Regards” wine glass, and several Three Floyd’s glasses are what we call glasswhales; the rarest of the rare. These glasses are rarely seen and usually cause a frenzy when they are offered up for trade, and their owners can demand a lot in return. The extreme rarity and/or demand for certain glasses has spawned a burgeoning glassware trading community somewhat similar to the beer trading community.

Just like with beer, people mule, hoard, and ransom glasses and unfortunately as the scene grows we get more and more people doing the latter. Trading glasses can also be more difficult than trading beer; because the community is newer and smaller, consensus values on rare glasses and trading protocols haven’t been firmly established. It can get complicated too when there are multiple versions of a glass and there’s not a common lexicon among traders or no fancy beer label to simply reference. This has bitten me before when I expected a certain Russian River “-tion” glass to arrive in a trade, but got the wrong glass because the trader incorrectly identified the glass he sent me.

That said, I have found the glassware trading community to be very generous and very welcoming to newcomers.

I’ve shown my collection of glasses (pictured below) to many people and among the many compliments and exclamations of “my significant other would kill me!” I frequently get asked: “Why do you have so many glasses?” While I can only truly answer for myself, I have several reasons that I believe reflect other collectors’ thoughts as well.

First, some of us are just habitual collectors; whether it was baseball cards, action figures, dolls, or probably what a lot of you reading this now collect, beer, there’s always some focus that provides the “thrill of the chase.” Secondly, there’s something that just feels right about having the matching glass to go with the beer and so this means you need a lot of glassware! Lastly, and probably most important for me, there are memories attached to the majority of my glassware- when the beer is gone the glass remains!

You’re probably wondering “Who is this guy? How do I know he has street cred?” well in my collection I have over 250 pieces of glassware…  It’s gotten to the point where I’ve had to institute 2 rules (there are occasional exceptions made): 1) I’m not allowed to have glassware from a brewery that I have not visited or have at least had beer from; 2) No more shaker pints! It’s the standard conical glass you see everywhere- I hate those things and I don’t buy them anymore, but I’ll talk more about that in another post probably.

I’m assuming that everyone reading this is excited to go out and collect glassware now! Since I mostly focus on collecting non-shaker pints, there’s not a lot that I’ve purchased around Indy recently, but here is a quick rundown of what I think the better local and easily obtainable glasses are:

-Upland Brewing Co. Snifter (taprooms)

-Sun King Can Glass (taproom)

-Bier Brewery Snifter (taproom)

-Daredevil Imperial pint and tulip (Daredevil’s online shop)

-New Day Snifter (Taproom; for the mead fans out there)

-Most of the other breweries will have some type of shaker pint to purchase.

So the next time you see that crazy guy at Three Floyd’s Dark Lord Day (because there’s only one right?) looking for that year’s special event glass, point him in the right direction and think about getting one for yourself, because it won’t come cheap when you want the proper glassware for your Dark Lord.

Get Ready to Dig IN

If you haven't heard of Dig IN, it might be because it isn't a brew festival, its a food festival. There are tons of chefs from great restaurants out in force, bringing some of their best bites to us. The festivities take place Sunday, August 25th from noon-five. Tickets are still on sale at the above link.

On top of everything else there are sixteen breweries from around the Indianapolis area. Expect to see Barley Island, Bier, Black Swan, Bloomington Brewing Co, Broadripple Brewpub, Brugge, Cutters, Daredevil, Flat 12, Fountain Square, Sun King, Three Pints, Three Wisemen, Tin Man, Triton and Upland.

For those of you who are foodies, expect to see Chef JJ, who I just visited earlier this summer. We have also checked out the Local Eatery and Pub.

O-Dawg is volenteering and the Little Lady and I will be checking out their VIP experience. Look for write ups next week, or better yet, just plan on coming out to check out the fun with us on Sunday.

The Scene: Chef JJ's Make it Local

We were invited to Chef JJ's Back Yard by some great friends who are really starting to get into craft beer. It was one of Chef JJ's Make it Local events and for us it was the perfect double-date night! Chef JJ's Back Yard is a fantastic but easy to miss little spot by Brugge in Broadripple. He has an amazing view of the water, and on a beautiful summer day there is no better spot in Indy.

The Make it Local event was a cooking demo on the Green Egg where Cheff JJ used locally sourced meats and cheeses and of course my favorite thing, locally sourced beer.We were welcomed warmly and escorted to his patio. There was room for about 35 or 40 guests in this beautiful and intimate setting. Five breweries participated: Triton, Barley Island, Bier Brewery, Bloomington Brewing Company and Daredevil. The brewer or one of the owners of each of the breweries was there, and they came around and sat with every table of six guests for one course.

The first course was a cheese plate from Goose the Market paired with Triton's Gold Trans Am a light, sessionable golden ale (head brewer John has challenged himself to start making a session beer every season). The beer was crisp and refreshing without any major hop character. Great for a hot summer day. The cheese was amazing and all locally sourced. It was served with some crustinis, an delicious pickled kale, and beer jelly made from the Gold Trans Am. The jelly was awesome. It paired so well with the strong dry flavors of the cheese. It was the right amount of sweetness to balance out every bite. 

The second course was a crab salad. It had roasted greens done on the Egg. The crab was light and bright and the salad had a nice citrus vinaigrette. The salad was paired with Sheet Metal blonde from Barley Island. This light Belgian Wit beer was the winner of the Brew Bracket Wheat event in September of 2012. It was light with just enough sweetness to bring a smile to my face. It went great with the summery salad.

The third course was an amazing steak dish on top of some grilled pickled vegetables paired with Bier's Special K Kolsch. Special K is probably one of my favorite Kolsch beers on the market right now. It is easy drinking but flavorful enough to have its own personality. The steak was amazingly tender. I would normally go with a darker beer that has more body when I am eating a steak, but this worked so well. It helped lighten the heavy red meat and gave it a great summer feel. 

The fourth course was my favorite. It was a shreaded pork and lamb that had some great mexican spices. The meat was big and bold, totally in your face. It had an outstanding avocado mouse on top that helped cool off the meat and brighten the plate. It was paired with Lift Off IPA by Daredevil which is a bright clean West Coast style IPA. It has to be one of the best balanced IPAs that I've every had. The hops marry well with the clean sweet malt to give you one strong flavor.

The fifth course was desert. It was a deconstructed S'more with a roasted whipped marshmallow and chocolate panna cotta. This was paired with a possible one-time-only release beer by Bloomington Brewing Company, Vanilla Stout. It was their stout aged on vanilla beans, and it was delicious. The Little Lady waited all night for this one and was not disappointed. This was probably my favorite beer of the night, but I'm a sucker for anything dark and aged. Plus, after five courses you've had enough beer to get a little more generous with your reviews.

For me the coolest thing about this dinner was having the brewers come sit at your table and talk. When John from Triton came over, he talked primarily about the growing craft community. Triton has recently opened their tap house in Broadripple and now they are working on extending their distribution to IL. Jeff from Barley Island talked about some of the challenges that come with being a brewer in a small town, and dealing with the local politics. We got a great perspective from BBC about the craft beer boom in Indiana. The owner of Bier talked about the competitive brewing that his son Darren, the head brewer, was doing. Lastly we talked to Michael from Daredevil (also in the picture to the right) about the importance of water purity and your taste buds when it comes to beer. (Look for a full post on this later). It was realy cool to get the small group time with the brewers, and the food was amazing.

This is the perfect date night for the true beer geek and a very tolerant date. Cheers!

Sanitarium

There are certain things that drive me to get out of bed like Christmas morning, cooking bacon and a rare limited release beer. Sanitarium was Bier Brewery's silver medal winner at the Great American Brew Festival. Because this was a limited run of bottled brews, Bier released 50 gift sets on the 21st and 50 gift sets on the 22nd when they opened. Both days there was a line out the building of craft beer fans looking to get their hands on this bad boy.

It is a Belgian Quadruple (Abby Style Ale), which makes it one of the booziest beers around. A beer is a quad because when they were brewing on the Belgian countryside they would reuse wort. Wort is the grain sludge mixture used to make beer. The first use would be higher in sugar to produce more alcohol. This made it last longer since alcohol helped preserve the beer. A triple would be the first of three batches of beer, so it had to have a bunch of sugars. Just imagine what a quad would have to be like...

No more imagining. This beer was 13.1% abv, which is more then a lot of wines. The beer poured a hazy brown that you could not see through. It had a light tan head that falls away to lacing quickly. There was a light fruit and alcoholic smell to the beer. Normally I am a heathen and drink out of a pint, but Bier supplied a tulip glass with each gift set, so I classed it up.

The first thing I noticed was how effervescent the beer was. I was not expecting such nice carbonation from such a dark beer with so little head. The flavor was very malty with strong notes of caramel and banana. The booziness was noticeable but not in a bad way. Since I was drinking out of a tulip glass, my hands were heating the beer up faster than normal. As the beer warmed up the flavor opened up. Some of the alcohol flavor faded away and more of the fruits came shinning through. 

This beer had a long lasting sweetness that lingered on the tongue  I tried to wait to have my next sip until I couldn't taste any traces of it, and this kept me going for hours. Sanitarium was a great beer for the cold weather. If you were lucky enough to wait in line and snag one, enjoy it. I have one more that I will be holding on to for another six months or so to see if the booziness mellows out. Expect a report then.

By the way, your burps taste like banana

I give this one a 4.5 very tasty brew.

Belgian Dark Strong

Creation: Belgian Dark Strong
Style:  Belgian Dark Strong
Masterminds: Bier Brewery
Location: Indianapolis, IN
ABV: 10 %
IBU: 20.8
SRM: 17
Hops:
Availability: Special release
Drinkability:  I could have a few, but the sweetness may prevent mass consumption
Awards:

"Legend... Wait for it..."

Served cold right out of the BRÄULER™

Pours with a dark glow that swirls around the glass depths of your pint.  Very minimal head that sticks around and not much fizz to speak of after the initial pour.  (Tips hat to the bartender at BIER once again on a perfect growler fill)

The nose, like most Belgians, is a sweet and fruity banana.  It has a slight caramel-bready aroma.  This only whets the pallet in anticipation for the glory that is The Belgian Dark.

It starts off with a sweet Belgian Crystal Malt and Candi sugar flavor with notes of slight spicyness. This gives way to a sweet tang finish that permeates the pallet.

It will leave your mouth with a sweet and fruity zip that sticks around for a minute.

Serve warm(er) to mellow out the sharp flavors and cozy up with the warm high octane ABV.

3.5 heads: Defiantly a crowd pleaser and would want more if available.

Post Mortum:
You ever have a growler just stick around?  I mean you have a glass or two then get interrupted by a last minute "Honey could you go to the store for me?" or "Mom, Dad!  What a pleasant surprise!  You never stop by unexpected..."

I must have had 3-4 pints when I first opened this bad boy.  I thought I was just about done.  Cut to that following weekend.

I know... why are you letting perfectly good beer sit around in your fridge when you should have drank it all...  Please! I am a beer conioussuer, not a lush!  Besides the beer-geneers over at The Zythos Project - Home of the BRÄULER™ are going to nip that proverbial problem in the bud for me upon the month of February 2013.  Thank God I hit up their FreshCap™ CO2 injection system Kickstarter project.

Ok, this gem of a beer has been sitting around in my BRÄULER™ in the fridge for the better part of a full week untouched.  Like any dutiful red blooded american male I popped that puppy open determined to finish it rather than pour it down the sink.  Two angels lose their wings if you have to sacrifice beer to the sink god in this way... not so Ho Ho Ho if you know what I mean.... 

I was pleasantly surprised to note that the beer tasted almost exactly as it had when I had first poured it a week prior.  Now this doesn't happen to beer.  You let it sit that long in I don't care what type of run of the mill growler and you will end up with flat and stale beer.  Added to this not only did I have one pint left in it... but I had another plus a half to go!  That is 2.5 pints left in the growler for those of you playing the home game.  Now I may have been a little intoxicated and lost count the first time... or my beer magically repopulated itself in my fridge.  Either way this was a "Two in the hand is better than... Wait..."  Dary!  

PDG vs. DFG IPA

Creations:

"Pritty Damn Good" PDG IPA
"Damn Fuck'in Good" DFG IPA

Style:
American Imperial IPA
American Double Imperial IPA

Masterminds: Bier Brewery
Location: Indianapolis,IN

PDG
ABV:  6%
IBU:  45
SRM: 7.6

DFG <to be updated>
ABV:  9.2% ?
IBU:  --
SRM: --

So this large man in a tight suit walks into a chateaux...

Hops:  Heavily dosed with American Hop varieties

Drinkability: "But these speakers go all the way to eleven...!"

Awards:  Someone please correct me... seriously... either of these haven't received an award yet?!

DFG
Serve cold, right out of the Bier Hydroflask (this thing has saved my beer more than once!) for a hoppy floral nose that just screams "I'm tha Jugga-naught BITCH!" with hints of citrus fruits and pine that just overwhelm the senses!

Pours a dark gold which swirls with pimp cane delight with a frothy head.  You better watch yourself when transporting it in the Hydroflask, Growler or Bullet!  This stuff is effervescence/carbonation on steroids!  My bullet distended and warped, my growler almost shattered, my Hydroflask could barely contain the AWSOMENESS!  It must be the metal plating... NO CHARLES YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY! (Juggernaut reference, anyone?)

So much hop forward when drinking this.  Citrus fruit notes (like all of them) with berry and sweet toffee malt.  It's intense, yet balanced.  Friends who hate "Too much hop forward" were commenting on how much they liked the balance and almost drank my poor Hydroflask dry.  /sadpanda

Left the mouth with a bitter hop finish that just sat there like a fat kid with cake.  I would have drank this stuff all night if I had more of it...  Damn you 1 Growler Limit!  Like one of my friends likes to say about his favorite beers "It's like Angels Dancing on your Tongue!"

O-Dawg:
PDG *3.5 <- doesn't go to eleven...

DFG *4.0 heads

*add half head when serving fresh off the tap.  Yes Bier does pint nights and they are DELICIOUS!

Postmortem DFG:
First time I snagged this was for a friends graduation party. Now, now! I know what you are thinking, but this was a master's degree in business! No, seriously! The Big-Guy's wife did Penn State's MBA program full time AND work full time! I think this was the first time I saw her cut loose in 2 years!

Needless to say this beer hit the spot and was a crowd pleaser. I still can't believe I snagged it on a Friday. Bier in the past has tapped this on Saturday afternoons and nothing is left at the end of shift. If you can't snag the DFG, you can try out its little brother PDF IPA.

Postmortem PDG:
Sooo I was in the mood for some more DFG but alas it was not to be! After killing a growler of the little brother the impressions that stuck out the most:
-not as robust a flavor as DFG
No seriously, that's about it. 

If I had to pick an everyday IPA that was not a limited release (such as DFG or Full cycle IPA from Flat 12) this would be it. Friends who hate my hop head tendencies love this beer more than me due to its balance of hop/malt and absence of too bitter a finish and not to intense hop floral nose.

Judy Blue Eyes

Judy Blue Eyes was put together by Bier Brewery. I had a taste of this in their taproom. It was fantastic. I had to take some home with me for the guys.

This is an imperial brown ale. It is 21.3 IBUs and 8% abv.


Everything about this beer is bigger and better than your average brown. Imperials are standard beers that have had added malts to increase their abv. Normally the brewers then add hops to make the beer more balanced. Everything has been amped up, and micro breweries are doing it with just about every style.

I have had a few different imperials in my time but this one was great. It was as dark as night and sweet as sin with an angelic white halo of head. The head basically disappeared before I even started drinking it.

This had strong caramel and chocolate flavors with just a hint of nuttinesss. There was a smokeyness to the malts. It was subtle and well balanced so as to not overwhelm the flavor of the beer. It reminded me of  s'moore at a campfire. It had a nice clean hoppy finish that was a nice sharp bite on the tongue.

I give it a 4. Well done Bier.

Pumpkin Ale

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

My family and I love pumpkin. We love pumpkin pie, pumpkin coffee, and even pumpkin beer. Bier Brewery has released their Pumpkin Ale. The pumpkin ale is 5.3% abv and 14.1 IBUs. They are limiting customers to one growler per person, per visit. Get in and try it while you can.

The beer pours out a golden color with head that goes away fast. It smells like pumpkin with a nice breadiness (almost like an unbaked pumpkin pie). It has a nice light mouth feel with just a bit of sticky sweetness.

The beer itself tasted like an Oktoberfest that had been poured through a pumpkin. The pumpkin was the dominant flavor, taking over most of the beer taste. There was basically no hops. I understand that its beer, it has hops, but no real bitterness. Although that may sound right up my alley, it allowed the pumpkin flavor and the sweetness to run wild. Normally with a pumpkin you get a bit more spiciness and that comes predominately from the hops. 

I wish there would have been a little bit more complexity. It tasted a bit like a mouthful of pie filling.

I didn't hate it, but it is not my favorite pumpkin beer. 

As you can see there are three beers poured in the picture above, and my wife loved it. 

I give it a 2.

Professor Beer:

I really enjoyed Bier's Pumpkin Ale.  It was more of a pumpkin pie beer than a pumpkin beer.  It had a strong cinnamon/spice flavor, but it was well balanced with the pumpkin and not overpowering.  Also, it didn't make the mistake of being too sweet, like many pumpkin beers do.  I found it to be an excellent pumpkin beer, and I will definitely be having a few more this month.

Autumn Marzen

I like Oktobefest beers. I would drink them throughout the year if it were allowed or easily done, but maybe then they wouldn't be as special.

Bier has put together their Autumn Marzen, which is a mostly traditional Bavarian Oktoberfest. It has 6.6% abv and 19.4 IBUs.

The beer pours an amber color with a fine line of white head that stays around the edge of the glass throughout your drinking experience. It has a fruity smell with just a little bit of hops and breadiness. It reminds me of my mothers home made raisin nut bread. Damn, I like her raisin nut bread, now I'm hungry. There is a light mouth feel, which surprised me because of how red the beer was.

The beer starts off with a fruity sweetness. There is a hint of caramel and cinnamon flavor to the malts. It has a crisp hoppy flavor at the end that tingles the tongue just enough that you know it is there. Sweetness and spice are expertly balanced, leaving enough of the beer flavor to keep me super happy.

This is one of my favorite Oktoberfests I have had this year. I give it a 4.

The Scene: Bier Brewery

Bier Brewery and Taproom is one of my favorite places to stop on a Friday. They open at 3, so by the time I am off there are always a couple people bellied up to the bar sampling the beer.

5133 East 65th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46220

The best part about Bier, is that they are releasing new beers every week. When you get to the tasting room  you can belly up to a standard bar or sit at one of their tables, and ask them to line you up. (this is the best part, see the picture below) Then they line up one of everything for you to try all of their great new creations. The staff is incredibly knowledgeable and always happy to talk shop. For people new to the beer scene, I would recommend they stop here first and try and get a little bit of an education. You get a warm personal touch from the guys and gals at Bier.

Their flagship beer is PDG (pretty damn good) IPA. They change the styles that they produce with the season, so you can expect a constantly changing menu with a ton of variety.

Everyweek the board is new and they have cards describing each of their unique beers for the week. This gives you abv, ibu and some descriptions. They really do a lot to help educate their customers.

   

Bier also hosts a variety of events. They have a great parking lot area and always have a food truck or two outside. Grab a bit and a beer.

View Larger Map

80 Schilling Scottish Ale

So after my post yesterday, I had to make sure I got down to Bier Brewery to grab a taste and a growler of the 80 Schilling Scottish Ale. This is one of my favorite styles of beer and I was not as in love with the 60 Schilling as I thought I would be.

This is Bier Brewery's 80 Schilling Scottish Ale. It had 14.8 IBUs and was 5.5% abv. I was expecting his guy to have a little bit of a higher abv than it did.

The 80 was a nice improvement over the 60 I just talked about. The beer had a rounder and more robust flavor with the complexity that the first one was missing. It poured more of a dark brown, molassesy color, instead of an almost black oily color of the 60. The head was thin and went away very quickly. 

It had a great malty start with a nice crisp hop finish. There were hints of caramel and hazelnuts throughout.  The hops at the end were the perfect closure to a nice rounded sweet beer. It still maintained the lightness on the tongue that the 60 schilling had, making it a super drinkable beer. This is one I could sit down and have the entire growler in a night, and in fact I am calling some buddies over to do just that. Since so much of what they do is limited release, I suggest that you make the drive down to Bier and pick one up before it is gone.

Great job by Bier, I give this one a 3.5

Scotch Ale

I love scotch. Scotchy scotch, scotch. Here it goes down into my belly. -Anchorman

Come on, who doesn't. Today I wanted to get into the scotch and Scottish ales. Both of these are types of malty pale ales that don't have a ton of hops, traditionally made across the pond.

It happens to be one of my favorite types of beers, so today I decided to go big. Triton and Bier both released their versions, and I scored a growler or two.

Triton made McQueenie's (Smoked) Scotch Ale - on the right
Abv 5.3%
30 IBUs

This bad boy poured a dark brown to black with very little transparency. The head lasted for about a minute before it disappeared leaving just whisps floating across the top of my beer. It has a smoky smell, letting you know something out of the ordinary is coming. The initial taste is sweet, malty goodness, but then you get something different, smokiness.

It actually reminded me of the peat flavor of some scotch whiskeys. Although I did think this was a stand up beer, the smoked flavor was a touch overwhelming  as you started on your second or third. It was a neat idea and I give the guys over at Triton props for giving it a try. Go try them out. I give this beer a 3.5

At Triton they also had a cask version of this (picture on the right). It upped the smokey flavor and added a very good oaky note. The carbonation was obviously lower than the standard beer on tap, but totally worth trying if they still have it in when you stop by to visit. I preferred the cask ale over the tap. If you are going to go different you may as well go big with it.






Bier made Scottish 60 Shilling. (I will be reviewing their 80 Schilling when it comes out next week) - on the left

The Schilling scale exists because at one point in jolly old England you could buy beers with different amounts of alcohol. The higher the octane, the higher the cost. Sixty Schilling was pretty much the standard everyday beer.

This pours dark brown. It smells sweet and tastes it too. When I had the first sip, I thought that the beer was a bit lack luster, but as you get into the glass there are a lot of redeeming qualities. The flavor is quite good even if a bit less in your face than a Wee Mac (by Sun King) or the McQueenie (above).

It has a light maltiness that you could drink on for hours. The consistency is more like a standard ale than the heaviness of a porter. The finish is just hoppy enough to cut the sweetness. I will say there was more complexity then I originally gave it credit for. Thank God I got a bullet, so I could sample a few glasses before coming to a conclusion.

Give them a try. I give it a 3 and anxiously await their 80.

All this talk of scotch, and I think I need the real deal, looks like a Glen kind of a night...

Trippelle

Creation: Trippelle
Style: Belgian Triple
Masterminds: Bier Brewery
Location: Indianapolis, IN
ABV: 8.6%
Hops:
Availability: Limited
Drinkability: Definitely have a few, but I think the sweetness may interfere with more than that.

Served Cold: right out of the fridge chilled bullet with a bright yellow/gold color and pours with a medium head.

Mellow sweet apple floral nose.

The taste is light and fruity with notes of cinnamon, toffee, is that nutmeg I taste?

The finish is great!  Lingering dry and fizzy sweet, with a kiss of banana.  I am usually not a fan of bananas.  I blame that on my parents forced ingestion of the fruit as a kid every morning... but I really like this beer!

*Solid 3.5 heads

Post Mortum:

I have a confession to make...  I really stopped by Bier to grab a growler of the DFG.  The Trippelle was an afterthought, a really good afterthought, but an afterthought none-the-less.

I usually stop by Bier Brewery on my way home from work.  It is convenient to the point of being a sin.  I got alerted to another appearance of the DFG and of the Trippelle early in the week and was looking forward to it.

Like most Limited Releases by Bier it became available on a Saturday afternoon at 1pm when they first opened the doors.  If you find out about a limited release and stop by Bier, don't be that guy trying to open a locked door when you can clearly see that every other Tom, Dick and Harry are standing outside waiting.  Seriously, it's like context reading.  "Open up your ears and clean out your eyes..." -Beasty Boys  If you want to be that guy, don't be offended if you hear a quip from people like me.  Everyone has to get their shots in when blood is in the water...

I am glad that I got a chance to try this out.  It gave me a different take on a Triple.  The only other Belgian Triple I have had was Brugge Brassiere's Triple de Ripple.  Speaking of that, it is currently on tap as we speak/type at Brugge Brassiere.

Roggenschnizzle

This was a nice treat from Bier Brewery. I had never had a Roggenbier, so it was fun to try something different. I like most dark German beers, so I had high hopes. I grabbed a growler and headed home.

When I got there, I poured my first pint. it came out with a hardy brown color. The head was almost non existent (similar to high-school for the Prof... ohh burn). After my first beer, my wife poured and it looked a little bit different.

So maybe I shouldn't get to specific on what the head looked like on this beer... And maybe she shouldn't be allowed to pour anything else. (Love you!)

When you brought it to your nose, there was a temptingly strong aroma of fruit and banana. As I drank, the sweet malty flavor came out strong. It had a hint of smokeyness and a strong fruit (primarily banana) flavor due to the Belgian yeasts. You could barely taste hops (there may be a trend starting with my good reviews). These flavors combined to something delightfully complex. I would recomend this any time of the year. Excellent beer.

On a side note, I drank it out of a pint glass. In retrospect it should have been served in a tulip or snifter to better concentrate the aromas etc, but at home I mostly drink out of pints because they are closest to the fridge... probably not a great excuse.

I give it a 4.5