The Scene: Triton Brewing Co.

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Triton Brewing Company
5764 Wheeler Road Indianapolis, IN 46216
(317) 735-2706
tritonbrewing.com

First Impression:
An informal meeting place for friends, family and pets. Yes, I said pets! No food is prepared on premise so they aren't breaking any rules by letting you have your four legged friends in the tap room. They do have these superb soft pretzels made off site and brought in if you need something to snack on. Fool hearted or ingenious?! I lean on the ingenious.




From seasonals to the usual suspects, a variety of beers are on tap. My preference is the Rail Splitter IPA, Magnificent Amber, Dead Eye Stout, and the Official Beer of the Indiana ICE Sin-Bin Belgian Pale.

They are two blocks southeast from Fort Harrison State Park. My suggestion is take the family out for a leisurely weekend romp through the park and make a pit stop at the end over at the brew pub.

Bit-O-Trivia:
Triton snagged their brewing tanks at auction from one of my most beloved breweries when they closed their doors for good, Warbird. There is a little shrine in the back of Triton's bar for the now closed brewery.

R.I.P
Warbird
Founder: Dave Holmes
Fort Wayne, IN
2004-2009
"We'll always remember your Shanty Irish"

 

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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.

Dry Hopped APA

We had a great time doing the tour and checking into Schlafly Bottleworks. I heard that they made a great APA and so I decided to sit out on their great patio and give one a try. It did not disappoint. An APA is an American version of the European IPA. Normally made with American hops that tend to have more of the citrus or piney scents than their European cousins.

The Dry Hopped APA is 5.9% abv with 50 IBUs. This came out with a great looking clearish golden color with about a half inch of snow white head. (as you can see in this picture I am a bad blogger and did not take the picture before I started drinking)  The beer had some serious citrus and pine scents coming off of it and not surprisingly, that was the flavor that I got the most of. It was light and crisp. Good for a summer day. The finish was a little bit more bitter than I was looking for. Now I know this is an APA and a dry hopped one at that, but still too much hops can make me a sad sad man.

Good for something so hoppy, I give this a 2.5