Indiana Microbrewers Festival

Every summer thousands of beer enthusiasts gather at the grounds of the Indianapolis Art Center to enjoy samples of craft beer from a variety breweries at the summer Indiana Microbrewers Festival. This festival has been going on for many years, but for me (Kevin) it was the first time I've been able to attend.  

 

I met up with Russ when I arrived and he showed me around since he was volunteering.  Our first drinking experience came at the cask tent.  Since we were there early we were able to sample many beers prior to the general admission entry time. 

General Admission entry line

In the cask tent my favorite beer that I tried was the Iechyd Da Revolution IPA with pineapple, mango, and orange.  I'm a big fan of Revolution by itself, but these additions just elevated the beer and its flavor profiles.  Would love to try a higher carbonated version, but that's what you get with cask beer.  It was delicious.  Incredibly pure.  

Cask Tent

My favorite in the cask area.  Iechyd Da Revolution with Mango, Pineapple, and Orange

Russ and Me enjoying our first beer of the day from the cask tent

I was also lucky to speak with one of the owners/brewers of Iechyd Da, Chip.  He and I spent time talking about their raspberry berliner weiss, Tata Rosa.  My complaint about that beer last year was that it wasn't funky enough and was fairly mild.  He shared that this year they had a different experience in the brewing process which resulted in a funkier version.  I sampled it and felt that it was far superior to the version brewed last year.  Interestingly he shared that they have had several complaints about the beer being "too funky" which somewhat confirmed to me that the northern Indiana region isn't quite ready for the funk.  Being from that area originally, I am sure it's only a matter of time before they catch up. Iechyd Da continues to be one of my favorite breweries in the state and might be my favorite brewpub as their food and atmosphere are top notch.  Definitely worth a road trip to Elkhart.

Tom Harvey from Iechyd Da and Kevin

We had a great time talking with breweries across the state.  We were fortunate to talk with the folks from Mashcraft, Scarlet Lane, Quaff On, Three Floyds, Upland, Sun King, Flat 12, Black Acre, and many others.  One of the highlights for me was the Flat 12 tent.  This year they placed a suggestion box in their taproom in order to get beer ideas from customers.  Back in May I suggested they brew a high ABV chocolate peanut butter stout.  They ended up taking my suggestion and using it to create the beer called Shelled.  While I wanted more peanut butter from the beer, it was still quite delicious.
They used their base Big Black Dog rye stout and aged it in whiskey barrels with peanut butter and cocoa nibs.  It was complex with lots of chocolate and barrel characteristics and a subtle peanut butter flavor which rounded out the beer nicely.  Overall Flat 12, with their variety of customer suggested beers, executed their flavors quite impressively.
 

Overall, the festival was a great success.  Mostly because I got an incredibly generous pour of Imperial Breakfast Magpie from New Day Meadery :-) 

mmmmmm....Imperial Magpie

But seriously, the volunteers, staff, and breweries were all incredibly welcoming and helpful  The venue was also fantastic.  Lots of shade, plenty of water stations, and a variety of food options including my favorite, Fat Dan's Deli.  There were a lot of beers that I thought were decent.  For me, the beers that stood out included Bare Hands Citronic Pale Ale which rivals Zombie Dust in my opinion, Iechyd Da Tata Rosa, Flat 12 Shelled, Black Acre Bourbon Vanilla One Ten, Sun King Port Barrel Wee Mac, and Mashcraft Java Deep.
 

The folks from Black Acre were ready to party!!

I am looking forward to attending the festival in the future.  I encourage people to volunteer if you are able.  You get to help out and as a result you get early entry and are able to have a bit of an easier time getting pours from brewers.  Here are some other photos from the day:
 

Everyone has to get a little early afternoon Zombie Dust

Russ and Me getting a share of a Cognac De Muerte Dark Lord from a distributor

Masses of people with beers

The Beer Barons....minus Andrew and Brie.

Beer tasting is serious business.  Here is Russ documenting his tastings.

The folks from Rhinegeist brought their Crowlers to show off the next trend in craft cans.

Russ demonstrating the importance of eating during a craft beer festival.

Scarlet Lane Brewing Co. is Catching Fire!

Yes I did just make a Hunger Games reference... my bad, but it's hard to describe what Scarlet Lane Brewing Company is doing any other way. These guys hit the streets running about three months ago and have already started taking the Indy market by storm with taps in tons of bars and restaurants throughout the marketplace. They've brought innovative and delicious beers right from the start without messing around with a blond, or a cream ale just to be approachable. They are daring Indiana to try craft beers that are more outside the box than what they're use to.

It seems like the creativity and skill have paid off. In their first appearance at the Brewers Cup earlier this month, Scarlet Lane came home with a gold medal for their Vivian Red IPA. Although not traditional in color, it has a big hoppy flavor that demands it be qualified as an IPA, and now we have proof that it's one of the best IPAs in town. They also brought home medals for their Coffee Dorian Stout and Paeonia Farmhouse Ale. I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak at the coffee stout before it the Brewers Cup and it was outstanding; it was like mixing beer with a mocha latte. It's exciting to see a brewery that's so new do so well early on. We were fortunate enough to talk to Eilise about their success and what has made them a standout in the Indianapolis marketplace.

For those of you who haven't gotten to get to know Scarlet Lane yet, I'd like to introduce Eilise: owner, brewer, and Indiana's very own girl on fire!

Q. How did you determine your core lineup of beers for Scarlet Lane?

A. f you’re talking about Scarlet Lane in general, it was fairly simple. A Coconut Stout in Bend, Oregon is the beer that got me excited about brewing. Tonya Cornett, at the time with Bend Brewing Company, brewed a nitro coconut stout that was amazing! This beer was critical to my beer development and HAD to be a part of our launch. The Red IPA comes from both the significance with our name, Scarlet Lane, and the influence the Northwest has had on the brewery. We wanted to bring a nicely balanced IPA to our portfolio, but also wanted it to fit our image, so the Red IPA was born. We had different plans for our third beer, but after hiring and speaking with Chris Knott our Head Brewer, he expressed his passion for Saisons. Similar to my Coconut Stout obsession, Chris was really excited to put a Saison on the map as a flagship beer….that brings us to Silas. Our newest seasonal, Humble Peach started off as a joke when our partner and other owner Doug Sheets brought back a peach beer from the East Coast. We joked with him, made fun of him… and then all of sudden we are making a peach beer AND WE ALL LOVE IT. Doug is owed an apology and a big hug for that one. Our beers we entered for Brewers’ Cup were all along the lines of what makes us excited about beers: IPAs, Stouts, and Saisons. 

Q. You've done some great specialty beers for festivals and tap takeovers. How important are these unique options to you guys?

A. We think it’s important to always have fun with it. People get “flagship fatigue” and don’t want to always see the same line-up, especially at festivals. We think it’s extremely important to keep offering fun and engaging beers…even if it's just at festivals 

Q. Could they ever make it to the standard line up?

A. Yes. Humble Peach is one of them. We did it one time for a Tomlinson Tap event and it was so popular we are now going to do it full time. We gave a little sample of it at Fat Dan’s Deli and had such a great response we went back to the brewery to prepare a large batch of it for our summer seasonal.

Q. Vivian, your gold medal IPA is actually a Red IPA. What are the differences both in the brewing process and the final product that made it stand out from a traditional IPA?

A. We use a different malt bill to create the caramel backbone and color difference that sets it apart from a traditional IPA color. The difference of the final product is more of a balance between the malt and the hop that creates a little bit of a malty and toasty background to the IPA. However, it’s still an IPA so there is a big robust hop presence in the nose and bitterness. 

Q. As the craft beer scene in Indiana continues to evolve, what do you hope to see more of?

A. That’s a two fold answer. 1. We hope to see confidence from local establishments that they don’t always have to keep rotating tap handles. That in itself is not only exhausting at some point, but it detracts from the brand loyalty a local craft beer market can create. Quality is getting better throughout Indiana and there should be no reason why bars and restaurants should be scared to always offer high quality local beers instead of offering it for a week only to remove it for something else. 2. We hope to see a lot more of collaboration and camaraderie among local breweries. 

You have seen their beers at bars and restaurants, now their beers are available for growler fills at their brewery in McCordsville, IN. They just opened the tap room last weekend (on the 20th). If you haven't checked out this exciting new brewery, do so as soon as possible. May the beers be ever in your favor... last one I promise.

Scarlet Lane is getting ready to do a Winning Beers Tap Takeover at Chatham Tap on August 7 where you will be able to try all the awesome beers.

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!!!

Sometimes I'm Judgy

The Big Guy and I had the opportunity to judge at the Indiana Brewers' Cup held at the state fairgrounds airless over a week ago. It was our first time judging, and I really enjoyed it.

I was actually a little bit nervous going into it. Having seen some of the feedback that The Big Guy has gotten for beers he's entered in previous competitions, I know how important it is to get meaningful feedback. With that in mind, I wanted to be sure that any feedback I had was going to be useful for the brewer. I was incredibly grateful to he more experienced judges I got to sit with for answering all my questions and really making me feel more comfortable with the whole process.

This was a big competition. Hats off to everyone involved in getting things organized and making sure that things ran smoothly during the competition. There were three sessions for the judges: one Friday night, then Saturday morning and afternoon. We only participated in the sessions on Saturday.
 

Of all the beers I tasted that day, most were good, a few were great, but none were bad. With eleven beers in the first session and ten in the afternoon session I think that's pretty impressive. Both flights I judged were homebrews, while The Big Guy got to judge a professional category.

There's a sheet that walks you through the different aspects of the beer that you're judging: aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, appearance, and overall impression. When we took our exam we weren't abel to have the style guidelines out for reference, but in the competition we were. That was a huge help for me, just having something to refer back to and use as a measuring stick for everything I tasted. We were judging based on those guidelines and how close the beer comes to being a perfect example of the desciption provided.

That's where some of the hard part comes in for me. A beer that's slightly off style may be more enjoyable than something brewed perfectly within the guidelines, but may not get as high a score. I tried to capture that in the overall impression section by asking myself if I'd drink a whole pint and possibly order a second.

We definitely learned a lot and both of us are excited to be a part of more competitions. We're both Recognized with the BJCP, but with a few more competitions, we'll be able move up to the Certified rank.  That's where our scores have us. It's interesting that you don't start out at the rank you earn with your scores alone. But having gone through a competition, I think there's a lot you really only learn by doing it so it does make sense. 

 

Congratulations to everyone who placed and won their categories, including The Big Guy who took first place in the homebrew stout category. For a complete list of the winners, click here. If you're interested in learning more about the Brewers' Cup, click here.
 

Indy Beer News: July 17, 2014

Big congrats to Upland Brewing for their awards at the Brewers' Cup last weekend.

There's a new Indy Beer News special episode available which was recorded last Monday at Mass Ave Pub.

Plus a few more events happening for Beer Week leading up to the Indiana Microbrewers Festival.