Hoosier Beer Geek's 5th Anniversary Party

If you are fan of festivals such as the Indiana Microbrewers' festival,

then you would've loved going to the Hoosier Beer Geek's 5th Anniversary Party. 

From 6pm - 11pm this past Saturday, Sun King Brewery's Tasting room opened their doors to 150 people in celebration of the team that continues to inform the masses, support the festivals and amuse beer lovin' Hoosiers. 

I was very happy to be 1 out of the 150 in attendance. 

Shortly after the party started (or fashionably late), I proudly walked in with my yellow Beer Knee Highs and Bier Brewery shirt and received a warm welcome from Rodney, Gina and other Hoosier Beer Geek associates at the door.  Thanks to the power of the Internets and Twitter, I was recognized as the new reporter for IndianaBeer.com. (which made me quite ecstatic to be "known" )

I was handed a one of a kind pint glass with an HBG5 logo on one side and Sun King Brewery on the other along with 5 red tickets for 5- 16oz pours of delicious beer of my choice. The glass is also how I was able to get unlimited samples of the 30+ beers available. Lastly I was also given a raffle ticket for the prize drawing to be take place later in the evening. 

Now, Ok.. I know you all are thinking enough with the small stuff.. Let's get to the beer! 

Out of the 30+  beers available, I actually only sampled 10 beers and used three of my pint tickets. Of course you make think.. in 5 hours that is not enough beer, well my friends.. let's just say the team behind the taps, were more than generous with their samples. 

In numerical order.. the beers of my night were:

Stone Brewing Co. - Sublimely Self Righteous Ale 

Brugge Brasserie - SuperKitty Fantastico!

Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company - Hoosier Beer Geek Double Brown

Barley Island Brewing Company - Barrel-Fermented Rust Belt Porter 

RAM Brewery - Bjava Disorder Porter
The St. Louis Brewing Company aka Schlafly - Raspberry Coffee Stout
 Sun King - A Few More Hops 

Flat12 Bierwerks -  Nunmoere Black 

Founders - Cerise
Upland Brewing Company -  Mother's Milk
 

The pint winners were:

 The RAM's Bjava Disorder Porter -

 a well blended mix of B-Java coffee beans and the RAM's Total disorder porter

The best of two worlds Coffee & Beer

Brugge Brasserie's SuperKitty Fantastico! - 

a barrel aged tripel, 

which surprised me because my tripel experience always has me comparing the beer to bananas

Upland Brewing Company's Mother's Milk -

a creamy malty milk stout

I'm a sucker for stouts

All the samples were fantastic and even though Founders and Schlafly are not Indiana beers, I highly suggest going and sampling the Founders - Cerise and the Schlafly - Raspberry Coffee Stout if you can, especially if you like a small fruit like sensation in your brew. 

In addition to all the beer goodness, Papa Roux  spiced up the night with make your own po-boys and cheesy etouffee.

As the beer clock ticked towards the end of the night.. Jason from HBG held a raffle. Some raffle winners won Hoosier Beer Geek wears or local brewery goods. Some lucky people took home growlers!  This gal was given a t-shirt from Triton Brewing Company from a winner for her beer shirt collection. 

Other highlights of the evening was meeting Jim and Jason from HBG, talking with Tara and others from Bier Brewery and interacting with many of my fellow beer aficionados.. which that part was mostly due to my socks. 

All in all a very good night for beer indeed!


And in closing I want to say:

Thank you Hoosier Beer Geek & Sun King for a fun night and I look forward to HBG6!

August 29 part 2 - Good News for next August

Farm Bureau Votes To Support Alcohol at the State Fair. "Over the weekend, delegates from all 92 Indiana counties set policy for Indiana Farm Bureau for the coming year. In a surprise move, Farm Bureau voted in favor of beer and wine at the Indiana State Fair." They don't mention it's a state law but their support will carry weight in next January's statehouse session. article

Lets send a dozen Bacon Roses to the Farm Bureau.

Indiana Beer News - August 29

Oaken Barrel's new seasonal is called Wamm Bamm Blonde Ale.

Barley Island has brought out Bittersweet Belgian-style IPA. 7.3%, 60 IBU.

The Louisville Brew at the Zoo in a 3-minute movie. Turn off the sound. link

North Dakota's barley crop "is projected to produce 24.8 million bushels of the crop, down sharply from 43.5 million bushels a year ago." article

Last month CAMRA reported "A drought in southern England and northern Europe and this could reduce the 2011 crop from between 20 to 50 percent. There won’t be enough Maris Otter for home consumption and any exports will have skyrocketing prices." Order plenty now.

Which reminds us: Great Fermentations annual grain sale runs from Aug 29 to Sept 17. Then it's CIDER TIME again. Cider specially blended for making hard cider. An early blend will be available starting Sept 24th and a late blend on Oct 29th. GF will have cider making seminars at 9am on both of those Saturdays.

Drought? Not in New Hampshire's back yard. Alchemist Pub & Brewery in Waterbury Vermont is flooded. Get it? Waterbury? article

“Disaster strikes Waterbury. The Alchemist Pub and Brewery was ruined in a once in a generation flood on Sunday night August 28, 2011. While the cannery is fine and on target to open this coming Friday, the Pub will be closed for the foreseeable future. With our endless thanks and gratitude to our loyal and returning friends, customers and fans, we will be back. Stay tuned…”

The quite large Long Trail and the Flat Street Brewpub in Vermont have also been flooded.

 
Long Trail Brewery (from BA)

Slate takes on the Alcoholic Beverage Institute's attack of mandatory ignition interlocks for everyone in a press release. Slate's article - (thanks Fred)

Sam Adams new variety 12-pack includes Bonfire Rauchbier. Want to try this one. The other 5 are Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Octoberfest, Irish Red, Black Lager and (yawn) Boston Lager.

In other SA news: "Help from The Boston Beer Company’s new microloan program for craft brewers, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream, made MateVeza Morpho Herbal Ale possible. The organic ale was brewed with yerba mate, hibiscus flowers and bay leaves. A collaboration with Mill Valley Beerworks, MateVeza’s newest limited release is an ode to the Morpho butterfly of South America.

Morpho Herbal Ale is modeled after gruits, unhopped beers from the middle ages. Gruits rely on a mixture of herbs to provide the bitterness resulting in zero hop bitterness. Morpho Herbal Ale’s bitterness is provided entirely by the yerba mate and bay leaves, providing a completely new and refreshing take on the style. “In a craft beer climate dominated by ales that push the limits of hop bitterness, Morpho Herbal Ale is a rare creature,” said Jim Woods, MateVeza founder and president."

Indiana Beer News - August 26

Scott Bort says Shoreline's "A little sharp, but Seven Red ale doesn't fall flat"

The CFF Festiv-Ale last Saturday in Indy raised over $43,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Kyle Alberda of Fort Wayne got second place in the Pilsner Urquell Inaugural Master Homebrewer Competition. article

Huh? How did lager beer come to be? After pondering the question for decades, scientists have found that an elusive species of yeast isolated in the forests of Argentina was key to the invention of the crisp-tasting German beer 600 years ago. When the team brought the yeast to a lab at the University of Colorado and analyzed its genome, they discovered that it was 99.5% identical to the non-ale portion of the S. pastorianus genome, suggesting it was indeed lager yeast's long-lost ancestor. "The DNA evidence is strong," said Gavin Sherlock, a geneticist at Stanford University who has studied lager yeast but was not involved in this study. But Sherlock wondered how S. eubayanus could have traveled the nearly 8,000 miles from Argentina to Germany. "We all know that in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," he said. "Lager was invented in the 1400s. It's not really clear how that progenitor would have gotten from South America to Europe." article with ugly, ugly picture.

The average pint (20oz) of beer in the UK now costs over £3. Consumption is down 11% in the last 7 years and the alcohol tax is up 35%. article

Headlines:

Driver of Motorized Beer Cooler Charged With Drunk Driving - Australia of course.

14 household uses for beer. But they missed a 15th - drink it. 

SABMiller makes hostile $10 billion bid to take over rival Foster's

Suspicious package turns out to be beer cooler 

Dig into Indiana!

The second annual Dig-IN will be going on this Sunday, August 28th from 12-5.  

 This festival is a collaboration of local chefs, farmers, wineries and breweries 

partnering up to share with Hoosiers

 the wonderful local products and food available in Indiana!

During the festival: wine, food and most important beer will be available to sample. 

 There is also education on cooking and information on food and wine/beer pairings as well.  

However.. since here at Indiana Beer we are all about the beer.. I'd like to show you what breweries will be available at Dig-IN:

Sun King Brewery
New Albanian Brewing Co.
Brugge Brasserie
Figure 8 Brewing
Black Swan Brewpub
Upland Brewing Company
Crown Brewing Company
Flat 12 Bierwerks
Oaken Barrel Brewing Company
Barley Island Brewing Company
Mad Anthony Brewing Company

These 11 breweries alone are worth the $20 in advance ticket and $30 ticket at the door. (To purchase tickets please go online at www.digindiana.org)

I know I'll be hitting up all of these breweries at least once during the festival.

This is my first Dig-IN.. I'm going as a volunteer working at the front gate, so I'll be making my rounds after my shift.

If you come to the festival and you see me at the front gate,  make sure to wave and say hi! 

Bier Brewery - August Update

As an north east side girl and a new blogger to IndianaBeer .. I thought I'd start out the fun times by showing some love to Bier Brewery

First off on tap this week : August 24th - August 28th
Biersicle / Fruitcup Surprise
Oranjunkle / Barley Buddy Brown
Weizengoot
Witbier
Redrum
Belgian Dubbel
Calypso IPA
Rye IPA 

The lineup varies week to week.. all being easy to drink, smooth beers. Even the IPAs, to me.. and I am not a hoppy kind of lady.  

This week I highly suggest going down and trying Redrum. It is an Irish Red Ale.. very soft on the tongue. With an IBU of 20.8 and ABV of 5.6%.  I tend to lean towards the porters and stouts as it is.. so of course I fell in love with Redrum and bought a growler to take home. 

Not only is Redrum a new addition to Bier Brewery, but they have a new logo. Bier in the form of Indiana on the front and drink craft beer on the back (will add pics later) 

Later this week I'll be wearing my new shirt to Hoosier Beer Geek 's 5th anniversary party along with my beer knee highs (oh yes.. I have knee highs that say beer along the side) 

So please go to Bier Brewery ... and taste the awesomeness.