IndianaBeer: Dribs and Drams

Rita tells us about anniversary celebrations at breweries. Bare Hands, Daredevil, Tin Man 18th Street. She also passes on that Greenwood's Planetary Brewing has been named to Food & Wine Magazine's 50 picks for nano breweries; Sun King is expanding distribution again (to the south and west); and a list of holiday beers from all over the state.

Indiana on Tap has quite a few stories freshly posted.
Sugar Creek Malt Co. of Lebanon is looking for an assistant maltster.
St. John Malt Brothers is going to provide a tasting at the Capitol (Washington DC).
A review of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout.

Inside Indiana Business reports that Thr3e Wise Men will open a new restaurant in the Courtyard Motel in downtown Muncie. They will also serve room service and can deliver within a 5-mile radius.

The calendar for the rest of 2015

Dec 12	Indianapolis	12 Chefs and Flat 12. Indianapolis City Market. 7-10pm.
Dec 16-18	Indianapolis	Beer Wars at Flat 12.
Dec 17	Greenwood	Fireside Brewhouse Ugly Christmas Sweater Party (and Karaoke). Reservations: 317-859-9505.

And here's a surprise. Beer, wine on tap for 9 Indy-area Starbucks. Given Starbucks prices, how much will beer be?

Anheuser-Bush/InBev is reportedly trying a new push to get their distributors to add more shelf space. In short, AB had 49% of the market in 2008 and this has dropped to 45%. MillerCoors now has another 31%. American craft beers have about 11% (including Sierra Nevada, Stone and the like). 9% is taken by imports.

AB's idea is to spend $150m in 2016 in "advertising benefits" to distributors. Maybe $200,000 each. The hitch is they can only carry craft beers that make less than 15,000 bbl or that don't distribute out of state.

The St. Louis AB distributor has already taken steps to rid itself of the likes of Deschutes. Will Zink, Lafayette Beverage, Terrance & Smith, Little Beverage, Craig, Dekalb, Best Beers, Bartholomew County Beverates, Working, Aalco, Orange City, Greenfield, Calumet, Hedinger, Mid America, Boone Beverage, Nadorff, North Vernon, Miami, Jay County Beverage, United of South Bend, Dever, Nelson and Tippecanoe follow suit? If you are using one or more of these for local distribution and are 3 Floyds, Upland, Sun King, or anyone moderately big you should be worried.

Meanwhile the AB InBev / SABMillerMolsonCoors merger is stalled in congress while the CEOs testify that the 80% of the beer market they jointly control isn't a monopoly. The Brewers Association took the opposite view. Report, report.

A Brief History of Moonshine
11 Surprising Products Made With Beer

15 Cities to Visit for Their Famous Beer Styles - Short notes about Bamberg, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Pilsen, Cologne, Tourpes, Buttenheim, Deisenhofen, Oudenaarde, Mexico City, Burton-Upon-Trent, Kulmbach, Dortmund, Leipzig and Berlin.

The BA says 1,800 US breweries are in planning. and 4,144 are operating. In 1873 4,131 were operating and very few sent their products outside of their hometown. The largest brewery at that time made 138,449 bbl.