Guest Post - Bud Miller's Favorite Brewery - Salt Creek

A new writer, Bud Miller, has moved to Indiana. He sent this along for your enjoyment.

Salt Creek Brewery

Bedford Indiana, located in Lawrence Limestone Capital of the world. Once known 1800’s into the 1900’s for the production of Limestone, and in later years laying claim to producing 3 Astronauts, the most known being Gus Grissom’s and his prelaunch fatality in Apollo 1

 

In the late 1980’s and 1990’s Bedford claimed to be the Basketball capital of the world. After a championship winning girls team in the 1980’s, and in later 80’s with the Damion Bailey years of basketball, best Known for being scouted by Bob Knight in JR. high school, and later playing for Bob at I.U.

A city or county struggling with living in the current day and age, seem not to acknowledge their best asset, their “Local Brewery”. With the Beer Brewing industry growing in numbers each Year, The U.S. will have 4,100 + breweries in operation in 2016

 

This will be the RECORD amount of Breweries since before Prohibition. There were only a handful of breweries that survived the years of prohibition and the ones who did were instantly huge when the ban on alcohol was lifted. It is only in the last ten years that the Brewpubs have started coming back to now take the lead over the number of wineries and in the numbers of visitors or tourist that they bring. Breweries today are one of the Top tourist activities in the U.S. today.

Salt Creek Brewery is producing some of the best Beers I have tasted in my U.S. and World travels. Including Germany and England, who are known for producing some of the best beers ever?

Salt Creek is in the top 20 Beers I have tasted in my lifetime; while visiting 5 different Countries and tasting well over 400 different beers, these guys are something to talk about. The Brewery is 3 ½ years old. And has just started distribution in Indianapolis as of July this year, by November they have 30 Taps across Indy, ranging from private owned companies like Ember and Twenty Taps to corporate accounts like Hooters and BJ’s.

Their newest distribution area being Jeffersonville IN, landing taps at Buckhead Mountain Grille and Rocky’s sub pub both sitting on the river front of the Ohio River. They still maintain Tap space in Washington and Orange County, like Paoli Peaks Sky Lodge being one of their earliest accounts, and the French Lick Hotel and Casino being the newest one in Orange Co. The Brown County Inn in Brown County carries 6 of Salt Creek Brewery’s Beers, and what would be more fitting since we sit on the banks of north Salt Creek.

Salt Creek does not only produce great beers. It has a great history tied to the building. They converted an old Service Garage that had been in this location since the 1940’s sitting on what once was the main Hwy connecting Bedford to Indianapolis. Now the Highway dead end’s ½ mile south of the Brewery. Sold back to the limestone industry in the 1970’s, the Highway was closed and the stone below it was quarried - thus destroying the historic value of the highway forever and threatening one of the most Historic Quarry hole in the State.

This is where the stone for the Empire State Building was quarried. So while visiting the Brewery for one of their great beers and great preservation of the service garage, tourist has been known to visit the cemetery to sneak a view of the Empire quarry hole.

So make plans to visit the Brewery, to try one of their sixteen different Beers. 6 of which are Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Beers. Make sure you walk up to the ½ wall by the bar and view the fermenting beers bubbling away in the former alignment pit of the old service garage, you can almost touch the Fermenter from where you are standing. Fill a Growler and take one of the award winning beers back home with you, even on Sunday.