Indiana Beer News – Feb 5

Great Crescent Brewery will start canning in about a week.

Sun King, er Clayton Robinson, gets ink in the Indianapolis Business Journal. article Bonus video talking about business plans and stuff.

Ron Smith sends lots of AHA news. Contact him for more info about any of these items.

BJCP Study Group and Exam in Indy - For those of you interested in the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program),  there will once again be a study group and an exam in the Indy area. The study group will meet on Saturdays at the Payless Liquors in Carmel.  he dates are Apr 9, Apr 23, Apr 30, May 7, and May 12 (a Thursday).  Study group sessions run from around 12:30 - 6:00 (final times TBD).  The exam will be held at the same location on Saturday, May 14 at 1:00.  The cost for the study group is approx $150, plus $50 for the exam (assuming a first time taker). The exam is limited to only 12 test takers, and the study group members will be placed first.

National Homebrew Competition First Round in Indy - The American Homebrewers Association (AHA) hosts the largest homebrew competition in the world, with thousands of entries. To handle this number of entries, there are various First Round Competition sites that a beer must place first, second or third in, in order to advance to the finals. The finals this year will be at the AHA National Conference in San Diego in mid June.  One of the first round competition sites is here in Indy and myself and Brian Steuerwald are the coordinators, along with the help of many other volunteers. This competition will be held at Sun King Brewery on April 15, 16, 17. It is not an open event, but we do need BJCP judges, stewards and other volunteers.

Beer MBA Classes Start This Week - Be sure to sign up right away as I expect this series to sell out. The Friday night series is a great way to end the work week and start the weekend!  See the website, www.BeerMBA.com/classes.php for all the details and to sign up.  Note the new location at the Payless Liquors in Carmel, near the Meijer.  Dates are Feb 11, 18, and 25, each from 6-9pm. Cost is $135 for all 3 classes (or $50 per class).

The classes are designed to be taken in sequence and to take all 3 of them and get your Beer MBA Certificate.  Class 1 is a prerequisite for the other 2 classes, so once you have taken it, you can take the other classes in a future series if you have date conflicts.

Belgium Beer Trip - Summer 2011 - July 24 - Aug 2 - With the way the economy has been, I had somewhat decided to hold off on these trips until things improved, but there seems to be a lot of interest now, so this Belgium trip could be on for this summer. If you have an interest, let me know as soon as possible.  If I can get at least a small group together, we can make it happen.  See  http://www.beermba.com/belgium-beer-vacations.php for details. The dates will soon be changed to Sunday, July 24 to Tuesday August 2, and all the other details are the same. This is an incredible trip that is certainly beer focused, but there is much more to it than beer. Great food, culture, historical sites and of course great beer await.

IUPUI Beer Class - 3 Credit Hour Course - If any of you attend IUPUI or know someone who does, be sure to check out TCEM 328, Introduction to Microbrewing, which is a class I teach.  It is a much more in-depth version of my Beer MBA classes, and includes field trips to breweries and distributors, more information about food and beer pairing, etc.

Falls City Beer gets ink in the Louisville Courier Journal. article “Falls City is sold at some 100 places. Easterling, who lives in Anchorage, said production could triple — to 240 barrels per month — by Kentucky Derby time.”

Odors were rated as more pleasant when sniffed through the right nostril and were more accurately named when sniffed through the left nostril. - Herz, R. S., McCall, C., & Cahill, L. (1999). Hemispheric lateralization in the processing of odor pleasantness versus odor names. Chemical Senses, 24, 691–695.

Beer MBA Classes

Ron Smith is doing another series of Beer MBA classes on Fridays, Nov 19th, Dec 3, and Dec 10. See www.BeerMBA.com/classes.php for all the details and to sign up.

From Ron:

The classes are designed to be taken in sequence and to take all 3 of them and get your Beer MBA Certificate.  Class 1 is a prerequisite for the other 2 classes, so once you have taken it, you can take the other classes in a future series if you have date conflicts.

The positive feedback on these classes keeps rolling in.  People continue to sign up to take it again and again, and bringing friends and family back with them.  The classes are very fun, as well as educational.  You will sample beer styles you have probably never even heard of, taste various flavor demos to train your palate, learn how to serve and store beer, and how to pair it with food, and much more.

I want to thank everyone for their support and their interest in learning more about the World’s Great Beer Styles.  The momentum is building and more and more people are being educated about great craft beer!

> Consider attending these classes as a couple or a small group for added fun.

> This is truly a unique series of classes.  They are designed to be fun and entertaining, but also very educational.  You can take a single class (class 1 is a pre-requisite for the other 2), but I think you will find it most rewarding to take all three - plus, you receive a completed MBA certificate if you take all 3 classes and who doesn’t want that to hang on their wall (smile).  You will learn about the origins, history, and uniqueness of all the major beer styles of the world (more than 75 of them), and get to sample most of them as well (we will sample over 50 of them).  Classes are 3 - 3.5 hours long to spread out the samples and cover all the material (it may seem long, but time flies when you are having fun… and you will be having fun).  In addition, I will present several off-flavor / flavor demos to help you identify some of the most common problems and flavors found in beer.  I have discovered that people can appreciate more of the world’s beer styles than they ever imagined simply by learning about them and tasting them in the right environment.

> Wine drinkers will also find these classes fascinating as they come to learn more about “vintage” beers, strong Belgian beers, wild-fermented beers, and more.  Many of these unique fermented beverages rival wine in their overall flavor and complexity (and even cost).

> These classes are more for the general public with an interest in the world’s great beers, but even knowledgeable brewers and beer connoisseurs will find them worthwhile.  So, regardless of your knowledge level, please feel free to join us.

> Classes are held in the tasting room at the Payless Liquors in Carmel on Adams Street. They cost only $135 for all 3 classes if paid up front.  The class size is limited, and there will be hundreds of dollars worth of beer sampled (plus some possible food samples paired with certain beers).

> Even though I will spread out the beer samples to avoid overindulgence, designated drivers are always encouraged (arrange to be dropped off and picked up).

SIGN UP TODAY TO SECURE YOUR SEAT!

Misc News – Jan 11

Education: BeerMBA. Fishers. Ron Smith's 3-part classes.

On Saturdays, Jan 23rd, Feb 6th, Feb 13th
And on Fridays, Feb 12th, 19th, 26th

Roger Baylor tells us "Through the kind offices of Indiana University’s Southeast’s Division of Continuing Studies, there’ll be two offerings of my non-credit beer education class during the spring semester of 2010. The first time we held the class in the spring of 2009, I was inspired to write about it: Beer class tonight.

The 2010 listings are now posted at IUS's web site, where you can register and pay for the course. The price is $65, which includes my time and tales, the venue and numerous beer samples."

1st session: February: 3, 10, 17, and 24 (all Wednesdays)
2nd session: April 7, 14, 21, and 28 (all Wednesdays)
Times: 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Location: NABC Pizzeria & Public House

NABC has also posted the preliminary list for Gravity Head 2010, beginning Friday, February 26. 8 to 18 percent. Heck, the lightest is Harviestour Ola Dubh Special 18 Reserve 2008. On Tap!

Bee Creek Brewery now has a 4-head Meheen bottling line from Lake Louie Brewing in Wisconsin so we can get more Hoosier Honey Wheat – and soon Clay County Coffee Stout. See it in action on their web site. The welded-up vessel behind it is a homemade 30bbl fermenter. Their major outlet has become Baesler's Market in Terre Haute.

The Courier-Journal has a good essay on why the growler bill may not pass. Legislature to look at alcohol law changes.

This from Paul Edwards:

"According to an article in the Indy Star, Veolia (the Indianapolis Water Company)will be adding additional chlorine to the city water supply as part of an annual disinfection maintenance effort, This will go on until early March or so. So if you use tap water for your brewing, make sure you either use activated charcoal filtering or something like Campden tablets to remove the chlorine. You ought to be doing this anyway. I'll be stopping by the hardware store for a new filter cartridge for my filter. One Campden tablet will bind up the chlorine or chloramine in 20 gallons of water."

Out but probably not headed to Indiana: Mikkeller 1000 IBU. Not a typo.

An even stranger style: Proefbrouwerij Witte Noire – not a black Wit, an Imperial Amber Wheat Ale. a little info

And even stranger: Guy Ritchie in brewery plan.