Indiana Beer News – March 22

On Thursday (Mar 24) New Albanian’s Bottle Release Party will be at Keg Liquors in Clarksville. 5-8pm. Appetizers and newly-available bottles of Elector, Hoptimus, and Elsa von Horizon. Coming up: Solidarity Baltic Porter.

Whoops: Todd Antz of Keg Liquors writes: We had to postpone the New Albanian Bottle Launch until next week, on the 31st from 5 - 8PM. They are having some equipment issues and we had to push it out so they can fix things.

This Saturday, a new Crown Liquors on the northwest side of Indy will have a grand opening. 106th St. and Michigan Rd. The Woodford Reserve/Jack/Patron bottle engraver will be there in the afternoon. Goodys, prizes, etc. This location will be joining the Carmel, Fishers, South (US 31 & Shelby) Crowns in their Friday afternoon beer tastings. 4-7pm.

Dark Lord tickets sold out in 22 minutes. Stubhub scalpers are asking from $60 to $250. Craigslist folks want them for $25 or $50 and want to sell them for $100. One guy will take your ticket and buy you the DL for $25.

The hot beer topic in the newspaper today is that three Indiana breweries may soon pass the 20,000 bbl cutoff for a reduced “micro” excise tax. Three Floyds will beat that this year. Upland might. Sun Kin probably in 2012. They’d like the limit raised to 60,000 bbls. IndyStar article

Headline: Oregon home brewers, winemakers can compete again: House gives final OK.

Sam Adams Category 23 Longshot will hit the shelves any day now. It’s 2 each of 3 different Pro-Am winners in the “think outside the box” style. Friar Hop Ale – Belgian IPA. Blackened Hops – Black IPA. Honey B’s Lavender Wheat. press release

And now, your moment of Zen

A Tale of Two Tastings – Scotch & Replicale

When Crown Liquors puts on a Scotch tasting, they don’t fool around. It was advertised as 30 different drams to try but that number wasn’t at all accurate. There were 54 on the program and another 8 or so the distributor reps had under the counter. Whew. Goona be a long evening, what with a Replicale tasting just a block away from the Crown Liquors downtown store in 2 hours.

The basement was filled with 9 fueling stations and probably 200 people. We enjoyed splashes of Aberfeldy 12 and 21yo; Benromach Organic; Dewar’s Signature; Duncan Taylor Black Bull 12yo; Glenfiddich 18yo; Glenlivet Nadura, Glenmorangie Finealta (hot), 15yo French Oak, and Quinta Ruban (A+); Gordon & MacPhail Glenlivet bottling; Highland Park 18yo; Killerran (young); Laphroig 18yo; Smokehead (too smokey); plus Tomatin 12 and 18yo. That’s the imports. From the good ole USA McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt (peat), Rogue Chatoe, and Wasmund’s Single Malt.

Splash was, gratefully, the serving sizes – appropriate to the amount, strength, and quite frankly, enough to wrap your senses around each and every taste.

People looked to be fairly generous with the donation jar. Proceeds from that went to the FACE Animal Clinic.

Crown’s Scotch shelves.

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A short stroll away, 50 or so people were at the Tomlinson Tap Room to enjoy Imperial Stout Replicale’s from 9 Indiana breweries.

 

The board says 8 but Broad Ripple Brewpub’s version was there also.

Attendees included the usual suspects, brewers, homebrewers, drinkers, Beer Geeks, and the Indy Beer Meetup folks.

Notes from some of the attendees:

• Barley Island – Somewhat sweet, malty. Fruity apricot. Too sweet. Style is lost on this.
• Broad Ripple Brewpub – Light coffee.
• Crown – Very smooth, sweet, creamy. Terrible. Sweetness dominates. Loss of style.
• Great Crescent – Best of all. Great dry, smoky finish that balances the sweetness.
• New Albanian – (Served on gravity from a firkin). Good, dark. Sweet intro balanced by a very complex sensory explosion. Good sipping beer. Lower carbonation and warmer temperature are two of the highlights. Firkin is the proper way to serve and Imperial Stout.
• People’s – Our favorite. Bitter and malt balance. Not alcoholic as some are.
• Rock Bottom North – Bitter coffee. Too sweet. Almost sour tasting like bad fermentation.
• Sun King – The most unique. Subtle but deep citrus backbone cuts some of the sweetness by showcasing it.
• Upland – Slightly hoppy. Great smoky taste up front. Great mouth feel and balance. Complexity helps cut the sweetness. Perfection.

Jared Williamson of New Albanian wrote the recipe to emulate Ackerman’s Imperial Double Stout from the 1830s. Dave Colt has been driving the Replicales for, what, 4 years now?

More at the HBG site.

The New Crown – Indy Downtown

Downtown Indianapolis finally has a Liquor Store to compete with John's at Penn and Washington. We aren't qualified to compare the big wine selection in John's basement with the basement at Crown Liquors at Ohio and Delaware, but it Crown  has 5 times the beer selection and quality than John's.

The American Beers section is good but the Imported Beers section is astounding. Plan to spend most of your lunch hour browsing, or just trying to figure if there's any rhyme to the layout.

Stopped in the other night and found some bargains. The Samichlaus is heading for a cool, dark place for a few years. The Lagavulin is a reserve bottle not passable-up since it's $20 cheaper than seen elsewhere. The rest is for Christmas guests.

McChouffe - $9.99
Hook Norton Hooky - $5.99
Samichlaus Classic 2009 - $21.99 a 4-pack
Van Den Bossche Buffalo Stout - $8.99
Reischdorf Kolsch - $4.69
Brew Dog Dogma - $7.99
Bowmore Legend - $29.99
Lagavulin 16yo - $89.99

The Imported Beers section ranks with the best anywhere, not for the size, but for Mike Sprinkle's obsession with having the rare, the serious, and the damn near unobtainable. Click the picture below for a warped 2meg panorama that even shows prices.

Yep. Prices. Everything in the store is priced, something most stores don't do well.

Misc News – Sept 8

What we are already calling Sun King's Tap Room is in reality a tasting room. No food. Shall we say an industrial atmosphere right down to the Les Lessman walls. Actually some picnic tables in the brewery. Perfect. No sales by the glass, satisfactory samples instead. All their beers available for sampling. Buy growlers ($6.50, $5 on Fri.) and kegs to go and presumably BeerJuggs. Much like a small winery.

We should also mention their web site's On Tap page that lists where which of their beers are being poured.

Belmont Beverage has opened their new store at 404 S. Main St., Mishawaka.

Kahn's is planning a 12,000 sq ft store at 86th St. and Township Line. Yep, the O'Malia's Supermarket. Jim Arnold has bought the property outright and will have restaurant space available also. article

Three Floyds Apocalypse Cow gets ink at Hedonist Beer Jive.

Some tastes

• Broad Ripple Brewpub Cask Conditioned Best Bitter – Yes! Quintessential British Bitter with the emphasis on the bitter.
• Brugge Bad Kitty Lipziger Gose. A very rare style available only at the brewpub. Somewhat of a Wit with lactic acid and salt. Dull yellow with no head. Sour is predominant and some may think it's "off". At 4.25% it's very drinkable but it takes a serious person to have more than one.
• Brugge Prana Porter. Brugge's Pro-Am entry with Jim Matt. Black/brown with dark creamy head. Solid almost chewy mouthfeel. Coffee, coffee, coffee, even though it's Black Malt that you're tasting. More restrained medium long lasting finish. This is the beer that one Silver at the National Homebrew Competition. A meal in itself. 7%
• Oaken Barrel Weizenbock – They say a strong version of their excellent Uberweizen. They understate the case. 7%. 21 IBU. A dull brown color that is almost murky with suspended yeast make the appearance less approachable. Ivory head with some Belgian lacing. Little aroma. Big nice pure malty start that tails off slowly to balanced near-dryness. Pair with ribs, smoked meat, fried foods, general nutsiness.
• Oaken Barrel Cream Ale – Light yellow, all-malt, low carb, 4.8%. Clean. Smooth (as opposed to crisp). Could proudly be OB's intro beer.
  
• Pyramid Haywire – Sharp American Hefeweizen.
• Magic Hat Roxy Rolles – Hopped up Imperial Double Red.
• Guinness 250 – A bit of a disappointment. A porter with a Schwartzbier mouthfeel.
• Sam Adams Imperial White – Yes, Imperial. 10.3%. Main hit is over-sweet citrus. Age it or drink half-n-half with orange juice as a hangover cure.
• Sierra Nevada Kellerweis – Almost-German hefe. Banana and clove esters were overshadowed in my sample by a bit of staleness.
• Josephsbrau Summer Brew – Looking for a bottled Kölsch that doesn't cost an arm and a leg? If you're near a Trader Joe's their Summer Brew at about $7/6-pack should be your first stop. 4.5%. 25 IBU. Right to style.
  
• Jerome Andean Red Ale – Bold ESB/IPA with a red color. 6%. Pretty darn good.
• Jerome Andean Stout  - Black. Thick. Roast. Malty. Raisin. Pear.
• Jerome Xmas – Nutmeg. Cinnamon. Ginger. (certainly not Mary Ann). All with Ginger's almost campy fully-on presence. Bold. Will buy more for sipping around our tree.
  
  Jerome beers are available only at Kahn's right now but should be more widespread by Christmas.

Christian Moerlein to open Central Riverfront Park beer garden. Complete with brewpub. Won't open until 2011.

Despite the poor turnout at the Beer Bash to Battle Cancer there were delightful bottle displays to be seen, both in the tent (below) and inside the new Crown Liquors store on SR 37 & 141st St. in Noblesville (bottom).

 

Upcoming Beer Tastings

The Indiana Tech 3rd Annual Alumni & Friends Beer Tasting taking place in Fort Wayne, IN on Friday, June 26th from 6:30-9:30p.m. is looking for more breweries to join this event. Please call (260)422-5561 and ask for Julie Morrison.

Mark your calendar for the "Beer Bash to Battle Cancer" on Saturday, September 5th, from 12 p.m until
4 p.m., at Crown Liquors #17 located at 14235 Mundy Drive, Noblesville, IN. Per Mike Sprinkle, "Come join Crown Liquors to raise some money for a great cause and taste some great beer while you do it! This is our inaugural "Beer Bash to Battle Cancer" and will be a yearly event, this years event will benefit Childhood Cancer research. 16 beer tables, food, music and lots of free door prizes and give aways! Cost: $20 before/$25 day of." Contact Mike Sprinkle at msprinkle@crownliquors.net, http://www.crownliquors.net/ or
317-706-0850.