Second Annual - History on Tap

On the last Friday of the month in May, with the skies cloudy showing promise of more rain, local breweries, beer drinkers, historical lovers and more gathered at Conner Prairie to enjoy another year of History on Tap. 

Brought together by the Conner Prairie Horizon Council, History on Tap involves much more than a simple beer festival. Opening up the entire grounds for attendees, breweries and one local meadery scattered about ready and willing to pour endless samples for tastings and full half pints in exchange for tickets. 

Not only was there delicious beer, but a food buffet was available. You could partake as part of your VIP ticket or it could be purchased separately. A grill and other food vendors provided for those wanting a snack. There was also music,  reenactments throughout the park and a brewers panel in the barn. 

The timing of the event couldn't have been more perfect. Spanning 4 hours (4 1/2 if you were VIP) into a Friday night, is the perfect way to spend the kick off to anyone's weekend. Plus with the night weather, and it being late spring, it kept attendees nice and cool.

 

But enough about atmosphere - let's talk about beer!

I had a sample from every single participant that night. Some were old favorites, many were regular house beers, some new ones popped by, but all were enjoyed (Some even twice!)

Instead of listing them all I'll just mentioned the ones that stood out - 

Flat 12 Bierwerks - Cucumber Kolsch - The nose of this beer is very crisp, with a clean highly cucumber-y smell, but honestly the taste isn't for me. This beer is their new summer seasonal being bottled and will be out in stores soon. I suggest giving it a try for yourself.  The concept for this beer was a long time coming, Rob Caputo mentioned in the brewer's panel how it started out with adding a whole cucumber to the fermentation. Later on for mass production, this was replaced with cucumber essence. 

Union Brewing Company - Sassy Pants Porter - A porter with sassafras added. Was an interesting flavor. I probably should have had more of it. It was definitely good, but one of those tastes where you can't put your finger onto why it tastes good. .

Bier Brewery - Farmgal - Ok, so this one is a cheat. I love Farmgal. I love the slight sweetness, the slight spice, the easy drink-ability. Of course it is a saison, which is one of my favorite styles and from Bier one of my local favorites. 

New Day Meadery - Shelby Blue Ribbon - a wonderfully balanced mead with strawberries and rhubarb.  To be honest, I can't think of anything that isn't wonderful from New Day, - meads or ciders. 

Cutters Brewing Company - Belgian Pale Ale - Not as smooth as Goose Island Matlida, which is mostly my base comparison to Belgian PA's, but still refreshing. 

Fountain Square Brewing - Brought their house beers, but I really appreciated the well executed Workingman's Pilsner. 

As for some other attendees thoughts? - I heard a lot about New Day's Shelby Blue Ribbon and from two of DoItIndy's finest - Ben Risinger loved Flat 12's Cucumber Kolsch while his soon to be wife, Kelly loved Cutters Brewing Company - Scottish Ale & as always Thr3e Wise Men's - Two Lucy's Blackberry Wheat. 

Without a doubt, History on Tap is a great event to attend.  They doubled in size this year, and look to double again next. Get tickets early. I got my VIP ticket for $28, which is unlimited sampling, three full pours, 30 minutes extra, plus includes the buffet!

Hope to see you there next year!

- Kathleen 

Brew Bracket III - The Wheat is On!

There wasn't a better way to spend last Saturday, when it was all rainy, than to be at the 
Exhibition Hall

 of the Indiana State Fairgrounds

 for Brew Bracket III - Wheats!

A quick overview for our readers who haven't heard of Brew Bracket. It is a 4 Round, blind taste testing of a select style of beer made by 16 Indiana breweries.   400 attendees get to vote and their votes are the only ones who count in choosing the winning brew.   

 It is 4 hours of beer drinking, food snacking, swag snatching, raffle wining, tweet walling fun!                                                        

                              

Below are the participants who came to bracket for a brew bracket showdown: 

Barley Island Brewing Company                                    

Bier Brewery               

Bloomington Brewing Company

Bulldog Brewing Co. 

Cutters Brewing Company

Flat 12 Bierwerks      

Fountain Square Brewing Company 

Half Moon Restaurant and Brewery 

Peoples Brewing Company 

Power House Brewing Company 

RAM Restaurant and Brewery 

Rock Bottom Downtown 

Triton Brewing Company 

Upland Brewing Company

Tasting started up a little after one. Each participant gets two tasting glasses - one gray and one orange.  The volunteers at each of the four corners are trained double pour professionals. They are quick to get each person a taste and keep the line moving.  

Round 1A was had some nice choices, but it wasn't until Round 1B that I met up with my favorite, later divulged as The RAM's Currant and Clove wheat -- 

I was all for this brew to win. Even though it was fought against by many other attendees. That is another uniqueness to Brew Bracket. While at the event there is a live tweet wall where attendees using the hash-tag #BBWheats can get their comments up on the wall for twitter, Brew Bracket and all to see. The goal is to get #BBWheats trending in Indianapolis, as in the fall when #BBStouts trended. This time was a more antics than brew talk but a good share of love and dislike of brews were shared. 

Back to the beer. 

It was interesting the different levels of wheat, wits and hefeweizens that were being poured. You could have two exactly alike in color, but one was hoppy and one was overall citrus tasting. Some had a nice lemon citrus compared to an orange. One though, tasted like Fruit Loops. 

That is the best part about this competition is trying and seeing what flavor and styles do you like the best, all in one place, all for one flat fee.  

I will say that I was happy that again some of the breweries went out of the box and made something special for Brew Bracket, but the sad part is you may never get a chance to try again because it was special. 

The brewery I was cheering for in the beginning along with others turned in brews that are part of their regular or semi regular lineups.  Like the winner:  Barley Island Brewing Co - Sheet Metal Blonde - It is their Belgian Style Wit available in bottles and all year long. 

Overall, the whole time there was a blast. I got to try new beers. I had people go crazy over my beer socks. (see below) and the pretzel necklaces that my group was wearing were a desired commodity. (Hint, Hint Brew Bracket - I suggest getting those together for selling in BB: IV) 

Mike and Ryan of Brew Bracket, DoitIndy, Nuvo, all the volunteers and everyone did a great job and about $1500 was raised for the charity -  SCI Hope Fund! 

My thoughts - if you are still learning or curious about beer.. check out the next Brew Bracket event in the fall. 

You won't regret it! -- Kathleen

Brew Bracket II: Stout Edition

 A couple of months ago, while following my twitter feed, I found out about Brew Bracket.  I knew instantly that I must go to this event. Not only for the fact that it was a new and interesting way for beer lovers to decide the winner of an event, but because it was all about stouts, one of my favorite beer styles, and it was my 30th birthday, which to me equaled - my destiny to attend. 

The basics of Brew Bracket is simply this -- Blind taste testing of 16 local breweries versions of Stout. March Madness style with four rounds. After the fourth round, a winner is declared.  

The event was held at the Indiana State fairgrounds from 1-4:30. 

Upon entering you receive two tasting glasses, a pen and a voting tablet. Each sheet has a gray or orange option and after tasting you cast your vote into a paint can. 

Me Being Silly Before Hand

Round one was separated into two parts 1a and 1b since there were only four corners to taste and only two beers at a time. 

Unfortunately two breweries didn't make it to Brew Bracket, so two lucky breweries had a bye on Round 1: Triton Brewing Company and Bee Creek Brewery. 

Where is the Beer!?!

 The event overall was pretty well organized. Definitely low key. there were picnic tables scattered through out the all with oyster crackers in bowls and stickers from some of the participating breweries  Along the wall were gate-leg tables with more crackers and hundreds of bottles of water. Each side also had a rinsing station. Towards the East end was a food vendor and in the middle the prize stage, voting area and announcement area. 

One part that was really nice was a live twitter feed wall, where any tweet with the hashtag #BBStouts would pop up onto the wall.  The goal was to get #BBStouts trending on twitter for Indianapolis about about 3/4 through the event, we succeeded!

          **Yes, my twitter name -

          KJLSlauzis was up on the 

                     wall a lot**

On to the Beer Highlights:

First.. I want to say that the two breweries in the finals appear to be the only two breweries who actually brewed a stout specifically for Brew Bracket.  Because of that I am glad they ended up being 1st and 2nd place.  Not that the other stouts weren't good, I know I've bragged about Upland's Mother's Milk stout before, but I think it was nice to have a new stout to try.  Instead of comparing previous tried stouts. 

Secondly.. It was great that some of the newer breweries like  Twisted Crew & Triton were participants in the competition.

Coffee or Oat stouts seemed to be the favored styles for each 

   brew.   Unfortunately there wasn't a way to tell at the end which  one you really did vote for, but I know there was a stout that had an aroma and taste of banana. Which made it seems like you were drinking a chocolate covered banana. By process of elimination

I'm leaning towards saying it was Brugge Brasserie's Black. 

Triton's Stout was their Deadeye Stout aged in a Bourbon Barrel, which I am a total sucker for Bourbon Barrel aged anything.. even   an IPA ( see New Albanian B'urban Trotter - A bourbon barrel aged Imperial India Pale Ale) 

Classic favorites where there as well:

Upland  - Mother's Milk Stout

Flat 12 - Lacto Matic Milk Stout

                  Bee Crew - Clay County Coffee Stout

After 3 1/2 hours of tasting, contests, food and talking... a winner was announced: 

www.bierbrewery.com

Fuggit Stout!

A stout that Darren literally said Fuggit and put in all they had into it!

I'm really glad that as a local brewery that I frequent often, due to their great quality bier, won the Stouts competition  Congratulations Darren, Corbin, Jerry, Tara and all associates of  Bier Brewery. Hope to see your trophy in the tap room. 

The event was great to be part of and I'm glad I chose this to do for my birthday. I can't wait to see what the spring version will be about! 

A final shout out:

DoItIndy -- You guys did a great job with promoting Brew Bracket. Ben -- Thanks for the saying hi! :) 
Brew Bracket -- Nicely organized! - Thank you for the birthday wishes
The 14 Breweries that particpate: Bier Brewery, Lafayette Brewing Company, Barley Island, Rock Bottom - College Park, Rock Bottom - Downtown, Twisted Crew Brewing, Brugge Brasserie, Half Moon Brewing, Figure 8 Brewing, Bee Creek Brewing, Flat 12, Bloomington Brewing Company, Upland ,Triton -- All great stouts!