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 

Beers, Cheers, and Sneers – March 24th

Welcome to spring! March 25th is the official release date for Bell’s Oberon, which is either the worst or greatest timing ever depending on your perspective. So after you’ve dug out from a foot of snow, here are the official release party locations for Monday morning/night (see Bell’s event page for Indiana for additional events later in the week):

Bloomington	Yogi's Bar and Grill	6-8pm
Bloomington	The Tap	8pm
Elkhart	Sauk Trail on 17 Smokehouse & Grille	5pm
Fort Wayne	Dicky's Wild Hare	5pm
Granger	Tilted Kilt	5pm
Indianapolis	Mousetrap Bar	midnight Sunday
Indianapolis	The Aristocrat Pub	5-9pm
Indianapolis	Mass Ave. Pub	5pm
Mishawaka	Buffalo Wild Wings	5pm
Mishawaka	The Gallery Sports Pub	6pm
Muncie	The Heorot	midnight Sunday
Plymouth	Pizza Bill's	5pm
South Bend	O'Rourke's Public House	midnight Sunday
South Bend	Brothers Bar and Grill	5:30pm

Oskar Blues Brewery is reportedly in talks with distributors for expansion into the Indiana market with a target launch of late spring/early summer. If you’re not familiar with Oskar Blues, they specialize in big, hoppy craft beer in a can. That probably sounds unremarkable at this point, but they were one of the pioneers in challenging the notion that canned beer had to be cheap in both price and flavor. My first experience with the brewery occurred when stopping off at a Colorado liquor store before the 2006 Great American Beer Festival. I hesitated with the clerk recommended Dale’s Pale Ale as a great local choice for a thirsty traveler. Good beer in a can? Inconceivable! But that choice led to a habit of stashing cans of Dale’s Pale, Old Chub, Ten Fidy, and (my personal favorite) Gordon in airline luggage during subsequent trips within their distribution network. Now Oskar Blues is canvassing our region with recent launches in the Ohio, Chicago, and Michigan markets. Who will be next? I’m looking at you Lagunitas.

Fountain Square Brewing is back with another Peep Show event and Miss Poppi was not invited to perform. No, Fountain Square’s version of a Peep Show commissions local engineering talent to design gadgets capable of shooting full-sized Peeps. Kind of like a Punkin Chunkin event for people with real lives. Which is a great approach if you enjoy a good sausage fest. I kid…I kid…it will be a lot of fun. The event takes place on Friday, March 29th at 7:00. Visit the Fountain Square registration page to claim your spot in the competition.

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed a bill that legalizes homebrewing in Mississippi, which is nice since an estimated 2200 citizens are doing it anyway. Mississippi now becomes the 49th state to allow homebrewing, and we’re proud to say this is one area where Indiana was a bit ahead of the curve. What about the 50th state? Well, a homebrewing bill in Alabama was removed from the special order calendar when politicians decided to be politicians and ground business to a halt due to other disagreements. Which means Mobile County prosecutor Keith Blackwood is still a criminal for posting his homebrewing exploits on Twitter. C’mon Keith – illicit affairs and laundering campaign contributions might be standard operation procedure, but keep your Berliner Weisse out of the public domain!

Some news on beer and rock and roll. Iron Maiden will partner with Robinson’s Brewery to create Trooper, a 4.7% ABV premium British ale with Bobec, Golding, and Cascade hops. Maiden fans searching for a Belgian Golden Strong will still have to settle for the slightly less-Satanic 668 Neighbor of the Beast from New England Brewing. 

I don’t often have a good excuse to link one of my favorite internet haunts in this column, but the fine folks at punknews.org picked up on the collaboration between Three Floyds and thrash metal band Municipal Waste. The new Toxic Revolution ale is a massive Oatmeal Stout perfect for winter shred sessions. And being a new beer from Three Floyds, it’s probably also perfect for the hallowed Viking quest of online beer trading.

Tip of the cap to People’s Brewing of Lafayette for their participation in a project to conserve the important ecosystem of Mulvey Pond in Tippecanoe County. The land was purchased by NICHES Land Trust and several local businesses, including People’s, are assisting with tree planting and the construction of a visitor platform. The platform will offer views of local and migratory waterfowl including snow geese and sandhill cranes.

Some timely new statistics are in from the Brewers Association following our recent piece on craft beer growth. For the full year of 2012, craft brewers achieved a 15 percent increase in sales volume and a 17 percent increase in dollar growth. These numbers balance out pretty well with an 18 percent increase in the number of U.S. operating breweries. The numbers for 2013 should be pretty interesting as the Association expects new breweries to open at an even higher rate.

As the power struggle between craft brewers and big brewers rages on, a grocer in Chicago scores one for the little guy. Garden Gourmet Market is working on a deal to obtain a liquor license in the mostly dry East Village. The catch? Garden Gourmet could only sell beer produced by craft brewers. While the results look pretty good, selling the idea that Garden Gourmet’s customers are professionals who aren’t interested in hard liquor or “40s” might not help the stereotype of craft beer as an elitist pursuit. On the opposite end of the spectrum, MillerCoors struck back with an exclusive agreement for product placement in all original TNT and TBS shows. There should probably be a joke here, but I can’t name a single original series on either of those networks. And the Ommegang Brewery already claimed Game of Thrones, so maybe we should score two for the little guy in this case.

The coveted Best Beard of Craft Beer award went to Chili of Stone Brewing. Never mind the fact that Chili isn't even a brewer (he is Stone’s groundskeeper and gardener), I suppose going by the single moniker Chili earns you some bonus cool points. I can only assume the guy to the right would be a serious contender if his choice in beer were improved.

Cheers and Hoppy Easter, Nathan

Brew Bracket 5: AMBERgeddon!

"I don't wanna close my eyes 

I don't wanna fall asleep 

'Cause I'd miss you, Brew Bracket

And I don't wanna miss a thing"


The time has come again for another Brew Bracket!!

Brew Bracket 5: AMBERgeddon!

This competition is better than the rest because YOU get to help decide the winner brew. 

How does it work? 

400 attendees sampling beer from 16 breweries in a March Madness style bracket taste off.  After 4 hours of blind tastings, 4 rounds of voting a winner is announced!

So come one, come all to the Indiana State Fairgrounds on December 8th from 12:30-5pm to participate in this fun, beer swillin' time for only $35 which also helps out a great cause - Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. 

Tickets available at : www.brewbracket.com

This season's participants are some old favorites, previous winners and some new guys:
Triton Brewing Co.
Flat 12 Bierwerks
The RAM Restaurant and Brewery (BBIV: Bourbon Barrel Aged - Winner)
Half Moon Brewery
Bloomington  Brewing Co. 
Barley Island Brewing Co.(BBIII: Wheats - Winner)
Bier Brewery (BBII: Stouts - Winner) 
Three Wisemen Brewing Co. ( a new one to the competition!) 
Rock Bottom  (Rock Bottom Downtown - BBI: IPA - Winner)
Bulldog Brewing Co. 
Fountain Square Brewery
Upland Brewing Co. 
Iechyd Da Brewing Co. (welcome another newbie!)
Powerhouse Brewing Co. 
Oaken Barrel Brewing Co. (Hi - newbie!)
Twisted Crew Brewing Co. 

For some more recaps of the fun of Brew Bracket see our previous blogs:
BBI: IPA
BBII: Stouts 
BBIII: Wheats
BBIV: Bourbon Barrel Aged

Also - Be on the look out for Kathleen and her new Beer Socks. Going red and white for Christmas!

Fountain Square Brewery - Hop Your Face!

Ready to Party! 

Fountain Square Brewery is tapping “Hop Your Face” Imperial IPA along with showcasing 4 bands and food trucks on 10/6

This annual Imperial IPA is aggressively hopped with four different hops and loaded with a complex mix of malts.  Might as Well add dry hops so over 2 pounds per barrel of hops were added to enhance the aroma.  

When Push Comes to Shove, this 9.7% brew may drive you to Hell in a Bucket, but at least you’ll enjoy the ride. 

I'm ready to "Hop" on board this ride for sure!