Brewfest 2010 (Fort Wayne) Wrap-up

Brewfest 2010 was attended by approximatley 230 people at the Masonic Temple in downtown Fort Wayne. The event included a homebrew competition, rafffle drawings, silent auctions, and radio personalities. Beers available were from Mad Anthony Brewing Company, Five Star Distributors, Crown Brewing, Granite City Food and Brewery to name a few. A representative from Great Fermentations of Indiana located in Indianapolis was present along with a representative from The Brewers Art Supply store located in Fort Wayne. All-in-all a good time appeared to be had by the attendees and look forward to next year's Brewfest.

Fort Wayne Upcoming Events

Mark your calendar for the following events:

1. Belmont Beverage (Lima Road) will have a free beer tasting this Thursday, the 21st, from 4p.m.-6p.m. pouring numerous Bell's beers.
2. Brewfest 2010 will be held downtown at the Masonic Temple (216 E. Washington) on Saturday, March 20th, from 2p.m.-6p.m. The cost is $15 in advance and $20 at the door. There will also be a homebrew competition. The website for this event is: http://www.brewfestfortwayne.com/. More details will be forthcoming as they are made available.
3. Granite City Food and Brewery will have a Mug Club party on Monday, January 25th, from 5p.m.-7:30p.m. for the tapping of McK's Scottish Ale.

Fort Wayne Events, News and Recent Tastings

There are numerous beer tastings being held around town on the following dates:

Dec. 4, 10, 11, 12, and 18 (see Calendar for location and time).  These tastings are all free so bring along a family member, friend, neighbor, co-worker and introduce him/her to the craft beer scene.

Reminder, Granite City Food & Brewery will have a Mug Club party on Monday, December 7th, tapping Batch 1000.
News:  Brian Spaulding of the Fort Wayne MASH Homebrew Club has informed me that Stefan Kelley is no longer the contact person for the club.  The new information is as follows:

   info@mashfortwayne.com and http://www.mashfortwayne.com/

Trion Tavern (New Haven) now has Unibroue Maudite and Delirium Noel on draft and 800 Degrees (Fort Wayne) has Dogfish Head Indian Brown and Boulevard Wheat on draft.

Tastings:  Mad Anthony's has a couple of new brews that I recently sampled: The Mad Anthony Hop X which is a very hoppy tasting beer with a smooth texture, citrus, pine hops aroma and flavor.  This is definitely a beer for those that enjoy hoppy tasting beers.  The other new beer at Mad Anthony's is Mad Anthony Smoked Amber.  Given the name of this beer, I automatically thought this beer would have a very smoky aroma and flavor, but hence it did not. I found this beer to only have a hint of smoke in the aroma and flavor which was much to my liking.  It is a very crisp, clean beer and very easy to drink.  I would consider this to be a good session beer.

Indy Samplings

Some Tastings:

• Granite City Oktoberfest. Bright red/brown leather-look. Very cold in an iced glass so aroma test was abandoned. Good fat white ½" head that held on a while. First taste was sharp, not quite metallic, as the strong bitter finish cam in too quick to appreciate the still-frozen malt. Once warmer, it becomes a fairly rich, traditional O'fest with a big, quick, floral bitter finish. Order with a warm glass.
• Rock Bottom, 86th St, Indy, DWANA-nother beer Hefe – A coriander Belgian Wit with enough Ginger to make a difference. Smooth and very quaffable.
• RB86th Pifer's Pale – Brewed for the wedding of two regular customers. A 6.9% APA/IPA with 60 IBU of Amarillo and Crystal hops. Big throughout but a bit one dimensional.
• RB86th Pumpkin Seasonal – Deep Labrador-eye orange brown. A tank of varying refracted shades from loam to wheat. Long-lasting dense ivory head. Pumpkin spice aroma sings over the malt base only because we expect the malt, sort of like a rhythm section. On the tongue it isn't very sweet or pie spicy, just a solid blend.*
• Rock Bottom, Downtown Indy Pumpkin Seasonal – Unfiltered dark hefe-looking. Full in-your-face pie spice aroma comes through. 5.3%.*
  
  Also on tap at RBD, Hop Bomb, Happy Pils, Hefeweizen, Coffee Stout.

* No pumpkins were harmed in the making of these Pumpkin ales.

Granite City has some new "brew mixers" on their beer menu (but not online). They had a Two-Pull (Light and Bock). Now there are a whole slew up to a Blarney (Bock and Stout).

Rock Bottom, 86th St, Indy has a Brewers Dinner on Wed, Oct 21st but it's sold out at 65 people. So they're having a prequel – another Brewers Dinner on Tues, Oct 20th. Call 317-471-8840 for details.

Apple Buzz is back at Oaken Barrel. 28 barrels made, half gone already.

Collapsable plastic Port-A-Pint Beer Glass. $8.

Recent Tastings and News

Recently had the Granite City Wags Wheat beer which had a malty, wheat, mildly hoppy and citrus aroma with a crisp, citrus, wheat, lightly spicy, malty and hoppy flavor. Clean on the palate and very drinkable. A nice refreshing beer on a warm Indiana summer day and definitely worth a try!

Mad Anthony has a new Altbier available which is malty, mildly hoppy and clean and easy on the palate. Another refreshing beer on a warm Indiana summer day and worthy of a try.

There is a new S & V bottle shop located at 9960 Illinois Road, Fort Wayne (260-432-2181). I met with Ryan Merrell, Manager, and this store has 14 shelves of craft beer and 29 cold cases of micro and macro beers which is the largest in Fort Wayne according to Ryan. A Grand Opening will take place at a later date. Today from 4p.m.-6p.m. at this store Five Star Distributing will be pouring free samples of Fat Tire, 1554, Skinny Dip, and Sunshine Wheat.

Granite City, Rock Bottom, Tastings, etc.

Granite City's seasonal Wag's Wheat is a decent American Wheat. Nothing spectacular but certainly worth enjoying. Don't know about Ft. Wayne and South Bend, but the Indy 10th Anniversary tapping was well attended. Should say, well, crowded. Commemorative XL t-shirts were a nice touch.

Rock Bottom, 86th St has three nifty offerings right now and American Dream Cream Ale will be tapped on Thursday, 6pm.

• ReplicAle – Liz's is the first out this year. This Alt uses Kölsch yeast and is lighter colored than style (per Dave's recipe). It has a proper, almost malty start and a quick dry finish. Good drinking stuff. 5%
• Bourbon Barrel Porter – Smooth, authentic bourbon comes out rather than vanilla or oak. Aged 6 months (in a Jack Daniels barrel?)
• Chili Chocolate Cinnamon Brown – Chili? not really very strong. Chocolate? some. Cinnamon? yeah. But they all marry to make a nice Christmas Ale. Perfect for the Christmas in July parties. Bonus points for being cask conditioned on the handpull. Great temperature, little carbonation. A winter winner.

This week's festivities:

• Wed, July 1 - Beer Tasting. Westside Liquor, Evansville. 4:30-6:30pm
• Thurs, July 2 - Tapping of American Dream Cream Ale. Both Indy Rock Bottoms, 6pm.
• Thurs, July 2 - Tapping of FFF Apocalypse Cow - BW3, downtown Indy.
• Thurs, July 2 - Beer Tasting. Big Red Liquors, Bloomington. 6-8pm
• Fri, July 3 - Beer Tasting. Liquor Locker, Evansville. 4-7pm
• Fri, July 3 - Beer Tasting. Parti Pak, Greenwood. 5-7pm
• Fri, July 3 - Beer Tasting. Crown Liquors, Carmel. 5-7pm.
• Sat, July 4 - Oaken Barrel 15th Anniversary Party, hog roast, etc. Greenwood

Socrates and James T. Hart have a Hefe at Scotty's. harmless diversion.

Clipper City is planning another series of big beers, this time in 22oz bombers. First up is The Big DIPA – a Double IPA that releases this week. 10.6%. 75 IBU.

The Katz Group has filed for bankruptcy. Who? Just the folks who make three fourths of the worlds beer coaters. article 1 – article 2.

The World's 10 most legendary bars. Oddly, the world's most famous bar, the Hofbrauhaus, is missing.