130 TAPS of Indiana Craft Beer -- in Broad Ripple this weekend! Rotating Taps means more beers to come!

This is the first time 130 taps of Indiana Craft Beer have been in ONE bar at ONE time. That happens this weekend at the new HopCat at 62nd and College starting with the opening on Saturday (8/16) starting at 11:00 AM. This is also the first time THIRTY taps of Sun King beer AND THIRTY taps of Upland beer will be in one place. Expect some rare beers like barrel aged versions. Many of these kegs are 1/6 barrels so may not last too long! Over the next few days expect the HopCat lineup to change as kegs are blown so that by next week we expect some Belgian beers like LaChouffe and Saison Dupont to be on tap.

Hoosier craft beer lovers won't be let down by the continual offerings of Indiana Beer. For now, Corporate Beer Manager Trevor Mapes and Indiana Beer Director Andrew Skirvin tell us the HopCat Standard 30 will consist of the following: Cutters Lost River Blonde, Mad Anthony Auburn Lager, Mad Anthony Raspberry Wheat, Fountain Square Workingman's Pilsner, Sun King Sunlight, Sun King Osiris, Bier Brewery Weizengoot, Evil Czech Gypsy Chamomile Wheat, Upland Wheat, Oaken Barrel Alabaster Wheat, Thr3e Wide Men Two Lucy's Blackberry wheat, Bier PDG pale, Fountain Square Hop for Teacher APA, Daredevil Lift Off IPA, Flat12 Half Cycle IPA, Oaken Barrel Superfly IPA (yep, the only place other than Greenwood you can find this), Quaff On Hare Trigger IPA, Triton Rail Splitter IPA, Upland Helios APA, Triton Sin-Bin Belgian pale, Taxman The Standard Abbey Blonde, New Albanian Black & Bluegrass Belgian spiced ale, Sun King Wee Mac, Upland Bad Elmer's porter, Powerhouse Diesel Oil stout, Flat12 Pogue's Run porter, Thr3e Wise Men Hubbard & Cravens Coffee stout, Bloomington Brewing Ruby Bloom amber, People's Mr. Brown Ale, and Carson's Brown Cow. (if you count more or less than 30, that represents my bad eyes and typing .... that is a LOT of beer!) According to Mapes and Skirvin we can expect some Michigan beer to rotate on given the HopCat stores in Michigan.

Patrons on Saturday will be rewarded with FREE Crack Fries which are a crazy spiced french fry served with fabulous cheese sauce. The first 200 through the door on Saturday will get a one-year (1 order, once per week, 52 weeks) prize. Expect some lines. However, local managers don't know what to expect since this is the small chains first venture outside of Michigan.

Founder and owner Mark Sellers tells us Branding will be an important issue for HopCat since Indy folks have not heard of the brand. We suspect it won't take long for Indy to catch on that so many beers are in such a beautiful, up-scale looking restaurant. Sellers is a cool, laid-back guy who greets customers and cheers on staff with a smile while wearing a T-shirt. Sellers told us he returned to Grand Rapids from Chicago and wanted to open a bar. He says he is the vision, but he lets others manage the operation. His vision gives us a music-themed restaurant that is large, has beautiful mahogany tables, a large two-sided bar near College Avenue and another nice bar at the back of the restaurant. There is ample family seating (yep, kids are welcome) and there is outside seating. The convenient location at the base of the new Broad Ripple parking garage means patrons have convenience and security without having to deal with 62nd Street traffic.

What food we were able to try was terrific. The prices are reasonable. And though just getting set up the beer temperature in our preview was good and servers were hustling to make things right. Lovers of beer on nitro take note, they will eventually settle in to several (maybe 5) served this way, but their set up would allow them to do a special tapping with THIRTY beers on nitro!

Meanwhile practically down the street from Broad Ripple the Indiana State Fair is going strong into its last weekend! Beer at the Fair seems well received. Last Tuesday they offered $2 Indiana pints and it was standing room only. Every person we talked with said they LOVED being able to try Indiana beer (and wine) at the Fair. Many attendees said indeed they tried a beer they never had before! This was a great thing for TwoDeep Brewing of 714 N. Capitol in Indy as they had only been open a couple of weeks when they have the chance to sample beer in the Grand Hall. Owner Scott Meyer (left) tells us several folks have stopped by the brewery after trying the beer at the Indiana State Fair.

Indiana Beer News; Beer at the Indiana State Fair, and more.... Feb. 22, 14

Will beer finally be sold at the Indiana State Fair? Indiana Senate Bill 0339 passed out of committee to the Full House this past week allowing sale of alcoholic beverages during the State Fair. Alcohol is sold on State Fair grounds during the remainder of the year. Brewers of Indiana Guild Executive Director Lee Smith says Indiana is one of just a few states not allowing the sale of beer and wine. The BIG focus is on alerting Hoosiers to the beer made here in Indiana. While currently brewery awards are displayed during the State Fair there is no way for attendees to try the beer. Craft Beer lovers may want to encourage their State legislators.

On Saturday, Feb. 22nd Flat12 Bierwerks opened the Taproom at 9 am for the 10 am Olympic Hockey bronze match. With Indianapolis natives, cousins Rachel and Emma Bowling in attendance the two middle schoolers that both tried out for and qualified for the US Olympic Luge Development team could cheer on the U.S team. On Sunday the 23rd Flat 12 opens 7am for the final Olympic hockey match for the gold. Flat 12 releases their spring seasonal Nunmoere Black, on Sunday, March 2nd . The beer is an homage to the movie Spinal Tap so there are many plans for that day at the brewery. details here

Thursday, March 13th is the Naptown Brown Tapping Party at Sun King from 7pm to 10pm. The Naptown Roller Girls will be onsite as well as A Squared Djs, food truck, and pints will be available for $5 each.

Upland Brewing Company recently announced tickets for the third annual Sour + Wild + Funk Fest will be on sale at on Eventbrite on March 10. This year's festival will take place Saturday, May 17th from 2pm-6pm at the historic Indianapolis City Market, preceded by a VIP Sour lecture and private tasting from 12:30-1:30pm. VIP tickets can be purchased for $75, and will include VIP lecture, lanyard, commemorative T-shirt, swag bag and access to the VIP lounge including food and private bathrooms. General Admission tickets are $45 and include light snacks, with the City Market's artisans open to sell heavier fare throughout the festival. An Upland Secret Barrel Society members-only party will follow from 7pm-9pm.

Bloomington Brewing announced a single hop IPA using only Simcoe providing light pine and citrus notes. Ole Floyd’s Belgian Dark Strong Ale is also a seasonal at 8%, a Winter Warmer.

Behind the Scenes at Indiana Brewers Cup

For the 2013 version of the ever-popular Indiana Brewers Cup, a collection of brave souls came together to tackle the challenge of judging nearly 1300 homebrewed and professional beers in a span of 24 hours. As we adjust to steady growth in popularity, a few new changes were in effect this year. This was the first year an entry cap was in place with a limit of 900 homebrews and 400 commercial entries. While we did not actually hit the cap (despite what the registration system apparently told people at times), I believe the final tally brought us to around 880 homebrew and 370 professional entries. This still made it easily the largest Brewers Cup field yet with about 120 more homebrew entries. Second, there was a change in the way Brewery of the Year was determined on the professional side. Similar to the GABF competition, breweries were still free to enter as many beers as they wished but only 12 entries (of the brewery’s choice in advance) counted toward the points for Brewery of the Year. I thought this was a very positive change and ensured that everyone was on a level playing field regardless of brewery size, business model, etc.

I serve as the Chief Steward for this event, which basically involves a lot of bottle wrangling and checking paperwork since we attract so many repeat stewards who do an excellent job of working independently. There were a few hiccups along the way that test your ability to adjust on the fly. You don’t expect printer incompatibility issues in 2013. You don’t expect a last minute trailer cooler replacement that doesn’t have any source of light (see pic of Dave Lemen below). But once things were off the ground, everything went fairly smooth. I can’t say thank you enough to the community of organizers, judges, and stewards who pull this off every year. You don’t want to hear me whine about how much work is involved, but those who have been involved in the process understand that it’s no small task. So without further adieu, here are some highlights (or lowlights) captured in photos from Saturday followed by observations and insights on beer competitions and judging.

Upland Brewing is already well known for their sours which have earned Best in Show professional the past two years. So while it wasn’t a major surprise to see Caleb accept the award for the third straight year, it might be considered a bit of an upset that the winning beer was Helios Pale Ale. Sun King took home their first Brewery of the Year award in a very competitive race thanks to the new format. We had some unexpected national entries from breweries I’d never heard of including Blackberry Farm (Tennessee), Galveston Island (Texas), and Pateros Creek (Colorado). Besides strong performances from Sun King and Upland; perennial contenders Bier Brewery, Crown Brewing, and Oaken Barrel had another good year. Side note: If you’re in central Indiana and have never had a chance to try Crown’s beer, make it a point to do so at the Microbrewers Festival. You won’t be sorry.

On the homebrew side we had winners from brewers in states including Colorado, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia (let’s just call them interlopers); but the Indiana brewers scored well again with a lot of different winners. Strong performances were turned in by consistently good brewers like Tom Wallbank, Chris Ingermann, and Brian Spaulding; while a few newcomers scored multiple wins as well. And some hack managed to work the name Poppi Rocketts into the list….which is awesome. While I should check my biases at the door, it was great to see my friend and occasional brewing collaborator Tim Palmer take this year’s Best in Show and Homebrewer of the Year awards. Make a big deal out of it if you see Tim, it will embarrass the hell out of him!

If you have not checked out the full results yet, they are now available here.

A few comments on the future of Indiana Brewers Cup and other homebrew competitions. The hobby of homebrewing has exploded in popularity and the number of brewers interested in entering competitions has followed suit. This creates a dilemma for competition organizers when the number of certified judges does not keep pace. This was particularly exemplified in this year’s National Homebrew Competition (NHC), the classic example of a no-win situation for the American Homebrewers Association. Despite taking the unprecedented step of limiting individual entries for the first time in history, demand for this competition created an insane rush of entries when registration opened. Aided by some system issues, this created a very frustrating experience for many would-be entrants. I’ve heard a variety of solutions for this, and none of them are perfect (before guaranteeing one entry per AHA member, consider there are still 40,000 members).

Some of the more popular competitions are going to have to decide how to balance allowing the maximum number of entries/participants with the quality of judging entrants will (and should) expect. NHC Regional sites cannot just accept an unlimited number of entries and ensure they will be judged by BJCP judges, nor can additional sites just be thrown together and staffed entirely by volunteers within a month. To handle the record number of entries, the Brewers Cup had to accept novice judges this year. Don’t take that the wrong way, our novice judges did a great job. But I know you homebrewers (I am you). If you get an unfavorable scoresheet from a novice judge, what’s your first thought going to be? What the heck is my point? Good question. 1) Expect to see more caps and various entry restrictions at larger competitions in the future. Try to understand that it just comes with the explosive growth of this hobby, and nobody intends it as a personal affront to you or your sure-fire winners. 2) If you want to help out, please consider working on your BJCP judge certification. You can find some info about exams here and Ron Smith’s Beer MBA class is a great place to start your studies if you’re local to central Indiana. 3) The good news is you can find a growing number of smaller competitions springing up in our region. These comps are often staffed by a large proportion of BJCP judges and you can receive excellent feedback if that is your main objective. You can find a list of upcoming competitions on the AHA calendar.

Cheers, Nathan

The following is commentary on beer judging from IB’s Greg Kitzmiller who served as a judge at the Indiana Brewers Cup……..

The Brewer's Cup, of the Indiana State Fair, has not only grown bigger each year but also grown better each year. Despite minor flaws, of the competitions I do or have judged this is truly one of the best organized and professional. What makes it solid? Judges are lined up well in advance; judges’ expertise are carefully considered. And if you are a home brewer (me too) you will be glad to know that while Nathan correctly reports novice judges had to be recruited still all beers are judged by judging teams and novices are paired with experienced judges. Another plus is that judges know in advance what styles they will be judging. While I often suspect what styles I will judge, knowing a couple of days in advance gives me a chance to pull some of the best examples of those beers, find some on draught, and read the style guidelines as I drink these examples. Yes, this year I literally opened more than one bottle, drank about 5 oz. and then eventually poured that out so I could focus my palate on another example -- all in the pursuit of giving that brewer the best advantage or the best attempt at judging their beer against some of the best.

The Brewer's Cup also draws some of the best judging talent in the Midwest. The top judges for the Kentucky State Fair or the Ohio State Fair and other major contests are here judging this one. I know judges come from all over the Midwest and I have judged with or enjoyed the company of many from Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and more. Beyond just judges many of the stewards handling the beer, checking the temperature, pulling the bottles, pouring the beer into pitchers for professional categories are brewers and/or have done this many times before. Anita Johnson did an excellent job of inspiring so many for this competition and Mike Freeman, Nathan Compton, Tom Stilabower, and many others have done a great job of making this professional.

Many of you know what it is like to judge. But yesterday I was asked, "how you judge beer without being biased by what you like." There are two forms of answer. First, all BJCP trained judges are taught to carefully evaluate a beer. We don't have to love a particular attribute of a beer, but we should be able to recognize the attribute. Judges should recognize how the tongue perceives sweet, salty, sour, umami, and bitter. (In 2012 researchers at Washington University identified that the tongue also perceives fat, but that does not add to beer judging!) Thus, following carefully constructed guidelines for each style of beer, a judge can recognize and comment on distinct aspect of aroma, appearance, flavor and mouthfeel of a beer as well as general characteristics. The second aspect is that most of us volunteer to judge beers that we do appreciate often - although many experienced judges can and will judge any style and have learned to appreciate (perhaps not 'love') every style. For example, I am somewhat of a self described 'nerd' so when I am drinking a beer socially there are times that I pull out the style guidelines (or just remember them) and mentally judge that beer against those -- a bit like 'training' in any other setting. For the brewer entering his or her beer it means someone has gone to great extent to evaluate that beer carefully against a strict set of guidelines and with an experienced beer palate and beer knowledge.

What are some other downsides to beer competitions? First, on the plus side many if not most of the professional beers winning medals this year appear to be beers that you or I could actually have purchased from the brewery or at the brewpub. Yet, that is not always so. Commercial brewers are allowed to brew small batches for entry which means (and seems to happen with GABF) the beer that wins is not necessarily consumed by the masses drinking that brewers beers. Kudos to Indiana Breweries that received Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals for beers that we can find on the shelves or at their tapping room! Reviewing the list of winners it is clear if most, maybe all, were commercially available. Yet there is one other 'wrinkle.' Obviously if you were entering a car competition you would polish your car and if you drove to the competition you might spruce up that car a lot before judging. Likewise, brewers certainly bottle the beers at what they believe will be the ideal condition for judging in July. So I have actually judged beer where certainly I did not know what brewery it was from, but the score was so high (and I was judging with one of the top judges in the U.S.) that it became clear the beer I judged was a medal winner in that category. Some weeks later I happened to visit that brewery's retail facility (I am masking this to hide the brewery and will only reveal that it was in Indiana but not my hometown). It was clear to me, as well as to my table of experienced beer lovers, that the beer we were drinking that particular day was not the best that brewery had put out. Since then I've had many fine beers from that brewery. But a medal does not completely guarantee that the beer in your glass later is the same beer the judge tasted. Just as true of homebrewers of course. So take heart, if your score was low remember if the first line judges got a bottle that was not the best example for you, that score reflects that bottle. Even then, I have asked to pull and have often seen this when there is oxidation perceived, the 2nd bottle just to give that brewer a chance in case the one bottle suffered.

So for my friends that think beer judging must be the BEST possible hobby, I'd like to share with them some beers I've judged for which I really wished I did not have to take another swallow! On the other hand, given a choice I think I am very glad I get to judge beer and my hat is off to the swine judges! I'll stick with beer.

And the Winners Are.... Brewers' Cup competition news!

The Brewers' Cup of the Indiana State Fair has become one of the largest beer competition in the country and this year accepted nearly 900 entries from home-brewers and 400 entries from professional breweries. With judging July 12-13, this competition had its annual awards celebration last night, July 13 at the Indiana State Fair grounds.

Brewers in both the home-brew and professional categories won from as far away as Texas! Even though this event is proudly sponsored by and featured within the Indiana State Fair we are quite pleased that it has become a national competition. Three of our indianabeer.com bloggers have been busy at work with Nathan Compton, webmaster, an event organizer while I, Greg Kitzmiller, judged for the 6th or 7th year and Jake Keefer was kept busy judging this year also. A quick comment: I've judged for the Kentucky State Fair and the Ohio State Fair and while nice competitions, neither are near as big the Brewer's Cup.

You will find major blogs here including photos during this next week with in depth coverage. However, here is a(n) (Unofficial- based on my notes) list of winners from this years Brewers' Cup.

TOP AWARDS:

Professional Brewery of the Year: SunKing Brewery, Indianapolis, IN

Professional Best of Show Beer: Upland Brewery, Bloomington, IN

Home Brew Brewer of the Year: Tim Palmer, Foam Blowers of Indiana Club

Best of Show, Home Brewer: Tim Palmer, Indianapolis (FBI)

Homebrew Club of the Year: Foam Blowers of Indiana


Special Mention for indianabeer.com: our own Nathan Compton, homebrewer, beer officianado, and our webmaster/blogger won 3 awards

The GOLD (1st place) Awards by Category;

Professional Brewers:

Light Lager: Brickstone Brewery, Bourbonnaise, IL, 557 Light Lager

Pilsner: Bells Brewery, Kalamazoo, MI, Lager of the Lakes

European Ambers: Thr3e Wisemen Brewery, Indianapolis, IN

Dark Lager: Upland Brewery, Bloomington, IN, Schwartz Bier

Bock: SunKing Brewery, Indianapolis, IN, Maibock

Light Hybrid: Twisted Crew Brewery, Seymour, IN, Red Rye

Amber Hybrid: G'Town, Galveston, TX

English Pale: Upland Brewery, Bloomington, IN, Helios Pale

Scottish and Irish: Half Moon Brewery, Kokomo, IN, Stoplight City Red

American Ale: Triton Brewing, Indianapolis, IN, 4-barrel Brown

English Brown: SunKing Brewing, Indianapolis, IN, Wee Mac

Porter: Bier Brewery, Indianapolis, IN, Dread Brown

Stout: Crown Brewing, Crown Point, IN, Celtic Pride

IPA: Bloomington Brewing Company, Bloomington, IN, Rooftop IPA

German Wheat and Rye: Oaken Barrel Brewing, Greenwood, IN, King Rudi Hefe

Belgian and French: Oaken Barrel Brewing, Greenwood, IN, Alabaster Wit

Sour: SunKing Brewing Company, Indianapolis, IN, Stupid Sexy Flanders

Belgian Strong: Sunking Brewing Company, Indianapolis, IN, Velvet Fog

Strong Ale: Crown Brewing Company, Crown Point, IN, Squatch

Fruit Beer: Lakefront Brewing Company, Milwaukee, WI, #22

Spice/herb/vegetable beer: RAM Brewery, Indianapolis, IN, Anaheim IPA

Smoke beer: RAM Brewery, Indianapolis, IN, Barrel Aged Final Countdown

Specialty Beer: Upland Brewing Company, Bloomington, IN, Rye So Serious

HOMEBREW: MY APOLOGIES in advance for completely messing up some names!

Light Lager: Chris Ingerman

Pilsner: Tim Palmer

European Ambers: Tom Wallbank

Dark Lager: Tim Palmer

Bock: Charlie Milan

Light Hybrid: Jeff Jennings

Amber Hybrid: David Bordenkecher

English Pale: Brian Spalding

Scottish and Irish: Tim Palmer

American Ale: Brian Pickerell

English Brown: Lloyd Chatham

Porter: Brent Johnson

Stout: Brian Imbrusia

IPA: Brady Smith

German Wheat and Rye: Keith & Pam Bradley

Belgian and French: Dwayne DeLaney

Sour: Tom Wallbank

Belgian Strong: Ken Shannon

Strong Ale: Tom Wallbank

Fruit Beer: Alex Robertson

Spice/herb/vegetable beer: Brian Imbrusia

Smoke beer: David Murz

Specialty Beer: Lee Frisk



Note: Corrections and editorial content will be published later this week!

Brewers of Indiana Guild and the State Fair

"They who drink beer will think beer."
-Washington Irving

To help educate the masses and for the sure fun and benefits of it, I volunteered to run the Brewers of Indiana Guild's booth last Saturday morning and last Wednesday night.  Not only was I educating others, but by playing a trivia game, I educated myself more on general knowledge of Indiana Breweries. A few of the questions were posted on Indiana Beer's Facebook earlier this week. 

I also learned that sadly not many people know about Indiana beer. Some only know a select amount.  The top names that came to people's minds were Sun King and Upland Brew Co.  With the 2012 Brewer's Cup Awards list up, Bier Brewery was one that a lot of people asked about though.

I found that by asking people what they have already tried, or what kind of style they liked, it opened up really good conversations into recommending new breweries to try.  I know I sent a few people away with directions, ways to get, or reasons to go to either Flat12 Bierwerks, Bier Brewery, Black Acre, Thr3e Wisemen and Brugge Brasserie. I took a baby step approach to conversions some people when they mentioned drinking Budweiser to trying Sun King Sunlight, which would be light, smooth, easy to drink and a nice switch over. 

Over the conversations with the almost 200 people that came into the booth while I was there, I only heard one person mention they don't drink craft beer because of the price. I tried to highlight some of the more affordable breweries as well as highlight some of their specials and sales. I also played up the advantage of growler sales on Sunday. 

All in all, I'm glad that I was able to represent the guild, represent IndianaBeer, represent as an Indiana craft beer drinker and give people information and inspiration to try something new. 

- Kathleen

On my way to the fair! 

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Indiana Brewers’ Cup Photos

Well, it appears I am the loser in our internal race to bring you the highlights of this weekend’s Brewers’ Cup competition. So I’ll ask you to check out Greg’s summary of winners in the next blog post or by clicking here. The only additional item I have to add is that the Homebrew Club of the Year went to the Foam Blowers of Indiana - led by Homebrewer of the Year Tom Wallbank.

Worth noting on the professional side is that Upland Brewing has earned back-to-back Best of Show awards with their Persimmon Lambic in 2011 and Flanders Red (commercially known as Gligamesh) this year. It is also the second consecutive Brewery of the Year award for Bier Brewery.

Since I had the opportunity to work with the wonderful Brewers’ Cup staff this year, I was able to snap a few pictures that hopefully will give you an interesting “behind-the-scenes” look at a competition of this scale.

The full results including all homebrew and professional award winners will be posted at the Brewers' Cup website in the near future. Congrats to all of the winners for taking home awards in a very difficult competition! And a big thanks to the staff, judges, and stewards who work very hard to make a competition of this size run so smoothly.

Cheers, Nathan

August 29 part 2 - Good News for next August

Farm Bureau Votes To Support Alcohol at the State Fair. "Over the weekend, delegates from all 92 Indiana counties set policy for Indiana Farm Bureau for the coming year. In a surprise move, Farm Bureau voted in favor of beer and wine at the Indiana State Fair." They don't mention it's a state law but their support will carry weight in next January's statehouse session. article

Lets send a dozen Bacon Roses to the Farm Bureau.

Indiana Beer News – Jan 31

Things we learned at Winterfest:

House Bill 1093 is not dead, despite what Inside Indiana Business said. There’s a hearing on Wednesday at the Committee on Public Policy and the Brewers of Indiana Guild will be out in force to support it. The wine people will also be there of course. Emails sent today and tomorrow may have an effect. Email addresses are hXX@in.gov where xx is the district number.

Committee Members:

Chair: Bill Davis, Republican, District 33 - Jay, Randolph, Delaware Counties
Vice Chair: Wesley Culver, Republican, District 49 – Elkhart
Sean Eberhart, Republican, District 57 - Shelbyville
Thomas Knollman, Republican, District 55 – Richmond & South
Matthew Lehman, Republican, District 79 – Southeast Allen Co.
L. Jack Lutz, Republican, District 35 – Some of Hendricks and Howard Co.
Mark Messmer, Republican, District 63 - Jasper
Phil GiaQuinta, Democrat, District 80 – Ft. Wayne
Terri Austin, Democrat, District 36 - Tipton
Linda Lawson, Democrat, District 1 - Chicagoland
Scott Pelath, Democrat, District 9 – Michigan City
Vanessa Summers, Democrat, District 99 – Northwest Indianapolis

Bee Creek Brewery is getting another 15bbl bright tank in the next week or two. That pole barn must be about full by now.

Ryan Cole and Mike Sale have started BrewBracket and will have an organized tasting, voting on April 17th at the State Fairgrounds. They hope to have 400 people. This event will benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Indianapolis.

Brennan Croder has moved from Olinger to be the Store Manager at Kahn's Keystone location in Indy.

Adam and Jason Burk and Brent Chapman have expanded their Tuxedo Park Brewers to be a full homebrew store. Located at 1139 Shelby St. in the Fountain Square area of Indy, they are concentrating on moving new brewers to all-grain.

John Campbell, late of New Albanian has moved to be the brand manager at Falls City Beer in Louisville. Contract brewing right now, they are in dozens of Louisville and Kentuckiana pubs. They are building a tap room and microbrewery to continue their expansion.

Stan is having a homebrew contest at the Heorot on April 16th. More details in February.

Mike Lahti is moving from Upland to Figure 8.

Tom Uban (right) is probably looking forward to teaching rock climbing to Mike.

Indiana Beer News – Jan 28

The Mad Anthony Old State Ale House in Elkhart has closed 25 months after opening. article This does not affect the other three Mad Anthony locations.

More bad news: State Fair Alcohol Sales Bill Appears Dead

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Rate Beer’s 2011 Best Of list is out and it’s owned by Three Floyds

World’s Best Brewery: #1: Three Floyds U.S. Best Beers: #5: Three Floyds Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout #17: Three Floyds Dreadnaught Imperial IPA #20: Three Floyds Oak Aged Dark Lord #26: Three Floyds Vanilla Bean Barrel Aged Dark Lord World’s Best Beers: #7: Three Floyds Dark Lord #22: Three Floyds Dreadnaught #25: Three Floyds Oak Aged Dark Lord #35: Three Floyds Vanilla Bean Barrel Aged Dark Lord #76: Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine World’s Best Beers by Style: English Bitter #5: Three Floyds Admiral Lord Nelson IPA #4: Three Floyds Dreadnaught Stout #5: Three Floyds Dark Lord Strong Ale #4: Three Floyds Behemoth Barleywine American Pale Ale #1: Three Floyds Alpha King American Pale Ale #4: Three Floyds Cenotaph

World’s Best Brewpub: #36: Three Floyds World’s Best Beer Bar: #12: New Albanian Public House World’s Best Beer Retailer: #11: Crown Liquors Downtown Indy #25: Crown Liquors Carmel #50: Keg Liquors Clarksville

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Winterfest gets ink at the IndyStar.

Too many package store permits? The Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers thinks so and want grocery and drug store permits to count in the same quota. article

Alltech in Lexington is tripling their production capacity. article

 

Indiana Beer News – Jan 27

Tom Wallbank unearthed this picture from probably the 1946 Indiana State Fair. The Fair went dry in 1947.

The Billboard Mar 22, 1947

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In North Dakota, a bill is up to allow homebrewers to get a license to sell their beer at farmers markets and the like. Cool. short article

Wallgreens gets Big Flats 1901 private label beer from Genesee. As low as $3/6-pack. article – another article

Meatwater comes in flavors including Beef Jerky, Gulash, Italian Sausage, Bangers ‘n Mash, Pizza, Sauerbraten and, good grief, Liverwurst.

Indiana State Fair Brewers' Cup

Complete results for 2009 are freshly up at http://www.brewerscup.org/results.

Kneeling	Professional Best of Show: Oaken Barrel of Greenwood – Pumpkin Ale
	Champion Brewery: Oaken Barrel (also in 2005 and 2006) 3 Gold Medals, 2 Silver Medals, 3 Bronze Medals
	Homebrewer of the Year: Bill Ballinger of Shelbyville 4 Blue Ribbons, 1 Red Ribbon
	Homebrew Best of Show: Larry Barnhart of Kokomo – Susie's Sweet Stout
Standing	Homebrew Club of the Year: MECA

  

 

The attendance at the dinner celebration was bigger than ever.
Anita Johnson and John Blichmann handed out door prizes from Blichmann Engineering.

720 entries. 90 judges. 3 judging sessions.

Jack Frey of Turoni's Main Street in Evansville entered three beers and won a Gold and 2 Silvers.

Four Rock Bottoms (Downtown Indy, 86th St. Indy, Lombard IL, and Orland Park IL) shared 23 medals including sweeps of the Light Lager, Scottish, and Barrel-aged categories.

Here's some pictures of the Judging tables.

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