Brew Bracket 8: Oktoberfest

About two years ago, I discovered the existence of Brew Bracket. I've been a hooked fan ever since.

This past weekend I was able to go to my first Brew Bracket in the Tomlinson Tap Room. Just as much bracket style, great craft beer fun as their events at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, this event is only 8 local breweries, and the blind tasting happens table side, where voters can relax, snack, and drink beer poured by the expert double pourer volunteers.

Brew Bracket 8 was right time on time with their Oktoberfest style beer challenge: right in the middle of the traditional Oktoberfest celebration going on in Munich!

The fierce competitors of this BB8 was:
Flat 12 Bierwerks
The RAM
Twisted Crew Brewery
Sun King Brewing Co.
Thr3e Wisemen
Bier Brewery
Iechyd Da Brewery
Upland Brewing

Some of the beers were really interesting. Flat 12 had their Red Oatober in the competition, and it was distinct with the hop  flavor in the nose and on the tongue.  Twisted Crew (I believe, based off my tally sheets) gave their Oktoberfest a coffee enhancement.  Other than that the other breweries had the same malted lager, creamy traditional Oktoberfest flavor.

Being only 8 breweries the voting, and tasting went quickly and it was within no time that the RAM picked up their third win.

Every time I go to a Brew Bracket event, I can't even describe the camaraderie that just surrounds the venue. Between Mike and Ryan, the charity involved, the brewers, the sponsors, the visitors, it is just a special kind of event. There is always good music, good food and I always run into good friends there.

So if you still haven't gone to a Brew Bracket.. you must go to Brew Bracket 9 - Porters! (I'm very much looking forward to this style!)

Prost!
Kathleen

Brew Bracket 5 - AMBERgeddon

Since discovering the existence of Brew Bracket last year on my 30th birthday, I have loved coming and participating in this completely unique event, that not only features 16 local breweries, makes you the judge, but helps out with a local charity as well.

On December 8th, Brew Bracket came back again to the Indiana State Fairgrounds with a Amber Ale showdown, called AMBERgeddon. The past winning Brew Bracket contenders were all there along with general favorites and newbies to find out who was the best of the best when it comes to amber ales.

Cool New Tally System

This Brew Bracket had a new voting tally and procedure, making it quicker to tally, save paper and you got a cool little bracket to follow along with.

Voting Caps

It also had the presence of some local food trucks, Spice Box Indy, Byrne's Grilled Pizza and Der Pretzel Wagon. Previous Brew Brackets had a small cafe style food location, but the addition of the food trucks really brought out the feeling to support your local vendors.




Unfortunatly at this Brew Bracket, Bulldog Brewing Co. couldn't make it down, so it left 15 breweries going head to head:

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. (newbie!) 
Rock Bottom  (Rock Bottom Downtown - BBI: IPA - Winner)
Fountain Square Brewery
Upland Brewing Co. 
Iechyd Da Brewing Co. (newbie!)
Powerhouse Brewing Co. 
Oaken Barrel Brewing Co. (newbie!)
Twisted Crew Brewing Co. 

The tasting starting promptly at 1pm and off the bat it was hard to make a vote. A lot of the amber ales seemed to me to be aggressively hopped, which is not something I am used to in an amber. I prefer something a little more smooth.  I did learn that Bier Brewery had a bourbon barrel aged Amber and I guessed and later confirmed that Mustache Ride Red was roaring through Brew Bracket courtesy of Flat 12.


Despite the overly hopped ambers, I'd have to say this Brew Bracket has been my second favorite one so far. The first one is obviously the Stouts competition, mostly because I'm biased and stouts are my favorite. The best thing about Brew Bracket, which I continually point out over and over again is that the average, everyday beer drinker gets to be a part of an event that THEY decide what is good, and what should win.

And after 5 rounds of taste testing.. the people had spoken to make Andrew Castner, head brewer of the The Ram, the AMBERgeddon winner with his Buttface Amber:

Congratulations Andrew!

Andrew is a dangerous Brew Bracket contender now. This is his second win in a row, after Big Horn Maibock won at the BBIV: Bourbon Barrel Aged.

The question is will he go three in a row for the undetermined Brew Bracket 6.
Which btw.. I am secretly hoping  the style will be Porters

We hope if you went out to Brew Bracket you had a good time, hopefully you met me, in my beer socks of course, or Nathan, or the lovely Poppi.  If you didn't come out, then come in the Spring!

As always,
Cheers!
Kathleen

Kathleen & Jill with our beer socks!

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!

Indiana Beer News – June 29

Barley Island’s tied house, the Restaurant and Brewhouse in downtown Broad Ripple has closed.

The Twisted Crew sent a picture. They’re open in Seymour on
Fri: 4-8pm
Sat: 2-8pm
Sun: Noon-4pm

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used a Y tube-olfactometer designed to take advantage of the whole body odour (breath and skin emanations) as a stimulus to gauge human attractiveness to Anopheles gambiae (the primary African malaria vector) before and after volunteers consumed either beer (n = 25 volunteers and a total of 2500 mosquitoes tested) or water (n = 18 volunteers and a total of 1800 mosquitoes). Water consumption had no effect on human attractiveness to An. gambiae mosquitoes, but beer consumption increased volunteer attractiveness. Body odours of volunteers who consumed beer increased mosquito activation (proportion of mosquitoes engaging in take-off and up-wind flight) and orientation (proportion of mosquitoes flying towards volunteers' odours). The level of exhaled carbon dioxide and body temperature had no effect on human attractiveness to mosquitoes. Despite individual volunteer variation, beer consumption consistently increased attractiveness to mosquitoes. article

Michigan has approved the name Raging Bitch after Flying Dog sued. article

But Ohio isn’t going to allow beers over 12% ABV. article

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If barley be wanting to make into malt,
We must be content and think it no fault,
For we can make liquor to sweeten our lips,
Of pumpkins, and parsnips, and walnut-tree chips.

- Verse from the 1630s.