Misc News – April 15

Work has started on Big Woods' new brewery extension (right).

People's Brewing's tasting room will open this next Friday, April 16th. Six taps, growlers. Cool detail: The wood for the bar was contributed by about 40 friends. April 30th will see a grand opening celebration.

Location: 2006 N. Ninth St.

Hours: Starting today, noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

Price: New growlers are $12, $8 for refills.

Grand Opening party, April 30, noon+

Upland Maibock will be back next week, Bourbon Barrel Warmer will be out in bottles later this month and Double Dragonfly will hit the shelves in bottles next month in 22oz bombers. 9.1% ABV. They also have some of this year's lambics available at the brewery.

They have also announced the 2010 UpCup Homebrew Competition and AHA Rally on May 15th. Entries are due May 7th. Here's the « The Upland Brewing Company

 

New Albanian is serving its possibly lightest beer ever - Hop-O at 3.5% ABV. "Hop-O was a cereal beverage of less than 1% abv produced by the Southern Indiana Brewing Company during the early years of Prohibition, except that the brewery subsequently was raided, shut down and the owner arrested in 1921 after federal agents determined the alcohol content to be well above 3%."

Oh, it gets better than that:

Indiana Brewer Indicted - He Is Accused of Trying to Bribe Federal Prohibition Agent
Louisville, Ky. March 16. – Indictments charging bribery were returned by a Federal Grand Jury here today against Michael Schrick, former President of the Southern Indiana Brewing Company, and J.H. Booth, both of New Albany, Ind. They are alleged to have attempted to bribe J.L. Asher, Federal prohibition agent, with money and commissions amounting to $100,000 a year to get assistance of that official in transporting illegal beer to Louisville from New Albany. They were released on bond.
Federal agents who said they were concealed in a closet, told the Grand Jury the two men were trapped in Asher's room in a hotel here in January while Schrick and Booth were in the act of paying Asher the first installment of $2,000.
New York Times, Mar 17, 1922

And even better:

Indianapolis, Jan 3 - Judge Albert B Anderson today promised a rigid investigation of alleged promises of immunity from criminal action to high officials of the prohibition division at Washington to Michael Schrick, a brewery owner of New Albany, Indiana. Roy A Haynes, director prohibition enforcement said Mr. Andrews, chief of the bureau of litigation at the department, and John Owen, former campaign, manager of Senator James U Watson and alleged go-between, were named by Schrick today.
Marion (Ohio) Daily Star, Jan 3, 1924

Today's scary headline with little behind it is brought to you by The DePauw: Sunday alcohol sales may create more problems for Indiana citizens than solutions. Seems Hoosiers for Beverage Choices has said "But this points to even more inconsistencies in Indiana law. Now we can go to a microbrewery at 2 a.m. to buy beer, but we can't go to a grocery store."

HBG brings us Scenes From a Beer Dinner: Nøgne Ø at Recess.

Goose Island Fleur will be brewed year-round starting this summer. It is flavored with hibiscus and komnbocha tea.

Ommegang Tripel Perfestion at 8.9% silll be out in May.

Stone's 2010 Imperial Russian Stout hits the shelves next Monday.

Redhook Eisbock 28. "Ice Processed Winter Warmer". This could turn out strange on so many levels. Lessee,  EKU 28 is a trademark of Kulmbacher, and oh, Eisbock's are thought to be illegal to make in the U.S. Since AB/InBev has a third of Redhook and they have lawyers it could become interesting.

Gleaners Food Bank is moving into the old Monarch Beverage warehouse near the Indy Airport.

PBS's Great American Brew Trail will be 23 half-hour programs visiting 26 Michigan breweries. They are now taping.  Airs this fall. press release

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From the Indy Star: Franklin -- San Diego-based TailGate Beer will establish a production, packaging and distribution facility in Franklin Business Park, creating up to 150 jobs over the next three years. Hiring will begin in 2011. TailGate will receive up to $1.85 million in performance-based tax credits and $100,000 in training grants from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. more from Inianapolis Business Journal

From the Tailgate web site: TailGate Beer is The Unofficial Beer of America’s Unofficial Pastime. It is owned and operated right here in beautiful San Diego, by a 24 year old graduate out of SDSU. Over 2 years old, TailGate Beer strives to become the lifestyle brand that people anywhere and everywhere can identify with. Pony up with a company that is innovative, fresh and categorically unique across the board! TailGate Beer currently has employment and internship opportunities available. Contact TGB for more details.

The now have their Blacktop Blonde, Hefeweizen, Amber Wave, Brown Ale, IPA, and a seasonal Sweet Stout contract brewed and distributed in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Oh, and this: TailGate Beer is more than just a variety of delicious craft brews from San Diego, California. It is more than just an incredibly clever marketing concept that fills a void in the life of tailgating fans everywhere. It’s the whole package! It’s about great fun with good people. TailGate Beer embodies beer drinkers’ deepest fantasies. A beer you can identify with and really drink. Tailgaters take their job seriously and TailGate Beer strives to brew the perfect craft style beers that can be enjoyed swig after swig. Don’t settle for a watered down version of what you really want. Pony up to the beer that is original, drinkable and categorically unique across the board.

Misc News – Jan 20

Fountain Square (Indy) news: Deano’s Vinos is now Naptown Juice Restaurant & Wine Bar.

Martin Brungard tells us about Sun King Amarillo the Warrior Princess from the tapping at Binkley's Kitchen & Bar:

As you might surmise from the odd name of this beer, it is hopped with Amarillo and Warrior hops.  It turns out that this is an Imperial IPA with a whopping 9% abv.  The surprising thing was that the alcohol was very muted and unnoticeable.  But, the hop aroma was incredible and pronounced without being grassy.

These hops give the beer a strong American hop character that was less citrusy and softer than the typical Cascade hopping result.  I really enjoyed the hop favor and aroma.  If you've sampled Boulevard Pale Ale from Kansas City, you'll recognize the Warrior character.

The bittering was reported to be 90 IBU.  But since the iso-alpha solubility limit in wort is about 80 ppm (IBU), this big beer ends up fairly balanced.  In many respects, this beer is similar to Bell's Two-Hearted Ale in that it is big, hoppy, but with relatively balanced bittering for an IPA.  Two-Hearted is much more a Cascade focused beer though.

The malt character of the Princess was appropriately nearly one-dimensional.  I find that highly hopped PA's and IPA's do better when their malt character is not too multi-dimensional since that competes and interferes with the hop perceptions.

The body was not too heavy even though it is a big beer.  Its big enough to please, but not big enough to indicate the wollop that this beer packs.  This beer is a real sleeper in that you won't recognize the danger you're in while you're drinking it.  Additionally, the flavor is going to invite you to have another.  That's where the danger lies and the flight into inebriation could await those who don't heed the very faint warnings of this outstanding beer.

You'll need to make a point to visit a bar with this on tap!

 

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Mr. Centlivre, proprietor of the French brewery, while he has a good business and is generally prosperous, feels that Fort Wayne people, especially all the business men, should be more liberal in their patronage, and especially more generous in their comments of a home industry which brings so much money to the town.

Mr. Centlivre pays, on an average, twelve hundred dollars per month to the government in the shape of taxes, and employs a large number of men, who must necessarily spend their money here. Mr. Centlivre makes a quality of beer equal to any of the brands imported from outside cities, and it would be a credit to the city for the people to call for it in preference to any other, in order to give encouragement to a worthy home enterprise. Mr. Centliver has been in business here for many years and has proven himself to be a good and very enterprising citizen.

We are not urging the consumption of beer, but so long as people will drink it they should use the article, which is made at home.

Fort Wayne Daily Gazette - August 10,1881.

Misc News – Oct 28

The Indiana Brewing History at the Brewer's of Indiana Guild site has been updated with details of over 350 commercial breweries that have been in operation in Indiana from 1817 until now.

Webmasters, if you link to any of these pages be aware the URLs have changed. If you link to the Indiana Beer History at IndianaBeer.com please change your links to the Brewers Guild site. Thanks. Bob.

Who is Tim O’Bryan and why would he lasso himself to a tree? There will be a quiz.

Alcatraz still has some 1.66666 Belgian on tap and it's better than ever. Rich malt. Balanced. Pure beer with a touch of dark fruit and a drying finish.

News from New Albanian (Grant Line Road): On Friday, October 30 an Anstich keg of Schneider Wiesen Edel-Weisse will be tapped in the early afternoon. It could be gone by 6pm so stop in right after work. An Edel Weisse is "an unfiltered wheat ale from Germany's celebrated Schneider Brewery. Traditionally brewed for the Oktoberfest Celebration in Munich before Märzen style lagers became the standard, Edel-Weisse is described as full bodied, with unfermented sugar, and with more hops for balance, as having a more noticeable hop character than typically found in German Hefeweizens. Next Friday, November 6, we'll have another Anstich (gravity) pour: Hochzeitsbier Märzen von 1810, from Brauerei Hofstetten in Austria."

Some new Jolly Pumpkin we'll see soon include Noel and Bam Noire Dark Farmhouse Ale. Also Thirsty Dog 12 Days of Christmas and Jewbelation Bar Mitzvah, their 13th anniversary beer (13 malt, 13 hops, 13%).

Indiana Beer History. Strange, Analytic, and sometimes Dastardly.

We recently came across three items you might be interested in.

1) There was a brewery as part of the Rappite colony in New Harmony in the 1820s. A really strange brewery.

"In their numerous industries, the ingenious Harmonists availed themselves of various sources of power. Most singular and spectacular - indeed, almost unique in that region in their day - were the steam engine that operated their cotton mill and, later, their threshing machine. . . From our modern point of view, more unusual than either of these sources of power was a large dog that walked a treadwheel on a platform twelve feet above the floor of the brewery, pumping water for the brew. Big as this dog was, he must have been spelled by another like him from time to time, for the Harmonist brewery produced five hundred gallons a day.- "The Angel and the Serpent" by William E. Wilson - IU Press, 1984.

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2) From the Monthly Bulletin of the Indiana State Board of Health, April 1906. comes a serious look at:

THE SUMMER DRINK PROBLEM. H. E. BARNARD, CHEMIST. While certain classes of beverages, notably those containing greater or less quantities of alcohoI, are consumed throughout the year, during the hot summer months the people demand a light, refreshing, attractive beverage that is not consumed at other seasons. In the summer months, too, the consumption of malt liquors is largely increased. In order to determine the purity of these summer drinks we have collected and analyzed many samples of the products sold on the Indianapolis market. BEER The production of malt liquors in this country as an industry is second only in importance to the production of breadstuffs. Their consumption is steadily on the increase, as is also the amount consumed in proportion to other kinds of alcoholic beverages. At the present time beer is prepared largely from malted grain, usually barley, although other substances, such as coin, rice, and glucose, frequently enter into its composition. Properly defined, beer is a beverage produced by alcoholic fermentation from a hopped infusion, either of malted cereals, preferably malted barley exclusively, or with the addition of unmalted or prepared cereals. Besides the malt and sugars which enter into the composition of beer. and which, in the form of infusions, are converted by yeast into alcohol, hops are also employed to give a palatable bitter to the product. Besides the malt or some fermentable sugar and the hops no other constituent should be present. The chemical composition of the finished product is, however, very complex, the principal constituents being alcohol, various sugars and carbohydrates, nitrogenous matter, carbonic, acetic, succinic, lactic, malic and tannic acids, bitter and resinous extractive matter from the hops, glycerine and various mineral constituents, consisting mainly of phosphates of the alkalies and alkali earths. The analyses made at this laboratory comprise 27 samples, this number being about all of the different brands and varieties of beer obtainable in Indianapolis. The analyses were made principally for the purpose of determining the extent and nature of their adulteration or the use of antiseptic and preservative agents. As a basis for determining adulteration, however, it is necessary to know the chemical composition of the sample, and for that reason a complete analyses of all the beers has been made. Results of the analyses show very little adulteration either in imported or domestic beers. Several of the samples examined, namely, Nos. 4349, 4355. 4357. 4358 and 4359, contain sulphurous acid or sulphites: none contained benzoic or salicylic acids, and but one sample, which was a "Weiss beer, contained saccharin, An examination of the tabulated results shows that none of the beers departed widely in composition from the normal product. The imported beers have a high alcohol and extract content, and were brewed from a much heavier wort than were the domestic beers. From a chemical standpoint the domestic beers were very uniform in composition, there being no great difference in either the alcohol or extract content.

The plum to the real beer geeks is the table that attached to the report. It shows Specific Gravity, ABV, dextrins, acids, ash, and other interesting lab results for 27 beers including 12 from Indiana and 4 from Europe. Best printed for easiest reading. The original at the Indiana Memory Collection includes similar data for ginger ales, carbonated soft drinks, and orange ciders.

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3) This is from an editorial written by James Frank Hanly, Governor of Indiana from 1905 - 1909, which appeared in the National Enquirer (Indianapolis). Not only does he blame the brewers for running the government, he thinks they should all be shot, at least figuratively.

"When the writer of this editorial was a candidate for the nomination for Governor of the State of Indiana it was not the distilling interests of the State, but the brewers, that sought to wring from him a promise that in consideration for his nomination he should, if elected, permit no temperance legislation during his term. It was the brewing interests of Indiana, not the distillers, that sought on the eve of election, after his nomination in spite of their opposition, to extort a like promise as the price of his election. "It was the president of the Indiana Brewers' Association, and not a representative of the distillery interests of the State, that walked into the Governor's office in Indianapolis, and with the arrogance of a Hun announced that he had come to say to the Governor that a township and ward remonstrance law which the governor had recommended to the General Assembly for enactment could not be passed by the legislature. "In all the history of the political and civil life of the American people there has been no combination or organization of power so brutal, so domineering, so corrupt, or so dead to every sense of civic interest or concern as the brewers of America. They have been and are the chief criminals, and no camouflage to which they may resort will save them. The people will see beneath the false pretense the bare, naked facts. The legislatures of the States will be organized into firing squads, and the beer trade will be compelled to meet its fate."

Indiana Beer Patents

Alexander Jameson of  Indianapolis invented, in 1883, a beer bung with an expandable bag. patent. Ths "rubber bag" would prevent outside are from contacting the beer. We haven't a clue how this could be made well with the materials then available. Bottled CO2 just wasn't available back then.

"The combination, with a bung, a tube passing through said bung, and an air-tight bag attached to said tube, of a cylindrical metallic case formed of two or more separable sections hinged to said bung, and adapted to inclose said bag and to be separated by the expansion thereof, substantially as and for the purpose set forth".

Did you know a guy in Terre Haute invented the jockey box? Well, it's a bit larger than an ice-filled cooler but it also cools the barrel. Henry Hahn patented it in 1894.

"D is the beer worm inside the ice box. The lower end of the worm D is provided with a branch d projecting through the side of the ice box, and E is the beer faucet provided with a shank e which passes through the side of the case A and is coupled to the branch d by the union e'."

"If desired, the case A can be made of large size and adapted to hold several barrels of 70 beer, each provided with its own faucet and cooling worm."

"When the air pump is worked, air is So drawn through the ice in the ice box, and is forced through the air worm inside the ice box, and thence into the top part of the beer barrel. The air becomes very cold in its passage through the ice and through the air 85 worm, and cools the beer in the barrel by direct contact with it."

Back in 1906 Gary Braybrook of Ft. Wayne invented a better beer tap. He was a principal in the Auto Omnibus Company. Nothing like a tap with a Motometer on it. From the patent application:

"It is well known that both draft and bottle beer is exceedingly sensitive to extremes of temperature, and. when it is too warm it is unpalatable and unhealthful, and that when it is "chilled" it loses its brightness, brilliancy and effervescence, and injures its flavor, which is best maintained by a temperature of from 42° to 45° Fahrenheit.

"The principal novel feature of my invention resides in the construction and cooperative arrangement of a mercury thermometer with the controlling valve or a draft beer faucet, whereby both the dealer and the purchaser can readily at all times ascertain at a glance the exact temperature of the beverage."