Misc News – Oct 4

Lafayette Brewing's website has a nifty map of where you can buy Tippecanoe Common and other bottled beers.

Students hop to it at Towle Theater Beer School in Hammond.

Muncie liquor stores still not selling beer by the keg.

IUPUI now has 2 beer classes. In addition to Omar Castrellón's Beer and Spirits Management class, Ron Smith has 5 students in this inaugural semester of Beer Styles Appreciation and Evaluation class. Both are in the catalog for the spring semester starting in January.

There's no 2009 Thomas Hardy's but we'll be seeing the 2008 40th Anniversary edition in stores.

Great Divide has Fresh Hop beer coming to stores in bottles.

Boulevard's Tank 7 will replace the Saison in the Smokestack series. article

Hoosier Beer Geek's 2009 GABF Road Trip Wrap-Up Post with lots of pictures.

Tasting three Asian brands from Cavalier.

• Saigon Export – One of the standards of SE Asia that most Viet Nam vets left behind. No head and little hops but clean and not soapy. No aftertaste at all. 4.9%
• Chang – Thailand's leader. High carbonation; actually fizzy on the tongue. No head. Bigger than Saigon. A touch soapy. Actually has a dry finish. Our favorite of these three. 5%
• Kingway Premium Lager – China's fanciest label. Greenest. Again, no head. Small-bubble carbonation. Malt taste lasts a bit as it declines. 4.7%

Fort Wayne Brewery Closing

It was announced today that local brewing company, Warbird Brewing Company, is ceasing operations. Here is a link to the announcement:
http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local_wane_fw_warbird_closing_200910021745



Here is the a press release:

Fort Wayne, IN, October 2, 2009: Warbird Brewing Company has announced that it will cease operations as of October 1, 2009. Company founder, owner, president and brewer Dave Holmes made the announcement regretfully. “This has been a great 5 years for us. The Warbird brand reached out to those who loved airplanes, those who have served in our military and their family and friends. As a company, our mission has been to serve others by providing the best beer in the most attractive packaging under the most respectful and patriotic brand name in the beer business. We made beer we were proud of, and we have served many people in the community in many ways. It has been a privilege for me to lead this effort. Unfortunately, we simply did not sell enough beer profitably to meet our financial obligations. We have no choice but to face the reality that we did our best but we did not achieve financial success. The beer business is a very tough business. I learned a lot. I’m sorry to say it. It is game over for Warbird,” said Holmes. Holmes plans to work with the company’s customers and creditors to achieve the best possible outcome. He states, “Obviously, we are in discussions with our creditors and our advisors to address the realities of the situation. I am personally contacting people to explain the circumstance and discuss what we can do to work things out.” Warbird produced several regional and internationally recognized award winning beers, including the “Shanty Irish” which won the Gold Medal at the Indiana Brewer’s Festival in 2008 and recently was awarded the Silver Medal at the Australian International Beer Awards 2009. “Unfortunately,” said Holmes, “awards don’t matter unless they help you sell more beer, and ours did not.” Warbird Brewing Company sold beer in 6 states: Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Georgia, and Texas. The company started operations in October 2004 but never achieved profitability.

Dave emails:

Tell everyone we did our best but making it with a pure production brewery in Fort Wayne is tough.  We now join a long line of distinguished breweries in Fort Wayne that have failed (financially).

Fortunately, we succeeded in many of our other efforts to serve others and to be good examples to our children, which is really what this is all about anyhow.

Take care.
Cheers,
Dave

Misc News – Oct 1

Congratulations to Dave Helt of Milwaukee for his Best of Show at the Crown Challenge with a Brown Porter. He was also reserve BOS at the Wisconsin State Fair this year.

Congratulations to Eileen Martin (Upland) for getting an American Distiller's Institute internship at Huber's Starlight Distillery. more details

Rocky's Italian Grill now has 32 taps inside and 16 taps on the veranda. 5 mundane, 4 imports, 1 cider, 11 USA craft regulars, and 11 more rotating. Plus nice views of the Ohio, even on a dull cloudy day.

  

World Class has a couple of dozen captioned snaps of their trip to GABF 2009.

The Knights of the Beer Roundtable goes through the Berghoff catalog. Wikipedia can be believed, but in the Berghoff/Huber case they only go back to 1960. Here's the real poop – it's an Indiana beer.

Magic Hat will serve beers from the Night of the Living Dead 12-pack (plus Lucky Kat) at the Oct 13th beer dinner at the Fireside Grill, Indy. $35 complete. Call for reservations – 317-823-1000.

Five Uses for the Hop.

New Belgium will bottle Ranger IPA in early 2010 as a regular offering. Simcoe, Cascade, Chinook hops to 60 IBU. 7% ABV.

Headline: "Major fake vodka plant raided". A still in Leicestershire, England making fake Glens brand vodka. They had 9,000 gallons of pure alcohol on hand – enough for 130,000 bottles. That is major.

Britain has changed the rules so tips can't be figured in to the minimum wage (£5.80 - $9.33 US).

Ernst & Young figures there were about 3,000 breweries in Europe in 2006 and 3733 in 2009 – a 25% increase. That's 2.5 million jobs.

Bank Street's Vats

Just some pictures of New Albanian's Bank Street Brewery.

That's a 2bbl hopback down front

 

In keeping with the Red Room theme, the vats are named, not numbered. Bakunin, Castro, Debs, Engels, Lenin, Mao, Marx, Owen, and of course, Trotsky.

Big Woods Brewing Co.

Tim O'Brian, Jeff McCabe, Ed Ryan (below) are three nice Irish boys in Brown County that are already brewing pilot batches at their upcoming brewpub. They're working at full speed shooting for an Oct 24th opening.

Big Woods is located in the alley ½ block north and ½ block west of the main intersection in Nashville, Indiana. Actually at 60 Molly Lane at the corner of Honeysuckle where The Jug bar previously sat.

Spring Smith (the pretty one) will be running the kitchen side of the business with the one mandate: "no fried foods". She isn't planning a set menu but each day's main entrees will change according to availability in local markets.

Tim is the main brewer even though they are all homebrewers. So far they have brewed some pilot batches on their 15-gal SABCO system including a Pale Ale, Stout (their favorite), and a Blonde. The Blonde will be essential to their tourist business and Tim's has some wheat for a nice citric freshness.

Reverse osmosis systems are needed for the limestone-rich water. Two of them will yield enough "clean" water for the kitchen and customers as well as the brewery.

The current building shown here will be completely changed with the front pushed out to double the seating area to about 40 people. In fact, they are erecting in a timber frame roof today.

Porch seating, good food, good beer. A place to wait for the spouse to finish shopping on a nice fall day. Could be they are onto something. After all, their motto is "We're not going to stop until Budweiser is out of business".

Sandkerwa on the Ohio

Sandkerwa, as any Franconian knows, is a 5-day festival in Bamberg in August. here's the web site. So why honor it in New Albany, Indiana, of all places. Because any excuse to serve strange beers gets Roger Baylor's attention and he is in the position to do something about it. As chief guru at the New Albanian Public House (Rich O's) he evidently has time to search out rarities and bring them to the Falls of the Ohio.

I got there about 6pm last Thursday and got one last sip from the first Anstich 20-litre kegs. It was a Mahr's Brau Ungespundet Lager from Bamberg's suburbs. An Anstich keg is very much like a cask of Real Ale except it isn't cask conditioned (with yeast added for a secondary fermentation). Think of it more like a growler. A 42 pint growler.

Anstich Keg at NAPH

Serving keg at the braeustuebers

These are good, milky, thick, presentations of beer we haven't ever seen in these parts. Roger Baylor leads expeditions to Bamberg (as well as Belgium, etc.) and had not tasted these beers.

Unfortunately each keg lasts about 3 hours amongst the cruel, thirsty NAPHians. Friday's Fischer Rauchbier and Zum Grunen Baum Landbier suffered the same fate. A poor empty shell of the Fischer keg was all that was left by 5pm on Fri and the Grunen Baum didn't fare any better.

Fortunately these kegs were just the cinnamon on the apple sauce as a normal Sandkerwa lineup lay behind the wall of taps. Kulmbacher was the order of the day with Kapuziner Weisse, Reichelbrau Eisbock, Monchshof Festbier, Kellerbrau, and Schwarzbier. Oh and the must-have Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen along with Göller Pils. (I think my spell checker just locked up).

It's not over, in fact it's just a third over. Here's the next two weekends' lineups. The Anstich kegs have tapping times. Get there early, thirsty, and grab a seat. And remember it's a marathon, not a sprint.

Thurs, Oct 1 - Kraus Pils
Fri, Oct 2 - Löwenbräu (Buttenheim) Ungespundetes Lagerbier (Kellerbier)
Fri, Oct 2 - Spezial Rauchbier
Sat, Oct 3 - Schederndorfer Landbier
Thurs, Oct 8 - Fischer Lager
Fri, Oct 9 – Weissenohe Altfränkisches Klosterbier
Fri, Oct 9 - Rossdorfer Urbrau (unfiltered lager)
Sat, Oct 10 – Zehendner Mönchsambacher Unfiltered Lager

Plus Göller Pils, Kulmbacher Reichelbrau Eisbock, Kulmbacher Kapuziner Weisse, and Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen are still on tap. Still to come to the taps are Kulmbacher Monchshof Festbier, Mahr's Brau Ungespundet Lager (CO2 version), Spezial Rauchbier, and Weissenohe Monk's Fest.

Oh, and what does Ungespundet mean? There's about 100 words in the program. Yes, a program. And you'll have to head to the Public House in the next two weekends to find out (if you don't have, say, Google).

Misc News – Sept 29

2009 GABF winners from Indiana are

• Barley Island Dirty Helen Brown – Gold – American Brown Ale
• Brugge Diamond Kings of Heaven – Bronze – American Sour Ale
• Brugge Bad Kitty Gose – Bronze – German Sour Ale

Almost 10% of the GABF entries (307) were in the Sour or Barrel Aged categories.

Medal winners available bottled in Indiana:

Avery Kaiser, Brabant
Barley Island Dirty Helen
Bell's Lager
Boulevard ZON
Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse
Clipper City Marzhon
Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu, Palo Santo Marron, Midas Touch
Flying Dog Horn Dog 2007, Dogtoberfest, Gonzo, Barrel Aged Gonzo
Great Divide Hoss, Yeti, Old Ruffian
Harpoon UFO
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere
Left Hand Smokejumper
Rogue Imperial Chocolate Stout, Mocha Porter
Southampton Publick House Berliner Weisse

The Old Town Ale House in Fishers is closing this coming Sunday. Sigh. In its short existence the Morses made it one of the top 5 beer bars in the state. $2 bottle specials (on everything) until then.

The Old Town Ale House in Fishers is closing this coming Sunday. Sigh. In its short existence the Morses made it one of the top 5 beer bars in the state. $2 bottle specials (on everything) until then.

Keg Liquors in Clarksville is bringing down the Southern Tier Imperial Series in bombers from North Coast Distributors up north. At prices of $8 and $10. Thanks Todd.

There are liquor store tastings, then there are liquor store stastings. Keg Liquors lined up 30 Oktoberfest and Pumpkin beers for about 80 people through the evening.

New Albanian's Public House is doing the Monday Night Football thing. Pitchers $10. Pitchers of Pilner Urquell that is.

Their Strathpeffer heather honey beer (without hops) is surprisingly balanced. Sweet malt vs. grassy fresh heather and a hint of peat. Lovely.

At New Albanian's Bank Street Brewery we can highly recommend the Croque Madame. Hame and Ementaller on toasted sourdough with a perfectly fried egg, fries, and a proper cream sauce. Add a cigarette for a Pushkin Breakfast.

The preliminary NABC All-American lineup for Lupulin Land hop festival is up. Starts Oct 16th.

Kennywood Brewing Supply in Crown Point gets good ink in the NWI Times.

Oktoberfest at Rocky's Italian Grill and neighboring Buckhead Mountain Grill - Jeffersonville. Oct 3. $5. Music, beers, etc.

The President of the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers writes a letter to the Indy Star. They print it with the headline "Don't believe retailers".

Making a batch of cider this fall? Great Fermentations has a special blend arriving Oct 10th at $6/gallon. You must pre-order.

BrewDog of Scotland was yelled at by the government for its 18.2% ABV Tokyo Stout. So what to do? Make a 1.1% ABV hop bomb and name it Nanny State. article

Turn your cans into bottles for just $10/12. Why?

Two words: Widmer Brothers Cherry Oak Dopelbock. Limited release in bombers in October.

Molson retirees in Newfoundland and Labrador are getting a cutback in their pension. Instead of 2 cases of beer each month they'll only get 12 cans. article

For the G20 conference in Pittsburgh, the Church Brew Works made a English Brown Ale with ingredients from all 14 participating countries. Indonesian Jackfruit, Russian Buckwheat, Turkish cherry pits. article

Mad Anthony Octobeerfest Festival Recap

It was a beautiful sunny day for this year's festival in which attendance was bigger than last year which was great to witness.  There was food, music, the annual scene of marshmellows being tossed, and beers being poured by Mad Anthony, Rock Bottom, Lafayette Brewing, Broad Ripple, Upland, Barley Island, Shoreline, Belmont/World Class Beverage, and 32 different beers and 6 different meads poured by Homebrewers Brian Spaulding and Kyle Alberda of MASH (Mad Anthony's Serious Homebrewers).  The MASH table had consistently long lines throughout the festival of attendees, including yours truly, waiting to sample the many homebrews that were made available and it was definitely worth standing in line for.

Weekend events, Editorial, Etc.

Lots of things going on this weekend.

Thursday:

• Sandwerka starts at RichO's, New Albany. Celebration of all beers Bamburg. Here's the menu. I'll be there Thurs and Fri for the Mahr's Brau Farmers Lager and Fischer Rauchbier from gravity kegs.
• Beer Tasting. Big Red Liquors, Bloomington. 6-8pm
• Beer Tasting. Belmont Beverage Lima Rd. Ft. Wayne. 4-7pm. Oktoberfest and Pumpkin beers.
• Indy Whisky & Fine Spirits Expo. hundreds of Scotch, bourbon, and other whiskies. For Pink Ribbon. Vine & Table. At Montage. 6:30pm-9pm. $50/$75VIP. Reservation needed.

Friday:

• Beer Tasting. Liquor Locker, Evansville. 4-7pm
• Beer Tasting. Parti Pak, Greenwood. 5-7pm
• Beer Tasting. Crown Liquors, Carmel. 5-7pm.
• Beer Sampling. Norma's Fine Wines. Indy. 6-8pm

Saturday:

• Cystic Fibrosis 10th Annual Festiv-Ale 3-7pm. Opti-Park, 820 E 66th St. $40/$50
• Crown Challenge homebrew competition. Crown Brewing, Crown Point. Plus Octoberfest with bands, beer, brats, etc.
• Between Heaven and Earth Dinner w/Mad Anthony paired beer. North Manchester. $75.
• Ales for Tails. Bridge Liquors, New Albany. 4-7pm. $5
• Hop & Harvest Festival. Bluegrass Brewing (Brewpub), Louisville. Admission: 3 canned goods.
• Beer Tasting. Kahn's, Indy. Dark Horse, Taj, Dogfish Head

Sunday:

• We're not supposed to drink beer on a sacred day – which leads us to this Editorial:

Sunday Sales Watch: It's dead. Rep. Trent Van Haaften, the head of the committee and the guy who will make the decision, said “I do not see a compelling argument made to change the law.” article  More alarmingly, Sen. Robert Deig, vice chairman of the study group says "“I don’t see it going into effect this year. When you open up Sunday sales, you have more teen deaths and accidents. I think Sundays are a sacred day. Sundays are a day where people go to church and are there with their families. Most people take a break from alcohol and get back to the family atmosphere.” DID YOU READ THAT? One of the top guys on the Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverages Issues thinks Blue Laws are a good and natural thing. That people consciously choose to not have a beer while watching the game. That ticks me off more than the Indiana Retail Council calling itself a grassroots effort. It's just that Deig is so pre-JFK on this point. The early 1960s Blue Laws in South Bend where I grew up allowed restaurants, drug stores, and gas stations to be open but nothing else. When the first shopping mall was built in adjoining Mishawaka that all changed. The Town & Country Mall was instantly swamped with shoppers and became the "in" place for the high-school set (that's why I remember). The two SB department stores, Robertson's (Catholic) and Wyman's (Jewish) now had to be open on Sunday. Lesson – In a rational society Blue Laws disappear when they are interfere with profits. Yes, Deig comes from Posey County where the folks are more holy but Deig isn't anti-alcohol, just pro-Sunday. Even the Rappite Harmony Colony in his district had a brewery and 2 distilleries. "F. Rapp will always have on hand and for sale the first quality of STRONG BEER by the barrel, at Harmonie, Indiana." – Ad in the Western Sun Vincennes newspaper, April 30, 1819.   Even though the 2 top guys in the committee are against Sunday Sales, the Brewpubs may still get parity with wineries to sell bottles (and growlers) of beer to go at the brewery or brewpub. If so, Mark Webb will have faced down an uphill battle and succeeded. Best of luck to him.

There's a letter in today's Indy Star from Grant M. Monahan, President of the Indiana Retail Council. He says 35,000 people signed their petition. Back in July 2 they say they had 25,000 signatures (reference). On Aug 17 it was 30,000. Not big numbers but consistent.

HBGs Ron and Jess go on a road trip heading for GABF. First Stop, Boulevard Brewing. Second repot, Avery. "Present upon each table was a list of 30-40 aged, barrel-aged, or otherwise super-rare beers that they will be tapping throughout the week."

Hoppin' Frog will have their fresh-hop "Imperial Pale Ale" in bombers in October. 7.5%. 45IBU of Centennial hops.

Ten Tips for Cooking with Beer.
How to Pair Food and Beer.
Best selling beers around the world.

Ethanol producers are running into problems with bacteria during the production. Using antibiotics leaves residue in cattle feed. What do do? Hops to the rescue. article

Misc News – Sept 21

• Crown Brewing American Red – I had the second glass and the absolute freshness is evident. Dark ruby. To BCJP's American Amber style but is much hoppier.
• Crown Town Brown – Maris Otter and Fuggles make it a Southern Brown. The 4% ABV makes it a session ale. Don't worry, there's plenty of bitter balance.
• Three Floyds Barrel-aged Behemoth Blonde with cherries. It's Behemoth, it's barrel aged, it certainly has lots of dark cherries. It shows in the cordovan color. It shows in the overpowering tart cherries. It's 10.5%. It has 80 IBUs.  It's not normal. There must be a way to get this much cherry in a beer and wouldn't you know they'd find it.
• Three Floyds B-aBBw/C & Drunk Monk Hefe – Still strong cherry with much less funk in the aroma. All hefe in the mouth.
• Three Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf IPA – Nope, IIPA. "Will leave your palate it's hapless victim. Scorched earth is our brewery policy. 100 IBU, 9% ABV". I actually covered my mouth in astonishment after the first plunge. The orange/grapefruit bitterness entering my nose should have warned me. Caramel malt is present but basically just sits on the side watching the show.
• Pizza Port Chocolate Stout – Oh Yike. This has nothing to do with beer. It's a chocolate cordial in liquid form. The Lewis Black of chocolate beers. Unsweet bakers chocolate with alcohol and bitter citric finish. Forced rather than balanced.
• Brigand Belgian Ale – Strong Belgian from Van Honsebrouck. Hazy copper orange. Yeast taste that cuts through the 9% alcohol content sets it apart.

Crown's Oktoberfest will be unveiled at their Oktoberfest party this Saturday. Their replicales (both Indiana's Alt and Chicago's Wit) are on their last cask. They might be around Saturday if you arrive early.

The Three Floyds brewpub on a normal Saturday night has become an "in" stop for the beautiful people. OK, maybe not celebrity types but waiting 30 minutes or more at the door doesn't bother anyone. Not something the non-Chicago crowd at the Heorot or RichO's would tolerate. 
The Indy Star says Put Sunday liquor issue on ice. "As with the celebrated Beer Baron battles of two decades ago, this alcohol-induced brawl involves high stakes for special interests and little value for the consumer-taxpayer each side claims to have at heart." . . . "Here is an instance in which it will do no harm to do nothing."
Sam Adams, not satisfied by the Imperial series, is planning a Barrel Room Collection in 750s starting with an "American Kriek". article
Bells Oarsman Ale will be going into bottles this time around. As opposed to the Oarsman lager, it's a sour mashed wheat at 4% ABV.

Brickworks: Open Now. Figure 8: In progress.

Tom Coster's Brickworks Brewing had a very soft opening a couple of weeks ago and they are doing good business already with lots of support from the community. It's right downtown Hobart on the homecoming parade route.

The Premium vessels are all proudly displayed behind glass at the front door and at the 22-seat bar. 7,000 sq. ft. means it is as uncramped a restaurant as you could possibly want.

Food is sandwiches, fish, and pizzas at $7 to $9.

• Porter – Almost translucent brown.
• IPA – Very agreeable at 40 IBU and 6% ABV. Chinook and Cascade are the standard of the industry and this will stand up straight against any other.
• Dunkelweizen – Deep brown with small white head. Wheat comes through nicely. Thinish body makes it seem weak but is put to the lie by a bold sweetness. Could use a dryer finish but most of that went away when Tom filtered it. It's a learning process.

A "327 Amber" will finish out the regular lineup.

 

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What better way to have a "family day" than spending a Sunday with saws and hammers? In Valparaiso, Lynne and Tom Uban (below) have been working since July on Figure 8 Brewing. They are finishing the construction of walls, walk-in, etc. and will be plumbing their system soon. Kegs and even bottles may be out by the end of the year. Follow their progress by scrolling up through the news.

 

Location? It's in a new light industrial strip on the east edge of town on SR 130.

Back Road Fall Fest '09

Chuck always puts on a fun fest and with the Ein Prosit Band and the Alphorngruppe back again, this year was no exception. This group is just spectacular. Bells, Accordions, Pink Sousaphones, and 7 alphorns. Fun is the core, toasts, line dances, tuba solos, and of course the chicken dance. They're based in Kalamazoo but come from all over the midwest to this, one of their favorite venues.

You can catch Ein Prosit at Michigan City's Oktoberfest, Oct 10, and Disneyland's Oktoberfest, Oct 23/24.

Beer came from Back Road, Crown, Mishawaka, Shoreline, and the original stylings of Three Floyds sign makers.

• Back Road Scottish Ale – Nice 70/-. To style. Cool fermentation. Slight peat. 6.3%.
• Back Road Scottish Ale from a wood firkin. Less carbonation and therefore smoother.
• Crown Brewing Oktoberfest – Orange/copper. An American O'fest that seems a clone of this year's widely-hailed Sam Adams O'fest.
• Mishawaka Brewing Wall Street Wheat – Diacetyl.
• Shoreline Big Bella Heavy Scotch Ale – Very dark ruby brown. Massively thick and chewy. Huge malty start and quick bitterness to match. Imperial Scotch.
• Three Floyds Drunk Monk "Bavarian Style Hefe" – Hefemax. Banana is rife and ripe. Color and clarity of orange juice with pulp.

So here's the pictures of the band.

 

Misc News – Sept 19

Thursday's tapping at Rock Bottom (downtown) and the Mug Club tapping at Ram were both lightly attended.

• Rock Bottom, Downtown Indy Rocktoberfest – CaraPils, Chocolate malt, and Mt. Hood hops give a very dark copy malty lager that is a bit sharper than most. Not a dry finish. This beer should marry together in the next couple of weeks.
• Ram Oktoberfest. Hallertau hops with some aromatic malt and white wheat make a brilliant copper beer. Strongish. Would be served proudly in Munich. 6%
• Alcatraz American Stout – Reformulated for a bold start, light body, and Sheaf dryness.

Climate change depresses beer drinkers – Actually they're talking about how climate change has already has hurt the alpha acid concentration in Saaz hops. Save our planet, save the cheerleader.

We believe it was Lou Holtz who said you should have 6 friends so your wife doesn't have to hire pallbearers.

Misc News – Sept 17

New to this weekend's calendar - Saturday, Sept 19 - East Coast, West Coast, No Coast tasting w/ Greg Koch. Flanagan's Ale House, Louisville. 5-9pm $5

Or you can go to Mad Anthony's Octobeerfest. Fort Wayne. 2-6pm $25.

Or maybe Back Road's Fall Fest. La Porte. 1-5pm $20.

Both will have a band, 6 – 12 breweries pouring samples, food, shade, good times, 71°and sunny.

Greg (Mr. Stone) Koch moves to Cincinnati on Sunday to do the keynote speech for the Midwest Craft Beer Summit at the Catskeller. 5pm+. $10.

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Chris Johnson's People's Brewing Company in Lafayette plans to brew their first batch on December 15th.

New Albanian and The Livery brew a collaborative Belgian IPA. article

Cavalier has picked up the recently-missing Fischer and Affligem beers.

IndianaBeer was planning to cover Tuesday's public comments about the Sunday Sales issue but were turned away at the door to the statehouse. Somebody decided our reporter's attitude needed jerking around by asking him to lift his shirt up to his shoulders. You just don't need to know what happened that bad. Sorry. But you can follow the events, sparce as they are at Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverages Issues web page.

52 small craft brewers now serve beer in a can. Well, that includes Warbird (which doesn't anymore) but the article had some nuanced points worth thinking about.

Fort Wayne Events

I recently attended a beer tasting at the Dupont Road Cap n' Cork and it was very satisfying for me to actually see lines formed at the beer tables and hearing people ask the reps. from World Class Beverages, Five Star Distributing and Cavalier various questions about the beer(s) they asked to sample.  There were beers being poured from such breweries as Southern Tier, Sam Adams, Rogue, Erdinger, Stone, Shipyard, Bell's, and Hofbrau to name a few. This was an Octoberfest tasting, but there were various other styles of beer available for people to sample and sample they did!

This Friday, September, 18th, the Canterbury Cap n' Cork location will be hosting an Octoberfest beer tasting. (see Calendar on http://www.indianabeer.com/)

The weather forecast of sunny and 75 degrees is perfect for this Satuday's Mad Anthony Octobeerfest (see Calendar on http://www.indianabeer.com/ or go to http://www.madbrew.com/ for more details) so if you have not already purchased your ticket please do so and support Indiana beer.  It is a fun event with a lot of beer to be sampled, food and music.

Misc News – Sept 16

• Alcatraz India Brown Lager – Smooth porter. Drink it, you'll like it.
• Ram Golden Dome Irish Stout – An unexpected bur pleasing brightness overrules the roasty background notes. Seems like the session beer Guinness claims to be.

Skip Duvall (left at right) is the new assistant brewer at Alcatraz. He's from a homebrewer and hop head from Griffith taking the Siebel course online.

During the football season, Ram is enticing patrons to watch on their Color TVs with $3 24oz mug of their base line of beers.

New Holland and Southern Tier are brought into Indiana by North Coast distributors in Valpo. These beers can be found only in the northern reaches of the state. Up until now that is. Joe Quinn of Kahn's in Indy is going to get both of these breweries' beers on an occasional basis. ST's Pumpkin, Big Red IPA, and Unearthly Imperial IPA, for instance, will be among the first to make the trip south.

Avalanche Amber in cans. It's in Indiana now.

Boulder Beer is 30. Yep, started in a goat shed in 1979. article

Flying Dog's 20th Anniversary beer won't be out until Oct or Nov. Raging Bitch Belgian-style IPA.

"In an ideal world, beer prices at the ballpark would be based solely on the quality of the team", Wall Street Journal

The Great British Beer Festival had 64,000 attendees over the 5 days; up from 59,500 last year. There were 55 Cask Conditioned beers from America. There was a separate prize for them won by Cambridge Brewing Co.'s YouEnjoyMyStout aged in bourbon barrels for two years. 2nd was Brooklyn's East Indian Pale Ale. 3rd went to Stone Levitation. article

LiL' Charlie's hits the glasses running.

Lil' Charlie's official opening wasn't until today but you wouldn't have known that at the Batesville Oktoberfest celebration in the parking lot Saturday. About 500 people enjoyed free food from CIA Chef Adam Israel's kitchen. Bavarian tablecloths. DJ, MC, etc. Event T-shirts and mugs. And a homebrew contest. If you remember, they bought the house next door (at right below), attached it to the main restaurant, created a fine homey stucco-walled bar and installed a brew kit. Compare with the old look at right.

Judges

Andy Greenlee and Travis Law (right) took the top three honors at the homebrew contest and got gift certificates for the Steakhouse as well as bragging rights. They both came over from Columbus after Powerhouse's Pro-Am homebrew contest earlier in the day.

Two pairs of young lovers from Oldenburg were in 4th place with a quite decent APA – the result of their very first brewing from their very first beer kit bought last month. Ryan Paul, Lindsay Baker, Molly Tunny, Kyle Tekulve (pardon if the order isn't right).

All the judges and all the entrants were interviewed for the crowd's approval

Beers on tap include

• Lil' Charlie's Batesville Blonde – Sometimes when you say "perfectly acceptable" it's a good thing. Like this well-carbonated dark copper lager. It will satisfy the BMC drinker at their Steakhouse already known locally for its good beer list. Specifics? You know them. Creamy blonde you've had a dozen times. Clean, quenching. Liberty and East Kent Goldings. 4.8% ABV. Good starter.
• Father Franz' Hefeweizen – The hefe-ness is variable so please think of it as a American Wheat. Liberty and Chinook hops. 5.0 ABV.
• Harry's Pale Ale – Very good American Pale Ale. After a long day of tasting, this was nice to come back to. Not heavy on the bitter but satisfying with a drying finish.

Bull Ram Bock and Fire House Red Wheat round out their beer stable with the addition of one seasonal on 6 of their 14 taps. The other 8 have offerings also suitable for the casual dinner crowd.