Indiana Beer News – April 3

Eric Strader visited Sauk Trail on 17 in Elkhart and found Schlafly, Victory, Bells, Flying Dog and Flat 12 Upside Down Blonde. blog And says Chubby Trout has Flat 12 Pogues Run Porter on tap.

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Ram’s Small Ale homebrew Pro-Am competition was judged last Friday by 9 BJCP judges under the direction of Sandy Cockerham and the winners were announced on Saturday to a good sized crowd that seemed to include most of the 42 entrants.

3rd Place: Chuck Whybrew (seriously) of Zionsville with an Irish Red Ale. Chuck has been homebrewing for about a year and this is his first competition.

2nd Place: Jon & Greg & Jim Fischer with an American Pale Ale using Apollo hops and hop-tea dry-hopped with Simcoe. They are from Columbus and Greg is a member of CACA. He’s been homebrewing for a better part of 20 years and has previously only entered beer in the Power House Pro-Am.

1st Place: William Tilt of Lafayette with Better Bettor Bitter, and Ordinary Bitter using Maris Otter, Fuggles and Goldings. This is his 7th batch of homebrew and his first competition entry. The guys at his weekly poker game enjoy it also. He is interested in starting a commercial brewery or brewpub in Lafayette.

William and Andrew haven’t decided on a brew date yet and since an Ordinary Bitter should be fresh for the Pro-Am contest it may be late summer before we get to taste it at the Ram before it heads off to Denver.

Sandy Cockerham revealed the winners.

From right, Andrew Castner, head brewer at Ram. Chuck Whybrew, Greg Jon Fischer, and William Tilt.

Winner William Tilt’s family joined him on the trip down from Lafayette, or was that Chicago?

All the entrants who came to the Ram for the awards ceremony were awarded large tastings of 5 from Andrew’s back room:

• Glacier Peak Pale Ale – American Pale with Glacier and Ca scade? hops. No head. Lemony.
• Anaheim IPA – an American IPA aged with Anaheim peppers to give a distinct pepper taste with very minimal heat (less than 5 SHU). The IPAness comes through a bit which is what Andrew was aiming at.
• Java Disorder – Brown Porter aged with plenty of Bjava coffee beans roasted by Sandy.
• Batch 999 – Imperial IPA that has aged well since it was on tap. Very smooth.
• A Barrel-aged Strong Ale by Dave Colt that is at the peak of perfection. Not only subtly whiskeyey but has all the other qualities of the barrel. A real sipping beer.
• Ole St. Mick’s Fighting Irish Red was also on tap. A big red reminiscent of Ard Ri or the like.

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