Indiana Beer News – May 17

Hope you’ve been out enjoying the various activities of American Craft Beer Week. Most of our coverage has and will be focused on these events, but it’s time now for a few random distractions……

The resealable Alumi-Tek bottles introduced for the Sun King/Oskar Blues Chaka collaboration will be used in future releases from Sun King’s barrel-aged and sour beer program. The next release will be a barrel-aged version of Johan the Barleywine. In other Sun King news, fans of the HDNet show Drinking Made Easy will be interested to hear that host Zane Lamprey visited the brewery and there are pictures to prove it.

Congratulations to first-time nominee Grand Rapids (my personal choice) for sharing the title of BeerCity USA 2012 with Asheville, NC. Coincidentally, the top two states from which votes were cast were Michigan and North Carolina. More curious…..votes were cast from 90 countries. Apparently this qualifies as a global phenomenon.

Next up in the Founders Backstage Series is Frangelic Mountain Brown, a 9% ABV brown ale that uses hazelnut coffee in the brewing process. Sounds like it will be distributed to the normal markets so start hassling your neighborhood beer manager now for a reservation.

We talk a lot here about the great beer made in Indiana, but apparently the Hoosier State knows how to serve it fast as well. The Indianapolis company GrinOn produces a beer dispenser that uses a magnet to fill cups from the bottom and can blow through 62 cups in a single minute. The dispenser has already found a home in nearly every major sports facility in the country including Conseco Banker’s Life Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium. Now excuse me while I work on my new magnet-driven solution for eliminating restroom lines. You really don’t want the details on this one.

Guinness is rolling out a new QR Cup where the code will be revealed when the glass is filled with Guinness (or apparently any dark liquid). This is very handy for the person who wants everyone to know they’re sitting around a bar trying to scan their beer with a smart phone. If this describes you, please don’t ever look me up on Facebook.

If you’re familiar with the work of comedian David Cross (or even if you aren’t), you’ll enjoy the first three minutes of this clip commenting on the various “innovations” of the Coors Light can. Sure, I can feel it’s cold….and I can taste it’s cold….but how do I really know? Fun fact – David bears a striking resemblance to guest reviewer Andrew Korty. I’ve never seen them both in the same place.

Cheers, Nathan