Beerocracy II - The Wrath of Kahns

Kahn's Fine Wines and Spirits brought it back.. with vengeance!  Beerocracy II is a beer lover's dream. For two hours, there are FREE tastings of 40+ beers with the chance that Kyle (@Beer_at_Kahns) may open up a rare bottle for a taster's delight!  And a bonus! - if you are a K Klub member, you can participate in a raffle to purchase those limited edition beers that for regular consumers, you either have to be great friends with your liquor store or be willing to camp out for the chance to buy a bottle. What kind of rare beers -- How about Founders KBS, or Upland Gilgamesh or even 3 Floyds/Mikkeller collab - BooGoop for example. 

Back to the event... 

Beerocracy II delivered the goods big time with seven tables - 5 brewery specific tables and two from local distributors.   To give you readers the full scale of deliciousness available at Beerocracy events, I'm going to list everything that was available because I really feel that this event helps benefit those curious about craft beer. It also helps if you want to try a lot of beers not available at beer festivals without having to buy random bottles. (which is fun, I've done random beer tastings before many times) 

Without further ado.. to the List!

(Sidenote - number on the left is the order I tasted the beer in, comments will be underneath) 

Table 1: New Holland Hatter Day Celebration

- New Holland Mad Hatter IPA

3 New Holland White Mad Hatter

1 New Holland Rye Mad Hatter

Not overly rye flavored, smooth but complex

2 New Holland Farmhouse Hatter

6 New Holland Black Mad Hatter

delicious roasted flavor at the end 

4 New Holland Oak Aged Mad Hatter

5 New Holland Imperial Hatter

Table 2: Samuel Adams

- Sam Adams Summer Ale

20 - Sam Adams Norse Legend - Sahti  (Single Batch Series) 

not on the original line up - but was a special opened ale by rep

24 - Sam Adams Angry Orchard Traditional Dry Cider

25 - Sam Adams Angry Orchard Crisp Apple Cider

if you like a puckery sweet cider, this one is for you. 

26 -Sam Adams Angry Orchard Apple Ginger Cider

Table 3: Ciders

28 - Crispin Brut

30 - Crispin Browns Lane 

(was not a fan of this one, was a little bland)

29 - Crispin Honey Crisp

31 - Crispin the Saint (above) 

started out sweet and aftertaste of light maple syrup

Around the time I got to the Cider table ( since I didn't go in order, Kyle decided to share this goodie with the rest of the class

**  27 -The Bruery - Fruet  **

the Fruet is a 100% bourbon barrel aged old ale.

Smooth oak and vanilla goodness

Table 4: Cavalier & Kristalweizen Machtprobe! (showdown) 

I believe @CavalierBeerIN  was the pouring host 

17 - Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbeir

16 - Sixpoint Apollo 

I could see this as sitting on the deck, drinking many cans of this beer.  It was crisp and sweet. 

20 - Sixpoint the Crisp (Pilsner) 

15 - Sixpoint Sweet Action

22 - Breckenridge Summerbright

23 - Two Brothers Dog Days

18 - Founders Cerise

My love of Cerise is huge!  and I'm happy that the 2012 version is back to the original red pigment ale. 

19 - Williams Sir Perry

This table surprised me the most. It had a variety of beers that I typically don't gravitate to such as a Pilsner and the hefeweizens but everything here was something I could drink over and over again. 

Table 5: Sun King

Sun King Popcorn Pilsner

Sun King Sunlight

Sun King Osiris

Sun King Wee Mac

Sun King Sky Cake Aleger

Sun King Chaka

the only reason I didn't try any of these is because I've had them all already, and when I got to this table, I thought it best to not have more beer when I already tasted about 30+ 

Table 6: World Class

served by @mattworldclass 

14  - Bell's Third Coast Beer

9 - Kasteel Cuvee de Chateau 

not on the original line up, but added last minute as a replacement to the Brooklyn Summer Ale

Bell's Oberon

12 - Boulevard Zon

nice blend of the coriander with the pinch of orange citrus

Brooklyn Summer Ale 

was on original line up but didn't come out to play

Triton Fieldhouse Wheat

Triton Magnificent Amber

13 - Paulaner Hefe-Weizen

10 - Van Steenberge Gulden Draak 9000

I think it is unfair that something so creamy and delicious would have to be over 10% ABV, but that's a Belgian quad for you.

11 - Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA

This IPA with a  140 IBU count had a nice grapefruit, slightly bitter overtone

last by not least

Table 7: Upland Brewing

served by @UplandCari

Upland Wheat

Upland Helios

7 -  Upland Maibock

I had this on draft at the Indianapolis Monthly Beerfest, to me it had a caramel coating mouth feel

8 - Upland Nut Hugger

In addition not on the lineup:

Upland Winter Warmer - BarleyWine 

Upland Infinite Wisdom - Tripel

And that was it!  I'm a little overwhelmed as I recap the beers available. See what you missed if you weren't there! Hopefully Kahn's will keep Beerocracy going and I'm looking forward to what they bring out in Beerocracy III.   I'm also hoping to see more ladies out to these events.  Out of 80 people who showed up about 10%, if that, were women.  Beer isn't just for men! :) 

Great job Kahn's! and readers if you need help in choosing some craft beer, please visit Kahn's  either downtown, on Keystone or up at North Willow. They are a great place to get started in trying new beer. 

- Kathleen