Winterfest 8 By Brewers of Indiana Guild another great success

You could almost leave your jacket in your car at Winterfest on Saturday, January 30, 2016, the 8th annual. We counted at least 86 Indiana Breweries plus plenty of guests pouring a huge variety of beers. We knew Burn Em Brewing of Michigan City had decided a dozen varieties of beer was not enough and brought 16, but that was nothing compared to the 40 different beers from Bare Hands Brewery of Granger, IN. Looks like those from northern Indiana took this very seriously -- and each had some unusual beers. We'll have a report on some of the beers we enjoyed as we renew our notes. Here are a few photos that recap Winterfest!

The crowds were steady but lines moved quickly. There were real bathrooms plus porta-potties.

Dribs and Drams

Let's get ready to Winterfest

Jan 30	Indianapolis	Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. 101 breweries. 3-6:45pm. $40.
Jan 30	Dayton OH	Brew Ha-Ha. $35-$50. 6-10pm.

Early bird Winterfest tickets are sold out. General admission $40 tickets are available at the website. There also a list of represented breweries there. Oh heck, lets copy it here

18th Street Brewery 450 North Brewing Co. Back Road Brewery Bare Hands Brewery Basket Case Brewing Company Bier Brewery Big Lug Canteen Black Acre Brewing Company Black Swan Brewpub Blind Owl Brewery Bloomington Brewing Company Books & Brews Brew Link Brewing Broad Ripple Brewpub Brugge Brasserie Bulldog Brewing Co Burn 'Em Brewing Carson's Brewery Cedar Creek Brew Co Chapman's Brewing Chilly Water Brewing Co. Crown Brewing Danny Boy Beer Works Daredevil Brewing Co Deer Creek Brewery Deviate Brewing Evil Czech Brewery Figure Eight Brewing Flat12 Bierwerks Flix Brewhouse Fountain Square Brewing Co. Four Fathers Brewing Function Brewing Goshen Brewing Co. Grand Junction Brewing Co. Half Moon Restaurant & Brewery Heady Hollow Brewing Hoosier Brewing Co. Iechyd Da Brewing Company Indiana City Brewing Co. Ironwood brewing co Lafayette Brewing Co

Mad Anthony Brewing Company Man Cave Brewing Co. MashCraft Brewing Metazoa Brewing Company New Boswell Brewery & Tap Room New Corner Brewing Company Noble Order Norris English Pub and Brewery Oaken Barrel Brewing Company Outliers People's Brewing Company Planetary Brewing Co. Power House Brewing Co. Quaff ON! Brewing Co Ram Restaurant & Brewery Redemption Alewerks Rock Bottom Route 2 Brews LLC Saint Joseph Brewery Salt Creek Brewery Scarlet Lane Brewing Company Schnitz Brewery & Pub Shoreline Brewery St John Malt Brothers Brewing Sun King Brewing Co. Taxman Brewing Co. Tell City Brewing Company The Devil's Trumpet Brewing Co. The Guardian Brewing Company The New Albanian Brewing Co. The Tap Brewery Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. Three Floyds Brewing Co. Tin Man Brewing Co. Tow Yard Brewing Company Triton Brewing Co. Turoni's Main Street Brewery TwoDEEP Brewing Co. Union Brewing Company Upland Brewing Co. Wabash Brewing Wildrose Brewing Company Wooden Bear Brewing Company ZwanzigZ Brewing

Rita's columns lately have been

• Centerpoint opens, Three Pints closes plus anniversaries and much more news.
• Winterfest, beyond the beer.
• Winterfest preview: Big beers and big expectations which notes beer that will be served this Saturday.
• Craft beer and costumes at Winterfest.  
• Winterfest newcomers The new breweries you shouldn't miss.

She's blogger faster than we can post. OK Rita, you win.

The Brewers Guild's drinkin.beer web site has an app with maps of Indiana breweries, events, and probably basically their newsletter.


The Indy Star gives us 8 ways to get alcohol on Sundays. and Indiana bill would bring back happy hour (video)

Northewt Times — A House committee is expected to approve legislation Thursday that could enable alcohol sales at the Indiana Dunes State Park pavilion, regardless of consent by local authorities.

WTHI - New senate bill would help Indiana beer producers. Tax relief to Hoosier farmers of hops and barley and to the brewery's that use them.

Or on the negative side that's being used politically: "Local businesses can testify to the negative impact it’s had on the state’s reputation in the global marketplace. Doug Dayhoff, president of Upland Brewing Co. said that he’s experienced a downturn in interstate exports. At a big festival in North Carolina, some beer enthusiasts told Dayhoff that they didn’t want to buy his beer because they didn’t like “what Indiana stands for.”"

NE Indiana & Fort Wayne News - Sylvan Cellars Barn Opens Craft Beer & Cocktail Tasting Room. Rome City.

---

Keep Track of the Brews You've Sipped With This Scratch-Off Beer Poster. Printable image but note that Pop Chart Lab makes all sorts of neat products. A real browse brews eyefeast.

27 craft beer labels that are intoxicating to the eye

We hate to not completely respect a giant when they do good but this picture is just too good to pass up. AB has always had a good history of helping people during emergencies and natural disasters. In all, they've donated over 74 million cans of drinking water since 1988 (Scripps Media) They have already sent 51,000 cans to Flint. (Question? Does that bottled water going there from many groups including governments do any good when taking a bath or shower? How long can families live on sponge baths? Am I a pervert for asking that question?)

Dribs and Drams

Here

Bloomington: Where to eat and drink. Featuring Function Brewing.

Deviate Brewing gets love in Beeradvocate. (Thanks Rita)

Rita looks at Flat 12's 5-year anniversary.

Tow Yard and Denver's Factotum are collaborating on a Peyton Manning beer.

HopCat is going to open a Louisville location to add to their Lexington taps.

Cold sales in groceries and gas stations has been shot down again.

But there's another move afoot to allow to-go sales on Sundays. A bill has now been filed - HB 1399. Last year it was so confused by amendments the author withdrew it.

Sale of alcoholic beverages. Provides that a holder of an alcoholic beverage permit who is authorized by law to sell alcoholic beverages for carryout may sell alcoholic beverages for carryout on Sunday from 7 a.m., prevailing local time, until 3 a.m., prevailing local time, the following day. Requires a sales clerk who: (1) rings up; or (2) assists customers in accessing; alcoholic beverages in a grocery store or drug store to hold an employee's permit and have alcohol server training. Provides that the provision that allows individuals who are at least 19 but less than 21 years of age to ring a sale of alcoholic beverages in the course of the individual's employment does not apply to dealer establishments. Establishes alcoholic beverage display requirements for liquor dealers of grocery stores and drug stores. Requires video surveillance in stores, other than package liquor stores, where customers have access to alcoholic beverages without assistance. Makes it unlawful for: (1) the holder of a liquor dealer's permit, other than a package liquor store, to sell or distribute mini bottles through a self-service display; and (2) a person who is the proprietor of a package liquor store, drug store, or grocery store to allow a purchaser, or any other person who is not a sales clerk, to ring up or otherwise record an alcoholic beverage sale.

The mainstream media is all agog that someone may have said that carryout growlers are illegal. Friend of beer, Indiana Senator Ron Alting plans to fix it with SB 169. WISHTV, Oh, it's just in special Economic Development Zones.

The AP has a story about Eli Lilly's in-house bar.

The Star talks about Monarch Distributing's "fight to sell hard liquor".

The 18th Street Brewing Co. is now in Oklahoma.


There

Hoosier Hopped Coffee.

Patoka Like Winery gets love in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

Elsewhere

Remember that 100-year old beer found off the coast in Nova Scotia? Well it's been tested and tasted. "Pretty good . . . tree fruits, cherry, sulphur, rotten eggs".

Remember the London Beer Flood of 1814?

Martyn Cornell's choice of 20 beer quotes. (Thanks Roger)

British health says people shouldn't drink more than 6 beers per week. Good luck with that.

Military Times laments the French Navy can drink beer on board. Not to be confused with baby on board.

Naked Capitalism posits that beer is under siege by global warming. Hop crops are already smaller.

Where?

Dribs and Drams

Jan 14	Indianapolis	Bicentennial Pours & Pints at Deviate Brewing. 4-8pm. Free.
Jan 16	Indianapolis	Flat 12 fifth anniversary Beer Festival. 11am-8pm. Free.
Jan 16-23	Kalamazoo	Beer Week. There will be a bus trip from Goshen Brewing.
Jan 17	Fort Wayne	Winter Warmer. J K O'Donnell's. 1-6pm. $25 advance.
Jan 23	Hobart	Big Barn Beer Fest. $50 County Line Orchard. 2-6pm.
Jan 23	South Bend	South Bend Brew Fest. $45.
Jan 30	Indianapolis	Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. 101 breweries.
Jan 30	Dayton OH	Brew Ha-Ha. $35-$50. 6-10pm.

Senate Bill 127: Authored by Sen. Jon Ford.
Beer excise tax. Lowers the beer excise tax rates to: (1) $0.035 for the first 500,000 gallons of beer or flavored malt beverage sold in Indiana; and (2) $0.075 for the next 14.5 million gallons of beer or malt beverage sold in Indiana; if certain percentages of the hops and barley in the beer or malt beverage are grown in Indiana. Adjusts the distributions of the beer excise tax.

Rita tells us about making Bloomington Brewing pickles.
Also about Bier's 5th anniversary. New brews from Indiana City, Half Moon, Bloominton, Upland and Scarlet Lane.

Headline: Court hears appeal from beer distributor

Headline: Indianapolis #20 Among Best Cities for Beer Drinkers
Spoiler alert. The other 19 are Portland ME, Asheville, Portland OR, Billings, Denver, Seattle, Wilmington, Missoula (really?), Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Austin, Grand Rapids, Rochester, Columbus, Omaha, Bend, San Francisco, Cleveland and Kalamazoo. Notice that Indy beat  Spokane, Madison WI and Boulder!

---

Here's a bit about the new 3rd Turn Brewing in Louisville.

Mathew Muncy of Indiana On Tap looks at the Cider Act which affects tax on, you guessed it, apple (and now pear) cider. it lowers the various taxes including a surcharge on carbonated cider.

---

A pub crawl team from England's Black Country have been to 18,000 pubs in 32 years. This year they plan to visit every pub in Nottinghamshire, making 300,000 miles traveled.

 Snow Beer is the world's best seller. It's from SABMiller and a Chinese company. 61, 626,620,000 gallons. Yep, that's Billion.
11 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Bartenders. Sorta dumb but fun.

10 Foods That May Disappear Thanks to Climate Change. Guacamole, Apples, Beer (BEER!?!), Rice, Seafood, Chocolate, Coffee, Peanut Butter, Wind and French Fries. That's a scary list - could we live without these?