Showing posts with label New Albanian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Albanian. Show all posts

Tailspin fest, Feb. 20 - a great way to learn Indiana and Kentucky beers in a historic setting

This years Tailspin Ale Fest in Louisville promises to be better than ever on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016. Eight Indiana breweries (the venue is just 8 miles from the Indiana state line) are serving including Tin Man and Carson's of Evansville, Flat 12 of Indy and Jeffersonville, New Albanian of New Albany, 450 North of Columbus, Upland of Bloomington, Central State of Indy, and 3 Floyds of Munster. Kentucky brewers will come from far and wide including new breweries!

The airplane hanger at Bowman Field provides a great historic setting for brewers from sixteen states! Against the Grain Brewery of Louisville was part of the Brewdogs television series and distributes in several states as well as several countries! ATG will have a barrel aged wheat wine and a rye imperial stout along with others. Sponsor West Sixth Brewing of Lexington will serve several beers including a coconut porter and a tripel. Country Boy of Lexington will offer a Red Ale aged in sherry bbls with blackberries along with other beers. Goodwood of Louisville features a coffee stout on oak. Yet another brewery in a church has opened in Louisville, and 3rd Turn Brewing will offer a porter and a cucumber saison. Rhinegeist Brewery of Cincinnati, with former Indy brewer Jim Matt, will share a bbl aged imperial stout and a Belgian style dark ale. Louisville's Apocalypse Brewing, with strong ties to Indiana, presents a Pro-Am collaboration with LAGERS local New Albany home brew club. Dry Ground Brewing of Paducah, KY is so named because their building, an old Coca-Cola bottling plant was flooded by the Ohio River in 1937. They too will bring a bbl aged imperial stout, a Belgian style rye PA, and a tripel.

With over 200 beers offered from nearly 50 breweries to sample between 3-7PM this Saturday and a chance to help the Dare to Care Food Pantry the event will build on the three successful past years offering up Honky Tonk music plus several food trucks and promised sixty-degree weather this year! For tix, directions and more CLICK HERE Everybody get's a free empty growler from Liquor Barn.

Indiana's Flat12 & Tin Man sponsor Beer and Bourbon Fest just across the Ohio River: Feb. 20 (BBL aged & booze) & 21 (beerfest)

Do you love beer? Are you interested in Bourbon? Get a $20 Discount and enjoy not only Indiana but Kentucky barrel aged beers and Kentucky Bourbon this Friday night 11 minutes from Jeffersonville, IN, at the Tailspin Ale Barrel Roll event at Bowman Field, Louisville! Spend a night in Louisville and mingle with Brewers and Brewery Reps, enjoying limited Barrel Aged Beers, Bourbons and Craft Cocktails with local food and entertainment. Enjoy such beers as
Flat 12 (Indianapolis) Pinko Russian Imperial Stout aged in Willet Bourbon Barrels,
Flat 12 Snowdog Russian Imperial Stout aged in Canadian Whisky Barrels,
Tin Man (Evansville) Cherry Cordial Barrel Staved Czar Russian Imperial Stout,
Apocalypse Brewing (nano - Louisville) Official Tailspin PRO/AM Ale – “Spit Fire” Russian Imperial Stout w/Peppercorns,
Against the Grain (Louisville) We Mint Well Scotch Ale Brew Dogs Collaboration to be featured on the BrewDogs TV show in April,
West Sixth Brewing (Lexington) Transy Brandy Belgian Tripel Aged in Copper & Kings Brandy Barrels, and dozens more.
The Friday night VIP event features gourmet tapas from Mussel & Burger Bar, El Taco Luchador, CENA, and Guaca Mole Louisville plus national recording artists the Pimps of Joytime, and a photo booth for candid memories with friends.
Tickets are discounted to $65 per person (vs. $85 at the door if available) by entering BARREL into the promotion code. More info and tickets here

On Saturday, Feb. 21, at the Tail Spin Ale Fest over 40 breweries with at least 3 Indiana breweries (New Albanian, Flat 12, Tin Man), a dozen Kentucky breweries and more will be represented in a super cool vintage airplane hanger. With a smaller venue and representation of Southern states there are many beers you may not otherwise get to try elsewhere! Last year we enjoyed the expansion of KY breweries and trying special products as well as chatting with so many in the industry. The brewing industry is like a family. Brewers from all across the nation know each other. Larger local brewers are often found helping the smaller breweries as they grow. This is well represented in this nice brew fest! Check out the brewery list and tix (if still available - going fast!) HERE

Kentucky and Indiana brewers tend to be just great folks. Our early venture into barrel aged beers was from Kentucky brewers. We'd venture to Louisville and sample Bluegrass Brewing's Bourbon Barrel Stout. (available at Tailspin) One fine day we stopped in at a BBC location and met Brewer Sam Cruz. Sam was pleased to show us the operation and provide us with samples of many barrel-aged products. Eventually Sam left BBC and with partners opened Against the Grain Brewery at Louisville's Slugger Field. We shimmied up ladders with Sam to see the multi-storied brewery and sampled more notable beers like Kentucky Ryed Chicken (available at Tailspin). We are now excited to try the ATG/BrewDogs (think TV show) collaboration at this Tailspin Barrel-Role. Sam represents so many fine brewers that are so congenial and love to talk about their beer just like DH and Evan, founders of Country Boy Brewing in Lexington and Roger Baylor of New Albanian (NA IN) Brewing. Good people brewing good beer!

Kentucky, just like Indiana, is going through legislative action that tends to be the local brewers vs. the big international giants Ky Beer legislative action here
Indiana brewers can't grow due to a cap put on brewing for local distribution. Details here We can help by providing our opinions to legislators!

IF YOU LIKE NUMBERS Craft beer (US Dept of Commerce numbers) grew 18% in 2014. Belgian beer imports grew 25% but on a small base of sales while Mexican imported beer represented 60% of all imports in 2014, growing 15%.

Read our Valentine's picks here....

Bloomington Craft Beer Week... beer events worth visiting Bloomington for!

Bloomington Craft Beer Week starts Saturday, April 5 continuing through and after the Bloomington Craft Beer Fest on April 12. It is #drinkindiana week! Many local places will have Indiana beer on tap starting April 4! So maybe you went to school in Bloomington or maybe you've driven to Bloomington on a scenic trip to Brown County, Indiana. You fondly recall the quaint town square, maybe a pound of beer (their word for pint) at historic Nick's English Hut, the beautiful limestone buildings, and a warm Spring Day. COME ON DOWN and have a pint of beer or two sometime this week. Revisit, refresh, and reacquaint with a town and its love of quality craft beer!

Note: all beers, bar events, and tappings were checked with reps and organizers but remain subject to change. Get the Bloomington Craft Beer Week APP! for updates

April 5:
Bloomington Brewing Company, the 20-year-old that was the first craft brewery in Southern Indiana has been a draft-only brewery but kicks BCBW off Saturday with the release of beer in bottles by offering 22 oz. "bombers" of gold-medal-award winning Rooftop IPA at the Big Red Liquors big store at 8th and College Ave, Bloomington, with brewer appearances from Noon to 2:00 PM April 5! Rooftop took gold in the IPA category of the most recent Brewer’s Cup Competition, Indiana State Fair, which receives commercial entries from multiple states as one of the largest competitions in the nation. BBC brewers and staff will be at Big Red Saturday and would be glad to sign a bottle or chat about beer. Rooftop bottles start selling at Big Red and will eventually expand throughout central Indiana. This brew delivers the hop forward and balanced IPA that offers both citrus and pine notes with a bitter finish while still balanced with malt. Rooftop will be the first commercially available ‘bombers’ in a series that will eventually (think Summer) include Ten Speed Hoppy Wheat and Ruby Bloom Amber. Get B’ton Craft Beer Week started off right by celebrating this historic moment! Get one of the first bottles ever produced!

What: Bottle Release Party: 22 oz. Bloomington Brewing Co. Rooftop IPA
When: Saturday, April 5
Noon to 2:00
Where: Big Red Liquors, 418 North College Avenue, Bloomington

Indiana brewery Flat 12 pours beers, passes on information, and provides ‘swag’ at legendary I.U. pub Nick’s English Hut Saturday night at 7PM offering limited edition Pogues Run Vanilla Porter, a flagship Flat12 beer with vanilla beans that opens with big vanilla notes backed by the solid hearty roast of this favored porter. Flat 12 beers on tap also include Half Cycle IPA, Walkabout Pale, and Hinchtown Hamer Down Golden Ale.

Bicycle tour to 3 breweries starting at Function Brewpub on 6th starting at 10:30 AM continuing to BBC, and Upland.


April 6:
Flat 12 brings Nunmoere Black American Black Ale along with Half Cycle, Hinchtown, and Pogues Run Porter along with information to Yogi’s, Bloomington at 3:30 PM for “Sunday Funday.”

April 7:
Upland rolls out their collaboration with New Belgian Brewery sampling “Light Synth” and “Dark Synth” at 6:00 PM. Dark Synth to be on tap along with Upland’s new Haystack Lightning American Wheat (the 2nd beer in the new Side Trail Series), Campside, and Wheat plus New Belgian La Folie, Le Terroir, and Snapshot Wheat.

April 8:
Bloomington Brewing, Cutters Brewing, Quaff On!, and Upland will pair beers and food for a candlelight brewery dinner at The Root Cellar inside The Farm Restaurant, at 6:00 PM. A four course meal will pair with Cutter’s Knobstone Pale, BBC Rooftop, Quaff On! Java the Red, and Upland Wheat. $49 per guest. Phone (812) 323-0002 for details as space is limited.

Tin Man Brewing Co. “Beer School” at Yogi's Grill and Bar. Featuring: Czar Russian Imperial Stout, Overlord Imperial IPA, Circuit Bohemian Pilsner, Rivet Irish Red Ale

April 9:
Cutter’s & Bloomington Brewing Tapping at The Tap Beer Bar, BBC: Amarillo Pale, Biere de Mars, Rooftop IPA and Ruby Bloom; Cutters: Nitro Peanut Empire Stout

Sun King Tap Takeover at Yogi’s Grill and Bar: Barrel Aged Ring of Dingle stout, Dominator Dopplebock, Naptown Brown IPA, & Indians Lager

Function Brewing, Bloomington Brewpub taps a test batch of single-hopped pale with Falconer’s Flight hops plus a version adding Mosaic and Citra Hops.

April 10:
Cutters at Nick’s English Hut with Knobstone, Bank Robber Belgian Brown, Rye on the Scarecrow Double Rye IPA, and Monon Wheat

Upland and Oskar Blues at The Tap Beer Bar, 7 PM, with Wheat, Champagne Velvet, and Campside. Oskar Blues beers: White Buffalo West Coast IPA, Dales Pale Ale T45 - dry hopped Dale's Pale, Dales Pale Ale T90 -- another dry hopped Dale's Pale - each beer has a different hop kettle additions.

Bloomington Brewing Company at Yogi’s 6 PM with BBC Biere de Mars, Ruby Bloom Amber, Kirkwood Cream Ale, Rooftop IPA, and BBC/New Albanian collaboration FeastMaster 80 Shilling (delicious session beer with plenty of deep roast flavor)

Function Brew Pub holds a tribute to home brewing with a Robust Porter, Mayan Chocolate Stout, and English Mild

April 11:
Upland holds their beer & music focused Vinyl Release Party at their main Bloomington Brewpub (banquet hall) 5-8PM featuring Vinyl Tap Rye Pale Ale with part of the proceeds from the beer sale going to local community music. All Upland locations start revealing the new Upland logo and look starting April 9.

Bloomington Brewing and New Albanian tap take-over at Nick’s English Hut 7-10 PM featuring: BBC Quarrymen Pale Ale, BBC Ruby Bloom Amber, BBC Vanilla Floyd, BBC Imperial Ruby Bloom Amber, NABC Hoosier Daddy, NABC Oaktimus, NABC/BBC Collab FeastMaster 80 Shilling, + Sampling of BBC Rooftop IPA Bottles

Cutters Knobstone Pale Ale will be the featured Friday beer along with Upland Wheat on tap at the Alley Bar on Kirkwood.

Atlas Ballroom Bar on South College will pour offerings from Cutters, Mad Anthony, and New Albanian.

Player’s Pub on South Walnut will feature Tin Man (Evansville) beers.

April 12: THE BIG DAY
Bloomington Craft Beer Fest is Saturday, April 12, at 2200 Tapp Road 4-7PM for $35. Sponsor The Fourwinds Resort will shuttle you to & from the event from your room with special rates of $89. There will be live music, local food, hundreds of beers from not only most Indiana breweries but many regional and national craft brewers. We participated in a discussion of porta-potties and organizers have considered signage and locations of units to reduce lines. The current weather forecast may prove God and Mother Nature love beer as the sun should shine and forecasts predict temperatures of 71 degrees! If you’ve not been to the historic Woolery limestone mill venue expect a nice canopy of shade with plenty of filtered light and great breezes. Tickets are available at most Big Red Liquors locations (esp. Bloomington – call ahead) and online HERE
Further Fest details here

Then get ready to PARTY at many local venues AND save your wristband for a special deal on Sunday!

Sun King tap takeover and after party at The Tap Beer Bar on the square with Timmie RIS, Batch 666: Sympathy for the Devil (Belgian-Style Black Ale loaded with chocolate, roasted walnut, and banana flavors), Batch 777: Touched by an Angel ( Belgian-Style Tripel), Big Iron Barleywine, Moonlight Serenade toasted oatmeal stout, and Fistful of Hops.

while many BBC and New Albanian beers should remain on tap from Friday, there is no official party at Nick's on Saturday

Upland Beer Fest after party at The Bishop Bar

Max’s bar on the square will have a kill the keg party with BBC Rooftop IPA and Kirkwood Cream Ale where the person to get the last pint gets a Max’s gift card.

AND….
The premier craft beer bars in Bloomington will feature Indiana Craft Beer all week at The Tap Beer Bar and Yogi’s Grill & Bar. As well Scotty’s Brewhouse will feature their own Thr3e Wise Men Indiana beer

Local restaurants
Finch’s Brasserie will feature Indiana beer including Three Floyd’s Dreadnaught, War Mullet, Fountain Square Count Nibula Chocolate Stout, Evil Czech Gypsy American Wheat, Tin Man Rosenweiss German krystallweizen with rose
The Trojan Horse will feature beers from BBC, Quaff On!, Cutters, and Upland

April 13:
Fest Wrist Band Day at Lennie’s Restaurant and Brew Pub 10% off Sunday Brunch at Lennies - Beer Fest attendees get 10% off their meal with their Beer Fest wristbands.

Cheers & hope to see you at an event!

GregKitz

Beers, Cheers, and Sneers – February 7

three_floyds_tatoo

RateBeer has released their latest set of “best” lists for 2013, which is better known as the Three Floyds Open in this state. The craft titans from Munster rank #2 (behind only Hill Farmstead Brewery in Vermont) on the list of Best Brewers In The World. Dreadnaught, Zombie Dust, and Dark Lord (Bourbon Vanilla Bean) claimed spots among the Top 25 on the list of Best Beers In The World. To take it one step further, a total of nine 3F offerings were included among the Best Beers By Style lists (they make a Schwarzbier?). 

The wealth is spread around a little more if you delve into the Top Retailers By Subregion for Indiana:

Best Brewpub New Albanian Pizzeria and Public House (New Albany)
Best Restaurant Shallos Antique Restaurant (Greenwood)
Best Brewer Taproom Flat 12 Bierwerks (Indianapolis)
Best Bottle Shop Crown Liquors #14 (downtown Indianapolis)
Best Bar The Heorot (Muncie)

You should never take it literally if you hear us muttering that it seems like a new brewery opens every day. According to the Brewers Association, that would more accurately be stated as 1.06 breweries per day in 2012. The nationwide figures show an increase in active breweries from 1949 at the end of 2011 to the 2336 that closed out 2012. But wait – there’s more! The BA counts 1254 prospective breweries-in-planning that were in some phase of opening during 2012. Like I always say, a chicken in every pot and a brewery in every neighborhood – that’s how it goes right?

Bottleneck Management is set to open a new restaurant called Howells & Hood this March in the Tribune Tower. The setup includes three separate bars with a total of 360 beer taps, which they believe will be the most of any restaurant in the world. If you go there and ask your server to come up with a recommendation, you might be suffering from sadistic personality disorder. It’s not your fault.surly_unicorns

Surly Brewing in Minnesota lived up to their moniker and had a little fun with authorities by submitting label artwork that features a pink unicorn, fairy, and accompanying rainbow. The label was predictably rejected for appealing to underage drinking. So Surly has learned that pink unicorns are bad, but occult imagery is no problem.

Good news/bad news for AB InBev’s annual splurge on Super Bowl “big game” commercials. The Budweiser spot reuniting horse and trainer took the top spot in USA Today’s Ad Meter Results, but commercials for their heavily hyped Black Crown and Beck’s Sapphire products took three of the bottom five spots. I guess a bunch of hipsters toasting a dude in an apron doesn’t make up for calling your amber lager “black”.

A collaboration between Spiegelau glassware, Sierra Nevada, and Dogfish Head produced a new glass specifically designed for drinking hoppy beers. The glass is designed to aerate the beer as you tip it so that a blast of aromatics are delivered to your nose as you sip the liquid. I don’t have a joke for this, I just want one.

More than a few homebrewers were caught off guard in 2012 when the National Homebrewers Conference sold out in a then unprecedented two days. Welcome again to the brave new world of American beer culture. Despite a nearly 90% increase in capacity, the 2013 conference sold out in 20 hours. Hope everyone who made it in has a great time this year. I won’t be joining you, but surely this photo spurred on the increased demand. If anyone from the American Homebrewers Association is reading this, please make the royalty check out to Poppi Rocketts. Thanks.

2013_conference_wallpaper

So you’ve probably heard that the push for Sunday alcohol sales has reared up again in the current legislative session. This is logically the time where I should climb on my soapbox and rant against another bass-ackwards law still on the books in Indiana. But I’m just having a hard time finding the motivation at this point. Not because I’m a big fan of blue laws or appreciate Indiana serving as a national punch line every time another state decides to join the 21st century of alcohol laws. It’s just hard to see why it really matters for our scene. If you’ve lived here for a while, how often are you really blindsided when Sunday rolls around and the fridge is empty? And with carryout sales now allowed from Indiana breweries, most people can support a local business and take home a fresh growler or six-pack for Sunday festivities. But of course, this was never about the best interests of consumers, it’s a retailer pissing match between liquor stores and grocery chains. And that’s not the type of thing that really gets my blood boiling one way or the other. So Sunday sales would be nice at a certain symbolic level, but I can also live with punch line status for a while longer. Other states can laugh it up, but we still have the Kokomantis.

Cheers, Nathan

Beers, Cheers, and Sneers – January 17

Sun_King_Cans

Flat 12 Bierwerks is expanding distribution to the Nashville, TN market later this month. In Sun King news, limited releases of two special beers are set for January 28th. Batch 333: The Velvet Fog will be available both at the brewery and in select liquor stores as a two-pack with a suggested retail price of $17.50. A small amount of Bourbon Barrel Johan the Barleywine will be available at the brewery for $25 a can. Advance reservations for half of the Johan batch will open here on January 21st.

New Albanian’s annual strong beer madness known as Gravity Head is just around the corner with a 2013 theme of “Return of the Living Gravity Dead”. The event does not start until February 22nd, but the list of selections is already approaching 50 special offerings with a few yet to be announced. Keep in mind these beers will rotate on the taps over a span of several weeks – heaven help us if they were all tapped at once.

Thomas Hardy’s Ale, which many consider one of the finest examples of the English Barleywine style, is being revived this year after production of the beer at O’Hanlon brewery ceased for several years. The rights for this beer are reportedly held by American importer George Saxon, so hopefully the new batch will trickle into our local market as connoisseurs were accustomed to in years past.

Here’s one for the category of things you’ll hopefully find interesting because I like to promote them. There have been some creative uses for spent grains from the brewing process – many commercial breweries donate them to farms as livestock feed and some homebrewers compost or turn them into dog biscuits. But Alaskan Brewing is reportedly the first brewery in the world to use them as the sole fuel source for their steam boiler. Tackling this new idea required investment in a $1.8 million, custom-constructed spent grain steam boiler. But the benefits include a 60-70 percent reduction in fuel oil consumption that will save an estimated 1.5 million gallons of oil over the next ten years. Cheers to craft beer innovation!

Something for the more technical-minded out there….we call it the Andrew Korty files – PopSci conducted an experiment with the process of fractional freezing. This is the process that can be used to concentrate an alcoholic beverage by freezing some of the water and decanting the remaining liquid. Fractional freezing created (accidentally according to the Kulmbacher brewery) the Eisbock style and has been employed to make some of the absurdly high alcohol “beers” in recent years like the BrewDog 32% ABV Tactical Nuclear Penguin and 41% Sink the Bismarck. PopSci claims that dry ice in isopropanol would allow you to freeze increasingly higher alcohol levels until you reached about 93% ABV. They don’t recommend trying this at home……but save me some if you do.

Nothing stirs controversy (and pageviews) like a good list, so there was a solid buzz in the blogosphere when a site called First We Feast revealed their 20 most influential beers of all time. It didn’t strike me as such a bad list if you consider the panel was American and there seemed to be a focus on beers that set the standard for styles popular in our country. But draw the attention of a beer historian and head are gonna role. So Zythophile unpretentiously brings you the REAL 20 most influential beers of all time. They managed to agree on Blind Pig IPA, Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Pilsner Urquell, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – check the rest out for yourself and see which you prefer. One small note for Zythophile: Can we please just acknowledge that starting sentences with “I don’t want to diss the panel that chose these beers, but” guarantees a panel is about to be seriously dissed.

Breathometer, Inc. plans to launch the world’s first smartphone breathalyzer at Austin’s South by Southwest festival in March. It will allow you to measure your legal compliance by blowing into a key fob-sized device that plugs into the audio port. The app will be available on both iPhone and Android and is approved by the FDA and something called the Office of Drug & Alcohol Policy & Compliance. Now we just need that teleportation app to get us back home and fetch coffee. I’m looking at you physicists.red_swingline

From the newly minted “Three Floyds Global Industries: Entertainment Division” comes word of another attraction at South by Southwest. The film festival portion includes a feature called Drinking Buddies from Chicago filmmaker Joe Swanberg. The plot features two beer geeks named Kate and Luke who face a blurry line between “friends” and “more than friends” on a summer weekend once the beer starts flowing. Said beer features area breweries Three Floyds, Revolution, Half Acre, Bell’s, and Founders. Even more exciting - the cast includes one Ron Livingston. If that sounds familiar……yes, that would be Peter Gibbons (aka Peter-man) from Office Space. I might be a bad writer, but at least I never slept with Lumbergh.

Cheers, Nathan

Beers, Cheers, and Sneers – January 10

South Bend Brewfest

This Saturday’s South Bend Brewfest kicks off the 2013 slate of beer festivals! If you’re interested in attending and missed it on our Facebook feed, Eric from Michiana Beer Nuts has a full list of participating breweries and what they will be pouring. It looks like tickets are still available online for $35 (plus the dreaded $5 convenience fee) here. And the upcoming Crown Beer Fest (formerly Illiana Mayfest) may not take place until May 18th, but you can already get your early bird tickets here. VIP packages are $59 (plus $5 convenience fee) and General Admission is $35 (plus $3.50 convenience fee). That’s a pretty stiff price difference for an extra hour of sampling, but VIPs do get private rest rooms to isolate yourself from the peasants and a T-shirt to prove you survived.

Some new release news to pass along:

  • New Albanian’s Solidarity Baltic Porter (my favorite beer of the day from last year’s Winterfest) will not be distributed this year but is available now at the brewery’s two locations in New Albany.
  • Bell’s Hopslam Imperial IPA began shipping to Indiana this week and should be on shelves soon. Get ready for a six-pack retailing around $20, but bear in mind that you’re investing in the liquid equivalent of over three bombers.
  • Also from Bell’s, Black Note Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout is packaged for the first time in 4-packs and will be shipping out soon. It’s unclear how much will be distributed to Indiana markets, but in central Indiana the beer can be located with the World Class Beer Spy.

Has anyone tried Heady Topper IPA from The Alchemist brewery in Vermont? It just surpassed Pliny The Younger as the highest rated beer on Beer Advocate. Beers of local interest include Three Floyds Bourbon Barrel Aged Vanilla Bean Dark Lord at #3, Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout (CBS) at #4, Three Floyds Zombie Dust at #7, Founders KBS at #9, and Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout at #10. That Westie 12 some of you recently snatched up checks in at #6 and might fetch up to $500 on EBay. So much for EBay cracking down on alcohol sales.skunkedBeer

Good news for fans of Saison Dupont – the special seasonal release Saison Dupont Cuvee Dry Hopping, featuring Triskel hops, will be making its way to America for the first time in April. And here’s the kicker – it will be packaged in brown bottles to avoid the skunking issues that are often a problem with regular Saison Dupont in green bottles!

In a lesson of appreciating what you have, Founders has announced a brand realignment that includes phasing out year-round availability of Red’s Rye PA in six-packs. I count Red’s among my favorite beers, but when the factors of trying new commercial beers, consuming homebrew, and trying to stay in decent health are aligned one realizes how infrequently you get back to the old favorites. Better stock up now.

How many times have you planned an epic brewery trip only to find out there is no hotel within reasonable walking distance? You don’t want to spend the better part of a day driving or flying somewhere just to order a sampler. Well, the Stone Brewing empire is expanding to solve this problem with a planned hotel just across the street from their World Bistro & Gardens. Ideas being considered include beer taps in every room. Now, to be honest, Stone kind of struck me as dangerously close to the craft beer version of a tourist trap a few years ago. So it will be interesting to see how the hotel rooms rank in affordability. The grounds at Stone are very nice, but for my money there’s just something more memorable about a beer adventure that involves things like stumbling across a little trailer with a Dark Horse sign.

You might think we’re tough on AB InBev around here, but that’s nothing compare to the spurned wife of an Anheuser-Busch executive who created Divorce! The Musical. Apparently the tell-all musical was successful enough in New York to make its way to St. Louis this spring. Choice cuts from the show include “Stop Goosing Goose Island” and “You Can Keep Rolling Rock”. Yes folks, the jokes are just getting worse around here in 2013.

Brewery Ommegang has teamed up with HBO to create a series of craft beers inspired by the series Game of Thrones. This might put a new spin on your favorite drinking game. At least you stand a better chance of making it to work on time Monday morning with the Iron Throne blonde ale than a bottle of whiskey. Taking a shot every time there is gratuitous sex or nudity is just brutal with that series.

game_of_thrones

Cheers, Nathan

Beers, Cheers, and Leftover Turkey – November 23

Apologies for my brief absence from the blog while other aspects of life got in the way. I’ll try to make it up with a bit of news and some extended ponderings near the end. As if the tryptophan wasn’t enough to put you in coma already…….

Congrats to Sun King and Three Floyds for taking home medals from the 2012 Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beers competition. Sun King took a gold in Classic Styles with Afternoon Delight and silver in Strong/Double/Imperial Dark Beer with Pappy Fog while Three Floyds took the silver in Fruit Beer with Ronaldo. Best in Show went to Goose Island’s Cherry Rye Bourbon County Stout which was aged in rye whiskey barrels with whole Michigan cherries. If you’re near the Chicago area, Cherry Rye Bourbon County Stout will see a limited release there on Black Friday (initial reports had the retail price at $45 a bottle).saturnalia

New Albanian’s Saturnalia winter solstice celebration kicks off today with the annual hedonistic pleasures found in rare, seasonal, and festive drafts from around the world. Delirium Noel, Boulevard Saison-Brett, Corsendonk Christmas Ale, and exotic selections from Lafayette and Munster are among the highlights of this year’s event. New kegs in the lineup will be tapped periodically through the month of December.

Founders isn’t kidding when they say their barrel-aged beers are cellared in the caves beneath Grand Rapids. Check out some great pictures here of employees mining for KBS and other assorted brewery pictures. Bottles of the 15th anniversary Bolt Cutter should be making their way to your neighborhood liquor store should you be interested in bribing the beer manager to procure a bottle.

Our friend Frank Petrarca paid a visit to Turoni's Pizzeria and Brewery in Evansville and offers the following review:

It appears to be a small-batch brewery and it was too late to get a brewery tour. The building was old, had lots of character and plenty of vintage signage and pictures gracing the walls. I ordered a 5-beer sampler for $5.75.

Vinny’s Lager- A good German-style Lager. Slightly grainy, smooth, no off-flavors.  Darned tasty.
Honey Blonde- Light crisp, but almost too sweet for me. Overall not a bad brew aside from the sweetness.
Thunderbolt Red Ale- Clean, Malty lots of flavor, maybe a little too much crystal malt for my liking but a good brew.
Blue-Eyed Moose IPA- Malty, Amber colored but maybe a little tame on the hop aroma and flavor.
Ol’ 23 Oatmeal Stout- Dark, chocolatey, a little heavy on the roasty side for me, low oats aroma and flavor but still good.

All in all the beers really pretty good. There were no off-flavors, very drinkable and pretty true to style. I ended up with a pint of IPA. My wife Theresa really enjoyed their Pumpkin Ale. Pints are $3.75 all the time!

But the  pizza absolutely blew me away. I grew up in the Chicago area eating thin crust, scorching hot pizza with real Italian sausage and great toppings. If you know me you’ll know I have made literally hundreds of pizzas. Some of you have been to my little pizza shindigs I’ve thrown and you know I enjoy great pizza- it’s one of my passions. Aside from the ones I make on the stone at home I have not had pizza like this since moving away from the Chicago area 31 years ago. Seriously… Good…. Pizza! (Not a description I throw around lightly either)

$5.75 samplers. $3.75 pints. Fast, attentive service even though they were packed. The BEST pizza you’ll find in Indiana.

Bottom line- if you ever find yourself in Evansville, Indiana go to Turoni’s on Main Street. When we return it’ll be our first stop.

Thanks Frank!

Chris Cooley was recently re-signed by the NFL’s Washington Redskins despite a failed contract negotiation that would have netted Cooley a case of beer after each game. Upon learning of Cooley’s predicament, Flying Dog brewery stepped up to offer a Shock and Awe variety pack for the remaining six games. So Flying Dog was able to generate a little publicity with this deal, but don’t expect Roger Goodell to formally endorse sponsorship from Doggie Style Pale Ale, Raging Bitch Belgian IPA, or Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout in the near future. This is wholesome family entertainment they’re messing with here.

A recent report from Time Magazine notes that the bastardization mainstreaming of darker, stronger beers appears to be well underway. AB InBev is rolling out a new family of lagers that up the ante at around 6% ABV including Budweiser Black Crown (actually an amber lager), Michelob Black Bock, and Rolling Rock Black Rock. But my personal favorite is definitely the Busch Black Light Lager option for budget drinkers. Yes, apparently there is pent up demand from college students everywhere for more intense hangovers and added color in their vomit.

In other Goose Island news, founders John Hall and Tony Bowker are stepping down from their roles of CEO and COO of the brewery. Stepping in to the CEO position will be AB InBev executive Andy Goeler, whose claim to fame includes attempting to trick craft beer consumers into buying a beverage so edgy it needs mohawk-sporting fruit to capture its essence. Cheers to Mr. Hall (who recently turned 70) for his success in developing the Goose Island brand and looking to spend more time with his family. I haven’t been one to ridicule GI based solely on the AB InBev acquisition, but this move places the brewery firmly under Anheuser-Busch managing control and it’s hard not to be cynical about the principles that will now drive the company’s future. The good news is that Goose Island leaves behind a fertile craft beer industry that is not under multinational corporate control…….yet.american_idiot

It’s a popular debate in the craft beer world, but tensions between independent craft brewers and the macrobrewers that covet their growing market seem to be increasing. A recent article for CNN Money included the predictable arguments from the big brewers about the benefits of increased consumer choice and the arguments from independents about why you should care who makes the beer you drink. It ultimately comes down to the drinker and the intrinsic values they place in viewing craft beer as a community (albeit a rapidly growing one). Really, some of the same values are in play when you select a local brewery’s six-pack over the latest offering from a national craft brand. I’m one to believe there is a certain valuable culture inherent in supporting independent craft breweries that can’t be replicated in a glass of Blue Moon. Put another way, buying a ticket for a Broadway performance of “American Idiot” is not quite the equivalent of supporting independent punk rock. A former coworker once expressed alarm upon learning I was attending local punk shows and offered to start going along as my wingman, presumably as backup when the leather-studded heathens decided to beat my face to a bloody pulp just for showing up. In reality, there is a real sense of community among strangers at these shows and I’m more afraid of drunken frat boys at Jimmy Buffet. The point being that I prefer to think of craft drinkers as belonging to a culture of particular values that don’t always fit nicely into a defined corporate demographic. But maybe that’s just what I want to believe. And if you get tired of both sides, you can always just say screw it and make your own damn beer!

Cheers, Nathan

Want New Albanian? But not the drive?... + other tapping news

Yogi's Grill and Bar, Bloomington, will be hosting a Tap Takeover of New Albanian beers tonight(Nov. 6) at 7:00. Think 45 minutes south of I-465 instead of 2 hours. Of Course New Albanian Elector is the theme beer, but also included are Hoptimus, Old 15 B, Beak's Best, Tunnel Vision, Black and Blue Grass, Naughty Girl and Hoosier Daddy. The NABC open its doors 25 years ago in southern Indiana and have been cranking out great products for a quarter of a century.

And... if you ARE near the Ohio River: Zombie dust, Zes, Zes, Zes, Black Heart, Moloko, Gumball Head, Munsterfest on tap and Calumet Queen in the bottle at Rocky's Sub Pub NOW, (Nov. 6) Jeffersonville, IN

In other tapping news: RAM on November 14th taps the fourth leg of their RAMAGEDDON 2012 series, Final Countdown Imperial IPA, released at both Downtown Indy (7:00) and Fishers (6:30) locations. If that wasn't enough, S'no Angel Weizenbock will also be tapped this night in case you need extra enticement.
November 21st - Tomlinson Taproom in the Indianapolis City Market, RAM Brewers will be taking over all 16 taps at Tomlinson in one event including cellared seasonals and rare releases such as Barrel-aged Apocalypto Barleywine and Nitro Vanilla Stout among many others.

Flat12 announces: Moustache Ride Red - Movember tapping and fundraising (11/17, 6pm).

Rock Bottom, College Park, taps Winter Tartan Scottish Ale, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 7:00 PM

What Kathleen Has Been Drinking These Days.


The first thing that people say to me when I say that I'm a beer blogger is "You must drink a lot of beer".  Yes and no. I'm selective about the beer I drink. However, in some aspects, I do drink a lot of beer.

So, what have I been drinking lately? Let's see!

1. DigIN 
Chillin' with a pint of Pooka!
On August 26th, I was able to be an early morning volunteer at DigIN which is a great event that showcases all things Indiana from wine, food, artisans goods and of course Beer!

This year the following breweries were represented at DigIN:
Sun King
3 Floyds Brewing
New Albanian
Barley Island
Upland Brewing
Brugge Brasserie
Black Swan
Flat12 Bierwerks
Crown Brewing
Mad Anthony

Beer Highlights were Flat 12 debuting their pumpkin ale: Flat Jack which btw will be in bottles this fall. Also of course had Brugge's Pooka.  Black Swan had a Belgian Dark, Sun King came with Osiris and Sunlight and stopped by New Albanian to try their Black and Blue Grass saison which with having the black pepper spice and the blue agave, I'd rather have a more sweeter saison.

If you are wondering why I didn't have all - I blame all the delicious food at DigIN. I didn't make it past two tents before I was stuffed!

2. Thr3e Wise Men - Antonius 1742 Oktoberfest


I've said it many times, but I really do like hitting up Thr3e Wise Men for their tapping parties. It is well made, dependable beer. Even though this time of year I'd rather have a Pumpkin Ale than an Oktoberfest, I still appreciated this malt style and the clean drinkability of Thr3e Wise Men's Oktoberfest.  I also enjoyed a pint of their @Brewhouse Brown which appears to be a new house beer and is a 2nd place Brewer's Cup winner.

It is nice that the brewery has grown to produce more beer, if you didn't know Thr3e Wise Men select beer styles are available in Scotty's Brewhouse throughout town.  It makes it even better to go to Thr3e Wise Men and your only options are house beers. I like a good session beer, but I also like variety.  Currently they have 8 different beers available on their board.

3.  At home!


No Intros Needed
As if that last one is a surprise. I've had multiple visits recently to Kahn's and Payless Liquors doing random picks of bottles of beer. Also good to give a new try by just buying a bottle.  My most recent trip to Payless Liquors though was only for two of my favorite fall beers  -

Schlafly Pumpkin Ale and Founder's Breakfast Stout.
I learned last year especially with my pumpkin expeditions that Schlafly was amazing. I need to still try some pumpkin ales - like Southern Tier's PumKing!




Speaking of pumpkin - I never really did a blog on the beer blogger's conference (Ironic, I know), but there was some delicious beer there! (of course)  Samuel Adams is currently doing a "Small Batch Series" of beer. This gives the Boston Beer company a chance to bring out some specialty beers such as Fat Jack, which I would say rivals Schlafly in their pumpkin spice.  As a side-note - Also try Samuel Adams - Thirteenth Hour. I think Nathan & Greg would agree this one is worth it. (It is a dark Belgian stout with a multitude of flavors such as coffee, chocolate, rum, dark fruits all from its 7 different malts... I could go on and on but this is a different topic :) )





Fancy Glass - Schlafly Pumpkin Ale
So back to topic, this has been what I've been drinking lately.  I'm looking forward to more pumpkin, porters and stouts this time of year.

Also tonight I'll be at The Sinking Ship for the Bell's Brewery Tap Takeover - Going to try Kalamazoo Hopsoulution Ale

In a few weeks, off to Beer Sellar in Castleton for Schlafly Night with Tom Schlafly! - and of course pumpkin ale.


Hope to see you out and about! I've been running into a few readers here and there. Of course you can follow my beer escapades at twitter.com/@KJLSlauzis

Until next time!
- Kathleen


Beers, Cheers, and Sneers – August 23

It’s time for Lafayette to join the summer beer festival carnival with Saturday’s Beers Across the Wabash. Mother Nature is even bringing back 90-degree temps for the occasion. But it should be a fantastic day, and if you miss out you’ll just have to rely on our review and that would be a shame. In case you missed the comment earlier this week, here is an update from Josh at Flat 12: Just a heads up. Flat 12, Sunking, and People's will be taking over the taps at The Black Sparrow immediately following the festival. We did it with people's after TAPs this spring and it was a blast so with the addition of SK it will only be an even bigger party. For those that don't know Lafayette is my home town so we pulled some special stuff out of the cellar. Look forward to seeing everyone there!DSCN0639

Speaking of reviews, I’m going to start trying to throw a few beer reviews in here when it seems relevant. This week I picked up the Sierra Nevada Best of Beer Camp variety pack to try the Imperial Red Ale (developed by Muncie’s Stan Stephens and Bob Cox). The aroma is dominated by citrus hop character with the type of fresh quality that can be difficult to find in bottled beer that has been sitting around a liquor store. Nice, but doesn’t reveal the complexity of the flavor ahead. The first taste smacks you in the face with an assertive bitterness that is followed by a wonderfully complex blend of caramel and raisin from the malt and heavy grapefruit with hints of pineapple, peach, and mango from the hops. The finish is dry with a lingering bitterness and slight alcohol warming. 

Overall, I would prefer to have the bitterness toned down but this was still a very enjoyable beer. Among the other varieties, the Imperial Pilsner was very good (quite flavorful but possibly one of the smallest commercial “Imperial” beers at 5.6%). The Oatmeal Stout shows promise and would probably benefit from some aging – at a mere 9% ABV it apparently didn’t qualify for Imperial status. The Floral IPA brewed with rose hips and petals had a mild perfume character that wasn’t really my thing, but maybe I need another to get used to it.

From Anita Johnson of Great Fermentations and the Indiana Brewers Cup: The Broad Ripple Brewpub has a standing agreement with the Indiana State Fair Brewers Cup to do a collaboration with the home brew Best of Show (BOS) winner. The collaboration with the 2011 BOS winner, Chris Ingermann, with his Vienna lager will be tapped this Saturday, August 25th at 3 PM. Stop by and support the Brewpub, the Brewers Cup and Chris Ingermann by having a pint.

Gravity Head at New Albanian is still six months away on February 22nd, but the list of festival-eligible kegs is already taking shape. Five vintages of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, six massive brews from Great Divide, three varieties of JW Lees Harvest Ale, and many more. Hopefully the Mayan calendar is a few months off.

In a sign of the current times, Ball Corp. is closing two can plants in response to slowing global demand for 12-ounce cans. The company will focus more on specialty beverage can packaging, such as the Alumni-Tek bottles that were recently used for the Sun King/Oskar Blues Chaka and have been promoted by Coors Light.

Some good news on the apple forecast from the latest USDA Crop Report: A slight increase in productionalfred_e_neuman from Washington, the largest producer in the country, helps to limit the drop in overall production to 15% despite catastrophic forecasts from Michigan and New York. Also of note, forecasted hop production is down 5% while barley production is up a whopping 42%!

Our crazy homebrewing community has put a little steam behind an online petition for the release of the White House’s suddenly infamous Honey Ale recipe (thanks to Jason Mundy for the heads up). The petition has gained over 3000 signatures in five days, but must reach 25,000 by September 17th to receive an official response. You can sign the petition and view the current status here. You will need a whitehouse.gov account to sign the petition, which probably subjects you to yet another avenue for the government to monitor your activities. What, me paranoid?

A few random notes that almost assuredly might interest only me. Beer name of the week - Nebraska Brewing Company is releasing an IPA called Romancing the Cone. I stumbled across another blog that is dedicated to covering three things: Punk, Beer, and Tacos! It’s such a wonderful feeling to finally locate my long lost brother……*sniff*duff-beer

The battle to bring fictional Duff Beer to the masses continues. Two Colombian businessmen have been producing a beer using connected “f”s so they could claim the beer’s name was actually “DuH” when Rupert Murdoch’s minions came calling. Amazingly, the 20th Century Fox legal team was not fooled and the Colombian government shut down production, distribution, and sales of the beer. The brewers have vowed to defend their right to rip off cartoon products with Hagar the Horrible's frothy mug next on the agenda. Anyone else remember growing up with a strange attraction to Hagar’s daughter Honi? Yeah, nevermind…….

Cheers, Nathan

Beers, Cheers, and Sneers – July 19

new-england-668-neighbor

Just a brief rundown with some exciting Indiana news items to pass along before tonight’s date with Iron Maiden. I’ll try to take good notes on the diverse and affordable beer selection at Deer Creek Verizon Wireless Klipsch Music Center. But let’s start with a few leftover notes from the Blogger’s Conference: 

Friday night’s gathering at Tomlinson Tap Room presented the first opportunity to sample some beer from Indiana City Brewing. Both the Pale Ale and Oatmeal Stout were nice offerings and I’m looking forward to the chance to try their full lineup. The Pale Ale is sort of a hybrid of American/Belgian characteristics with spices that make it a little more distinctive than your typical flagship offering. They are targeting an opening of this fall with the exact location yet to be announced. If you want to help support Indiana City, check out their Kickstarter campaign where donations can earn you various rewards up to designing and brewing your own recipe.

We had the chance to try a couple beers from Sam Adams that should be showing up in retail outlets in the near future. Fat Jack is a “double pumpkin” 8.5% specialty ale that manages to give the impression of a pumpkin beer complemented by spices rather than the other way around. Fat Jack should be available this fall in bombers and it worth a try if you’re in the market for new pumpkin ales. The Thirteenth Hour addition to their Barrel Room Collection is an imperial stout brewed with Belgian-style yeast and blended with oak aged ale. I don’t know what the price tag will be on this, but I’d highly recommend it if you’re able to pick one up in the $10 range.

Another upcoming addition to Indiana craft brewing is Union Brewing Company in Carmel. Union will be unique in their approach to serving all of their beers cask-conditioned through a hand-pulled beer engine. Union is targeting a mid-to-late September opening at 622 S. Rangeline Road and will have a dining menu provided by nearby SoHo Cafe & Gallery. You can read more about their plans and see a floor plan of the new brewery in an article from Current Night and Day. Note to the Night and Day author and local media in general: I’m starting to think that continuing to perpetuate the idea that Indiana has “very few microbreweries compared to other states” is becoming a bit outdated. Unless your benchmark state is Oregon.

If you’re heading to New Albanian’s 25 Years of Beer & Loathing on Sunday, you can find the full beer lineup here. There will also be a keg of Three Floyds Alpha King tapped at the NABC Pizzeria and Public House on Saturday at 4pm in memory of their friend Margaret Bauman. If you knew Margaret, raise a glass of hoppy ale in her memory this Saturday wherever you may be.Waiting-In-Line

2012 Great American Beer Festival tickets go on sale July 31st at noon for members of the Brewers Association or American Homebrewers Association. General public sales begin August 2nd at noon. If you can only attend select sessions, I highly recommend attending Thursday night and skipping Saturday night based on past experience. Unless the idea of a frat party in a convention center seems appealing. Or you enjoy feeling like this ==>

Cheers, Nathan

Indiana Microbrewers Festival - Prepare to Drink!


Update as we go - but here are some brews to get you started in your beer drinking plans! 

Good Pils
Cooterlite
Farmgal
Weizengoot
PDG Pale
Chinookalicious IPA
DFGIPA
Belgian Blonde
Belgian Golden Strong    

Sunlight Cream Ale, 
Wee Mac Scottish Ale
Firefly Wheat.
Special Tappings:
VIP Hour - 3: Hoppy Black Lager
3:33 - Batch 333: The Velvet Fog
4:00 - Bitch'n Camaro
4:30 - Stupid Sexy Flanders
5:00 - Cream Dream V: I Thought We Were Buddies...
5:30 - Sour Surprise: A new release from our expanded sour program
6:00 - Barrel Aged Oktoberfest
6:30 - Walking on the Sun 


Hopitmus – Imperial IPA
Naughty Girl – Belgian Blonde Ale
YakimaRye IPA
Black and Blue Grass
Oaktimus – Oak Aged Imperial IPA
Knobentinus – Weizen Doppelbock
Haggis Laddie – Celtic Red
Kasier 2nd Reising – Pre-Prohibition Pilsner

13--American Black Ale
Revolution-American IPA
Local Blonde
Main Drag--Amber
Big Pit--Porter
TataRosa--Raspberry Berliner Weis

Wheat
Dragonfly IPA
Valley Weizen
Nut Hugger Brown Ale
Imperial IPA
Ard Ri
VIP Hour: Blackberry and Raspberry Lambic
4pm: Blackberry and Raspberry Lambic, Dantalian, Sour Reserve
5pm: Infinite Wisdom Tripel

Golden Wing Blonde
Cut Throat Pale Ale
Threadless IPA

Black Note
Harvest Ale
Oberon
Two Hearted
Oarsman
Java Stout
Amber (firkin)

Snow Bunny Blonde
Replic Ale
Two Lucy’s Blackberry Wheat
Centennial Martyr Double IPA
@Brewhouse Brown Awesomesauce
Sanctaneous Hefeweizen

Our theme this fest is "The Flat12 Open" so for it we did 4 special beers....
The Grand Slam Series:
Winbledon - Grassy English Mild
US open- the Sisters Double Cherry American Stout
French Open - Red Clay French Saison
Australian Open - Aussie Lager Dry Hopped w/ Galaxy Hops
BONUS: Firkin of Backspin Blonde - Dry hopped with Australian and NZ hops
Here is everything else.
Bottles of Pogues Run Porter and Hello My Name is Amber

LactoMatic Milk Stout
1/2 Cycle IPA
Karosoul Kolsch
Tangerine Porter
Merkuh Light American Lager
Kiwi Kiwi Hefe
BBA Nunmoere Black ABA
Barrel Jack
Van Pogues Reserve
Big Black Dog 68 
Liquid Fiction Dry Hopped Blonde
El Diablo Blanco Roble
Moustache Ride Red
New Day Meadery / Flat 12 EXP-BATCH-1 (Coffee and Bourbon)
New Day Meadery / Flat 12 EXP-BATCH-1 (Cherry Wood Aged) 
Sushi Saison
BelgoPorter
Wood Walkabout (cherry and apple wood aged)
Haggard Jo (barrel aged Jo Brahma)
BBA 12 Penny Scottish Style Ale
Plana Douce Mexican style Cervesa
Bourbon Barrel Big Black Dog (Van Winkle 10yr barrels)
Winter Cycle DIPA
Chewbaca Defense California Common

Plus!
Die Saur Von Satan - Flat12 / New Albanian Brew Co Collab. Dark sour mash session wheat ale.


Black Acre Brewing Co. 
From Facebook:


 Rye Wheat,
 Porter, 
Schwarzbier


Fountain Square Brewing Co. 


Workingman's Pilsner,
 Hop For Teacher Pale, 
Backyard Porter, 
Summer Haze Hefe, 
Preacher's Daughter Amber,
 Big Nuggets IPA 
the Dark Mild Replicale


The RAM
Anaheim IPA
Indy Blonde
Apocalypto Barleywine
Mr. Maniacal IPA
Bayside Steam
Java Disorder


Great Crescent Brewery
 Blonde Ale,
 Belgian Wit
 Coconut Porter
and some surprises!! .


Dribs and drams - April

New stuff from New Albanian. Black & Blue Grass is a saison with blue agave nectar and spices. In bottles. Everywhere. Even Bloomington - at Bloomingfoods and Sahara Mart. On tap in New Albany soon will be their first Wheat beers: a Weizen Bock and a Weizen Doppelbock - both around 7%.

Alcohol Beverage Control in Alabama has banned Founder's Dirty Bastard. Fat Bastard wine  and Raging Bitch beer is OK. And to think Huntsville was the center of our space program. Now it's just space.

OK, what would you do if handed this ID at your Kroger store? A) sell him the 12-pack. B) Call the cops and have him arrested. C) Laugh uproariously and send him back to his mother. article