Indiana Beer News from April, 2003

4/29 - Redhook's SunRye is a new offering. It's creamy golden ale with no outstanding edges or tastes. It's smooth and soft with wheat style but disappointing in that no rye comes through. It is a refreshing summer quaff though if you're not looking for a crisp beer.

4/29 - Stock up on Laphroig, Lagavulin, Talisker, and Bowmore if you can find some pre-price-increase stock. There's a drought in southwest Scotland that has affected the distilling of the Islay malts. Although they've had rains the last couple of days it looks like production will stop for the summer by June. Lagavulin was over $50 the last bottle I bought.

4/29 - The latest fling by Koch is Sam Adams' Utopia. Not going to tell you more right now though.

4/29 - Heineken has bought Paulaner. This may be a good thing as the price may come down to $8-$9/6-pack rather than the $12 as bigger marketing muscle (including local distribution) lets margins slip back to normal.

4/29 - Looks like Wild Goose will disappear for a month or two due to production problems. (Thanks Steve).

4/28 - INDY - Oaken Barrel's Maibock is light in bockishness - described as a helles bock by TomS. Sweet and citrusy.

4/27 - INDY - Indianapolis Monthly's poll in the May issue has the Broad Ripple Brewpub as the reader's choice.

4/25 - Whoops. We aren't doing our job very well. Anheuser-Busch now sells more than half the beer consumed in the U.S. They went from 29.5% to 52.1% in the first quarter of 2003. Bud Light is #1, even over Bud and twice the sales of Coors Light and Miller Lite combined. The total A-B range includes Bud, Michelob, Busch, Natural Light, Killarney's, ZiegenBock (TX only), Pacific Ridge Pale Ale (west coast), and Tequiza.

4/24 - INDY - Shallos has Arcadia's Whitsun and Starboard Oatmeal Stout, St. Brigid's Porter in bottles. Red Hook's Sunrye will be on tap as soon as the casks get to Greenwood.
They've started a Tuesday night acoustic open-mic night from 9pm-11:30pm.

4/23 - INDY - Eric Wallace the owner and brewer of Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont, CO was in Indianapolis and talked to patrons at Chumleys, Fox & Hounds, Chalkies, and Shallos - all of which, conveniently will sell you a fresh Left Hand beer.

For now, you'll need to go to Colorado for their Milk Stout, Wet Hop IPA (with fresh-from-the-vine local hops), Dupplebock, or Imperial Stout. - I really want to try some as Eric said it has become their 2nd biggest seller. They developed it over 3 years and US micro milk stouts are pretty rare.

4/24 - Berhoff's bar in Chicago has installed stools. For over 100 years patrons stood at the bar or tables. Sun-TImes article

4/17 - INDY - BW3 is putting summer beers on tap with Backroad Blueberry Ale, Bell's Sparkling Ale, Einbecker Maibock and McEwan's IPA. 

4/17 - INDY - Rathskeller has Sprecher's Rathskeller Amber on tap.

4/17 - The Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is seeking public comment on its proposal to change the tax and regulation structure of malternatives. The Bureau recently issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking limiting the composition of malternatives to include only 0.5 percent of neutral distilled spirits, much less than the make-up of most malternatives on the market today. Such a change in formulation would drastically alter the taste of many malternatives, rendering them more malty -- more beer-like, if you will -- and possibly kill the allure of these drinks for many consumers. If the malternatives were not reformulated and the proposed rule was adopted, they would be re-classified as spirits and removed from the beer distribution system and taxed and regulated as spirits. - report from All About Beer Magazine.

4/15 - INDY - Rock Bottom's Daylight Gold is a fresh pale with crisp body and a creamy head. Balanced with malt that comes through - it's much more satisfying than a lawnmower beer but very good cold. Good burp factor also.

4/15 - INDIANA - The Indiana State Fair beer competition will be open for the first time to the world. You don't have to be a hoosier to enter. They hope, in a few years, to be one of the major judging events around. Meanwhile, judging will be the 2nd Saturday in July.

4/15 - L'Alsacienne Sans Culotte is an average French beer available now in Indy. The real kick to this brand is the scratch off panties - hence the name? (We found them in Orlando and haven't seen them in Indiana, sorry.)

4/13 - Thomas Hardy's Ale was brewed by Eldridge Pope in Dorset, England from 1968 until 1999. The brewery got new management who turned it into a "pubco" and stopped brewing THA, Royal Oak, and Hardy Country Bitter. Now they will be coming back. EP has sold the rights to the beers to Phoenix Imports of Maryland who have licensed well-respected O'Hanlon's of Devon to produce it. We should get the 2003 vintage in August.

4/13 - Speaking of dated beers for laying down. . . Fullers Vintage Ale has been an annual bottle-conditioned brew since 1997 and all have been a bit different. For 2002 uses Golden Promise malt and Goldings hops. Published taster notes include tobacco, liquorice, vanilla, Christmas cake, marmalade, cherries, and over-ripe strawberries. There were 50,000 bottles produced in the Queen's Golden Jubilee edition.

4/10-11 - INDIANA - Big Red Liquors 10th Annual Beer Festival for Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington. was very well attended. BBC, Barley Island, New Albanian, Back Road, Alcatraz, Upland, Duneland, Terre Haute, and Bells joined 37 other tables serving beer.

Here's what happened on Thursday. At 9pm they announced that the beer stations were closed and everyone should leave. At 9:00 + 30 seconds, 5 burly rent-a-cops started squeegeeing people toward the 1-lane escalator out. At 9:07 they announced on the PA "If you don't leave immediately we'll have one of these deputies help you leave."

They sent people directly from a glass of beer into the parking lot. They didn't recognize the value of letting people have a few minutes to collect themselves before leaving.  They relied on police presence to close the place down as fast as possible so they could get home and watch the Daily Show. They actually threatened their patrons while the folks were quietly moving out as rapidly as possible.

Given this attitude by the organizers and the stereotypical bulling attitude their paid uniformed force showed, it will be very possible for people to be arrested or assaulted Saturday night by employees of Big Red - it could have happened Friday night. At the very least, expect to be shoved out unceremoniously into the night to fend for yourselves. Not a good idea on their part and not very flattering of the 47 vendors.

4/10 - INDY - Shallos has Arcadia's IPA and Bell's Oberon on tap - both very special beers. New bottles include Arcadia's Whitsun Ale, Starboard's oatmeal stout, and a really special beer: Aventinus's Weizen Eisbock in serialized bottles. This mirrors their famous wheat bocks; but with the removal of some extraneous water by freezing it comes in at 13% and has lots more complexity.

4/10 - INDY - Bock Wars. Here's our tasting notes on the Bocks at 3 Indy brewpubs:

Alcatraz - Clear but translucent deep brown. Small white head. A bit of nice malty aroma without much sweetness or alcoholic notes. Malty taste with a hint of sweet malt. Natural carbonation comes through giving a crispness in the end. 6.9%. 35 IBU. Vienna and chocolate malts. Fuggles and Perle hops. Good session beer if you have a ride you can trust to drop you off at your own house.

Ram's Mai Bock was served in an iced glass. Dark copper, clear. Strong malty tart nose - maybe a little citrus? Taste remarkably identical and quite strong. Munich and carapils malts hopped with Hallertauer and a secret bock yeast from White Lab's back room experimental station. Cam in at 18° Plato. In the fermenter for 8 weeks and cold lagered for 5 weeks. About 7.2%. This Mai Bock was brewed as a Ram/Big Horn nationwide effort. This includes a limited number of special growlers (pictured) - $20 empty or $25 filled. Check out the neat moon-guy handle.

Broad Ripple Brewpub's Bock is their second foray into lager beers following an Oktoberfest last fall. It's clear brown gold. Crisp, hoppy. Lots of noble hops? Middle of style. Less carbonation. Smooth and very drinkable.

4/10 - INDY - Alcatraz is now boiling a summer ale which should be about 6%. Made with Centennial and Yakima Goldings and a couple of hundred extra pounds of pale malt.

4/8 - INDIANA - Rumor has it that Duneland Brewing in Michigan City is for sale. Rumor also says it's for sale for $1.45M.

4/8 - The AP says 23 states have considered a beer tax increase to help fix their deficits. PA might go from 8¢ to 25¢ per gallon. MD bill doubles tax from 9¢ to 18¢. DC goes from 8% to 9% of retail. ID more than doubles to 5¢ per can. WY won't raise from 2¢ and OH rejected a hike.

4/7 - Today is the 70th anniversary of the end of prohibition.

4/5 - Greg Schirf of Wasatch Brewery is going to dump the first keg of their new 1st Amendment Lager in to the Great Salt Lake. This is a protest of the beer tax hike to $12.80 per barrel. Claims that the tax hike was retribution specifically against Wasatch (and a provocative billboard) have been leveled. AP article

4/5 - INDY - The BW3 mug club tasting was attended by about 30 people including folks from the Dayton Regional Amateur Fermentation Technologists and some from Muncie. They tasted 10 beers - Backroad Blueberry, SN Porter, Harviestoun OEO, Arcadia Scotch, Bell's Spiced Stout, Rougue I2PA, SN Bigfoot, Sille Nacht, HotD Adam, and (pant) Samichlaus.

About 10 readers of BeerAdvocate.com (right) started a pub crawl at BW3 and were going to try to hit all 3 brewpubs also. Lost them somewhere during the evening though. Sorry.

4/5 - INDY - BW3 has insulated all the lines to their beer engines for a more consistent 50° pour. As always, you'll need to ask "what's on the handpull" to find fresh, natural gems.

4/5 - Stone Brewing Co has three beers available in the area: Arrogant Bastard Ale, Ruination IPA, and Smoked Porter. If you have a bottle of each, start with the Smoked Porter while you still have taste buds.

This mini-review sponsored by Kahn's which has all three Stone beers in stock at both locations.

4/5 - Bars in Bloomington have until Jan 1, 2005 to become smoke-free. Yep, the city council has morphed from Berkeley to NYC.

4/4 - INDY - Hamilton Beverage has 5 beers from Left Hand, and 3 from Weltenburger Kloster - a Pils, Barock Hell, and a Hefe-weizen Hell. (That's a white wheat).

4/4 - INDY - Fighting Bocks. Alcatraz and Ram both have a springtime bock on tap. Since their across the street from each other, why don't you visit both and let me know which you like better?

4/3 - INDY - Beer for a Cure to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was attended by upwards of 200 people. Over 90 beers were available for trial and most people had no problems with choice, quality, or quantity. Sponsored by Kahn's, Chalkies, and World Class Beverage; Arcadia, Barley Island, and Bells also manned a table serving their best wares. A good time (obviously) was had by all.

4/3 - INDY - Rock Bottom's Fire Chief Ale this year is a big ESB. "roasted and subtle caramel flavors accompanied by an assertive Northern Brewer/Willamette hopping. 5.9% abv. A portion of the proceeds benefits our local fire departments. A bourbon-barrel conditioned milk stout and a dry-hopped ESB are on the handpull. The current stout is a sweet stout.

4/1 - INDY - Broad Ripple Brewpub's Bock is on tap. It's bright bronze. A "wow" malt nose is followed by a very balanced, rich feeling quaff.

4/1 - INDY - Ram's Maibock will be unveiled today. A tasting for the Ram Mug Club will probably be next week. Special swing-top growlers will be available for this special spring beer.

4/1 - INDY - Kahn's now has Westvleteren Abt 12, a Belgian Strong Ale. It's expensive ($9+ per bottle - available in the 1-pack) but complex, tasty and awesome per Greg Blackman.

4/1 - Harold Koch, nephew of Jim Koch went over Niagara Falls in a Sam Adams keg this morning. He emerged shaken and stirred. It was one of the most bizarre publicity stunts since the company floated a New Beetle upside-down in a vat of Triple Bock to show how thick that syrup is.