Indiana Beer News from July, 2003

7/31 - INDY - Barley Island has Dirty Helen Brown on the hand pull right now. Properly warm. A malty, southern Brit brown.

7/31 - INDY - Meanwhile, Dirty Helen is getting around. 21st Amendment has picked up 100 cases and you'll find her in more Marsh stores. Barley Island is actively looking for another fermenter and a more robust bottling plant.

7/31 - The Hofbrauhaus in Newport, KY (just across from Cincinnati) will be joined this year by others in Las Vegas and San Diego. 2004 openings are scheduled in Chicago, Kansas City, and Milwaukee.

7/28 - INDY - Rock Bottom's lineup includes:

• Milk Stout (keg and cask conditioned). 5.9%. Black, of course. Thick without the Mackeson sweetness - more roasty and earthy and a bit coffeeish. Ahtanum hops.
• Raccoon Red (keg and cc) - Cask version is dry hopped with Goldings. A bready amber ale at the crisp end of the "mild" category. Makes one think of fresh hay fields.
• Brewer's Stash IPA - 6.2%, 65+IBU, served on nitro. Using Simcoe, Cascade, and Ahtanum hops. An American IPA without the strong Cascades citrus.

In August, look for a Belgian white. Sept, a trippel and a Schwarzlager for Octoberfest. And in Oct, a Saison.

7/28 - INDY - Ram's seasonal is currently Mordecia Brown ($4 /20oz pint). A see-through, effervescent and refreshing brown. Nicely malty. Taste matches the nose - simple, straightforward brown. Think Newcastle plus thickness.

7/28 - INDY - BW3 downtown has Three Floyds Gumball Head - an IPA of indeterminate hops. Also Mad Anthony's Pale. On the handpulls, Three Floyds Dreadnaught and Thomas Sykes barleywine isMad Anthonyback - this time I promise not to need to call my wife at 1:30am for a ride home.

Oh, and we understand there's a keg of Stone's Ruination IPA that Mike will tap someday. Look quick though, the other keg in Indiana went in two days at the Lafayette Brewing Company .

7/28 - As you may remember, Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr "merged" a while back. As a short-term result there isn't a keg of either brewery's hefeweizen to be had in the states. Weihenstephaner is making inroads because of the shortage so try one instead of your traditional summer quaff.  BW3 downtown has Weihenstephaner Hefe on tap. It's also at the Schnitzelbank in Jasper.

7/27 - INDY - Check out Kahn's door of Indiana beers. Also Lakefront (Milwaukee) and Carlow Brewing of Ireland (including Moling's Irish Red, Curim Celtic Wheat, and Ohara's Celtic Stout). Or a half gallon of Rogue Buckwheat Ale among the Barley Island growlers.

7/27 - INDY - The Broad Ripple Brewpub, of course, has their State Fair winning Mild on tap. $3.75 for a 20oz pint.

7/27 - INDY - Chalkies beer list now includes Great Lakes Pale (Cleveland), Mad Anthony IPA, Back Road Belgian Wit, and Three Floyds' Robert the Bruce.

7/27 - According to What's Brewing, Fosters is being test-marketed in England in a 35-pint "coolkeg" which has an internal mechanism to keep the beer at 6°C. "Of course, slopping such a monstrous quantity of horrible fizz into one gigantic tin could all be part of a cunning plan to wean us off lager altogether."

7/25 - INDY - Great Divide's Maverick series is available now. Look for Imperial Stout with 7 malts, 75 IBU, and a 9.5% ABV. The IPA uses unusual Simcoe, Amarillo, and Columbus hops giving a 6.8% 60 IBU.

Also new is Tilburg Dutch Brown Ale which you'll need to search for as it's just going out to stores.

7/24 - INDIANA - Main Street Brewery in Evansville has released their "Haftaweitzen" seasonal wheat. Eric Watson calls it straw to reddish-gold color with vanilla, cloves and banana imparted by the yeast strain.

7/24 - INDIANA - This, from the Louisville Courier & Press: "The Little Cheers, which opened last month in the basement/restaurant of the Hilliard Lyons building at Fourth and Main streets (in Evansville), isn't brewing yet, but manager Kim Koester it is going through the approval process now. The restaurant/pub, which has taken over the former Firkin Brew Pub facilities, has employed Nathaniel Cruse, the former Firkin brewmaster, to come up with the microbrew list and oversee the brewing operations.

7/24 - In Ohio we saw a billboard saying "Your Vote Counts" promoting the raising of the drinking age to 25. Bet it doesn't pass.

7/19 - The State Fair Indiana Brewer's Cup results are in. The Best of Show Award went to the Broad Ripple Brewpub's Red Bird Mild Ale. Gold Medals earned by Indiana Breweries are:

All the medalists are be listed here.

In the Homebrewers's division, Dan McBride of Westville won Best of Show for his Mt. Baldy Belgian Pale Ale. According to the judges, Dan’s beer had “ an interesting complex spiciness, malty flavor at the beginning, fading to a clean sweet finish” and a “soft round balance of delicate malt and fruity sweetness”. As a part of his award, Dan has been invited to help brew his award-winning beer at the Broad Ripple Brewpub. It will be on tap later this year.

7/24 - Back from the trip. Here's some more places we visited.

Empire Brewing Company - Rochester, NY - also in Syracuse and Buffalo. Food and conversation bar in trendy area. 

• Schwarzbier - thick and black with stoutish tan head. Pleasingly colder than a stout but with effervescence. Thick on tongue and almost roasty.
• Also: Downtown Brown, Amber, Hefe, Purple Haze, Black Magic Stout, Platt St. Pilsner, Red Mulligan (which was the $2 beer of the week).

Buffalo Brewpub - Williamsville, NY - Unpadded restaurant and sports bar with a strong beer theme.

• Nickle City Dark - $2.75 special - Less dark than the Schwarzbier in Rochester (above) but this is an ale, sort of a sweet chocolatey porter.
• Brown Ale - Dark mahogany. A balanced bitter brown.
• Amber Ale - their flagship
• Also a pale, red, golden, autumn alt, oatmeal stout.

Barker Brewing - Fredonia, NY - downtown 2-story narrow lunch, dinner, and lazing bar.

• Purified by Pain Pale Ale - hoppy American pale with tingly effervescence. Clean.
• Porter - deep brown, less gassy, thinish body. Good strong balanced roasty malt. (2¢ plus $3 tax)
• Also Amber, On Vacation Irish Red.

In the Akron, OH area try the Winking Lizard in Peninsula.

7/19 - On the road in Rochester, NY. Finally found an internet connection. Here's the tour so far in a nutshell. More details later.

Thirsty Dog - Centerville (Dayton), OH (Also North Canton and Copley (near Akron)) - Interstate exit roadhouses. All with the same menu, beer list, and even brewer. Busy guy. Come, Sit, Stay, We'll Fetch. 4oz samplers at 50¢ each. $1 pints Mon-Fri noon-7pm. New to making high-alcohol beer as Ohio raised the limit from 6% ABV just last fall. Also a cappucino bar.

Balto Heroic Lager, Old Leg Humper, and Hoppus Maximus are being bottled for local distribution.

• Balto Heroic Lager - caramel and toasted malty - maybe off.
• Irish Setter Red - crisp with black cherry color. Quite nice.
• Nut Brown Ale - malty and thick brown of the southern English style. Serious malt with lots of sugar sweetness.
• Raspberry Leghumper Porter - Just a touch of raspberry that blends with the malt rather than overpowering it. Good stuff (even for a fruit beer).
• Goldings Retriever - Hoppy dark copper British pale. 58 IBU.
• Hoppus Maximus - GABF silver 2001 - American amber at 43 IBU.
• Old Leg Humper - cask conditioned - Chocolaty porter but the cc doesn't add much extra.
• McDoogin's Irish Stout - thick and good to style. Well balanced, dark, and still crisp. (Seemed thinner at North Canton location)
• Anniversary Lager - subdued American pale. 30 IBU.
• Barley Wine - needs maturation.

The Church Brew Works - Pittsburgh, PA - 2 blocks from Pittsburgh Brewing (Iron City). Old catholic church converted to a 1-room bar; a big 1-room bar. Stained glass windows intact and a brewery on the altar. Confessionals behind the bar have become liquor cabinets.

• Pipe Organ Pale Ale - cask conditioned - served through a tight sparkler. Dark copper. Warm. Balanced and bready. Uses only pale and caramel malts and only Goldings hops. Fine beer. 20oz pint, $4.50 cask, $3.75 keg.
• Bell Tower Brown - American brown, deep, sweet, and malty. 4.2%.
• 2000 Trippel - Yes, you read that right. It's 3 years old. 1085plato, 25 IBU, 9%ABV. Cloudy straw color. Delicate and refreshing with out any alcohol sting. Some tropical fruit in the nose.
• Pious Monk Dunkel - deep brown/red walnut. Properly, no aroma. Balanced.

Valhalla - Pittsburgh, PA - Trendy bar in the trendy bar area. Mostly obnoxious atmosphere for beer drinkers but some very good beer. Mechanico music. But what will it become next year? $5.50 20oz. Half price happy hour starts at 7pm.

• Pillage Pilsner - Hoppy - GABF Bronze, 1997.
• Blackk Forest - Munich lager - GABF Gold, 2000. Brown, tall, cold, with character but smooth without sharp edges. Better than Pious Monk at the Church (above).
• Hefe - bluish, clovey, sharp edged. Good stuff.
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Chiodo's Tavern - Homewood (Pittsburgh), PA - 30 years of ownership by a beer lover. Bunches of memorabilia, signs, bras, and other junk. Good set of taps and lots of bottles - most $3. Meeting place for TRASH - Three Rivers Association of Serious Homebrewers. Sit under the grape arbor in back and watch the trains.

• Had an Erie Railbender Ale. Almost an amber. Northwest hoppy with good balance. Full bodied and even flavored.

Sharp Edge Beer Emporium - hidden away on Pittsburgh's northeast side. About 200 titles, most we know in Indiana. A neighborhood tap at heart. 6 doors and 30 taps.

• Got two Stoudts - XXXAbbey - strong malt but not sweet. Elegant and strong aftertaste. Tasty, rich. Yes, we liked it.
• Scarlet Lady ESB - reddish brown and darker than norm. Balanced with rich malt and Brit hops.

Penn Brewery - Pittsburgh, PA - PA's oldest brewpub now bottling with wide distribution out east. All pretty mainstream but brewed with care.

• Penn Gold, Penn Pilsner, Hefe,
• Penn Dark - nicely balanced black lager.
• Kaiser Pils - Bitter Pilsner with out being biting.

Otto's Pub and Brewery - State College, PA - Shopping center outbuilding restaurant opened in 2002. Entrees $11-$17. 2-way license serving only their own beers. Their pub club is interesting: $125 for a lifetime membership gets you 22oz beers for $3 and a 10% food discount (Mon & Tues only). Excellent service. Get the salad with french fries on the top - sort of like croutons.

• Belgian Wit - hefe, bright apricot. Somewhat sweet but plenty of orange/coriander. 4.9%.
• Rod Mo Ale - mahogany American pale. Strong and bitter with noticeable malt also. Not married and a bit jolting.
• Apricot Wheat - crisp with enough apricot but light.
• Mt. Nittany Pale Ale - American with perle and cascade hops. Crisp. 5.9% ABV.
• Arthur's Robust Porter - chocolate, licorice, black patent. It's all about the malt. Very simple.
• \Weizenbock. 8.3%. Malty, almost barley wine raisiny Dull brown. Good stuff.

Dropped the wife off and now for a perfect evening on the outskirts of Penn State (not that there's a skirt in sight). Which reminds us to praise the memory of Brittany Spears for making hip-huggers even more popular than in the 60's - and certainly lower. Let's hear an Amen2 blocks of Allen St. are closed to pedestrians so hippy Penn Staters can carouse late even on a Sunday.

Zeno's is a basement bar at the prime Allen & College Streets corner. Sunday night $2 cover for a blues grass band. 23 taps including La Fin Dumond, Chimay, etc. Zeno's - Directly above the center of the earth.

• Tried a Victory Hop Devil - cask conditioned. The bartenders, sadly, didn't know whether it was Brit or American pale just "hoppy" and concluded it must be American because "no British beer is that hoppy". Darned if they weren't right.
• Brooklyn EIPA - $2 for 10oz pour. Fizzy which made it sharp.
• Yeungling Porter - nice and roasty. 16oz for $2. Again, gassy which took any creaminess away.

Selingsburg Brewery and Pub - Selingsburg, PA - Not open on Mondays or Tuesdays. Sorry.

Bullfrog Brewery - Williamsport, PA - more details later.

• Organic ESB with ginsing on keg and cask.
• Belgian Wit, Biere de Garde, Saison D'Orval, Rabbit Red Ale, Hefeweizen.

Market Street Brewing Co - Corning, NY - Historic downtown section in an old house made into a business site at least 50 years ago. Quiet outdoor patio.

• D'Artagnan Dark - 6.5%. Crysta, victory, chocolate, roasted, and black malts plus brown suger. A heavy brown or tasty porter. Brown to black and quite opaque. Malty with all the grains come through but not sweet. $3 / 16oz pint.
• Brisco Bridge Blackberry Later - Blackberrys added to a small batch of their Mad Bug Lager. Sweet on a simple, crisp base.
• Pot Belly Pale - wrought iron red. "Light" color from a little chocolate malt.

The Distillery - Rochester, NY - Yes, a brewpub but their beer were not listed on the caulk board, menu, or draft beer list on the table tent. Only when I asked did they admit to having their own beer. Atmosphere lacks quiet or concern. Double digit TV count.

• British Ale. $2.50 pints on Wed. Full tasting bitter / mild. Pretty good.
• Highland Amber, Iroquois Amber, Razz wheat.

The Old Toad - Rochester, NY - A Brit pub transplanted spiritually to the US. Right now selling only local brews. Went late at night with some other conventioners after the hotel bar closed. Yumm. Hope to stop back in before leaving town.

Most serving staff at the Old Toad are local university students over from Britain.

• Middle Ages (Rochester) Old Marcus - cask conditioned. Quite good pale. Served on a tight sparkler. Fuggles bitterness and darker malt balance. Has red wine tones late on the tongue.
• Custom Brewcrafters (Rochester) Pale Ale - Malty light colored ale.
• Custom Brewcrafters Nut Brown - Northern brown. Plenty dark and thick for style but less so than southern browns.
• Wagner Valley Pale Ale (Lake Saranac) - American pale (a surprise here). Light.
• Brooklyner Weisse - dark, sweet, and thick.
• Rohrbach (Rochester) Scotch Ale - cask conditioned. Darkish and still. Malty and big shouldered.
• Also Smutty Nose Old Brown Dog. Rohrbach Maple Stout, Wagner Pale Ale.

7/9 - INDY - Broad Ripple Brewpub has a Belgian brown on tap. A sweetish and complex ale using Belgian yeasts. Not terribly delicate but vulnerable. John Hill has also changed the name of their porter to, get this, ready for it?, Hairy Porter.

Next up, a Belgian weisse next week and a wit next month.

7/9 - INDY - Dogfish Head is putting out their beers now in 12 oz bottles. This includes their 90 Minute and Imperial IPAs and the Immort Ale (with maple, vanilla, and oak).

7/9 - INDY - Kahn's has lots of new Belgians in big bottles. Wostyntje brewed with mustard seed. Vuuve. Vapeur Cochoning. Dulle Teve. Corsendonk Agnus, Pater, and Christmas Ale. Sterkens. Troublette. Saxo. Caracole. Geuze Boone (yummy). Oud. And a vintage JW Lees from 1997 is due in momentarily.

Shipyard and Koningshoeven 750mls are on sale.

7/9 - INDY - Cavalier distributors have received Mendicino Brewing beers so welcome them back to Indy. Red Tail Ale, White Hawk IPA, Black Hawk Stout, Blue Heron Pale Ale and Eye of the Hawk

7/9 - INDIANA - The Oyster Bar has $1 mugs of one of it's beers during July to celebrate American Beer Month.

7/8 - 240 entries were received for the Indiana State Fair Brewers' Cup. That's up 12% from last year. The ISF competition is now open for entries outside Indiana but they didn't advertise this heavily because the 30 judges lined up are going to be busy enough. Judging is on the 12th and the winners will be announced at the Fair in August.

7/8 - INDY - Alcatraz just unveiled their IPL. Yep, an India Pale Lager. It's bright apricot with a creamy white head. Pretty thick and rich for a lager since it uses a lot of Munich and Aromatic malts (14.4° Plato) giving a 6.2% beer. High alpha Horizon, liberty, and Centennial hops give lots of northwest bitter and hides the alcohol. Effectively this IPL is very like an IPA but with a bit of a different bite. Try one.

7/8 - INDY - Rock Bottom's cask conditioned beers right now include their Sugar Creek Pale dry hopped with Centennial for mo' bitterness. Tim's Racoon Red is on the other hand pull.

This summer's wheat is "American Dream Ale", an American wheat with orange and honey at 5.7%.

7/8 - INDY - BW3 downtown has Back Road Brewery's Maple City Gold. Nope, no maple. It's dark, but not deep, brown with a big malty taste. We'd guess a hefty amount of caramel malt was in the grain bill. Quite drinkable. Back Road also is represented by their 4% Belle Gunness Stout (to be confused with Guinness of course).

7/8 - INDY - Parti-Pak has some big, big beers. 25oz Joseph Spelt - an organic Belgian wheat at 5% ABV. 50oz Anchor "Our Special Ale" from 199 for $15. Tall Corsendonk and Salvator 2000.

7/8 - INDY - Zink distributors will add Widmer's Hefe to their lineup sometime in August. More to follow.

7/7 - The ATF has a proposed rule open for public comment about malternatives - Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice, Skyy are current hot sellers in this market. Basically if more than 0.5% is from distillate (vodka) rather than fermented malt (beer-based alcohol) then it will be treated like liquor.

Bottom line: virtually all will have to be reformulated or they won't be able to advertise on TV or be in supermarkets (last year these beverages sold $373M in supermarkets alone).

Why the fuss? The FTC looked at them last year and concluded they aren't being targeted at minors. But another study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest found 64% of teens know about these drinks but only 21% of adults have heard of them. Additionally 40% of teens have tried a malternative but only 24% of adults. Another study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth back up these numbers. Yep, both are "dry" advocate groups. Yep, both to overboard in their neoprobhibitionism. But you know they have a point.

In Europe they're know as Alcopops and they're slowly falling out of fashion now that over 150 brands have been released. Peach, lime, orange, watermelon, lemon, grapefruit, passion fruit, diet lemon, lime, mandarin, tangerine, blackcurrent, raspberry, strawberry, tropical fruit, blue curaçao, coconut, apple, kava kava, tiquila, pineapple, chocolate, blue, lemon lime, chocolate lime, cola, cider, guarana, cranberry, cherry, vanilla, melon, anise, blueberry, banana, pear, black cherry, rum, daiquiri, grenadine, Bourbon, lemonade, haze, cheri, Tia Maria, ginseng, mixed fruit, passion fruit, orange squash, Mexican lime, and of all things, bubblegum. Many even have caffeine.

7/4 - INDY - BW3 has added 3 new offerings on tap: Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold, Konig Ludwig Weisse, and Tom Sykes Barleywine. Enjoy.

7/4 - INDY - Alcatraz has a new Prison Porter '03 and it's $2 a pint on Thursdays, replacing the Old Glory Stout. This version of PP is deep brown with a long-lasting tan suede head. Thick and well balanced, it gives up it's taste easily to the tongue. Roasty and toasty and right on the cusp where it can be both refreshing and have full stouty strength. A big but delicate ale. 5.5% ABV, 40 IBU, Chocolate and black malts and some coffee added right in the wort. Hopped with Northwest hops Centennial, Liberty, and Yakima.

7/4 - INDIANA - Lafayette Brewing Company has on tap one of the two kegs of Stone Ruination IPA. It's 100 IBUs (that's really really bitter) and 7.7% ABV. We suggest you save this one for last - simply because you won't be able to taste a thing for about 15 minutes after your last sip of this really really bitter ale.

7/2 - INDY - To celebrate American Beer Month, BW3 downtown has all their American pints priced at $2.50 all month. This includes Rogue, Stone, Bells, Indiana micros, etc.

7/2 - Some beer geeks tried the Stone Vertical Epic 03.03.03 at the Foam Blowers of Indiana meeting last weekend and they agree it's really good for drinking right now. Think Belgian tripel with a fruity undertone. Light but the 10% ABV comes through. By the time this beer ages a bit it should be really really good. Stone says it should be ready in 2012 but I've picked up a half dozen of them to try as they mature.

7/2 - INDY - Hamilton Beverage has 11 different Bell's products right now: Sparkling Ale, Oberon, Pale Ale, Best Brown, Amber Ale, Porter, and some stouts: Rye, Susie's Sweet, Kalamazoo, Oatmeal, and Expedition.

7/1 - INDIANA - There's a new Indiana law requiring a tag on beer kegs with the ID of the person who bought the keg. It should go into effect today but since no one at the Excise department has yet figured out the details of how this would work, they aren't doing it yet.

July is American Beer Month. Look for Coors ads proclaiming this but it's also promoted by the Association of Brewers, Wynkoops, Rogue, and many others. It's also National Baked Bean Month and Tahiti Awareness Month.