Mahons Mash redux

by Mark Mahon
June 15, 2005

Here are some pictures from some of the latest beer festivals, meetings, etc...that I have been involved with in the last few weeks. Enjoy!

Sorry for the delay folks in reporting, but between work, helping out at the Indiana State Fair Brewers Cup judging, and of course doing work around the house, my report on the status of Three Floyds brewpub is a bit delayed. But my contacts in Highland, IN still report the same news from Nick.....Soon!

From what i have seen, and what I hear is the brewpub is nearly finished, tables, barstools, chairs in place, around 20 taps installed! We are talking 18 taps for 3F's beers and 2 guest taps. Paperwork and permits are sitting in Indy, awaiting inspections and approvals.

As of a week ago the tap list was Alpha King, Robert the Bruce, Gumballhead, Dreadnaught, and a milk stout called Moloko Plus.

Information is slow in coming, but you can bet that when it finially opens it is going to be a busy place. People have been waiting a long time for this.

Oh yea a few of us Indy BA's (Beer Advocates) are talking road trip. Renting us a large van with a designated driver, and taking a large group to the brewpub. There may be space available for this so stay tuned for more info as it become available.

That is all I have for now. If you are courious about homebrewing, or the state fair beer judging. Keep an eye out for my next big article. I take you from recipe conception, through brewing, bottling, and judging.

Beer Thoughts for the day!

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning,

that's as good as they're going to feel all day.

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.

When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.

When we commit no sin, we go to heaven Sooooo, let's all get drunk, and go to heaven...

I like beer. On occasion, I will even drink beer to celebrate a major event such as the fall of Communism or the fact that the refrigerator is still working.

June 4th

First up we have the WCB Ale Fest in Lafayette at Chumley's.
As you can see there was alot of beer available to sample.

Turn out wasn't real good, but those that did show up, had a very good time.

Click here to view my Ale Fest photos

June 8th

The FBI as in Foam Blowers of Indiana, met at the Oaken Barrel to sample this months style of homebrew...Wheats.

The Foam Blowers of Indiana is an AHA (American Homebrewers Association) sanctioned club based in the Indianapolis, IN area. Tasting meetings are the 2nd Thursday of each month, typically at a bar or other facility, These meetings focus on tasting each others' brewing efforts and on informal discussions about how we can improve our brewing. The emphasis is on quality, not quantity.


June 11th

Finally we come to one of the best fests in Indy. The 2005 Brew-Ha-Ha! The Foam Blowers volunteered our services to this years Brew-Ha-Ha. The wife and I arrived early Saturday to help set things up. As you can see the street is fairly empty, except for the tables and boxes of beer.

Even the brief shower that threatened to drown us all and wash away everthing, didn't stop Indy's beer lovers from attending the fest.

Click here to view my Brew-Ha-Ha photos

All in all a very good start to the month of June.
Check out the Calendar for more information on upcoming events.

Well that's all I have for now. Till next time let me leave you with a few of my favorite beer related sayings.

Life should not be a journey to the grave, with the intention of arriving safely, in an attractive and well preserved body. But rather to skid in sideways, cigar in one hand, a beer in the other, body thoroughly used up, and totally worn out and screaming, "WOO HOO! What a ride!"

"Filled with mingled cream and amber I will drain that glass again. Such hilarious visions clamber through the chamber of my brain - Quaintest thoughts - queerest fancies come to life and fade away. What care I how time advances? I am drinking ale today." --Edgar Allan Poe

"You can't have a Real Country unless you have a BEER and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER." -- Frank Zappa

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.

People who drink "light" beer don't like the taste of beer; they just like to pee alot.

5-16: It has been a slow couple of week for news and beer, but here is a little a what I have picked up. Some of this is rumor, some fact, some may be a total fabrication of my tormented imagination...but the doctor says I'm getting much better now! You'll have to figure out which is which.

It has been learned that Upland has lost another brewer. It seems the brewer came in and wanted to redo established and award winning beers.

Also in the news, It seems that Lafayette may soon have another microbrewery. No one is talking too much about it but from what we learned it could be a reality soon. Again anyone out there with more info on this let us know.

I stopped in and visited with Anita, of Great Fermentation fame. This is my local homebrew store, where I get all my brewing supplies. Anyone thinking of getting into homwbrewing of beer or wine, stop in and see Anita, she'll get you set up right. I then headed across the street to the Broad Ripple Brew Pub, to check out that they have on tap. Currently (as of last week) they had an IPA, Lawn ESB, Amarillo Lager, Spring Bock, Wheat, and on hand pull a Porter and a Best Bitter. I had the Porter which was excellant, and what I found out was the end of the Amarillo Lager which was also excellant, and I'm not a real lager fan, but I do love those Amarillo hops.

While out and about I stopped in at The Hop Shop, Specialty Liquor Store, which opened last Thursday. They are on 96th Street, just behind the Claddagh. Very good selection of beer and wine. I'll be heading back that way again soon to get some pictures and other pertinent info for the site.

Plainfield BW3's was also on my to do list this past week. I was in there about a month ago and found the beer selection had greatly improved. However when I stopped in this past week I noticed that of out of the 20 taps over half were given over to the macro beers of the big three. The craft beer they had was good, 3F's Robert the Bruce, Bells two Hearted, SA Hefeweizen, SA White Ale, Upland Wheat. They are losing ground there, hope this is just a temporary setback.

The most recent beer tasting at Dicks BBQ in Avon pulled in the smallest crowd in a long time, but we still enjoyed a good selection of beer. Avery White Rascal, Arcadia Whitsun Ale, Allagash White, 3F's Gumballhead Ale, Three Plisophers Quadrupel, Arcadia London Porter, St Peters Old Style Porter, Avery New World Porter. As a bonus beer I supplied a bottle of 3F's Dark Lord Imperial Russian Stout for the tasting and gave our Bier Meister Brian a bottle of his own for all he does. As a side note Brian has cut the beer tasting to one a month (1st Thursday) for the summer, at his Avon location. I'll have to check out the status of the 96th St store tastings.

Yesterday 5-14, I was at MacNivens for the local Beer Advocate gathering. For those who are not familiar with Beer Advocate, check out the following link. http://www.beeradvocate.com We get together every couple of months to either pub crawl or just occupy a pub like we did at MacNivens. Troy made sure we were set up nice and even let me break out a bottle of Dark Lord to share with those there! I made sure he had a sample himself.

Next up I've got to get out to Barley Island, Oaken Barrel, and a few beer stores to make myself known. Stay tuned.