Hello again, boys and girls! Did we all have a good Thanksgiving filled with turkey, stuffing, and beer?
Well at least did you have a couple beers over the weekend, right?

It has been sometime since I posted anything. Work has been a real killer this past month.
Seems like I never have time to do much of anything. But who am I to complain?

Lets see... what have I been up to? At the end of last month, I received an email from Mike Deweese. He was having another beer tasting, on Nov 4th, at the Dick's Bodacious BBQ in Broadripple. The featured beers were from Bluegrass Brewing Company out of Louisville, KY. Present for this tasting were Craig and Chris of BBC.
The featured BBC beers were...

Bluegrass Altbier
Bluegrass American Pale Ale
Bluegrass Nut Brown Ale
Bluegrass Dark Star Porter
Bluegrass Hell fer Certain...which should now be out and available.
Also there was
Sam Adams Octoberfest
Sammy Smith Winter Welcome.

Plus courtesy of Mike Sprinkle former Kahn's beer guy, and current manager of Crown, Alesmith Old Numbskull an English Barley Wine, and courtesy of Brennan, the current Beer Guru of Kahn's, Left Hand 10th Anniversary Oak Aged Imperial Stout. Many thanks to both of them!

What else have I been doing...Well I've been hitting a few places around the area, lookng to find the next new great place to get a pint. Especially since I lost my local beer bar last month. Unfortunetly, I have some very high and strict guidelines that I like to follow. Basically they are...Beer Bar - an establishment that sells and serves beer (in container or on draught) the establishment must have a focus on local and craft beer. Beer / Liquor Store - a store known for its wide selection or quality, of beer.

As I've posted here before, the Plainfield Krogers has a really great selection of local and craft beer. Be sure to check it out. Now good beer bars on the other hand are hard to find. Case in point... I stopped by the BW3's up on Lake Circle Drive just off 86th street. They had very few craft and local beers, just like the BW3's in Plainfield that I revisited again this month, the majority of the beer they have are your basic BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors) with a few macro-micros thrown in (Guiness, Harp, Newcastle, etc). Maybe someday they will come around. Meanwhile I'll keep looking....and hoping!

Another place I like visitng, is MacNivens. This place always has good beer on tap, the servers are great, and I really like the atmosphere. I met up with a few other beer folk. We are trying to make some plans for a group road trip to Three Floyds, to visit their new brewpub. Stay tuned as plans come together, for more info on this! We spent 2 or 3 hours hashing things out, sampling the beer...but for the life of me I can't find my notebook anywhere, with all my tasting notes. And will all the beer consumed that night I really don't remember what they had avail. Hopefully it will turn up soon.

I finally made it to Upland Brewing in Bloomington. I was out running around in the Morgan-Monroe forest area, (looking for Bambi) and decided to head on down to Bloomington, to check it out. Currently...at least as of Nov 18th they had the following beer on tap.
Wit
Old Ale
Amber
Pale
Porter
IPA
Saison
They were also running a special on bottles that were left over from a festival they had that week. I tried the Old Ale and their famous Porter. Both were excellant. If I had more time I would have headed over to the Bloomington Brewing Company. Next time guys, I promise.

Well that is all I had time for this month. If any of you out there have any good places I should be visiting, drop me a line, the first round will be on me!. If it is close I promise to visit it right away. If it is outside my local area I'll put it on my places to visit list.Till next time some more beer quotes...

To some its a six-pack, to me it's a Support Group

You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.

Later guys!

You know what? I just thought of something else to pass on to you. I am currently part of a study group that is preparing to take the BJCP exam in March. For those who don't know what that is, I'll try to explain.
BJCP is the Beer Judge Certification Program. Its purpose is to promote beer literacy and the appreciation of real beer and to recognise beer tasting and evaluation skills. It is a real intense study program, that prepares you to become a certified beer judge, something that we really need more of here in Indiana.

Just to give you an idea what I'm talking about, I thought I'd include a couple of the questions that are in the study guide, and could possibly be on the test. Ready? Good Luck

S2 Identify, describe and differentiate four members of the Stout family. Give commercial examples of each style.

Simple huh! Well how about this one.
T19 Explain what happens during the mashing process. Discuss three different mashing techniques and the recommended usage and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

So did you enjoy that? Got the answers yet?

Mark@Indianabeer.com