May 29 
Hop
problems. Hallertau was hit by a huge hail storm on May 26th.
scary slide show of hail, but not of
vines - (picture at right from German Hop Growers Assn. is
post-storm). Here's the preliminary damage from the Bavarian Brewers
Federation:
Total affected plantings in Germany:
Approx. 10,000 acres or 4,000 hectares
Total est. losses: 5,000 metric tons
Hallertau:
Approx. 2,500 acres complete wipe-out
Approx. 3,700 acres severely damaged
Approx. 3,700 acres lightly to moderately damaged
Tettnang:
Approx. 850 acres severely damaged
Approx. 1,000 acres moderately damaged
Approx. 1,200 acres lightly damaged to not damaged at all
Impact: 170 metric tons of total crop
Czech Republic Saaz region:
Approx. 175 acres severely damaged
Approx. 150 acres moderately damaged
For a meaningful comparison:
Hallertau total plantings = 38,740 acres
Hallertau total harvest > 32,000 metric tons
Total global plantings = about 150,000
Total global harvest = about 110,000 metric tons
Summary:
* The Hallertau as a whole usually produces about one-third of all the
world's hops.
* The affected areas represent about 25% of the Hallertau's hop-growing
acreage..
* The affected areas represent about 6% to 7% of the world's
hop-growing acreage.
* The projected losses of 5,000 mt represent about 15% of the German
hop harvest.
* The projected losses represent about 4.5% of the global hop harvest
Market Outlook:
"It is obviously far too early to make any projections about the final
crop outcome. Nevertheless it is safe to say that we are unlikely to
reach long-term averages for the Hallertau and Tettnang after the
devastating storm ... [However] ... we certainly do not predict another
hop shortage for crop 2009 at this point ..."
Some tastes:
- Broad Ripple Brewpub - Dual Citizenship Ale
- On the handpull. I'd guess Fuggles, Cascades, and probably more. Both
the earthiness and floral aspects of the hops come through very strong.
A 50 IBU IPA. Going to sell out fast.
- Rock Bottom
86th St, Indy - IPA - For all descriptive purposes a carbonated clone
of BRBP's Dual Citizenship Ale.
- Rock Bottom 86th St - Cask
Conditioned Red - Mmmmm. Dark copper. Proper temperature. Served with
sparkler giving creamy head. A bold Southern Mild but with a
higher-than-Mild 5% ABV. Caramel. Earthy dryness. A bit of a dull fuzzy
finish on the tongue, otherwise could be my desert island beer.
Growler refills at
Rock Bottom 86th St, Indy are now only $5
on Mondays.
On May 18th, the U.S. Supreme Court
decided to NOT hear a case challenging the state’s face-to-face
purchase requirement for alcohol. The face-to-face law gives the right
to those selling alcohol to require identification in order to ensure
those purchasing alcohol are at least 21 years old. National Beer
Wholesalers Association President, Craig Purser, stated this decision
was a “victory for state-based alcohol regulation.”
Stone 13th Anniversary should be
in stores today. A Double Red. Here's the specs.
From George Saxon of Phoenix Imports,
the "A rumor about Thomas Hardy's Ale being discontinued is beginning
to spread so we want to set the record straight. O'Hanlon's Brewing Co.
Ltd. has informed us that they will no longer brew Hardy's effective
immediately, even though we had an order pending with them. This is a
breach of our license agreement with them, and consequently we are
terminating that agreement.
We are in the process of
interviewing other brewers to brew Hardy's and Royal Oak Pale Ale but,
given the time involved in that process and in brewing Hardy's, it's
quite likely that there will not be a 2009 vintage. And, obviously, no
more 2008."
Cavalier Distributing reports stocks
of Thomas Hardy's in Indiana are plentiful. Indiana won't be so lucky
with the excellent Royal Oak as it has a much shorter shelf life.
Coming to Indiana: Meantime London
Stout. B+ at
BeerAdvocate. And it's going to be
available in kegs as will their IPA (finally).
Drunkenness at the Indy 500? Expected.
But you'll be surprised at the numbers. Nuvo says of the 350,000
attendees there were only 72 arrests. 36 for public intoxication. (28
for having weed). You gotta guess more than 1/100th of 1% were actually
over .08 but the track police know how not to ruin a party. Huzzah.
Illinois legislative leaders are
considering increasing the tax on beer by 2.6 cents per six-pack to
raise $1 billion for a proposed multibillion-dollar statewide
construction program. This will be the first increase in ten years.
Also, under consideration will be increased taxes on liquor and wine,
80 cents and 13 cents per bottle respectively.
May 28 
New Albanian's
Bank Street location has already turned into a good local hangout for
mature adults. Anytime you see someone at the end of the bar reading a
book, working a crossword, or better yet doing homework you know you're
in the right place.
Food specialty is Mussels ($10).
Milk and onion sauce (only one offered) that was fairly bland. The
Frites ($5) are well made with about 6 sauces offered - none of which
were spicy or peppery.
Tastings:
- Broad Ripple Brewpub Cerveza De Sol - Back
again this year. Bright golden yellow. Minor malt skirmish with a
balanced finish that is quenching, fruity, and surprisingly long.
- Broad Ripple Brewpub Violet -
"Strawberry Belgian Blonde". Might be BRBP's first-ever fruit beer.
Mild strawberry replaces the malt sweetness. Belgianness supplied by
the Ram's "777" yeast.
- Gerst Haus Gerst Beer - Contract
brewed from Pittsburgh Brweery. Bright cold lager. Presumably all malt.
Some depth of color.
- New Albanian
Abzug - Pilsner with some wit-like citric.
- Turoni's Black Light Lager - Schwarz. Roasty. Light body. 2008 State Fair Gold Medal.
- Turoni's Helles Bock - A bit dark
colored to style. Bright on the tongue. Malt bockness. Satisfying
finish. Elegant stuff.
- Founders Cherise - Peach fuzzy
thick. Light body. Medium tartness. Belgian yeast but the fruit finish
isn't 100% cherry.
Upcoming at Broad Ripple: a Belgian
Brown with "777" yeast. Hefe. American Brown. Dual-Citizenship Ale.
May 26 "We are pleased to announce that
Barley Island Brewing Company has 4 brands
now available in Chicago and the surrounding counties. Louis Glunz
Beer, Inc has 121 years of experience as a family-owned and operated
beer distributor in Chicagoland. Initial bottled brands for the Chicago
market are Dirty Helen Brown, BarFly IPA, Sheet Metal Blonde and
Beastie Barrel Porter." - Jeff Eaton
Kudos are extended to Tom Wallbank who
took 1st place at the 2nd annual UpCup Competition in Bloomington.
Tom’s Classic Rauchbier took top honors in a field of sixty beers. This
is Tom’s first Best of Show. Tom’s entry was not entirely normal in
that 95% of the grist was home-smoked with American Beech from
southwest Indiana. Tom now has the pleasure of brewing his Rauchbier
with Upland Brewing Company, and it will be entered in the Pro-Am GABF
competition this fall. Shortly after recording his victory, Tom and
Caleb Staton, Upland’s head brewer, were trying to figure out how to
smoke 1000 pounds of grain.
Other FBI members also did well in
the competition. Brian Steuerwald took 2nd place with his Russian
Imperial Stout and Andrew Korty took 3rd place with his Belgian Blonde,
making it an FBI sweep.
Roger Baylor didn't like the Ohio
River Valley Folk Festival -
blog
Watch the new New Albanian Bank Street
Brewery be set up
here,
here, and
here.
Beer Geek Mike looks at Icelandic
beers. Icelandic? Cool.
blog
In honor of the lifetime of support
for Broad Ripple Village, the Mayor of Indianapolis proclaimed April
30th as John and Nancy Hill Day. -
picture
June 6th. Keg
Liquor Fest of Ale has to move from the store parking lot
for more space. It will be held at St. Anthony's, 320 N Sherwood Ave,
Clarksville. 20 breweries, 100 beers. 3-7pm. $25/$30
Turoni's new restaurant in Newburgh is
on Ind 66 just west of Ind 261. The building is up but has nothing
inside yet. They hope for a July opening.
Greg Koch's keynote at the Craft
Brewers Conference (all 40 minutes of it) is
online.
Burger beer returns to Cincinnati
market -
Bucyrus Telegraph.
Alabama gets beer over 6% ABV.
Free the Hops has more info.
Mark Schiess has some humor pages. Not
all safe for work -
Guy
walks into a bar jokes,
More beer jokes,
Beer quotations.
May 19 
• I recently had the distinct opportunity of drinking the Brooklyn Local 2 from Brooklyn Brewery of Brooklyn, NY at J.K. O’Donnell’s Irish Ale House (Fort Wayne, In) and here are my notes about this wonderful beer - Corked and caged bottle. Small tan head with excellent retention, one ring of lacing, opaque, no visible carbonation, and a dark brown hue. The aroma came together very nicely-malt, caramel, dark fruits, spicy, and some notes of honey. The flavor was not to be outdone-malty, caramel, some notes of honey, dark fruits, spicy, and the ABV was present but not overly so at 9%. Tingly mouth feel and medium bodied. A very, very nice beer indeed! Nicely balanced and a sipping beer for sure. More than worthy of a try, would drink this again if it comes my way, and this is not a beer to be taken lightly.
• Some news taken from the latest Mad Anthony Brewsletter – “Mug Club members! Join us Wednesday June 3rd for the tapping of our summer seasonal, "Summer Daze Wheat." This beer is brewed with a hypnotic blend of wheat, honey, caramel malt, and various natural aromatics. This annual ale is substantial in character yet remains light, crisp, and refreshing. All mug club members are invited to join us from 5-7pm as we tap the first keg of the season and as usual there will be complimentary food.”
• “Stop by the newest Mad Anthony location in Elkhart IN and check out their newly opened Beer Garden. This is a great spot to enjoy a hand crafted beer while enjoying great atmosphere, sunshine, and great food. The Elkhart location is also accepting reservations for their banquet room. Able to accommodate parties up to 60 people, we can provide a customized menu, large screen tv, AV equipment, which makes this the perfect location for a large party or that perfect place to host your business meetings.”
• “This years Mad Anthony Golf Outing and Octobeerfest will be held on the weekend of Sept 18th & 19th. This years golf outing will be held on Friday at Bridgewater East Golf Club and The Octobeerfest Celebration will be held on Saturday the 19th from 2 - 6PM. Watch for more details as they become available.”
• “Each brew we do in our production brewery yields 32 kegs or 496 gallons of Hand - Crafted Ales. The production brewery is averaging 2 brews per week.”
• Crown Brewing (Crown Point, IN) currently has on tap:Special Force Ale which is an American Style IPA, Smokestack Amber Ale which is an American Amber Style Ale, Celtic Pride Irish Stout, and Crown Town Brown Ale.
May 16 The Replicale this year is a German
Alt. Many breweries will make it to unveil at the Microbrewers
Festival, July 18th. Dave Colt, as always, did the recipe:
O.G. 12.5 plato IBU's 32
| Malt: |
Global Kolsch
|
85% |
| |
Global Vienna |
9% |
| |
Global Munich dark |
5% |
| |
Weyermann Carafa1 |
1% |
Hops: Perle 6.3% alpha
Yeast: Whatever your heart
desires.
|
Things we learn from Jim Herter
(stolen from his June/July column in Great Lakes Brewing News).
- New Beers in June:
- Shoreline - 3Sum Double IPA. Bleacher Bum
Bock (small beer from Curse the Goat Doppelbock).
- Back Road - LaPorte UnCommon Ale; 3.8% and
a more popular price.
- Lafayette Brewing - Dry-hopped Summer Lager
(German Helles with German and American Saphir hops.
- Mad Anthony's
- Summer Daze Belgian Wit with Indiana honey. Bavarian Black Lager. Men
of Steel American Ale in July.
- Upland
- Rad Red Amber Ale
- Barley
Island - Belgian Pale Ale
- Oaken Barrel
- World of Wheats series - Dunkelweizen, American Wheat, Kristalweizen,
Weizenbock. To be released one per month June through Sept.
- More events:
- June 19/20, Crown
Brewing - SummerFest.
- July 4, Oaken Barrel - 15th Anniversary celebration
and hog roast.
- July 12, Shoreline - Red White and Brews Fest
Lots of
quick tastes, including this year's Maibock survey:
- Alcatraz
Rock Bock - Brownish copper. Quite malty styled bock. Mt Hood hops for
balance. Dries out in the finish.
- Alcatraz Bighouse Red - Crisp and
clean. Munich, chocolate, and roasted malts. Wilamette and Cascade hops.
- Alcatraz Weiss Guy Wheat - Bold
copper color. Thickish. Plenty of wheat and plenty of bitterness
combine to give a full mouth experience and a balanced finish.
- Broad Ripple Brewpub Maibock -
Fairly dark. Great smoothness and balance. Same as last year. Right to
BJCP style guidline.
- Oaken Barrel
Munich Helles - Crystal clear gold. Quality thoughout with the
drinkability of an American lager but makes BMC seem like artificially
flavored pap. 5.2%. 27.9 IBU (what's up with the .9?)
- Oaken Barrel Uberweizen - As always
uber cloudy. Bready clove nose. Wheat hits tongue first and stays
predominant. Less banana and clove than last year. Heavier carbonation
as well. Same great thick mouthfeel.
- Ram -Maibock
- Nicely matured. Crisp-looking copper. Crisp in the mouth also.
Balanced a bit to the sweet side. Full bodied but not creamy.
- Ram Wit - Golden and hazy. Spicey
of stongly citric orange and clove. Stays in the middle of the tongue.
Uses the famous Ram 777 yeast. A+
- Ram 90 Shilling Scottish. Nice
bitter background. Smooth. Very swiggable at a nice 5.7%. A+
- Ram Dry Hopped IPA - Served from a
firkin at their open house. Sarachi hops give plenty of IPA bitterness
that comes in late.
- Rock Bottom, Downtown Indy Goat Toppler Maibock -
Rich gold color. Good malt aroma. Pleasant sharpness leads to quite a
bit of bitter that is joined by some spiciness at the end. Jerry has
used a livin-on-the-edge amount of hops.
- RB Downtown Cezanne Saison - Golden
color. Small mixed-fruit nose. White winey tartness hits hard and dries
fast. Refreshing summer drink. Fermented for 31 days with two yeasts.
6.3%
- RB Downtown Naughty Pappy - This
batch of the Naughty Scot 90 Shilling has been aged one full year in a
Pappy Van Winkle barrel. Like the Naughty Woody the whiskey is the
focal point. Aroma of fruity vanilla. Whiskey hits the tongue first.
Finish is sweet.
- Rock Bottom,
86th St, Indy Maibock - Light golden color but at 7.1% it isn't
light. Malt start, balanced finish just like it should be. Quite a
kick. Robust.
- RB 86th St Naughty Scot on the
handpull - Perfect. Smooth. Candy sweetness at start dries by the
middle. Begs for a bigger glass.
- Upland
Maibock - Darker copper. Pleasant malty aroma. Malt attack
slowly translates to bitterness. Slight spice at end. All quite rounded
and married. Available in bottles.
This year's King of the Maibocks may very well belong to Upland, Ram,
or Broad Ripple. They're all smooth, married, and quaffable. We'll have
to set up a direct comparison tasting.
Dixie Brewing is sending 1,000 cases
to Fargo, ND to fulfil mayor Dennis Walaker's promise to buy everyone a
beer who helped with their recent flood. Dixie is still being brewed in
Wisconsin due to Katrina.
AB/InBev is selling the last of their
stake in Tsingtao to a Chinese investor. That should bring about $235M
to toward paying off the AB purchase.
May 15 Congratulations to the Indiana winners
in the first round of the
National Homebrew Competition:
- Bill Ballinger - Shelbyville - MECA
- Specialty Beer - 2nd
- John Blichmann & Doug Granlund
- Lafayette - THC - ESB - 3rd, Wood-aged Beer - 1st
- Bruce Deters - Angola - Brown
Porter - 3rd
- Robert Heinlein - Crown Point -
BOSS - English IPA - 1st
- Jim Matt - Indianapolis - MECA -
Bohemian Pilsner - 2nd, Robust Porter - 1st
- Alexander Meadows - Indianapolis -
FBI - Spice/Herb - 3rd
- John Morrical - Indianapolis - FBI
- Belgian Specialty Ale - 1st
- Michael Pearson - Anderson - MECA -
Fruit Cider - 1st
- Brian Pickerill - Muncie - MECA -
American Pilsner - 3rd
- Jason Rich - Claypool - MASH -
Cyser - 1st
- Mark Schiess - Carmel - FBI -
Kölsch - 1st, American Brown Ale - 1st, American Stout - 3rd
- Bill Staashelm - Indianapolis -
MECA - Oktoberfest - 2nd
- Brian Steuerwald - Brownsburg - FBI
- Eisbock - 3rd
- Tom Wallbank - Zionsville - FBI -
Düsseldorf Altbier
- Jed & Ernie Wolkins -
Indianapolis - Dry Stout - 2nd
May 13 • J.K. O’Donnell’s Irish Ale House (Fort Wayne, IN) - Now has Ommegang Rare Vos on tap and this Friday they will have a case of Brooklyn Local 2 for consumption. According to their Bar Manager, Fritz Hoffman, they will have the only case of this beer in Northeast Indiana. This reporter will definitely be making a visit to J.K.’s for both of these beers on Friday!
• The Trion Tavern (New Haven, IN) - The next twenty (20) taps were installed this week and beginning June 1st the tap list will include the following beers per Greg the owner:
Oberon
Alpha King
Brugge Tripel de Ripple
Southern Tier Unearthly
BBC Jefferson’s Reserve
Red’s Rye
DFH 90 minute
Bells Best Brown
Bells Two Hearted
Bells Hopslam
Victory Hop Wallop
BBC Nut Brown
Framboise
Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence
Delirium Tremens
Brooklyn Monster
Founders Porter
Breckenridge 471 IIPA
Also, to celebrate the addition of the above-mentioned beers, the following list of beers will be tapped on June 1st:
Two Brothers Cane and Ebel
Founders Cerise
FFF’s Dreadnaught
DFH 120 Minute
Mad Anthony IPA
Warbird Shanty Irish
Ommegang Rouge Grand Cru
FFF’s Blackheart
May 11 A list of the latest offerings at Belmonts (Lima Road, Fort Wayne):
Brugge Black, Brugge White, 3 Floyds Brian Boru Irish Red Ale, Broo Doo Harvest Ale, Rabbid Rabbit Saison, Behemoth Barleywine, Dogfish Head Red & White, Palo Santo Marron Brown Ale, Hoppin' Frog IPA, Boris the Crusher Oatmeal-Imperial Stout, Moylans IPA, Moylander Double IPA, Avery Mephistopheles Stout, The Beast Grand Cru Ale, New World Porter, Dark Horse Perkulator Dopplebock, Fore Smoked Stout, Van Steenburge Gulden Draak, Konig Ludwig Weissbier, Guinness 250th Anniv. Beer, Bells Lager of the Lakes, New Belgium 1554 Black Ale, Fat Tire Amber Ale, and Mothership Wit Wheat Beer.
Crown Brewing is celebrating American Craft Brew Week by offering $3 pints from May 11-17.
