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Brewers of Indiana Guild Newsletter - June, 2007
B.I.G. News - Pre-Festival edition One more time, put July 21st on your calendar. Advance-sale tickets for the Indiana Microbrewers Festival are now available online. The Brewer's of Indiana Guild has purchased some glycol-chilled cold-blankets for firkins and they intend to have up to 16 Real Ales on the handpull at the Microbrewers' Festival (July 21). This year's Replicale specs have been released by Dave Colt. "The style this year is a Pre-prohibition ale but the twist is that every brewery will use only one hop variety and everyone will have to use a different American grown type." Participating Indiana breweries will have it ready for release at the Microbrewer's Festival. Major sponsors for the Festival this year include the Broad Ripple Brewpub, Crown Liquors, Red Hook, and Goose Island. It's multi-thousand dollar support from firms like this that allowed last year's Festival to give $21,000 to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and Optimist International. Indiana Beer News Homebrewers, get your entries in for the Indiana State Fair Brewers' Cup by June 22. info A new brewpub is in the planning in Fort Wayne. The Granite City Food & Brewery hopes to open in November on the north side of the city and should break ground in June. This will be one of 7 new locations to their now-16-location midwest chain to open in 2007. They are also planning one in South Bend in 2008. article article Another new Indiana microbrewery startup is taking place down in the Lawrenceburg area. Homebrewers Dan and Lani Valas are bringing back the Great Crescent Brewery name. They hope to open early next year. Lafayette Brewing's new bottling line will first produce Tippecanoe Common and Black Angus Oatmeal stout. Hopefully in July. They're waiting for label approval. To make room for the bottling line Greg will be clearing out a room holding some Big Boris Barleywine. Some, dating back to 1996, will be released including some 1997/8 barrel-aged Franken-Boris. "More details to come." Things we found out by reading the Great Lakes Brewing News (pick up a copy at your local brewpub, or beer place - there are also subscriptions available):
Upland has their new 37bbl kettle in operation along with 74bbl fermenters. They now double-batch, producing 2 massive brews in a 12-hour day. Columbus Bar's 1-year anniversary celebration hosted about 100 people listening to Rock Zoo in a park/picnic setting out back. An excellent time and a very good band. Also, they plan to unveil their first brew, a Brown Ale, of the Powerhouse Brewery on June 28th. Sounds like another party.
SteveFest is on at New Albanian Brewing. Steve Hall (right, below) replaces Dave Siltz (center) as the menu manager for a while. He even brought local, and very good, band for opening night - The Boogie Men. We stopped in last Friday and had a couple from his selection. The Cask-Conditioned Elector was good and not overdone hopwise. Monk's Flemish Ale, on tap, yum. Jolly Pumpkin La Roja is a wonderful big Belgian Red aged in wood that helps propagate the notion of North American's can brew Belgian's as good as the old country. Both draft Schlenkerla Marzen and NABC's Bonfire of the Valkyries are on the lineup for smoke beer fans. Our kind of menu. Huzzah.
Keg Liquors' Fest of Ale was attended by about 200 - 3 times as many people as last year. Rain and lightning for 45 minutes didn't stop the tasting but probably kept another hundred from venturing out. Fears that a 20-ticket format would keep people away evaporated and, with perfect-sized 4-oz pours no one used all their tickets. Todd's decision to extend the closing time a bit was welcomed.
Lyke 2 Drink's 100 Places to Have a Beer Before You Die. The Heorot, RichO's and the Kulminator are strangly missing. Your editor has been to 28 of them. Gotta get busy. Rich O's is RateBeer's 6th best beer bar in the world (Indy's BW3 is #79 and the Kulminator takes it's rightful place as #1). Take that, Lyke 2 Drink. There's also ink at local paper Velocity. Three Floyds may not do Dark Lord day next year "out of fear they won't be able to accommodate the crowd". Monarch lost 2,804 beer kegs last year. Belmont Beverages loses 8% of the kegs that they take deposits on. article - another article The Backstage Bar at Centerstage in Muncie
is now open to the public. It's the The Indianapolis Star looks at wheat beers from Indiana. On Saturday, June 9th, people from FBI, OVHA, MECA, Bloomington Hop Jockeys, THC, MIB, CACA, IBADS, Gambrinus Society, and one imposter in a FOSSILS shirt met at Great Fermentations in Indy for the first Brew-B-Q. (These are all Indiana homebrew clubs by the way). It was hastily conceived just 7 weeks ago but well executed mainly by Ron Smith and Frank Petrarca of the FBI (last picture below) with plenty of help from lots of other people including Anita and Darren of GF. It was a typical homebrew club meeting with plenty of samples but was much larger (about 75 people) and with enough BBQ from Frank, Paul Henry, and Jim Kirk to satiate everyone. Door prizes ranged from bottles of Alesmith's Yulesmith (thanks World Class) through a cornie keg (thanks GF) to 2 of Blichmann Engineering's Beer Guns. Here's some pictures.
The Indianapolis Star is at it again. Headlines: "Deadly Decisions", "Professional View". The fringe group ICRUD put in a sidebar with typically specious statistics. article (with bonus cute photo of their head wingnut, Lisa Hutcheson.
Seen at the Cavalier/Schneider reception - 4 generations of Kahn's beer experts. Greg Blackman, Mike Sprinkle, Brennan Corder, Cole Varga. Cole is the latest and current. Stop in at Keystone and say "hi".
And a couple more pictures at random
Indiana News for Retailers Remember last month when we gave a list of alcohol-related bills that should be passed this year? Only HB 1324 was enacted - the one forbidding scrap metal dealers from taking brewer's kegs. Everything else went in the dustbin. No Sunday sales, even if we ever get a Superbowl. No in-store sampling of cider. No definition of grocery store vs convenience store. No extra licenses for the new shopping mall in the Highland area.
Upcoming Events Please see http://www.brewersofindianaguild.com/events.html for Indiana (and some surrounding area) events. Also lists bands playing at member breweries. On Tap Please see http://www.brewersofindianaguild.com/ontap.html for the current tap lists of Indiana Breweries. Miscellaneous News (if you didn't read it at IndianaBeer.com already) Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA is back on the shelves. It's actually a seasonal and went out to wholesalers earlier this month. Is the Tongue Map a hoax? Is sour really cheek-cramping? Did a Harvard psychologist write a German paper? Could the Wine Enthusiast be more wrong than Gourmet Magazine? you decide A tank car got loose in a Denver rail yard on May 23rd and ran into an engine, spilling beer. Is "Coors Strong" still being shipped to diluting plants? article Sam Adams Boston Lager is now being made in Latrobe by City Brewery of LaCrosse. Rolling Rock is being made in Newark by A-B. Fosters is making Carlsberg in Australia while Fosters is being made by Scottish & Newcastle in England. Whitbread is being made by Sam Adams in Cincinnati. The world goes around and around. Sapporo Breweries has filed patent applications for a barley line that keeps beer fresh longer. The barley lacks lipoxygenase, an iron-containing enzyme that causes the flavor of beer to deteriorate. Sapporo said it took eight years to develop and plans to produce 3,000 tons of the new barley line in Canada in 2008 before increasing production worldwide. CAMBODIA –The illegal sale of beer imported from Singapore and Thailand then “disappearing” at the border accounts for 29% of Cambodia’s total beer market according to a report released by the Economic Institute of Cambodia. Tax revenue lost represents 3% of the country’s total. Let's all be careful out there. A bar owner in Wisconsin was fined $172 for pouring Coors Light from a tap with a Miller Lite handle. He told patrons it was Coors but the state Dept of Revenue called it "a major violation". article
Down in Louisville, Bluegrass Brewing's new Hefeweizen is a bold, German style. It's joining their Single Batch series along with the Dark American IPA, Oktoberfest, and Hell for Certain and all will probably be exclusively in 750ml bottles. Look for the new labels (below).
The Bluegrass Brewing brewpub on Shelbyville Rd has a Schwartz that is quick thick but not quite a porter and a Meade at 7.8% ABV that has a hit of herbs, a big hint of honey, and just a touch of sweetness. Also on tap: Vienna, Alt, APA, Porter, Summer Wheat, Nut Brown, and Matt Bitter. They open a hand-pulled cask every Thursday. Dateline Aying, Germany. Drinkers are bitter about the rise in beer prices since barley is being abandoned to plant subsidized crops that will be turned into car fuel. The AP finally notices. article Dateline Mexico City. Drinkers are incensed about the rise in tequila prices once agave is abandoned to plant subsidized crops that will be turned into car fuel. Reuters finally notices. article As reported, there's a crisis coming in beer kegs. Michigan law calls for a $10 deposit on $130 kegs and the stainless steel is worth $1.75 per pound. So they've upped the official deposit to $30. Breweries wanted a $90 mandated deposit. article "Rumor that Molson Coors may be the latest target of a SABMiller take over was stoked by comments by a SABMiller exec as well as a new Molson Coors executive payout package in the event of a merger or sale unveiled this week. Coors offered no comment." A liter of beer at Munich's Oktoberfest will cost $10.70 (at today's exchange rate).
Cleveland's Great Lakes brewpub and the Brew Kettle Taproom get ink. article Headline: "Beer-tasting growing into latest licensing fad". Since a certification exam was instituted 12 years ago, more than 5,000 people have passed the test given by the Japan Craft Beer Association and become certified beer tasters. article On Saturday a Northumberland, England, brewery had 4 semi-trailers of beer stolen. 3 have been recovered empty. That's a 12,000 cases of beer. Er, well it's Corona and Corona Extra Light. Move along you lookie-loos, nothing to see here. article Flood: Hinton, Australia, has been flooded for 5 days but it's OK, they got 12 kegs and 36 cases of beer delivered. article Drought: Jack Daniels' spring is drying up, yielding 1/3 to 1/2 of normal. They may "need to stop producing the whiskey until water levels increase". article with video News compiled by Bob Ostrander, Marketing Director. It's all considered accurate but then Bob has been known to have a drink or two while writing this so-called tome. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the Brewers of Indiana Guild, in which case Bob will lose his job. Some coupon offers are for Associate Members only, non-transferable, and may be withdrawn due to unforeseen circumstances, acts of the gods, bankruptcy, or other capricious reasons. It's illegal in Indiana to offer any alcoholic beverage at discount through coupons, prizes, or the fact that the drinker is female. Sorry. |
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Cavalier Distributing hosted a
major reception for Susanne Hecht, Schneider's Export Manager at the
Rathskeller. About 150 people enjoyed the very professional party,
presentation, and tasting of Edelweiss, Original, Aventinus, and Aventinus
Eisbock.
The
British Public Health folks have asked for "voluntary" warning labels on all
drinks by the end of 2007. The graphic will tell how many "units" are in the
bottle/can/drink and tell people they should have 3-4 units per day for
males and 2-3 for females. 
The
latest beer controversy: Is George Bush off the wagon and is that why he
called in sick at the G8 conference? Or is that a Buckler NA? And should
alcoholics drink near-beer?