Thank You!

I just wanted to thank everyone that has supported BIMP from the beginning. Beer Is My Passion has been such an exciting challenge for me. Writing about beer, participating in tastings and beer festivals, and sharing my development as a homebrewer has been a truly rewarding experience. I’ve taken some much needed time to reflect on where I felt the future of Beer Is My Passion would take me/you, and I have some exciting news. Beer Is My Passion will be combining efforts with a fellow homebrew club (Krausen Growers Bureau) to form a brand new homebrew club. The Circle City Zymurgy club has officially filed with the American Homebrewer’s Association, and as of today I will be focusing my attention on making CCZ the best homebrew club it can be. Make sure to visit us at circlecityzymurgy.com for events, tastings, and news on all things fermented. Thanks again for the ride, and I hope you continue to make beer your passion!Circle City Zymurgy - Indianapolis Skyline - Beer Background

Brewer’s Cup in the Works

So much work goes on behind the scenes of the Brewer’s Cup. Commercial and homebrew alike, there were a ridiculous amount of entries to process for this event. We happened to snag some photos of the process this year. Good luck to all who entered!

 

UpCup 2013 Revisited

UpCup 2013 was a blast this year. Beer Is My Passion had four entries including an American Barleywine (Kyle Alder), an English IPA Spruce Beer (Michael Mustin), a Wood Aged Old Ale (Erik Howell), and a Southern English Brown (Jenn Myers). Upland really knows how to host an awesome homebrewing event. This is by far my favorite competition of the year. We all enjoyed Upland beer on tap, good conversation with  brewers from around the state, and awesome food catered by Upland. This year’s UpCup winner was homebrewer and beer judge Thomas Wallbank of the Indianapolis Foam Blowers with a Berliner Weisse. He’ll have his name added on the UpCup trophy with the other winners, and he’ll get to keep it until next year’s competition. Second place went to Ron Smith’s Saison, also a Foam Blower and beer judge. I’m very happy to announce that our own Jenn Myers ended up taking third place with her 221b Baker St. Southern English Brown this year 🙂 If you happen to bump into her make sure to congratulate her. We’re all super proud of her!

IMG_0620Here’s Jenn just after they announced she had taken third place.

IMG_0624

Jenn received a free case of any Upland beer of her choice out of Upland’s massive beer cave. Rad Red? Don’t mind if I do 🙂

We all had an awesome time, and as you can see from some of the pictures there may have even been some kung fu fighting in the parking lot 🙂 BIMP later took the party to The Tap for some celebratory brews.

Fountain Square Brewing’s 2nd Annual Peep Show!

Fountain Square Brewing Peep ShowFountain Square Brewery will be holding their 2nd Annual Peep Shooting Contest on March 29th @ 7pm. This event was a big hit last year. Entrants into this Peep propulsion extravaganza are judged on Accuracy, Creativity, and “Total Annihilation.” Ultimately each entrant designs a Peep Shooting weapon of their choice (although they cannot use anything flammable or explosive) to fire at a target 35 feet away. Their registry page even has a drop-down field that lists the categories of über-Peep shooting power your weapon uses to mangle the poor Peeps: Mechanical, Magnetic, Pneumatic, and Hydraulic. Creativity is encouraged. You can register for the event here. Looking forward to this event. See you there!

2013 AHA National Homebrew Competition

AHA National Homebrew Competition - GoldIt’s time to start thinking about what you are going to brew for the American Homebrewer’s Association National Homebrew Competition this year. Which of your favorite beers take the longest to mature? What styles do you currently have conditioning? What beers can you have ready in one month’s time? These are all good questions to ask, but the most important thing you can do now is GET STARTED! Online registration for the AHA National Homebrew Competition begins Tuesday February 26th. All entries are due between March 18th and March 27th. First Round Competitions begin March 29th and come to a close on April 21st. If you haven’t submitted a homebrew to a competition in the past, this is an excellent way to improve your brewing skills! A BJCP certified judge will rate your brew according to style on appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel, and overall impression. This is a valuable tool that I’ve found can break a brewer’s ego, while at the same time help guide brewers toward honing their craft. I’ll post more information as it is available, but you can always stay up to date on this competition at the AHA website.

Online Registration 1 p.m. MST, Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Entries Due March 18-March 27, 2013
First Round Competitions March 29-April 21, 2013

King of Beers American Lager/Pilsner Tasting This Saturday

The King of Beers American Lager/Pilsner Tasting takes place this Saturday at 5pm in Broad Ripple. Expect nothing but the finest of domestic brews from America’s largest macrobrewers down to some of the smallest craft breweries. American Lagers are an American tradition. Although this style has German roots (German Pilsner), American hops, corn, and 6-row barley make this style unique. You would be hard pressed to find any watering hole that does not serve at least one of these domestic, yellow, light bodied brews on tap. Although Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors are the largest distributors of American Lager beer in the world, there are several smaller micro/craft breweries specializing in this style. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to submit an American Lager entry using the Request a Brew portal for our tasting on Saturday December 8th. Here’s the twist: THERE WILL BE TWO WINNERS! You heard right my friend. The entry that receives the highest score AND the entry that receives the worst score will also take home a prize! Please make sure to bring a 6 pack each, as 1 beer will go to the pot for the winners. That said, the first 15 to Request a Brew will be guaranteed a spot at the tasting. Keep track of who’s going via Facebook here. Good luck!

Here’s a list of suggested brews:

SUGGESTED BEERS:
Miller High Life
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Upland Preservation Pilsner
Keystone Light
Coors Original
Coors Light
Bud Select
Bud Platinum
Icehouse
Busch
Milwaukee’s Best
Old Style
Natural Ice
RESERVED BEERS
Anheuser-Busch Budweiser (Sample) – Erik Howell
Miller Light – Matthew Kennedy
MacTarnahan’s Full Bloom Craft Lager – Jenn Myers
Miller Genuine Draft – Bob Reynolds
Berghoff Prairie Lager – Dustin Edwards
People’s Pilsner – Cass Maley
Pabst Blue Ribbon – Dax Storm
Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils – Kyle Alder
Bell’s Lager of the Lakes – Jenn Myers

Submit your entry here or on the Request a Brew page.

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Beer Name’ type=’text’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Beer Style’ type=’select’ required=’1′ options=’1A: Lite American Lager,1B. Standard American Lager,1C. Premium American Lager,2C. Classic American Pilsner,Who knows? They all taste like water to me!’/][/contact-form]

Stout Bout Homebrew Competition Revisited

Thanks to all that made the Stout Bout Homebrew Competition at Great Fermentations such an awesome time! There were 10 great beers served, several of which beat out Hoppin’ Frog’s BORIS The Crusher Oatmeal Imperial Stout (a 2-time gold medalist at the Great American Beer Festival that I snuck in for kicks) in our blind tasting. Our top three homebrews selected this go-round were Josh and Ashley Jenkins’ Milk Stout, Doug Dixon’s American Stout, and Michael Catlin’s Breakfast Russian Imperial Stout. Great work guys! The entries were pretty spread out (we had entries for 5 of the 6 recognized BJCP stout categories), with two Russian Imperial Stouts (one was aged for 2 years), 3 Oatmeal Stouts, 2 Milk/Sweet Stouts, a Dry Stout, and an American Stout. Thanks again to Great Fermentations for lending us their classroom, and also to cosIT Photography for the outstanding camerawork. More photos can be found in a set on cosIT’s Flicker Photostream. Cheers!

King of Beers American Lager/Pilsner Tasting!

The King of Beers American Lager/Pilsner Tasting will be GLORIOUS! 🙂 American Lagers are an American tradition. Although this style has German roots (German Pilsner), American hops, corn, and 6-row barley make this style unique. You would be hard pressed to find any watering hole that does not serve at least one of these domestic, yellow, light bodied brews on tap. Although Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors are the largest distributors of American Lager beer in the world, there are several smaller micro/craft breweries specializing in this style. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to submit an American Lager entry using the Request a Brew portal for our tasting on Saturday December 8th. Here’s the twist: THERE WILL BE TWO WINNERS! You heard right my friend. The entry that receives the highest score AND the entry that receives the worst score will also take home a prize! Please make sure to bring a 6 pack each, as 1 beer will go to the pot for the winners. That said, the first 15 to Request a Brew will be guaranteed a spot at the tasting. Keep track of who’s going via Facebook here. Good luck!

SUGGESTED BEERS:
Miller High Life
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Upland Preservation Pilsner
Keystone Light
Coors Original
Coors Light
Bud Select
Bud Platinum
Icehouse
Busch
Milwaukee’s Best
Old Style
Natural Ice
RESERVED BEERS
Anheuser-Busch Budweiser (Sample) – Erik Howell
Miller Light – Matthew Kennedy
MacTarnahan’s Full Bloom Craft Lager – Jenn Myers
Miller Genuine Draft – Bob Reynolds
Berghoff Prairie Lager – Dustin Edwards
People’s Pilsner – Cass Maley
Pabst Blue Ribbon – Dax Storm
Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning Uber Pils – Kyle Alder
Bell’s Lager of the Lakes – Jenn Myers

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Beer Name’ type=’text’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Beer Style’ type=’select’ required=’1′ options=’1A: Lite American Lager,1B. Standard American Lager,1C. Premium American Lager,2C. Classic American Pilsner,Who knows? They all taste like water to me!’/][/contact-form]

1 Week Until Stout Bout

Great Fermentations on November 17th
From 12-5pm

There are still seats available at our Stout Bout Homebrew Competition at Great Fermentations next week. You can submit your entry using the form below. Cheers!

• All entries need to fall within Category 13 – Stout Ale BJCP Guidelines for style.
• The first 15 people to register their brews using the Homebrew Competition Form are guaranteed a seat in the competition.
• 2 bombers of homebrew are required per entry. 1 bomber goes towards the tasting, and one is set aside for “the pot.” You can also enter four 12oz bottles, but 2 will go to the pot.
• We’ll label your entry at the start of the tasting (I’ll have plenty of sheets available when we start), but please make sure your brew is refrigerated.
• This tasting is blind, and each person who enters also gets to taste/judge each entry. The winner at the end of the tasting gets to take home the pot plus prizes!
What makes this event unique is that each participant is also a judge! All beers will be served randomly, and rated on a scale of 1-10. The entry with the highest average score receives a gift card to Great Fermentations, a special blog post on BIMP, and takes home one of every homebrew entered.

Erik Howell – Oatmeal Stout
Jenn Myers – S’more Sweet Stout
Hunter White – Udder Cream Russian Imperial Stout
Richard Meyer – Substitution Dry Stout
Mike Catlin – Breakfast Stout Russian Imperial Stout
Doug Dixon – American ExPat Grab Bag American Stout
Justin Kloer – Brown Sugar Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Beer Name’ type=’text’/][contact-field label=’Beer Style’ type=’select’ required=’1′ options=’13A. Dry Stout,13B. Sweet Stout,13C. Oatmeal Stout,13D. Foreign Export Stout,13E. American Stout,13F. Russian Imperial Stout’/][/contact-form]