Page 2 – Beer Is My Passion

March 20, 2014

Indy Beer News – March 19th, 2014

Time to catch up on some Indy Beer News podcasts! This week’s episode includes information on a 3 Floyds tap takeover happening at Broad Ripple Tavern at noon today featuring Live a Rich Life (a personal favorite of mine), Sun King releasing two packs of Lonesome Dove (Batch 777 Touched by and Angel), and a Barrel Age Replicale Tapping at Tomlinson Tap! Indy Beer News also had a chance to sit down with Sun King’s Clay Robinson for a 45 minute talk on Indy Beer Legislation, Distilleries, and craft beer’s entry into the State Fair for the first time since 1947.

Indy Beer News – March 19th, 2014

Indy Beer New 2014 Legislation Episode

February 28, 2014

New Albanian Gravity Head – Bullet Train To Blackout Town

I love this brewery! Gravity Head 2014 kicked off this morning with an extra special breakfast. These guys don’t mess around. For the next month, New Albanian Brewing will be showcasing some of the best/unique high gravity beers available. If you haven’t been to this event before it is a blast. They basically horde kegs of delicious high gravity brews and then let the taps flow until every drop is gone. This year they have organized several brewery specific events, including today’s Schlafly “Style Unto Itself” collection of kegs. Click here for the full list of brews and events. Once all the kegs are dry, Session Head begins! As you can imagine, these beers are super strong. Please be responsible and have transportation for the event planned out. That said, these guys are innovators, and I’m really looking forward to visiting their event. Cheers!

February 18, 2014

ACB Films Presents Winterfest 2014

I’m sure many of you remember the 80+ breweries at this year’s Winterfest. You may remember the pretzel necklaces, the firkins, or the random bursts of cheering. What you may have forgotten was that there were video cameras seeded throughout the venue.Here is the epic video created by ACB Films, which documents all of your uninhibited shenanigans. The funny thing is I remember most of these people when we were pouring. Well documented! You can follow their YouTube channel here.

February 9, 2014

Winterfest Highlights!

When’s the last time you remember holding your glass in the air and cheering with 5,000 other beer enthusiasts? Believe it or not, this post took me almost a week to create. There were so many people that worked their tail off to make Winterfest 2014 a success. A very special “Thank you” to the breweries that participated, the Brewers of Indiana Guild, Hoosier Beer Geek, and the 100+ volunteers that made this happen. The planning and execution of this beer festival were top notch. We had an awesome time pouring at Winterfest, and we also wanted to thank everyone that dropped by to say hello and sample our offerings.That said, this year’s Winterfest was HUGE. We loved the extra space that Champion Hall provided, however it was soon consumed by the 5,000 beer loving ticket holders. This was by far the largest beer tasting I’ve ever been to. Note to self: VIP tickets at Indiana beer tastings are becoming more and more validated 🙂 Eric Meyer has a fantastic photo album documenting the debauchery. Either way, I wanted to take some time to share some of my favorite picks from this past weekend. Here it goes:

The Upland Sour Barrel Spin Game
Upland used a Twitter password to allow entry into this Wheel of Fortune! The wheel included Raspberry, Cherry, and Kiwi Lambic, and also the much coveted Sour Reserve 4.

ZwanzigZ Brewing Eisbock
This beer was fantastic! This style of beer is created by freezing bock beer and removing the ice. This method concentrates the flavor and abv. Great work and thanks for sharing!

Country Boy Brewing Chestnut Brown Ale
We were lucky enough to pour right next door to Country Boy Brewing. This beer really stood out for me. Very easy drinking and flavorful brown!

New Albanian Phoenix Kentucky Komon Ale
This beer was great! Kentucky Common beer has the unique history of being America’s first sour! Lactobacillus is used to create a twang sourness that complements the malt profile of this beer. New Albanian pulled this one of brilliantly.

Planetary Fly Casual Brown Ale
This was my first Planetary beer, and I was pretty impressed. I’m a sucker for Brown Ales. I’m sure I’ll be enjoying more Planetary beers in the not so distant future.

Three Floyd’s War Mullet
I’m not sure how long this keg lasted, but my guess is it went quickly. War Mullet is, at the moment, a very rare Imperial IPA created by FFF.

Reposado Du Flat Saison/Farmhouse Aged 6 months in Extra Anejo tequila barrels.
The evil geniuses at Flat 12 created a saison that they aged in anejo tequila barrels. Everyone was talking about it the first couple of hours at Winterfest. I did not get a chance to try it, but I thought it was worth a mention as it seemed very popular.

Power House Barrel Aged Diesel Oil Stout
Diesel Oil Stout is a fantastic beer. Seeing a barrel aged version at Winterfest was a great comfort 🙂

Rhinegeist Uncle English Dark Mild
We’ve been drinking a lot of English Mild beer lately and this one stood out. Smooth, great malt profile, and highly sessionable.

Bier Brewery 1.21 Gigawatts Belgian Strong and Hator Dopplebock
Both these beers were served at Bier’s 3rd Anniversary Party this past year. I was glad to see they still had some left for Winterfest. Cheers if you had the opportunity to try these rare beers!

MONK Wookie Tears English Brown Ale
These guys were great neighbors to us, and you can bet I made sure to sample each one of their beers. Wookie Tears English Brown was one of those great beers!

Bloomington Hop Jockeys Sour Collection
There is no doubt that the Hop Jockeys have skill when it comes to brewing, but sampling their sour beer has become something to look forward to at these events. Thanks for sharing Luke!

January 30, 2014

Winterfest 2014 Full Brewery List

18th Street Brewery
450 North Brewing Company
Against The Grain Brewery
Alltech’s Lexington Brewing & Distilling Company
Arcadia Ales
Back Road Brewery
Bare Hands Brewery
Barley Island Brewing Company
Bell’s Brewery Inc.
Bier Brewery
Big Dawg Brewhaus
Black Acre Brewing Company
Black Swan Brewpub
Bloomington Brewing Company
Broad Ripple Brew Pub
Brugge Brasserie
Bulldog Brewing Company
Carson’s Brewery
Chapman’s Brewing Company
Country Boy Brewing Co.
Crown Brewing
Cutters Brewing Company
Danny Boy Beer Works
Daredevil Brewing Company
Dark Horse Brewery
DESTIHL Brewery
Evil Czech Brewery
Falls City Brewing Co.
Figure Eight Brewing
Finch’s Beer Company
Flat 12 Bierwerks
Fountain Square Brewery
Goose Island Beer Company
Great Crescent Brewery
Half Moon Restaurant & Brewery
Hawcreek Brewing Company
Iechyd Da Brewing Company
Indiana City Brewing Company
Lafayette Brewing Co
Lakefront Brewery Inc.
Mad Anthony Brewing Company Inc
New Albanian Brewing Company
New Day Craft Mead & Cider
New Holland Brewing Company
Norris English Pub llc
O’Fallon Brewery
Oaken Barrel Brewing Company
Oskar Blues
Outliers Brewing Company
People’s Brewing Company
Planetary Brewing Company
Power House Brewing Company
Quaff ON! Brewing Company
RAM Restaurant & Brewery
Revolution Brewing
Rhinegeist Brewery
Rivertown Brewing Company
Rock Bottom–College Park
Salt Creek Brewery
Schlafly Beer
Shoreline Brewery
Summit Brewing Company
Sun King Brewing Company
The Bluegrass Brewing Company
The Rivertown Brewing Company
Thr3e Wise Men
Three Floyds Brewing Company
Three Pints Brewing
Tin Man Brewing Company
Triton Brewing Company
Turoni’s Main Street Brewery
Tyranena Brewing Company
Union Brewing Company
Upland Brewing Company
Urban Chestnut Brewing Company
Virtue Cider
ZwanzigZ Brewing…

And of course, Beer Is My Passion will be there as well from 3-5. Cheers!

January 29, 2014

BIMP Pouring At Winterfest 2014!

Beer Is My Passion will be participating at this year’s Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest (now officially sold out) at the Indiana State Fair on February 1st! What will we be doing you ask? Pouring delicious homebrew of course 🙂 We will be sharing the stage with MONK, The Ohio Valley Homebrewers Association, and The Bloomington Hop Jockeys. Expect great beer from your favorite local/national breweries, but make it a point to drop by and say hi to your brewers next door! This year we’ll be sharing a Belgian Witbier with tangerine zest, chamomile flowers, and coriander; an English IPA (Sleepy Sailor if you’ve seen our recipe on our blog); a mulled cider (served hot for you firkin lovers wanting to warm up from the cold); and a jalapeno cider we got some cred from in the Indy Star this year. Stay tuned, as I’ll be updating my blog with a full list of brewers attending Winterfest sometime tomorrow.

January 28, 2014

Daredevil’s 1 Year Anniversary Revisited

Daredevil’s 1 Year Anniversary Events were a blast. 6 locations, 6 “Raredevil” releases, and a very special food pairing at Black Market. If you weren’t able to make any of these events, Daredevil released a Raspberry, Blackberry, and Cherry Muse, Slip Stream Pale Ale, Mr. 300 Man American Barleywine, and Char Imperial Smoked Dark Mild. Some of my favorites were Slip Stream Pale Ale, Char Imperial Smoked Dark Mild, and the Cherry Muse. Of the 6 events, my favorite was the food pairing at Black Market. It was a very intimate setting, with only 55 seats available for the event. The meal included four courses:

Course 1: Indiana Perch Ceviche served with Carnival Saison
Course 2: Red Curry Poutine served with Liftoff IPA.
Course 3: Glazed Pork Cheeks with Baked Herb Polenta with Char Imperial Smoked Dark Mild
Course 4: Fried Waffle Batter with Citrus Fruit Preserves and Mr. 300 American Barleywine

Indy Beer News was also there doing a live podcast right from Black Market. It’s a great interview with Daredevil Brewing’s Bill Ballenger, Mike, and Shane Pearson. Limited glassware was also provided for each of these events including Daredevil pint and tulip glasses. Here’s a link to the Indy Beer News podcast.

January 17, 2014

Daredevil Tap Takeover at Tomlinson Tap

If you are on the lookout for Rare Devils, Tomlinson Tap is the place to be. Daredevil Brewing’s Anniversary Tap Takeover Bonanza kicks off at Tomlinson Tap tonight at 6pm. Muse Belgian Golden Ale with Blackberries is ready to be served (for those of you that missed it at the Twenty Tap event it was verified on their Twitter feed that all 7 beers will be there), as well as some other noteworthy devils include their Mr. 300 American Barleywine (with a ridiculous 300 IBUs :)), Slip Stream Pale Ale, and J.W.P American Stout.

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January 16, 2014

Outliers Brewing Launch Party This Weekend

Outliers Brewing Company will be throwing their Launch Party tomorrow night at their location at 534 E. North St. While you may have had the opportunity to try some of their newly released beers this past month, nothing beats a grand opening! The event boasts Outliers Buffalo Jacket IPA, Whitcomb Rye, Blaue Machen Pilsner, and County Brown, pints, growler fills, door prizes, and DJs Rusty Redenbacher and Mr. Kinetic. If this opening is anything like their soft opening at Twenty Tap I would definitely show up early. [googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m14!1m8!1m3!1d3066.411661639712!2d-86.1490485!3d39.7753161!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x886b50ec9a114f8d%3A0x1571bd00d8c3e312!2s534+E+North+St%2C+Indianapolis%2C+IN+46202!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1389887535073&w=600&h=450]

January 15, 2014

Hipsters Love Beer

Not much to say here… So true. So true. Just kidding. I’m probably just as guilty as any of these Arrogant Bastards 🙂 Just ask my friend Nate! He frequently reminds me that “session beer” and other brew jargon only proves how awesome/douchey I am 🙂 By the way, I was totally into microbrew before it was cool. Enjoy!