Flat 12: Start Your Engines

You don’t have to be a Hopstar to have heard the hoopla about Indy’s newest brewery, Flat 12 Bierwerks. The tweets and meet ups that were leading up to their opening created a lot of fans. And skeptics. But everybody waited with eager anticipation to see if they could live up to their tagline: Great Beer; No Hype.


The answer is beginning to form. Brewmaster Rob Caputo and founders Sean O’Connor and Steve Hershberger opened their doors last week, and the masses received their first views of Flat 12.

Located in the Cottage Home neighborhood east of downtown Indianapolis, Flat 12 has converted a light industrial building into their new brewery. Their signage has hints of art deco; their tasting room takes advantage of pre-existing timber. During warmer weather, there will be a patio for outdoor tasting enjoyment. They are a block off of the beaten path (halfway between New York and Michigan Streets), but they have a nice setup that will certainly be enjoyed by many.


This space now contains the Flat12 tasting room
So what about the beers? When they opened their doors on Wednesday, they had four beers available. First up: the Upside Down Blonde, which is a hybrid beer between pilsner and wheat. Rob admitted that this beer isn’t really brewed for me. It’s a gateway beer, a reach out and get a macro drinker beer. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t all that interesting. I’d like to see Rob brew a pilsner AND/OR a wheat . Actually, scratch the wheat; it’s not my favorite style. Rob, brew a pilsner. I like the pilsners that some craft breweries have been doing recently (i.e. Upland’s Preservation Pilsner).


This space now contains a dedicated growler fill room
Next up: Glazed Ham Porter. When others tried this at meet ups, it had met with some good reviews. I was really interested in trying this. My understanding is that it starts with their Flat12 Porter (which I will talk about in a minute). The Glazed Ham was kinda thin in mouthfeel, which isn’t uncommon with porters but one of my less favorite characteristics. There were tastes of cloves and other spices, which seemed to highlight some of the roasted malt flavors. It’s an interesting beer. One that I would like to try again next year, see if it any different.

Now, the Flat12 Porter is a whole other story. Rob is an admitted fan of porters. He drinks them all year round. And I fully admit that with this porter, I may be drinking this in the heat and humidity of Indiana’s July as well. It is brown and chocolatey with a fuller mouthfeel. In the end: awesome. If Osiris is the flagship beer of Sun King (which it is), I think Porter will be the flagship beer of Flat12 (which it should be). In both cases, the beer illustrates, in my opinion, what the brewer and brewery wants to be.


I don’t understand, though, how the Glazed Ham is the same beer as the Flat12 porter, given the major differences in mouthfeels. Is the Glazed Ham older perhaps? I’m not sure.

Finally, the Half Cycle IPA. I get what they are trying to do: at 6% but with a 104.1 IBU, they are trying to create a more sessionable version of a San Diego Pale Ale (or more commonly known as a DIPA or Imperial IPA) with all of the hoppiness. I like the concept.


And I think it has potential. But for me, it’s a bit off the mark. Someone said “one dimensional” and I don’t disagree. It had a ton of hops, but was almost like a pine forest. I have a preference for the more citrusy notes that comes with hops. I’d love to see the hops adjusted to incorporate more of that into the Half Cycle.


The Flat12 Brewhouse (click to enlarge)
In the end, though, I think Flat 12 Bierwerks are off to a good start. Are they the greatest brewery and beers in Indianapolis? No (I’d have a hard time giving any beer or brewery that designation). But they have potential. And a really good porter.

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: New and Proposed Breweries in the Indy area

Hoosier Beer Geek worked with Metromix to create their 2010 Local Brewing Guide. It was published in the November 18th issue and we are republishing the articles we wrote. Enjoy!

NOW OPEN:
Bier Brewery & Taproom
5133 East 65th St., Indianapolis
Website: www.BierBrewery.com

Bier Brewery owner and brewer Darren Connor was most recently working at Great Fermentations, a homebrewing supply store. His new brewery will produce small batches and sell them in-house only. They hope to have six to eight beers available at a time with a focus on seasonal beers. According to their website, they hope to open by Thanksgiving.


Flat 12 Bierwerks
414 N. Dorman St., Indianapolis
Website: www.Flat12.me
Ph: 317-635-2337

Another production brewery is opening up in downtown Indianapolis, this time in the Cottage Home neighborhood. Rob Caputo, director of brewing, is teaming up with Steve Hershberger and Sean O’Conner. They have already been spreading the word about their operations through social media and their “Hopstar” fan program. Their goal is to have beer available yet this year.


Scotty’s Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company
1021 Broad Ripple Ave., Indianapolis
Website: www.Thr3eWiseMen.com

Owner Scotty Wise (of the local Scotty’s Brewhouse chain) has hired Omar Castrellon (formerly of Alcatraz Brewing Company) as head brewer. The brewery is currently under construction in Broad Ripple and will have a tasting room as part of their operations. The Scotty’s Brewhouse and Lakehouse restaurants will have the beers on tap as well. They are hoping for a January opening.


Triton Brewing Company
Fort Benjamin Harrison, Lawerence
Website: www.TritonBrewing.com

Head brewer Jon Lang was most recently at Barley Island Brewing Company but has partnered with Michael DeWeese and David Waldman on this new production brewery. They hope to have their beers available in kegs and bottles in January with their tasting room opening soon after.

Black Swan Brewpub
2067 E. Hadley Rd., Plainfield
Website: www.BlackSwanBrewpub.com

The Black Swan Brewpub is open as a restaurant and bar, serving 15 different beers on draft from Indiana breweries. Owner and brewer D.J. McCallister has worked previously at Oaken Barrel and Lafayette Brewing Company. They hope to open their brewery in 2011.


Three Pints Brewpub
5020 Cambridge Way, Plainfield
Website: www.ThreePintsBrewpub.com
ph: 317-839-1000

Tom Hynes has been homebrewing for twenty years and hopes to make his professional brewing debut in January. The restaurant is now open and will start off serving Indiana craft beer until their brewing operations are on line.


Brownfield Brewing Company
Fountain Square neighborhood, Indianapolis
Website: www.BrownfieldBrewing.com

Kenny Allen, formerly from Delaware’s Old Dominion Brewing Company, is working with Ken Warren and Arifah Aronson to open a brewery that is sustainable and organic. A location and opening date have not been announced.


Blue Republic Brewing Company
Shelby County
Website: www.Facebook.com/BlueRepublic

Award-winning homebrewer Bill Ballinger is looking to go pro with a new production brewery. A location and opening date have not been announced.

Keeping Track of the New Brewery Jungle

It's a long and arduous process to get a brewery off the ground - just the process to be approved as a brewer by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) involves completing and submitting six forms, a diagram and description of the brewery premises, a legal description of the brewery, and a statement describing the security at the brewery.

Before a brewery can file the diagrams and descriptions, they must first have zoning approval with the state. Once zoning and TTB approval have been completed, breweries also have to complete the appropriate state paperwork as well.

As a result of this process, we know that any brewery still working on a location has a long way to go before they're brewing beer. Breweries that have completed all these steps appear on this page, giving us a heads up that they're almost there.

The following new breweries are all going through these steps now, but only one of them has reached the final steps of gaining a state permit. We'll start there.


Brewery: Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. (website - coming soon)
Players: Scotty Wise, Omar Castrellon (former brewer at Alcatraz Brewing Company)
Location: 1021 Broad Ripple Avenue, Indianapolis
Focus: (cliché but, true) - "Big beers, West Coast style IPA's, double IPA's, Chocolate Imperial Stouts, being different and using local ingredients for some styles." - Omar and I want to do a few small bottle runs (where we will hand cap the bottles and hand fill them) a couple times a year and just have fun with our creativity. I want to offer one organic/local seasonal beer, if possible. We are looking into this. I look up to Founders, Dogfish Head, 3 Floyds, Stone… if I would want to emulate a brewery, it would be these guys.
Long Term Goals: No long term goals. Don't want to get over my skis. I want to try to put out a great, original, quality product. Start small, get it right and then grow. That is the goal. I want to exclusively offer this at our Scotty's concepts only. We might look to offer this in the northern and southern parts of the state too, at some point. If we open in Ft. Wayne, as expected in the Parkview Ballpark, I have a goal to be THE craft beer of the ball park.
More from Hoosier Beer Geek: Coming Soon to Broad Ripple: Another Hoosier Brewery (February 28, 2010)

Although his efforts to put together a brewery with the folks behind what has now become Triton fell apart, Scotty Wise may come out smelling like a rose. Brewer Omar Castrellon has a long history of producing quality beer at Alcatraz, but producing for Scotty's ever-expanding empire of restaurants should give him plenty of volume and beer turnover, providing plenty of room for creativity.




Brewery: Triton Brewing Company (website, twitter)
Players: Mike DeWeese, David Waldman, Jon Lang (former brewer at Barley Island)
Location: The last time we spoke, the brewery was looking for space on the northeast side of Indianapolis, along the Binford Boulevard corridor. Actual location still unconfirmed, but Triton is in the process of finalizing their location.
Focus: "Our aim is to provide happiness and joy through beer and to become the most successful and respected brewery in the State of Indiana. Triton Brewing Company will produce Indiana’s 'Flagship' beer, providing outstanding quality, service, and value." (from Facebook)
Long Term Goals: Indiana and Chicago distribution in year one, statewide distribution within two years of opening.
From Facebook:

Our products and services will be "best in class" in terms of value received for dollars paid. We will deliver excellence, strive for continuous improvement and respond vigorously to change.

We are dedicated to satisfying our customers. We believe in respecting our customers, listening to their requests and understanding their expectations. We strive to exceed their expectations in affordability, and quality.

Triton Brewing Company will produce five brands year-round:

Railsplitter IPA
Brown Ale
Amber Ale
Wheat

Stout

Additionally we will distribute a number of seasonal beers and some 'Brewer's Choice' beers will be available in the tasting room.

More from Hoosier Beer Geek: Announcing Triton Brewing Company (May 27, 2010)

After the collapse of the Scott Wise/Thr3e Wise Men collaboration, Triton was left looking for a new location to house their already purchased equipment. We've seen Jon Lang out and about at various brewery functions, and it's obvious he's ready to get back to brewing. Hopefully we'll see something from him soon.




Brewery: Flat 12 Bierworks (website, twitter)
Players: Steve Hershberger (CMO), Sean O'Conner (President), Mr. X Director of Brewing Operations (name to be announced soon), Bob Weaver, Community Manager
Location: 414 Dorman Street, Indianapolis
Focus: Brewing top line craft beer the old school way. Quality, craftsmanship and customer focus first. Brewing Blonde (wheat), American Wit, Amber, IPA/Organic IPA, a family of Porters, as well as a number of seasonal beers.
Long Term Goals: Establishing Flat 12 as a leader in craft beer brewing in the Midwest. Create an onsite experience that caters to craft beer fans and Hopstars, who want to travel from around the Midwest to visit. Distribute Flat 12 products to fans east of the Mississippi, as well as introduce Midwestern craft to beer fans in Canada and select EU countries.
From the company website:

This summer, Flat 12 will be launching six new craft beers, although the brewery is capable of producing over 30 (yes, we said 30) different beers. Working with our current group of Hopstars, we tasted and tested and then we tasted and tested some more. In the end, we settled on six beers we want to introduce to you this year. Although more will come, you'll love these six.

Flat 12 is surely not lacking in ambition. With a distribution and marketing deal already in place with Pelican Brands, Flat 12 seems to be ahead of the game.




Brewery: Bier Brewery and Taproom (website)
Players: Darren Connor (formerly of Great Fermentations)
Location: 5127 E. 65th St., Indianapolis
Focus: Small batches, particularly seasonals, and sell in-house only, rather than recruiting outside accounts like Sun King does. (source: ibj.com)
From the company website:

Bier will serve anywhere from six to eight different beers once we are open. These offerings will reflect the seasons and Darren's specialties

Darren's experience at Great Fermentations means that he knows good beer. With in-house only sales, it will be interesting to see how much exposure the brewery receives. At worst, Bier Brewery and Taproom should be a valuable asset to those in the neighborhood seeking out good beer.




Brewery: Brownfield Brewing Company (website, facebook)
Players: Ken Warren (start up manager for bottling facilities), Kenny Allen (former brewmaster for Old Dominion Brewing), and Arifah Aronson (owns a green renovation and contracting company)
Location: The brewery will be located in Fountain Square
Focus: The focus will to create a sustainable (leed certified) organic brewery from a brownfield that will use local raw materials (as much as possible, as we know, organic hops will likely be from New Zealand so we will use carbon offsets for those but we do have local farmers that can supply a portion of the hops we need) and cap the distribution radius to 500 miles to stay local and as keep our carbon footprint as small as possible. If the business becomes successful enough to expand outside of 500 miles, it will be done from another facility outside that radius and will be built from remediating another brownfield. We don't want to ship beer (which is 95% water) across country like many large scale brewers. Our goal is to be as green/sustainable as possible, and teach others in Indianapolis - through on site education - how to convert a brownfield to a sustainable business. There are lots of opportunities in Indy for this and the city greatly needs leaders in this arena to help revitalize the areas where the auto industry left its scars.
Long term goals: Long term goals are to be a leader in our local market on how to operate with the lowest carbon footprint possible, and teach this model on-site from a remediated brownfield. We want to show everyone how to create a sustainable business that increases local revenue for our local residents in Indiana.
From the company website:

500 mile distribution, green, all natural, leed certified, employee owned, local, sustainable, organic

Brownfield's approach is one that not many have taken, but the ownership group's combined experience should make for an interesting effort. Owner Arifah Aronson has a background in green building - her company, Aronson Custom Homes, specializes in offseting the negative effects of conventional building techniques, conserving natural resources, and reducing the "carbon footprint" of the building process. (source) Brewer Kenny Allen's experience at Delaware's Old Dominion (a BeerAdvocate.com A- overall) should mean that we can expect a quality product.