Guest Post: LeRoy Takes In Valpo Brewfest

Today's update comes from a Hoosier Beer Geek reader from up north. LeRoy Bowman attended and worked this weekend's Valpo Brewfest, and was kind enough to email us this report.

Dear Hoosier Beer Geek,

Were there any members of KOTBR in attendance at the Valpo Brewfest? I am sorry if no one was able to attend, as it was a pretty good event.

I have to say hats off to the organizers, as it was sold out (1500 tickets sold)! Not bad for a first time event. Luckily, the weather held up, as it was an outside event. It was windy and chilly (low 50's). In spring, Crown Point had its own Mayfest (about 950 attendees). I believe the organizers of the Valpo Brewfest saw how that one did, and made some improvements with having a local restaurant serving food under a large tent with tables and chairs for people to eat at. A band was in attendance to perform also. Some area breweries that were at the Mayfest did not attend Valparaiso (Flossmoor Station, Brickstone, and Shoreline), due to their own events scheduled. Indiana breweries in attendance were: Barley Island, Peoples Brewing, Lafayette, Crown Brewing, Figure 8, Oaken Barrel, Upland, and Mishawaka. Other breweries included; Bell's, Goose Island, Lakefront, Rogue, Magic Hat, New Belgium, Brooklyn, Dogfish Head, New Holland, Sierra Nevada, and others. Many breweries brought their standards, but some brought a few specialty brews. Sierra Nevada brought Jack and Ken's 30th anniversary barleywine--which was the only keg of that beer in Indiana.

One of the local homebrew clubs (Illiana Beer Rackers Union), in which I am a member, was in attendance also. This was a great honor for us, as we were able to hand out samples of our own beers to patrons and other breweries. Quite a few members donated beer in 5 gallon kegs, 22 oz. bottles, and half gallon growlers for sampling. Our initial beer list was approved by organizers, and it seemed they were impressed with what we had to offer. I believe this opened the eyes of some, as many people in our area do not realize most brewers at microbreweries first started brewing a home.

My hope is that with the number of attendees at both Mayfest and Valparaiso Brewfest, both events will improve and grow in numbers breweries, brews, and patrons next year.

Cheers,

LeRoy Bowman

We'd like to thank LeRoy for taking the time to keep us informed. We're invite any HBG readers to fill us in on anything we've missed - keep those emails coming!

Guest Post: The Digitante Visits Champaign, IL

Today's content comes via long-time HBG reader Andy Howard. Andy is also a regular at HBG events and does a bit of writing and provides technology advice and services through his blog, The Digitante.

Last weekend, the wife and I headed out with our girls to meet up with some friends from Peoria. It goes without saying that I wouldn't be caught dead in Peoria, so we decided to meet about halfway: Champaign.

Champaign has a lot going for it:

It's not Peoria.

It's a Big Ten college town like West Lafayette, the home of my alma mater.

It has a great restaurant called Radio Maria.

As we were planning our trip, the wife and her friend simultaneously selected Radio Maria and I could not have been happier. They have a tap list consisting of 27 beers and a wide selection of bottles and bombers.


The 27 taps are mounted on a former industrial hand-washing station.


That definitely wasn't the only thing in the bar area that was recycled. The light fixtures contained a shroud from a wind tunnel, a neon light that was the 'O' from Leonard's Pawn Shop, vacuum cleaner cords for the wiring, and the pods from a pneumatic transfer system. All said, only the booth seats, bar top glass, and chairs were new.


Now on to the beer. The selections for the day were Southern Tier Cherry Saison, Ballast Point Sculpin IPA, and Two Brothers Cane and Ebel.

Southern Tier Cherry Saison

This beer has been reviewed by the Geeks before, but I had read the post long enough ago to completely forget what they said. When comparing notes a few minutes ago, it sounds like I was right in the ballpark.


The nose smelled like a rosé wine. It mostly felt like a beer wasn't supposed to smell that way. The first sip solidified my thought that this beer was weird. It had a citrusy, Mandarin orange flavor, it was very thick and syrupy, and the alcohol was very pronounced.

All in all, neither I nor the wife was very impressed. In HBG parlance, I probably would have rated it around 2.50 mugs.

Ballast Point Sculpin IPA

I had never heard of Ballast Point, but it appears they are a Southern California brewery and I've not seen them in Indiana.

This was the quintessential IPA for me: well balanced with a floral hoppy smell and a relaxed, not overpowering floral hoppy taste. The head was a bit thin, but definitely stuck to the glass through the entire beer.


I would consider this to be a supremely drinkable beer, perhaps the most of any IPA I've ever had. Overall, I would put this beer at about as close to 5.00 mugs as I can. If it was available in Indiana, I would have my new go-to beer.

Two Brothers Cane and Ebel

I believe this is a beer that is brewed using Turbinado raw sugar (Cane=Cain?) by the two Ebel brothers. There's your non-fact-checked background story.

This beer was nearly flat as it produced minimal head when being poured. It smelled very sweet and did not disappoint on the taste. Although it did have a sweet molasses flavor, the sweetness didn't overpower the hops and rye which stood out very well. The aftertaste was a major turn off for me as it left me with an instant iced tea flavor on the back of my tongue that wouldn't go away.


Between the overly sweet taste (I'm not a fan) and the iced tea aftertaste, this beer just didn't do it for me. The hops saved it to some extent though. I would put it at about 3.25 mugs.

Radio Maria is a great bar in the historical district of Champaign. We can't wait to check it out again when we can spend more time moving though the tap list. A special thanks goes out to Jacob at Radio Maria for filling us in on the history of the bar. Be sure to check it out next time you are headed toward Champaign.

Our thanks go out to Andy for the informative and helpful work - I visit Champaign every once in a while myself.

Want to contribute to Hoosier Beer Geek? We love submitted content. Send us an email at knights at hoosierbeergeek.com and we'll iron out the details.

Guest Post: Rodney Weaver - Rock Bottom Spring Brewer's Dinner 08

Many of you may be familiar with Rodney Weaver and his soon to be wife, Jess, through their regular commenting at Hoosier Beer Geek. Rod and Jess do a bit of beer blogging of their own at the aptly named Rod and Jess' Wedding Blog, from which the following post is syndicated.

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This year's brewer's dinner opened up as a few others have in the past, with an immense number of reservations and a large number of no-shows. That most likely means that the Summer brewer's dinner will likely require a credit card for a reservation. It kind of stinks that people treat reservations for an event like this with such disregard, but such is life. There was still a decent showing with about 30 or so people in attendance.

Spring Brewer's Dinner menu

The menu this year was slightly modified from the menus sent out previously advertising the event. The courses were as follows:

Flank Steak Lettuce Bib Wraps served with Alt Bier
Marinated flank steak grilled to medium rare, topped with almonds, water chestnuts and served with sauteed papaya and coconut cream sauce.

Fresh Fruit Salad served with Belgian Tripel
Grapefruit, mandarin oranges, kiwi and mangos drizzled with tangy honey soy dressing.

Tuna and Salmon Spring Rolls served with Maibock
Fresh Saku tuna and salmon wrapped with sticky rice, pickled ginger, wasabi and sliced carrots. Served with Thai peanut sauce.

Candied Fruit Egg Rolls served with Saison
A succulent fried egg roll stuffed with apples, pineapples, craisins, brown sugar and oats. Served with vanilla ginger ice cream.

A very classy touch compared to the usual brewer's dinners

The decor at brewer's dinners is usually very festival and whimsical, but for whatever reason they decided to make this one a bit nicer. We thought the improved decor was a nice touch. The centerpieces would probably be a nice touch for our mantle.

Flank Steak Lettuce Bib Wraps with Alt Bier

The first course made for a very good appetizer. The medium rare flank steak was marinated in coconut rum and when wrapped with the papaya sauce and carrots inside of the lettuce wrap it paired excellently with the beer. The coconut cream sauce was decadent and very tasty, but it slightly overpowered the beer pairing. The Alt Bier was a great example of the style and was perhaps the best beer of the evening. The flavor profile contained a dominant malt presence with strong chocolate tones, a creamy mouthfeel and accompanying nutty notes. The finish was very light and had a hint of cherry on the back of the tongue. Overall it was a relatively sweet beer and very refreshing. Jerry brewed this style a few months back and both Jess and I agreed this round was noticeably better. When paired with the wraps, the nutty presence was amplified by the grilled beef and the sweet coconut sauce brought out a bitter character.

Fresh Fruit Salad

The second course was somewhat surprising for a brewer's dinner. The salty sweet honey soy dressing did an excellent job contrasting with the fruit while still complementing it greatly. The Belgian Tripel was a 4 month aged version of Jerry's Tripel this past Winter. The beer contained banana, clove and coriander flavors with accents of honey and Granny Smith apple skin. The sweeter fruits in the salad brought out hoppy and wheat characteristics while the more bitter and sour fruits brought out a spicy finish. Jess noted that it tasted a lot like Unibroue's La Fin Du Monde. This dish made me wonder if Unibroue's Ephemere would pair well with kiwi. My initial guess is yes.

Tuna and Salmon Spring Rolls

The main entree of spring rolls really showed off the versatility of the Rock Bottom chefs. We would have never guessed that they could pull of sushi so well. The peanut sauce was real peanut sauce and not the typical peanut butter base you'd normally find at even some Asian-themed restaurants around town. The Maibock was extremely malty and sweet and seemed to have a slightly minty finish, though that could have been brought out by the lingering kiwi flavor on our tongues. The spring rolls brought out spicy notes in the beer and the ginger paired especially well. The peanut was also a nice complement to the sweet, malty character.

Candied Fruit Egg Rolls

Rolls of apple pie! That's exactly what these tasted like. The Saison had an intense banana taste and a very heavy, wheat-like body. There was also a hint of lime that made for a very drinkable beer. After a few bites of the apple pie egg rolls, a matching apple character emerged in the beer and a lactose-like creamy sweetness pulled through.

Overall this was another great beer dinner by the guys at the downtown Rock Bottom. In comparison with other Rock Bottom brewer's dinners, it seemed like the portions were a bit smaller, but the creativity was stepped up a bit. Rock Bottom continues to be one of the best values in town when it comes to beer and food pairings and this dinner did not disappoint. We're going to try to make the north side brewer's dinner in a couple of weeks to see how Liz' pairings compare to Jerry's. We stayed around a bit and talked with Jerry and Iain Wilson of the Orland Park Rock Bottom after the brewer's dinner. Iain pulled our chile beer recipe out of us and said he'd like to try it in a cask up at his location. Watch for his peanut butter beer at this year's Microbrewer's Festival!

Headed to Rock Bottom tonight? Want to write a beer dinner review?

None of Hoosier Beer Geek's Knights of the Beer Roundtable are headed to tonight's Spring Brewers Dinner at Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, but we'd love to hear how it went. If you're planning on attending, and interested in writing a review, we'd love to publish your words and pass on the word to the larger beer public.

If you're up to the challenge, please send us your review (and pictures?) at hoosierbeergeek@gmail.com.

A Hoosier in New England

Being a part of Hoosier Beer Geek has provided many benefits. Drinking great beers is the obivious perk. But meeting people and having the opportunity to drink and talk with them would be tops. So on occassion, one of our friends drops us a line, especially during their travels.

One friend is Judge Sandy. Some of you probably know her; she's a beer judge and can often be found hanging out at Deano's Vino. That is, of course, when her job doesn't send her out-of-town. She has spent several weeks in Boston recently and to help occupy her time, she's been finding good beer stores, bars, breweries, and homebrew groups. And she has been emailing me about her hopped up adventures (as Judge Sandy recently said: "ok, can you tell I am a bit bored??").

On Thursday, she sent me her review of a "fly-over beer" (in that it is brewed on one side of the country and travels through Indiana on its way to the other side of the country without leaving any of its goodness with us Hoosiers). Some of you may be familiar with Lagunitas Brewing Company and its double India pale ale "Maximus". It brewed and bottled in California and, along with Boston, is also available in Chicago and parts of Ohio.

Without further ado, here is Judge Sandy's review. Enjoy!

Lagunitas Maximus
Maximus has a complex hop aroma of citrus and tropical fruit with resiny tones. I, also, get a hint of eucalyptus or some sort of herbal character. Underlying the hop fest is a malty sweetness. It is subtle at first but bigger as the beer warms up.

It pours a rich gold/pale amber with an off-white/ivory dense rocky head. It has a decent head retention, but is not the best I've seen. There is good Belgian lacing on the glass, as well as good clarity.

There is initially a little malty/carmelly sweetness that comes across on this, but then the hops catch up and run it over! I don't pick up any of the astringency that sometimes comes with some highly hopped beers (Lagunitas says this one packs 72 IBU's). The hop bitterness makes a happy cringe on the back of my tongue. Even in the flavor the hop profile is very complex, but it is more herbal than resiny.

Maximus has a medium body and a medium to medium-high level of carbonation that makes a happy tingling sensation on the tongue and palate. The finish is a bit drier than some IPA/I2PAs than I have had, but it is not bone dry. Actually, I prefer a drier finish as I don't really enjoy a high level of residual sugars.

Overall Impression: This is a great beer! Some call it an IPA and some a DIPA. I would have to call it a 1.5 IPA. At 7.5% a.b.v., it is a pretty big beer, but deceptively so. This one would be great in pitchers and would quickly get a table full of beer geeks in trouble. I enjoy the smoothness of the beer despite it's good hop bite. In the Hoosier Beer Geek rating system, I would give this a minimum of 4 mugs!

Sounds like another beer to add to my list of future out-of-town purchases. I'm guessing I'll hear from Judge Sandy again as her stay in Boston continues. If you are on the road and want to drop us a line about a bar, a brewery, or a beer you tried, be sure to email us at HoosierBeerGeek@gmail.com.

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, Ed Wank geeks up the classic Black and Tan

With St. Patrick's Day quickly approaching (and the Beer Geek's St. Patrick's Day at Deano's Vino approaching even more quickly), it seemed like a good time to look at other traditions commonly associated with St. Patrick's Day and how we can geek them up a bit. Guest blogger Ed Wank takes a look at how a beer geek can get their black & tan on...

Greetings, fellow Beer Geeks! Wank here from ‘The Wank & O’Brien Show’, mornings on 97.1 HANK-FM. Listeners of the show or readers of the sadly-now-defunct ‘Indy Men’s Magazine’ might’ve noticed that I’m a micro/craft/import beer geek myself, hence my sudden appearance on the site as a guest blogger.

With Saint Paddy’s day mere moments away, and as if you NEEDED another excuse to quaff a pint, might I suggest a spin on the classic Black & Tan? The basic model is, for my money, one of the finest inventions ever to come out of, er, Britain. It’s not an Irish delicacy, although I’d consider it something of a sacrilege to float any other dark beer besides Guinness on top of a pale or bitter draw.

The name itself has been applied to coonhounds and Irish paramilitary troops from the early part of the 20th century, but most Yanks apply the moniker to a draught of Harp or Bass Ale with Ireland’s most famous stout drizzled atop to cascade gently down into the paler brew. Physics and appearance are not congruous in the Black and Tan – dark stout is, of course, in reality less dense that the lighter draw that lies beneath, hence the division of color in the middle of the pint.

For years I’d ordered Bass on the bottom and Guinness on top, since the Ale gave my personal palate a more satisfying finish than Harp. A few months back on a winter night at Binkley’s, a new inspiration suddenly struck. My tastebuds couldn’t make up their minds between a creamy Guinness or a snappy, Cascade-crisp Sierra Nevada. So I ordered a Sierra and Guinness Black and Tan.

The barmaid’s reaction belied the fact that I’d not been the first to propose this blend. The result was decent, but still a little thin on the finish. My second order put a Bell’s Two Hearted Ale in the lower half of the glass. Boom! This one ranked a ten on a scale of one through five. Further experimentations have led me to drop Three Floyd’s Alpha Kings (thank, you Munster, Indiana!) and Delaware’s Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA below the most famous of the Emerald Isles, both equally tasty experiments.

The results of layering the world’s most famous stout over any of these burly US micro-ales is downright symphonic: the gentle, almost mocha-tinged notes of the stout giving way to a crescendo of carbonation, hops, bitterness and body. Of all the combinations, though, the most satisfying had to be my second order: Kalamazoo’s Two Hearted with Vitamin G drizzled on top. My requested 60-40 mix of Michigan to Ireland made for the perfect Americanization of a drink from across the pond. Good medicine to steel oneself against an onslaught of snakes. Cheers!

Guest Review of Power House Brewing Co. from HBG friends Jamey and Libbie

Although none of the knights were able to make it down to the Power House Brewing Co. firkin party, we did have friends who made it down to Columbus to check out the scene:

Hi, Jamey and Libbie here.

We went to Power House Brewing last night (12/1/07) and unfortunately missed the firkin of Bells - but we overheard our server talking about it and he said that it was Bells Third Coast.

When we got there we ordered a pint of their Power House Columbus Common Ale and it was wonderful. Fortunately for us, it happened to be the last pint left in the keg. This beer was great; we would compare it to Two Brothers French Country Ale, which Power House also sells in bottles. They are brewing a batch of some kind of stout that should be on draft the middle of this week. Their brewery is tiny - in fact, it's located in the front window of the place. I think they only make 40 gallons at a time, and they only have one of their beers on tap at a time.

They have 19 really awesome beers on draught. Bonus points for having the Brugge Black on tap! They have some great beers available in bottles, too, with carry-out singles - we bought a couple Lafayette Brewing beers and one large bottle of the 11th Anniversary Ale from Stone.

Have you guys been here? If not, you MUST go! This place is a real gem and it has so much history. You won't want to leave - we sure didn't. Their food is excellent! They make their beer batter out of the run-off from pouring their draughts so the batter changes taste every day. Our server said that some days it might be a light-colored batter and other days it might look almost burnt because of the different ratios of light & dark beers.

Everyone that was in the place was really knowledgeable about beer and most are homebrewers. They have a home-brewer club every Tuesday if any of you are interested.

This was our very first visit there and we will definitely be going back soon and often! Can you tell that we liked the place?

Our thanks go out to Jamey and Libbie for the review.

Been out to a beer location yourself? Care to share? Submit your review to us at Hoosier Beer Geek, and after a quick bit of editing, you too can see and share your work in beautiful HTML at HoosierBeerGeek.com.