#HBGWeek | HBG's Hoosier Beer Week - July 15-20, 2014

We're eagerly awaiting the Brewers of Indiana Guild's 19th Annual Microbrewer's Festival, which is a little less than a month away. In fact, we're so eager to attend the festival that we want to get into the spirit as soon as we can. To that end, we've put together a series of beer events during festival week. We're calling that series of events Hoosier Beer Geek's Hoosier Beer Week. Spread the word, and use the hashtag #HBGWeek on Twitter and Facebook.

Tuesday, July 15, Mass Ave Pub, 6pm | Girls Pint Out's Second Annual Beer Cocktail Contest. We support the ladies from Girls Pint Out wholeheartedly, so we're leaving this date open on our calendar to attend GPO's Second Annual Beer Cocktail Contest. Come check out the three best cocktail recipes to see who claims the $100 prize!

Wednesday, July 16, Shoefly Public House, 6:30pm | HBG's Favorite Things. Join us at Fall Creek Place's innovative gastropub as we feature some of our favorite beers. Beer lineup includes beers from Brasserie Cantillon, Local Option, and Three Floyds. Full event details here.

Thursday, July 17, Mass Ave Pub, 6:30pm | New Indiana Breweries Night. We celebrate newcomers to Indiana brewing. The beer lineup includes beers from 18th Street, Outliers, Scarlet Lane, and Taxman. Special guest appearance by the king of bourbon-barrel-aged beers, Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout. Full event details here.

Friday, July 18, La Margarita, 6:30pm | Back Home Again in Indiana Night with Rhinegeist Brewery. We feature a tap takeover by Cincinnati's Rhinegeist Brewery. Rhinegeist's head brewer is Jim Matt, who was formerly the Quality Manager at Sun King Brewing Company. Jim will be on hand to chat about Rhinegeist's beers, including the acclaimed Truth IPA. Full event details here.

Saturday, July 19, 3pm - 7pm (2pm Early Bird Admission) | Indiana Microbrewers Festival, Optimist Park & Indianapolis Art Center grounds. Tickets available here.

Sunday, July 20, Thunderbird, Time TBD | Hangover Brunch. Recover from the festival with a hearty brunch at Fountain Square's Thunderbird. Full event details here.

#HBGWeek

HBG's next Pint Night | Thursday, February 27, La Margarita, 6:30 p.m.

We're quite eager for this month's HBG Pint Night because we're featuring a beer from an Indiana brewery that was just honored in RateBeer's Best Awards for 2013. No, it's not Three Floyds, though we're happy that they placed third in the RateBeer Top Brewers in the World category.

We're talking about Gary, Indiana's 18th Street Brewery, who were named best new Indiana brewery by RateBeer.

Join us at La Margarita in Fountain Square (Murphy Arts Center, 1043 Virginia Ave., Suite 1, 317.384.1457) at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 27, when we will be joined by 18th Street's brewer/owner Drew Fox and the brewery's creative director Joey Potts. The featured beer will be 18th Street's Hunter Double Milk Stout (8% ABV). 10 ounce pours of Hunter will cost you $4.25 a piece. As described by the brewery:

Here is a father’s toast to his son. Brewed with cocoa nibs and lactose, Hunter boasts a creamy texture and rich chocolate flavor. Vanilla, roast, and caramel sweetness are met with a bright hop bitterness.

Sounds like the perfect beer to wrap up the days of winter in hopes of a warm spring.

What is the purpose of Pint Night?  To feature a flavorful beer at a reasonable price and, if you're interested in learning, to educate you about the particular beer on tap. So come on out and enjoy some great beer and conversation with Drew, Joey, and us.

November HBG Pint Night | Thursday, November 21, 7pm, La Margarita

We've finally scheduled November's Hoosier Beer Geek Pint Night...

Join us at La Margarita in Fountain Square (Murphy Arts Center, 1043 Virginia Ave., Suite 1, 317.384.1457) at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 21. The featured beer will be Widmer Brothers' Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout '13. As described by the brewery:

An extremely rich and complex beer, the addition of raspberries during the fermentation process results in an almost purplish opaque color with a beautiful brown head. Warm chocolate and roasty notes compliment the hop bitterness.

Beer specs:

IBUs: 70
ABV: 9.3%
Malts: Pale, Roast Barley, Caramel 60L, Midnight Wheat, Chocolate Malt
Hops: Alchemy, Willamette, Cascade

The following beers will also be on tap:

Three Floyds Zombie Dust (American Pale Ale)
Evil Twin Molotov Cocktail (Imperial IPA)
Evil Twin Imperial Biscotti Break Natale (Pretty Please With A Cherry On Top) (Imperial Stout)
Stillwater Folklore (Belgian Strong Ale)
Green Flash Grand Cru '12 (Belgian Strong Ale)

Come on out and join us for some beer designed to keep the autumn chill from setting in.

Scenes from HBG Pint Night | April Edition

On Thursday night, attendees of our April Pint Night battled the elements to get to La Margarita to enjoy Prairie Artisan Ales' Funky Galaxy. We thank them for coming out to share a pint and some camaraderie. Funky Galaxy was indeed funky, citrusy, and delicious as expected and lived up to the hype that has surrounded Prairie's arrival in Indiana. We encourage you to give Prairie's beers a try because they're truly doing some creative and tasty things with the Saison style.

We also thank Jon Rangel and La Margarita for hosting us. If you've never been to La Margarita and you're into craft beer, we urge you to go. Jon keeps all taps flowing with craft beer and almost always has something on tap that no one else in town has. He also does a great job with the bottle selection.

May's Pint Night is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, May 23 at the Tomlinson Tap Room at the City Market. The beer selection is yet to be made, but we'll update you when that happens. In the meantime, save a spot on your calendars for our first Pint Night that will feature an Indiana beer.

Here's what you missed if you weren't able to come to La Margarita:

HBG's April Pint Night | Thursday, April 18, La Margarita, 6:30 p.m.

We've finally scheduled April's Hoosier Beer Geek Pint Night. If you're looking for a novel beer to try, we think that you'll be very happy with our chosen beer.

Join us at La Margarita in Fountain Square (Murphy Arts Center, 1043 Virginia Ave., Suite 1, 317.384.1457) at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 18. Our featured beer will be Funky Galaxy by Oklahoma brewery Prairie Artisan Ales. Prairie is new to Indiana and is focusing their brewing efforts on the Saison style. Their unique beers are generating quite a buzz among beer geeks, and we're eager to try more of their beers (we had a Prairie beer called Standard at Mass Ave Pub, which we quite enjoyed). Funky Galaxy is billed as "a Galaxy-hopped Black Farmhouse Ale." La Margarita will be pouring the beer for $5.00 a pint.

What's the purpose of Pint Night? To provide the community with pints at a great price and, if you're interested in learning, to educate you about the particular beer on tap. In fact, we'll provide an information sheet on the beer and welcome your suggestions for which beers we should feature at future HBG Pint Nights. So come on out and enjoy some great beer and conversation with us.

Here's the Facebook event page for HBG Pint Night.

KOTBR #142: Two at La Margarita Fountain Square

Does this sound familiar: Mike, Gina, Jim, and I... Sitting at a bar in Fountain Square... Being (playfully) harassed by the bartender... Poring over a beer menu, trying to figure out what to review. If we were five years younger, 500 feet south, and there was a chihuahua humping the taps tower, it would be like the old days at Deano's Vino. Except Mexican. So La Margarita de Deaño?

We selected two draft beers that I had not had before. Victory Headwaters Pale has a nice collection of hops, is very clean and crisp with a thin mouthfeel and no lingering flavors or feel. I would order this again, especially when it is the beer special of the day. 3.75 Mugs.

Brooklyn Gold Standard Export is effervescent and light yellow with a sweet nose from the malts, a light mouthfeel and subtle flavors. It is fine but not anything I would search out. 2.71 Mugs.


At the risk of sounding like your grandpa, I'd like to bring up that there was a time before you could get good beer everywhere in Indianapolis. We started this site with the quest to find great beer among our goals, and back then we'd be happy to find a tap or two to work with.

Now better beer is everywhere. If you're eating at an Indianapolis restaurant that doesn't have a beer that makes you happy, leave, and never come back. A restaurant without any decent beer choices is willfully ignorant, and doesn't deserve your money.

Yet with the proliferation of better beer comes stagnation - you can count on the same 3 styles (cream ale/lighter beer, pale ale, something darker) pretty much everywhere. Don't get me wrong - I love our locals. I love pale ale. But variety is why we started drinking craft beer.

Give us variety!

Variety isn't easy. Variety takes knowledge. If you're already selling all the Sun King or Flat12 you can buy, why buy anything else?

Luckily there are folks that just love beer. Jon Carlos Rangel at La Margarita is one such individual. Despite being a fan of Mexican football, Rangel knows his stuff, and keeps a steady but varying supply of styles and breweries flowing through La Margarita's taps.

After my minor tirade, you might be surprised to learn that you're about to read a review of a pale ale. But it's not one you'll stumble across everywhere. Victory Headwaters Pale is a summer-weight, easy drinking pale that you could pound if you wanted to. I'm not advising pounding beer, but it's nice to have the option. It's a pale ale that has everything you're looking for, with a bitterness that bites the middle of the tongue and doesn't let go. The flavor lingers with a spicy sort of kick.

It's not the most balanced pale ale, but the bitterness isn't overwhelming. While hops can amplify spicy dishes, in this case these meld nicely with La Margarita's complimentary salsas. 3.75 mugs.

As proof of La Margarita's dedication to beer, our second selection was a bit more rare. Brooklyn's Gold Standard is from the New York brewery's Brewmaster's Reserve Series - a lager in the German Kellerbier style.

Beers in the Kellerbier style are generally not filtered, allowing the yeast to remain suspended in the beer. Gold Standard has a light front, bitter middle, lingering but light bitterness, and a finish on the dry side. To be honest, there's not a lot going on there.

But it was different. 2.79 mugs.

And now, a message from our sponsors...

Hey Parrotheads! Jimmy Buffett here. You probably weren't aware of this, but when I'm not busy peddling my music, books, and restaurants through various avenues that are edging us closer to the downfall of Western civilization, or making sure that the tunaburgers offered at my Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurants are not only dolphin safe but manatee safe, I like to enjoy a good beer or two.

So let me tell you about this little watering hole in Fountain Square called La Margarita. The name of the joint made it rather obvious to me that I needed to stop there during my last tour date in Indy. Not only did I find my lost shaker of salt at La Margarita, I found some great suds there as well. They have this tasty pale ale called Victory Headwaters. You know I'm a citrus expert because of my copious consumption of limes. Well, Victory Headwaters is loaded with citrus flavors, I think due to the hops, rounded out by a nice malty sweetness. I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I urge you to chuck that Landshark Lager and take one of these puppies to the beach with you!

Now I ain't no Kraut, but I do enjoy a good German style beer from time-to-time. So that's where Brooklyn's Golden Standard Export Kellerbier comes in, which is also on tap at La Margarita. This baby is smooooooth, let me tell you. It's nice, light, and a little sweet, kind of like the royalty checks that still roll in every month from the sales of my book Tales from Margaritaville. So the next time you're relivin' the 'late 70s and early '80s on your catamaran in the Gulf of Mexico, you won't go wrong with a Brooklyn Golden Standard Export.

Folks, the next time you're in Indy, get on down to La Margarita. And don't forget to pick up a brand new copy of my second autobiography, A Pirate Looks at Fifty Shades of Grey.

Victory Headwaters Pale: 4.25 mugs.
Brooklyn Gold Standard Export Kellerbier: 3.60 mugs.

Beers are always better when shared with friends. Even more when soccer is on TV. Exponentially so when chips and salsa are involved. So, thanks to Euro 2012, Mike and I have been at La Margarita three times in the past week. The food is great, the tequila selection is amazing, and Jon always keeps a stellar craft beer list.

Let me talk about those chips and salsa for a minute. There is something about tortilla chips at a restaurant. Something about these warm and crispy chips can not be replicated at home. Maybe it shouldn't be. It seems like the whole basket is gone before we know it, which is easy to do with the THREE salsas provided. Because I am a huge wuss when it comes to spicy heat, I usually hoard the avocado loaded pico de gallo. Not to say the other two aren't good, but I can't say no to avocado.

Now, the beers.

Sometimes it is hard to give words to beers. Sometimes you are just sitting there, drinking and chatting and the next thing you know is that the beer is three quarters gone. You drank it without thinking about it, without processing what you tasted. I kind of love when that happens even though it makes it difficult to write about. Every beer doesn't have to be earth shattering. Victory Headwaters Pale was good, balanced, and obviously had a pleasant flavor. I'm more than OK with that. 4.3 Mugs.

Now, juxtapose that with the next beer, Brooklyn Gold Standard Export Kellerbier. I felt that I had to work for this one, dissect it, break it down by its components to figure out how the different flavors and textures mingle together. In the end, I liked it. There was a sweetness sandwiched between a herbal bitterness. Maybe I should have had the beers in reverse. 3.0 Mugs.

Final KOTBR Scores
Victory Headwaters Pale
Jason: 3.75 Mugs | Mike: 3.75 Mugs | Jim: 4.25 Mugs | Gina: 4.3 Mugs
KOTBR Score: 4.01 Mugs

Brooklyn Gold Standard Export Kellerbier
Jason: 2.71 Mugs | Mike: 2.79 Mugs | Jim: 3.6 Mugs | Gina: 3.0 Mugs
KOTBR Score: 3.02 Mugs

KOTBR #138 | Fountain Square Times Two

We make no secret of the fact that we like Fountain Square. Poll all seven of us and most (if not all) of us will tell you that it's our favorite Indianapolis neighborhood.

We love the neighborhood for both sentimental and practical reasons. As for the sentimental reasons, Fountain Square is where the seed of Hoosier Beer Geek was planted and began to grow. Indeed, when we started regularly doing roundtables in 2006, we made the now-defunct Deano's Vino our unofficial base of operations. We also used to hold HBG parties at Deano's, and our first anniversary party was there as well.

As for the practical reasons, Fountain Square is close to where most of us live. Add to this the fact that the neighborhood is finally coming into its own as a cultural destination in the city and we wonder why we would spend our entertainment dollars anywhere else in Indianapolis. We still love places like Broad Ripple and Mass Ave. But Fountain Square is where the city's young cultural heart truly beats.

We'll get out to different parts of the city for future roundtables. But for our most recent roundtable, we found ourselves back in Fountain Square to hit up two new establishments: La Margarita (1043 Virginia Avenue, 317.848.1457) and End of the Line Public House (1105 Shelby Street, 317.687.4857).

In addition to offering hearty Mexican fare and a well-rounded selection of premium tequilas, La Margarita has six craft taps and a good bottle selection. Proprietor Jon Carlos Rangel likes to stock off-the-beaten-path craft beers. For example, about a month ago, we enjoyed some Three Floyds/Dogfish Head Poppaskull on tap. Currently, Belgian quad Urthel Samaranth is on draft.



As for End of the Line, Fountain Square finally has a bar devoted solely to craft beer with the recent addition of this bar. The End of the Line has ten taps, mostly local, along with a diverse menu of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, and pizzas. The menu also has a good selection of vegetarian dishes.



While at La Margarita, we had People's Pilsner from Lafayette's People's Brewing Company.

Mike: The nose on this beer is sweet like sweet corn (minus the flaws implied) or those powdered sugar Christmas cookies. The beer is sweet and clean throughout, finishes clean but not particularly dry. Clean, agreeable, drinkable, all things a pils should be. 4.00 Mugs.


Gina: Brewed for its working-class citizen coal miners and steel workers, the original Dortmunder-style pilsner was made to be full-bodied and thirst-quenching. It needed to be hearty enough to satisfy the strongest of thirsts. The history of the style is quite fascinating if you’re into that sort of thing.

People’s gave a nod to this style with People's Pilsner. Their rendition takes advantage of the hard water in Lafayette. This, along with Caramalt and Santium hops, gives this beer a balance of sweet and bitter. This beer is full-bodied with a slightly dry finish and absolutely loaded with flavor for a 4.5% ABV beer. If I had not just come from dinner, this beer would have been perfect with just about everything at La Margarita. 3.60 Mugs.

Jim: This beer stood out to me because of its spicy finish. Indeed, the beer left my palate with a peppery note. I'm used to a bitter finish on pilsners, but the peppery bitterness in People's Pilsner was quite memorable. A great representation of the style and one that I'll now be seeking out more often. 4.00 Mugs.


After finishing our People's Pilsners, we headed over to End of the Line to have Flat12 Bierwerks' Walkabout Pale Ale. Flat12 just celebrated their one-year anniversary, where they featured some outstanding variations on some of the flagship beers they brew.

Gina: For last year’s ReplicAle, the Brewers of Indiana Guild chose a single hop pale ale. Each brewery chose their hop and brewed their beer based on a recipe created by brewmaster Liz Laughlin of Rock Bottom College Park. Flat12 chose Galaxy as their hop and brewed their beer. It was a smash hit at the festival, and they found themselves replacing their existing Puppet Show Pale Ale for this delightful new brew. It has a tropical fruity aroma that is so nice, it is almost relaxing. Malt shines through in this beer as well, making it a well-balanced brew. 4.00 Mugs.


Jim: I poured beer at the ReplicAle tent at last summer's Indiana Microbrewers Festival, and Gina is correct when she calls Flat12's Walkabout a "smash hit." Above all other ReplicAles, festival attendees were clamoring for this beer. The keg blew quickly, and for good reason. Not only is this beer fairly sessionable at 5.3% ABV, it's brimming with flavor with its mango, passion fruit, and grapefruit attributes. That being said, it doesn't overwhelm your palate, making it a good beer for multiple-pint sittings. I don't know that I'd put Walkabout in the quite the same class as Three Floyds Zombie Dust, but it's pretty close. 4.45 Mugs.


Mike: Grapefruity, biscuity, fuck who needs another goddamn pale ale review. This one is fucking good though. Chewy chewy chewy. I like a little more malt, but I can't fault the beer. 4.00 Mugs.

People's Pilsner
Mike: 4.00 Mugs | Gina: 3.60 Mugs | Jim: 4.00 Mugs
KOTBR Score: 3.87 Mugs

Flat12 Bierwerks Walkabout Pale Ale
Mike: 4.00 Mugs | Gina: 4.00 Mugs | Jim: 4.45 Mugs
KOTBR Score: 4.15 Mugs