Ticket Giveaway - Brew Bracket Oktoberfest - CLOSED

Thank you for entering, this contest is now closed.  Congratulations to the winner, @bibliobuff!  Enjoy!

Our friends at Brew Bracket have been so kind as to offer two tickets to their event coming up at Tomlinson Tap Room on Saturday, September 28th.  

taste. vote. repeat.

Our Fall event features Oktoberfest style beers from 8 incredible local Indiana breweries.

The event will be held at Tomlinson Tap Room, where we'll bring the beer to you at your table. Included in the ticket are all 7 rounds of side by side tastings, samples from a couple home brewers showcasing their take on the style, entry into an incredible door prize raffle, and a half pint of your choice at the end of the event.

Participating brewers include Upland, Flat 12, Bier, Twisted Crew, RAM, Granite City, Iechyd Da, and #BBPales winner Thr3e Wisemen.

A portion of ticket sales will be donated directly to King Park Area Development Corporation (www.kpadc.org)

This is a 21+ event only. ID is required at the door. Designated driver tickets include free soda and water at the event. Additional food will be available for purchase through City Market vendors. Come join us for some great times with an intimate beer crowd tasting some limited edition Oktoberfest style beers.

Doors open at 5:45PM, first round of tasting begins at 6PM. For any more details about our event please visit www.brewbracket.com

We have two (2) tickets to give away to this event. To enter, please leave a comment below in which you tell us what you would pair with a liter of Oktoberfest.

We'll chose our favorite comment on Thursday (9/26/13) at 10 a.m. EST, and the winner gets the tickets. MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE US A METHOD TO CONTACT YOU - an email address or a twitter handle is just fine. You'll be responsible for checking back to see if you've won, and we can figure the rest out after that.

LEGAL STUFF
Creative entries are particularly appreciated.
We reserve the right to not give you tickets if we think you're shady.
We reserve the right to change all the rules and not award the prize if we don't like how things go.
Don't be a pain in the ass.
By participating, entrants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of HoosierBeerGeek.com, which shall be final and binding with regard to all matters relating to the contest.
END OF LEGAL STUFF.

HBG Pint Night: Thursday, August 29, Tomlinson Tap Room, 6:30pm

That's right, the next edition of HBG Pint Night is coming together quite nicely. In a nod to Matt's favorite style, Flat12's "10 Pin" theme from the Indiana Microbrewer's Festival, and the real ale tent at Great Taste of the Midwest, we're going with cask beer for this month's edition.

Please join us at Tomlinson Tap Room (2nd Floor of the City Market, 222 E Market St, Indianapolis, IN) at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 29th. 

As of 8/22, we have casks from Upland, People's, Flat12, Daredevil, Sun King, Bloomington Brewing, and Union Brewing committed for the event. Pours will be $3.50 for imperial pints. 

We will update the post as we get beer details and additional commitments.

Beer Diary #25 - Mike - FSB and F8 at Tomlinson Tap Room

After a month away from beer I've come back strong - perhaps a little too strong - recently. With a going away party to attend (We'll miss you, Jon), we first stopped in at the Tomlinson Tap Room to partake in a run-through of the latest offerings from Valparaiso's Figure 8 Brewing Company. But first, a warm-up beer.


Fountain Square Brewing's Preacher's Daughter - As we reset our sites on that which is sessionable, perhaps it's also time to revisit amber. Preacher's Daughter is Fountains Square's amber offering, and it's full-flavored, tasty, balanced, and almost-sessionable at 4.7% ABV. A lingering caramel flavor, smooth, and clean, this is another solid offering from the city's currently newest brewery.

Left to right: German Hefe, Belgian Dubbel, ESB, Imperial Red. Not pictured: IPA

Zaptist (sp?) German Hefe - Here's a beer that looks like you'd expect, with a very big nose featuring an almost a red wine-like note. The front is light, giving way to banana bread. Light on the clove, but full-on bready, the beer finishes sweet.

Belgian Dogma Dubbel - Gold/copper color, plum and nail polish in the nose. The front hints that you're about to drink a hot/higher alcohol beer (thanks, nose), but middle slides right by, and the finish is a hint of caramel. The beer is dominated by its nose, but not in a way that's off-putting.

Scapegoat ESB - Golden color, with an appley-english nose. A buttery apple middle, the beer finishes dry, but also chewy. Those things go together, right?

Ro Shampo Imperial Red - A hoppy tootsie-roll nose is what hits first, with the middle and finish living together in an alcohol-fueled bitter wonderland. Finishes dry, but not chewy.

Where Lizards Dare IPA - Looks gold. My notes start going off the rails here. "Does anyone read beer reviews and go 'Oh that's totally the wrong color, screw that beer'. The beer is purple. Weird. I made that up."

Where Lizards Dare is a balanced IPA, hops and malt working in equal parts. It's sweet in ways I appreciate. My favorite beer of the group, not over-anything. A level teeter-totter.

HBG at HubWork today

If you're participating in the Super Bowl festivities, stop by the City Market today at 2.  We'll be giving a talk on craft beer and some basics of pairing beer with food. Afterwards, stick around for an Indiana beer tasting hosted by Upland.  Then grab a beer from Tomlinson Tap Room in a plastic cup and head back out to Georgia Street for more free concerts.  It's like we just planned your afternoon for you.  You're welcome!

If you aren't familiar with HubWork, it's sort of a coffee shop for out-of-towners (and even in-towners) to hang out, use wireless internet and have a coffee or beer without being harassed by a barista about taking up a table all day.  Check out more at http://www.hubwork.org/.

Scenes from American Craft Beer Week | Sun King/Three Floyds 3 Kings Tapping @ the Tomlinson Tap Room

We've been busy people lately, but we're trying to do our best to get around town for American Craft Beer Week. On Monday evening, we were at the scene of ACBW's kickoff in the Circle City: the Tomlinson Tap Room for a final tapping of 3 Kings Pale Ale, the Sun King/Three Floyds collaboration that was intended to draw our state government's attention to the need to increase the production cap for small breweries. In case you haven't heard, this initiative worked: Governor Daniels signed into law the bill that increases the small brewery production cap from 20,000 barrels to 30,000 barrels.

Here's what we saw at the Tom Tap (click photos to enlarge)--

 

To keep up to date on what's happening in Indy during American Craft Beer Week, go here.

ReplicAle tapping at the Tomlinson Tap Room

There will be a tapping of Indiana Winter 2011 ReplicAles on Wednesday, February 23rd at 6pm at the Tomlinson Tap Room in the City Market, 222 E. Market Street, Indianapolis. The recipe is a recreation of the Imperial Double Stout that was brewed by the defunct Ackerman’s Brewery in New Albany. Jared Williamson from New Albanian Brewing Company will be on hand to talk about recreating historical beers.

Along with tapping a firkin of New Albanian’s Ackerman’s Imperial Double Stout, other versions will be on tap, including: Broad Ripple Brewpub, Great Crescent Brewing Company, People’s Brewing Company, Rock Bottom Brewery and Restaurant – both College Park and Downtown, Sun King Brewing Company, Upland Brewing Company, and other Indiana breweries to be confirmed.

The Indiana ReplicAle program is presented by the Brewers of Indiana Guild with support from Brewers Supply Group and Briess Malt & Ingredients Company.

***

Ackerman’s Imperial Double Stout recipe, as recreated by Jared Williamson and Jess Williams:
Original Gravity: 20 degree Plato
Alcohol By Volume: Circa 8%
International Bittering Units: 35 – 40

Grist Bill: 80% Rahr 2-row Pale Malt
5% Briess Aromatic Malt
5% Briess Dark Chocolate Malt
5% Briess Roast Barley
2.5% Briess 80-degree Caramel Malt
2.5% Briess Cherry Smoked Malt

Hops: Single addition at boil of your choice of hop, to achieve 35 - 40 IBU

A reply from the Tomlinson Tap Room

Last week, the Knights of the Beer Roundtable posted a letter to the Tomlinson Tap Room about their new space and some suggestions for improvement. We received this response back. We thank everybody at the Tomlinson Tap Room and the City Market for listening to our feedback and we look forward to many future visits!

14 January 2011

Dear KOTBR:

Thank you so much for your constructive feedback of both strengths and weaknesses of Tomlinson Tap Room. We have given careful consideration to your valuable critique, and have provided for the following:

1) Signage – We are working diligently to create an inviting atmosphere for TTR. The signage initiative we have planned includes not only the immediate TTR area, but extends to the exterior of the City Market and points of entry to the Main Market House.

2) Communications - We are ramping up our social media and external communications efforts to better reach our audience with pertinent information about Tomlinson Tap Room, including what’s on tap and other programming including Pint Night, beer and food pairings, Tomlinson Tap Room Tutorials hosted by Anita Johnson of Great Fermentations, and other great events that weave together the social fabric of this great craft beer community.

3) You have spoken, and we listened. We have adjusted our pricing and our hours to reflect the habits and desires of our great craft beer community. You may now enjoy all Indiana craft beers at TTR for $5.50, and we’ve altered our original Noon – 8pm hours to 2pm – 10pm, Wednesday through Saturday.

Again, we thank you so much for your words of encouragement, and we look forward to your continued patronage of Tomlinson Tap Room.

Best,

Tomlinson Tap Room Crew

KOTBR writes a "Dear Tom" letter

Dear Tomlinson Tap Room:

We want to congratulate you on your recent opening. The City Market is a special building in Indianapolis and we want to see more residents and visitors use the building and patronize the vendors within.

We appreciate your approach. Having an all Indiana craft beer lineup is wonderful. The mix of breweries and styles are top notch. Some of us visited recently and we found the following beer menu:

Barley Island’s Sheet Metal Blonde, Great Crescent’s Bourbon Barrel Stout, Mad Anthony’s Gabby Blonde, People’s Mr. Brown, New Albanian’s Bob’s Old B-15, Wilbur’s Country Mellow, Upland’s Komodo Dragonfly, Oaken Barrel’s Razz Wheat, Ram’s S’no Angel, Sun King’s Malus Pi, People’s Aberrant Amber, Bloomington’s Double Hopped, Great Crescent’s IPA, Mishawaka’s Four Horsemen, Brugge’s Tripel de Ripple, and Three Floyd’s Cenotaph.

Some beers are easily available in town; some are impossible to get without traveling. Some beers are approachable for those new to craft beer; some are the dreams of beer geeks. Overall, the lineup stays true to the City Market’s historic mission: locally crafted goods. You’ve had some other great beers too, including Three Floyds' Aotearoa, New Albanian's Hoptimus DIPA, New Albanian's Thunderfoot Imperial Stout, People's Hopkilla IPA, and Power House's Diesel Oil Stout.

We also appreciate the sampler option. It is nice trying multiples without fully investing in a pint.

The space is wonderful as well. The use of an antique back bar, the installation of tables by local artisans, all of which overlook the City Market…it is a beautiful space. And being able to carry your beer around the entire market property is a nice option as well.

These are all things that should make you successful. The problem is that not many people know about these perks.

Until we arrived, we had no idea what beers were on tap. Some of the beers, like the Cenotaph (which was a complete surprise when I walked in), would likely have brought in more beer geeks. If it was advertised better on Facebook, Twitter, your webpage, and Hoosier Beer Geek (hint: HBG Gina does the Random Beer Roundup every Friday, which includes news about what's on tap around town; the RBR is targeted at people who would be very interested in what's on tap at Tom Tap), I think your bar would have been full on our visit, not half full.

The space that you have is hard to find. People casually passing the market have no idea you are there. People trying to find you have no idea where to enter. Something needs to be done to invite and direct people to your bar. Something better than word of mouth. Signage. Banners. Anything.

And you should let it be known in your communication that a family can visit and an adult can purchase a beer and take it with them to non-bar areas of the City Market, including the outdoor spaces. I know that some people have not attended because they have kids.

Finally, we want to tell you that your prices are a bit high, with the exception of the sampler (which at three samples for $5 is the best offer you have) and sometimes the Thursday growler refill special ($10 for Razz Wheat? Eh. $10 for Cenotaph? Hell yes!). The pint prices are probably a buck too much. While special out of town beers will probably fetch the premium price, if you are hoping to compete for downtown drinking dollars, you’ll need to reconsider some of your pricing.

We write this not be hateful. We want you to succeed. We are offer constructive criticism in hopes of growing the crowd and the appeal of the Tomlinson Tap Room. We most certainly wish you the best of luck.

Sincerely,
The Knights of the Beer Roundtable

Special Request Updates: Bier Brewery and Tomlinson Tap Room Grand Openings

Just got a direct twitter message demanding that I post the tap list for Tomlinson's opening this evening. You only get one, Ms. Crook...

Tonight it one of the biggest drinking nights on the calendar, so it's only fitting that today marks the grand openings of Indianapolis' newest brewery and Indianapolis' newest craft beer bar. Get out there, people! Celebrate our growing beer culture!

Bier Brewery and Taproom
5133 East 65th Street
Between Allisonville Rd and Binford Blvd. on the south side of 65th Street
From their website, twitter, and various other sources):


Bier will be open Wednesday before Turkeyday from 3-7pm.
We will have 7 different biers on tap:
Pale, Belgian Blonde, German Wheat, Kolsch, Brown, Porter, Oatmeal Stout

More about Bier Brewery at BrewIndy.com

Tomlinson Tap Room
Indianapolis City Market Main Hall Upstairs (Southwest Corner)
Wednesday-Friday: Noon - 8:00pm-ish
Saturday: 11:00am - 5:00pm-ish
Closed Sunday - Tuesday (available for private events)



BEER ON TAP – NOVEMBER 24, 2010

Name of Beer, Location

Ram S’no angel Weizenbock, Indianapolis
Mad Anthony Gabby Blonde, Fort Wayne
Three Floyds Aeotearoa, Munster
Lafayette Brewing Tippecanoe Common, Lafayette
Big Woods Brewing Busted Knuckle, Nashville
Sun King/Broad Ripple Brewpub Sun Ripple ESB, Indianapolis
Brugge Triple de Ripple, Indianapolis
Upland Komodo Dragonfly Black IPA, Bloomington
Oaken Barrel Indiana Amber, Greenwood
Barley Island Dirty Helen, Noblesville
Broad Ripple Brewpub ESB, Indianapolis
New Albanian Hoptimus, New Albany
Crown Brewing Brown, Crown Point
Rock Bottom College Park Blitzen Black IPA, Indianapolis
Power House Diesel Oil Stout, Columbus
People's Pilsner, West Lafayette

Sneak Preview: Tomlinson Tap Room at City Market

Wednesday marked the soft opening for Tomlinson Tap Room, an Indiana-only craft beer bar that is partially owned by the Brewers of Indiana Guild and set in Indianapolis' City Market. Tomlinson is the latest idea in what has been a very long and costly effort to turn around the fortunes of the City Market, and there are reasons to be skeptical about its success.

"We're going in a direction that we haven't gone in before," said Jim Reilly, City Market's executive director. "We're getting kind of creative here.

"We just think it's the way to go," he said. " Quite frankly, over the past 124 years, nothing else has worked. We're being proactive here." Indianapolis Star, October 28, 2010.

Is a bar the answer for 124 years of failure? I'm not so sure. But there are reasons for craft beer fans to be excited about Tomlinson.


First among those reasons is the availability of beer that doesn't make its way to Indianapolis all that often. The opening lineup included lesser seen beers from the likes of Mad Anthony, Lafayette, Big Woods, New Albanian, Crown, Peoples and Powerhouse, as well as a very special small batch offering from the likes of Three Floyds - Aotearoa. The 16 tap lineup is filled out by the likes of perennial Indianapolis favorites such Brugge, Sun King, Upland, Ram and Rock Bottom, giving not only locals but visitors a full selection of what Indiana has to offer.


If the lineup alone isn't enough reason to visit, growler fills of any beer in the lineup might be. Because the bar is owned by the Brewers Guild - and subsequently the breweries that make up the guild - Tomlinson will be the only place in town where you can get a growler filled from as many as 16 different breweries.


The success of the space might rely heavily on the continued availability of rare and one-off beers - there are certainly no lack of options when it comes to your beer dollar downtown. The space has always been great, and craft beer has certainly been a hot commodity recently. Here's hoping Tomlison can finally help the City Market find a winning formula for success.


Tomlison Tap Room
Grand Opening Wednesday November 24th
Indianapolis City Market Main Hall Upstairs (Southwest Corner)
Wednesday-Friday: Noon - 8:00pm-ish
Saturday: 11:00am - 5:00pm-ish
Closed Sunday - Tuesday (available for private events)