Personal Foal: Roughing the taste buds at Lucas Oil Stadium

So what’s on the menu?

Bud, Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite, MGD, MGD64…

Bleh.

…Blue Moon, Leinenkugel’s…

Fakey Craft.

…Heineken, Amstel Light, Corona, Corona Light…

Less than great imports.

...Peroni, Pilsner Urquell…

Getting better.

…Sam Adams, Fat Tire…

Now we’re getting somewhere.

…Upland Wheat, Upland IPA…

Yes! Indiana beers!

...Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice…

Aw, fuck.

Every year, I’m blindly optimistic that Lucas Oil Stadium will add more craft beer to its craft beer menu. And every year, I’m disappointed.

It started when the LO opened in 2008. The only local craft beer to be found came from The Ram.

In 2009, they moved forward and added Upland.

But in 2010, they took a step back. No Ram.

What pisses me off more: I sit in section 613 and I have to find my way down to one of the other two levels below to get a decent beer. It is pathetic. It is sad.

And what makes it worse: in less than four months, Lucas Oil Stadium will host the biggest game of the year. Indianapolis is putting on its Sunday best. Georgia Street (or whatever generic name they choose to give it) is being set up as the ultimate front yard. Hoosier Hospitality will be turned up to eleven.

But inside Lucas Oil Stadium, instead of getting schooled on Indiana brewing, the majority of Super Bowl guests (those not near the few Upland stands) will think the best beers we have to offer come from Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Golden, Colorado.

Penalty: they take a step backward

It has been two years since I first wrote about the beer selection (or lack thereof) at Lucas Oil Stadium. At the time, Ram Restaurant/Big Horn Brewery were the only brewery willing to shell out the advertising dollars in order to gain access to the crowd at the Indianapolis Colts.

Last year, I noted that they took a step forward by adding Upland to the mix. It was a small step in the right direction towards having a truly diverse beer menu at Lucas Oil Stadium.

This year, the beer menu takes a step backward. As Andrew Castner, head brewer at the Ram, put it: "The RAM doesn't have any involvement with Lucas Oil (Stadium) any more." I'm speculating that the RAM found that the advertising dollars spent at the stadium did not balance out enough with the amount of beer sold over the past two years.

Upland, in their second year at the stadium, has been added to many of the stands that used to serve RAM. From Cari Crowe, sales rep for Upland:

Upland Brewing Company has stepped up the availability at Lucas Oil Stadium after a positive response last year...some of these locations will sound familiar to those who knew where the Ram's draft carts were.

Upland Wheat & Dragonfly IPA Draft is available at Sections 109 and 132. The draft carts have gotten a new look so they should be easier to spot.

Bottled Upland Wheat and Dragonfly IPA are available at concession stands at the following sections: 307, 319, 334, and 346. Bottles are also available in the Baker & Daniels Club and Advantage Club, and in bars on the Suite Level.

Last season, I only saw Upland Wheat, so having Dragonfly is a plus. But for a sorry sap like me who resides in the 600 level of the stadium, it appears that the Upland tap is going away.

And I haven't heard of any other beers being made available at the Lucas Oil Stadium. So that's one less brewery (big step backward), one more brand (step forward), limited to levels 100 and 300 (step backward). Penalty on the play.

Another penalty flag on the Indianapolis Colts and Centerplate (the concessionaire) for not having an online stadium guide to concession stands. Nowhere on their website can you find info on what foods and beverages are available and where. This is a common feature on major league sports venue websites. Hell, even the Indianapolis Indians beat out the big boys in town by not only having a better beer list, but also providing details on what is available where.

In short: their on-the-field product is not the only thing the Colts need to improve in 2010.

Field Goal: It's an improvement, but we should still expect better

It's 9:30am on Sunday. I'm in a parking lot east of Lucas Oil Stadium. I'm grilling brats from Claus' Meats and drinking Oktoberfest from a Sun King growler.

The big three American breweries continue to have a stranglehold on the sporting and cultural venues we all enjoy visiting. Thankfully, one of the great things about tailgating is that you can have any beer you want; you just have to bring it. The big three haven't locked up exclusive rights to parking lots.

Though I'm sure they have tried.

Just a year ago, I was lamenting the state of the beer menu at Lucas Oil Stadium. This year, the stadium has taken a step forward. In addition to beer from Ram (which I still haven't found at the stadium), Upland is now served at concession stands near sections 124, 148, 307, 319, 334, 346, and 528, plus in the club seating areas.

More importantly, Upland is now served up in the nose bleed section where I sit! So when I started to get thirsty, I was able to buy an Upland Wheat for $8 (yeah, in the real world, that's pretty damn expensive. But a Bud, Miller, and Coors in the stadium runs $7.50. For 50 cents more, why not upgrade?).

In fact, the stand had two taps of Wheat flowing. I asked Cari Crowe, sales representative for Upland, if we can expect to see other Upland beers in the future. "Right now we wanted to go with our best seller, our Wheat Ale, at the draft kiosks. We're going to see how well it does and then maybe bring in something else eventually. Be sure that there will always be Upland Wheat on tap there."

Additionally, there are five locations with Upland in bottles. I didn't find one (I don't hang out in the lower levels), so I'm not sure what variety of bottled beers they have available. So I'm not getting a Dragonfly in there right now, but maybe in the future. In the meantime, I'll continue enjoying the Wheat.

I'm curious to know if the stadium's concessions contractor plans on bringing in more craft beer. The stand I visited on Sunday had four taps: two had Upland Wheat and two were empty. Could we see another brewery there in the future? Or additional Upland selections? I don't know.

I do know that Lucas Oil Stadium took a step forward today in improving their beer selection. But compared to the NFL's other stadiums, they're still not in the Wild Card hunt.

Fumble: The Beer Menu at Lucas Oil Stadium

It’s Sunday night, September 7th. I am inside the new Lucas Oil Stadium. As a long time season ticket holder, I am very excited about having a new stadium. But my beloved Colts aren’t doing so well. In fact, the Chicago Bears are smacking us around pretty good.

This is not the way I expected things to start in the big L-O. I think it is time for a beer.

There are so many bell and whistles in the new stadium, including a retractable roof and a retractable north window, both very cool features. But just as impressive, there are 778 beer taps at 525 points of sale, which is almost double what the Colts’ old Hoosier Dome home had. And that is good news for beer fans.

Or it should be. As I walk around, I notice that Budweiser takes up about half of the taps. The other taps are pretty well split between Miller and Coors. There are stands selling bottled beer, but they are basically limited to Corona, Heineken, and Amstel Light.

I had read in the Indianapolis Star that there will be beers from the downtown Indianapolis Ram brewery. But I wasn’t able to find them. And every beer vendor and concession stand worker I asked didn’t know that Ram beer was sold in the stadium.


Obviously there aren’t many points of sale dedicated to Ram. But why just Ram? There are so many great beers in Indiana and the entire Midwest. With so many more taps available, why isn’t the variety of beers available more diverse? That is the question I asked Bob Mack of World Class Beverages.

“[B]reweries have to pay to have their beer served in stadiums and it is very, very expensive. That situation really gears Lucas Oil towards macro brands who have large marketing budgets. Miller and Coors [which is distributed by World Class Beverages parent company Monarch Beverages] pay to be there, but that doesn’t cover any World Class brands. Anheuser-Busch pays well into the millions of dollars each year for their presence.

“I don’t know that any of our breweries are in a financial position to pay the fees involved in being present there, but we have talked to Centerplate about a consortium type approach where the financial burden could be shared, but there is a limit to how many products can be represented, which limits the number of breweries who can help to share that financial burden.”


Call me a naïve beer geek, but I thought teams would (or should) select beers based on what their fans would like to drink. “You are thinking logically and with your palate,” Mat Gerdenich of Cavalier Distributing informed me. “Those guys only think with their wallets.”

But it is not just the big sports teams that are doing this. I asked Andrew Castner at Oaken Barrel about their long time relationship with Victory Field. “In order to have our beer on tap at the field, we buy advertising and signage in parts of the field. As our math has gone, we sell as much beer to them as it costs to purchase the advertising. As a result, we don't make money on that account, but we are able to increase our exposure.”

It turns out that most venues and events that sell beer make their beer selections based on who buys advertising or pays to be a sponsor. “The current Oktoberfest at the Fairgrounds gets money from Warsteiner for their products to be on tap there,” says Mack, “which makes it difficult for us to be involved with brands like Spaten or Paulaner. Though they will bring in some bottles our products aren’t that visible.”

I understand giving a greater presence to those who pay extra. But I’m disappointed to hear that beer brands are not being brought in at all because they don’t have the marketing budget to compete with the big three. So even though the new stadium was paid for by Hoosier taxpayers, you most likely won’t see many Hoosier produced beers being sold there.

(Okay, so maybe I'm being melodramatic. To be fair, the new stadium did just open, so hopefully a deal to have more craft beer will come together in the next season or two. Diana Evans, Director of Marketing at Centerplate, said "Whenever possible, we like to incorporate regional flavors (locally-sourced) and signature offerings to make the fan experience more special. As you've probably seen on the website, we recruit talented chefs and restaurateurs to inform our purchasing, design and menus--and we're always interested in new concepts. " So keep your fingers crossed.)


I know that other NFL stadiums sell craft beers. On Sunday, fellow Colts fan Bryan Haza was in the Metrodome in Minneapolis and texted me that he bought a 21 oz. cup of Pale Ale from St. Paul-based Summit Brewing Company for $7. So we emailed the concessionaires for the 32 NFL teams asking if they would share their beer list with us. Most were happy to share.

It should come as no surprise that in St. Louis at the Edward Jones Dome that Anheuser-Busch dominates the beer lineup. They submitted that their beer list includes the Budweiser family of beers, the Michelob family of beers, and the Anheuser-Busch specialty and seasonal beers, plus Miller Lite and Coors Light.


Knowing that St. Louis brewery Schlafly Beer has a presence at Busch Stadium, home of the MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals, we wondered why their beer isn’t available at Rams games. Tom Schlafly wondered the same thing in a letter to the editor of the St. Louis Business Journal on June 16, 2008:

“There are lots of Rams fans who like Schlafly Beer. We see them at The Tap Room before or after every home game. There's no doubt that Schlafly would sell well at the Edward Jones Dome if it were available. Cardinals fans can buy Schlafly Beer at Busch Stadium. Blues fans can buy our beer at The Scottrade Center. Why can't Rams fans buy our beer at the Dome?”

We asked brand manager Mitch Turner if there had been any discussion about having their beer at Rams games. He said, “The Edward Jones Dome is run by Sport Service and they declined to serve our beer (I approached them personally). Their official stance was that we approached them too late in the year to get in. We approached them (both through the brewery and our distributor) periodically starting in late spring/early summer. The final answer of "no" was given to us in June.

“The reality is that they do serve Sam Adams, Killians, Blue Moon, and Boulevard,” Turner continues, “and that if there is an enemy #1 to the local AB/IB wholesaler, it is us. So, we are left out due to politics.” So while demand may be there for Schlafly by Rams fans, in this case business practices and politics seem to be getting in the way. But not necessarily money, as Schlafly doesn’t pay to be in any of those venues. “We are sold in Busch Stadium and the Scottrade Center (and the Pageant, the Roberts Orpheum, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Harrah's Casino, etc.) because consumers demand it and we are very active (non-monetarily) in seeking opportunities to be in these venues and helping them achieve their goals.”


Despite some political and monetary hurdles, somehow quality, local beer offerings are making their way into some NFL stadiums. Abita is available at the Saints’ Superdome in New Orleans. Boulevard beers are available in their hometown’s Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs. LP Field serves Yazoo, based in the Tennessee Titans town of Nashville. And the Buffalo Bills serve beers Flying Bison at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Honker’s Ale from Goose Island is available at Soldier Field in Chicago. But you also can drink regional favorites like Old Style and Leinenkugel’s while watching da Bears.

There are also stadiums that have stepped up their beer menus in a major way. At Bank of America Stadium, whose food services are operated in house by the Carolina Panthers, you will find one of the largest beer lists in the NFL, with over 44 beers listed. The local Carolina Beer Company has three varieties of its ABA Carolina Blonde at the stadium, including Carolina Strawberry Blonde and Carolina Blueberry Blonde. On top of these standard offerings, they also brew two beers for the stadium: Gridiron Red and Gridiron Brown.


At the Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minnesota Vikings fans take their beer very seriously. In addition to Summit’s Pale Ale, you can also find several varieties of Leinenkugel’s, as well as regional brewer Grain Belt. And Finnegan’s, which is a beer contract brewed for charity by Summit, is also on available.

Raiders Nation has a taste for craft beers as the Oakland Raiders serve an impressive selection at McAfee Coliseum. California originals like Gordon Biersch, Pyramid, and Sierra Nevada are available, as well as New Belgium’s Fat Tire and beers from Hawai’i based Kona Brewing Company.

In Denver, Invesco Field at Mile High offers plenty of hometown Coors to the thirsty Denver Broncos fans. But they also offer other Colorado brews: Dale’s Pale Ale from Oskar Blues Grill and Brewery, Fat Tire from New Belgium Brewing, and Hercules Double IPA from Great Divide Brewing Company. This is on top of a large collection of domestics and imports, including Sierra Nevada.

There is a monster beer selection in Monster Park, home of the San Francisco 49’ers. Five Golden State beers can be found. Gordon Biersch and Sierra Nevada have been mentioned at other stadiums. Anchor Steam beer, not surprisingly, is available, as is fellow San Fran brewery Speakeasy. Top it off with Lagunitas IPA and fans will leave happy, no matter the score.

But when Hoosier Beer Geek reviewed all the submitted beer lists, the NFL stadium that impressed us the most is the home of the San Diego Chargers. Qualcomm Stadium has a line up of 37 beers, with 9 craft brews and 11 imports. Anchor Steam, Fat Tire, Gordon Biersch Hefewiezen, Gordon Biersch Marzen, Kona Fire Rock, Kona Long Board, Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale, and Ballast Point’s Yellowtail Pale Ale make up 1/4th of their beer menu.


It goes to show that demand drives supply. Given that in California and Colorado craft beer has a much larger market share than here in Indiana, it isn’t surprising that the NFL stadiums in those states serve up big craft beer menus.

Hopefully, as demand increases, the supply of craft beer in Lucas Oil Stadium will also increase. Until then, might I suggest to my fellow beer geeks that you tailgate with your favorite selection of beers or visit J. Gumbo’s, Spencer’s, or one of the microbreweries before kickoff.

And pray that during the game, the Colts on-field performance doesn’t drive you to drinking.

Beer Geek Slumming