Dear Hoosier Beer Geek: Fort Wayne Edition

Fresh from the mailbox:

Hello,
I'm traveling from Lansing, MI to Fort Wayne tomorrow (Sat 5/2) - just for the day.

Was wondering 3 things:
1. Can you direct me to an establishment in Fort Wayne that specializes in and sells craft brew?
2. Does Three Floyds distribute to Fort Wayne?
3. What other IN craft brews are out there that are a must try?

Thanks in advance for your help/advice!

John

Question 1: The obvious answer is Mad Anthony, who Jason recently visited. Although they don't have a brewpub or sell directly from the brewhouse, Warbird's beers are also worth a visit. Indiana Beer also has a nice writeup on Fort Wayne beer locations. And although we haven't stopped in yet, Granite City is a beer option.

Question 2: A search on World Class Beverages Beer Finder shows that Three Floyds Alpha King is available at nine locations in the greater Fort Wayne area. A heads up to anyone looking for Three Floyds beers in Indiana: look for Alpha King.

Question 3: All of them? The bottled Indiana beers that reach "would buy again" status from our roundtable reviews include Brugge's Black and Triple De Ripple, Barley Islands Beastie (Bourbon) Barrel series, most of Oaken Barrel's lineup, and Upland's Lambics, which surprised us with their further developing flavor when we recently revisted them. Mad Anthony's IPA is a favorite amongst many of the KOTBR - though we haven't reviewed it yet - and we're all quite fond of Warbird's Shanty Irish and Thunderbolt Wheat as nice sessionable beers.

Since we're all located in Indy, I can't give suggestions at to which Fort Wayne liquor stores are best, and I'm sure we're missing a few locations worth visiting. Can any readers weight in?

Back home again In Indiana, and what beer should I buy?

From the mailbag:

Hey folks,

I am from Indy, but live in Boston... and am coming home for the holidays. I'm looking to pick up some bottles of 'that which I cannot find out east'... what are the best package stores to find most local (midwest) micro brewings in Indy these days? All I really know if is Kahn's on Keystone. I will be picking up whatever I can find of FFF, and some Brugge bottles...anything else I shouldn't leave without?

Thanks!

Joe

For some reason the first things that popped into my head were Barley Island's Beastie Barrel Stout and Barley Island/Mark Schiess' GABF Pro-Am beer, Single White Friar. Both are pretty big beers, so depending on what Joe normally drinks, that may or may not be a good recommendation. As for stores, Kahn's is a pretty good place to start.

I asked the rest of the Bums of the Beer Roundtable, and Matt R. responded:

I would also suggest Party Pak for him.

In terms of beers he cannot get on the east coast might include Founders, Two Brothers, Jolly Pumpkin, BBC (at least Jefferson Reserve) and thirsty dog.

Matt's list is good - my favorites from that list would include almost anything from Founders - though their IPA is just ok - and BBC's brown (a personal favorite) and the Jefferson Reserve.

I don't know Kahn's attitude toward mixed six packs, but Parti-pak allows you to mix whatever you'd like. The Hop Shop up north also does that, but their selection isn't quite as varied as Party Pak. And if Joe's already shopping at Party Pak, a stop in at the southside Crown Liquors (on 31, next to Borders) is a good idea - their prices generally seem to be a little cheaper than Party Pak's. Lastly, if you're on the north side, Mike at the Meridian and Carmel Dr. Crown can take care of you.

I'm sure we're missing something, though - so I'd appreciate it if our readers would weigh in here. What beer should Joe not leave home without?

From the Mailbag - A Question on Glassware

I've got some ideas on this one, but I'm sure I'm missing a few:

Hi,

Figured since you guys seemed to be the experts¹ in the Indianapolis beer scene, you might know the answer to this question. I've been looking around for some different logo'd beer glasses. I'm especially interested in finding tulip glasses or chalice style. I've already tried the Hop Shop but they were currently out of stock. Do you know of any places that carry this type of item?

Thanks,
Rob

The first place that came to mind was Parti Pak (2633 E Stop 11 Rd, Indianapolis (317) 889-7452‎ - click here for directions), where at one time you could find a vast array of different styles of beer glasses spread across the tops of the craft beer coolers. Then Parti Pak remodeled - which I think most folks would agree was a good thing (better lighting certainly is a nice addition) - but I have no idea what they did with the glassware. I'm sure it's still there, somewhere.

The second place that came to mind was Kahn's (5341 N Keystone Ave, Indianapolis (317) 251-9463‎ - click here for directions), which also has a nice selection.

I asked the rest of the Knights and Chris (CorrND) weighed in:

Yeah, Kahn's has a ton of glassware on the ledges that run above all the beer coolers. I bought a Sam Smith imperial pint glass there once and I remember thinking it was surprisingly cheap. Something like $3.

So that's the places we could think of, but I'm willing to bet those aren't the only locations for beer glassware in the city. If any readers have seen glassware for sale around town, drop a comment - let's help Rob out.

* * * * *

¹We are not experts.

Ask a Beer Geek - A Lesson on Kegs

From the mailbag:

Dear Beer Geeks: Please help. Do you know of any local brew pubs / restaurants / liquor stores who sell 5 gallon "sixth" kegs? (Besides The Ram)

Might also consider a quarter barrel pony keg.

Thank you.
Mike L.

It depends on what you're looking for, but the answer is yes. To our readers who might not be aware, the typical keg you have seen is actually a half barrel. Pony kegs, the shrunken cousin of the keg, are quarter barrels. Sixth barrels are the taller, more narrow kegs you see at a lot of beer festivals. If these are designed for beer, they should have the same tap connection as a regular keg. In rare cases, and especially in home brewing, Cornelius Kegs (i.e. soda kegs and corney kegs) can be used to store beer and these have a different tap connection.

Brugge is currently distributing sixth barrels and half barrels through liquor stores. I'm not sure if you can purchase one at the brewpub but my guess is no. Rock Bottom definitely has both half barrels and sixth barrels available. I was under the impression the Ram would only fill a keg you bring in, but I haven't tried so I don't know. That brings me to your second option. If you purchase a sixth barrel or half barrel you can take it to many brewpubs and have it filled without placing a deposit on the container. Sixth barrels are available from many homebrew stores, such as Great Fermentations.

If you're just looking for any sixth barrel full of beer and it doesn't have to be from a local brewery, most well stocked liquor stores with a nice beer selection should be able to help you out. Parti Pak and Kahn's are two examples of fine establishments which will sell sixth, quarter and half barrels of beer.

Always remember that you should expect to pay a deposit, possibly a very large deposit, on the keg. As long as you bring it back, it will be refunded to you. If you plan on purchasing kegs a lot, I would recommend investing in a party pump (the manual, hand pump tap) or a kegorator. Party pumps will run you about $50 but sometimes they are a necessity since not all liquor stores or microbreweries have them available to rent. Kegorators open up a whole other can of worms that will be left for a post some other day.

Does anyone know if Oaken Barrel, Broad Ripple Brewpub, Alcatraz or any other Indiana Microbreweries sell beer in containers larger than growlers? Do you have a favorite liquor store to purchase kegs of craft beer at?

Can We Do It? No We Can't

From the mailbag:

The 4th of July party we go to is BMC* city. No bottles allowed if you're bringing your own, either. We also spend time kayaking, camping and being near the water - all glass free activities. Why can't I find a decent canned beer in this town? I can't even get Pilsner Urquell in a can anymore. Mike at Crown told me that Monarch stopped carrying it. World Class, hear my plea, "I want to at least be able to buy a decent beer in a can".

...and the next person that says I can get Tecate in a can is gonna get drop kicked in the junk.

Rob

There once was a time when you could get better than decent beer in a can in Indiana. When we visited Warbird, Owner/Brewer Dave Holmes showed us his beer in cans and said that he found that Indiana consumers weren't interested in paying craft beer prices for beer in a can. So he sold off that equipment and went to bottles. If you're looking for canned beer, it appears your options are Young's Double Chocolate (not exactly a kayaking sort of beer) and Belhaven Scottish. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that we'll see more decent canned beer in Indiana any time soon.

I asked our distributor friends about the can shortage and the complications involved in carrying cans. World Class' Bob Mack:

We talk about cans a lot and in reality, we like cans because of their portability and potential use in situations where bottles are prohibited. They are also easier and cheaper to transport! $5 a gallon diesel fuel is a great incentive for us to move towards cans, but while we’d love to have them very few breweries in the craft/micro world sell canned beer.

There is most definitely a consumer perception that canned beer is not as high a quality as bottled beer. I think that perception is based on the idea that canned beer, years ago, would taste metallic because of the beer coming in contact with the metal. These days beer and soda cans are lined in such a way that prevents the beer from coming into any metal, but the perception still exists.

There are not really any complications for the distributor in selling canned beer, but there are plenty of complications for the brewer because it is pretty expensive to operate a canning line in addition to a bottling line. Brewers have had to face the harsh reality that consumers, in general, are more supportive of bottles than they are cans despite the facts that cans have a lot of advantages like being easier to ship, more protective of the beer (no light gets to the beer at all!) and more eco-friendly as can material is much easier to re-cycle than bottles. In short, it would be a significant, additional expense for a brewer who is already bottling to make beer available in cans. Some brewers who do choose to do cans, like Oskar Blues, do only cans and not bottles since they cannot afford both a canning and a bottling line.

Longer term, there are some really good beers available in cans in other parts of the country that we would love to have here in Indiana. Surly and Oskar Blues are probably the most notable ones out there at the moment, but Surly doesn’t have anywhere near enough beer to be in the Indiana market anytime soon and despite adding a new production facility at Longmont a couple of months ago, Oskar Blues told me as recently as last week that they would not have enough beer to support the Indiana market until the first or second quarter of 2009. New Belgium also started producing Fat Tire in cans a short time ago, but they are also not likely to be able to support the Indiana market until well into next year.

I appreciate Rob’s plea and I would love to help him out, but we just don’t have many canned beers available to us to sell at this point.

So, Rob, there's your answer. I'd stick to soda.


*BMC = Bud Miller Coors for the uninitiated.

From the mailbag

Although we call ourselves The Knights of the Beer Roundtable and Hoosier Beer Geeks, from time to time someone will ask a beer question we don't have an answer for. Actually, it happens a lot. Like this email from Kevin:

Hey Hoosier Beer Geek,

I have a question. Back in 1981-1982 I lived in Evansville, In. I remember however fuzzily that through the summer months the Catholic Churches in Evansville would have “Beer Stubes”. They were like fish frys only with a beer truck. I was told that because of the German Catholic ancestry that the area had that it was like Oktoberfest all summer long.

I moved from Evansville in ’82, lived in Chicago for nearly 10 years and have now lived in Cleveland for 15 years. Nobody has ever heard of these “Beer Stubes”. Can you elaborate? Do they still have them?

Having attended Wabash College I consider myself a beer connoisseur.

Thankx, Kevin

Knight Chris did a little research and found out that the German word stube means parlor. Ergo, a beer parlor. "I've not heard of it before, but I'm guessing it was a Hofbrau Haus themed event called Beer Stube." That's currently our best guess.

Although we're quickly becoming the old wise men and women of beer drinking, we're really not that old; most of us are in our late 20's to early 30's. Back in 81 - 82 I was 6 year old and living in Illinois, so I'm probably the wrong guy to ask. But perhaps a Hoosier Beer Geek reader has an idea about these Beer Stubes? If you do, leave a comment. Let's help Kevin out.