Winterfest 2010 Update #6 and Ticket Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to Kendra for being the winner of our Winterfest ticket giveaway. She was selected by assigning a number to all entrants and using a random number generator to select the winner.

If you didn't win, you can still get tickets. Brewers of Indiana Guild's Winterfest 2010 tickets are on sale now online. Ticket sales are also available at breweries across the state, including: Broad Ripple Brewpub, Brugge Brasserie, Barley Island (both locations), Upland (both locations), Rock Bottom (both locations), Ram (downtown), Alcatraz, Sun King, Oaken Barrel, Lafayette, Brickworks, Three Floyds, Back Road, Crown Brewing, Mishawaka, Half Moon, Mad Anthony (Ft. Wayne), Great Crescent, New Albanian, Turoni's Main Street, Power House, and Big Woods. They are also available at selected Crown Liquor stores. Winterfest will be held in the Ag/Hort building of the Indiana State Fairgrounds on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 from 3pm to 7pm. Tickets are $30.

As we receive information from the breweries as to what they are bringing, we will let you know. Our first Winterfest update provided the beer lists for Upland, Great Crescent, Mad Anthony, and Brugge. Our second Winterfest update included Bee Creek Brewery, Lafayette Brewing Company, Two Brothers, Rust Belt, Bell's Brewing Co., and Atwater Block. Our third Winterfest update included Crown Brewing, Big Woods Brewing, Power House Brewing, and Rock Bottom Brewery North. Our fourth Winterfest update included Back Road Brewery, Mishawaka Brewing, Broad Ripple Brewpub, Sun King Brewing, Schlafly Beer, Goose Island Brewing Co., North Coast Brewing Co., Left Hand Brewing Co. Our fifth Winterfest update include Oaken Barrel, Rock Bottom Downtown, Turoni's Main Street, New Albanian, Three Floyds, Ram Restaurant and Brewery, Barley Island, Tyranena, Shmaltz, Bluegrass, and New Belgium. This is our sixth update to the beer list, and this comes from World Class Beverages...


World Class Beverages is presenting our winter version of the popular “Hopapalooza” and we’re calling it “The Malt Shoppe“. Here are the DRAFT beers we’re currently planning on bringing:
• Bell’s Third Coast Old Ale
• Flying Dog Gonzo Porter
• Avery Hog Heaven
• Avery The Reverend
• Avery Salvation
• Brooklyn Winter
• Brooklyn Backbreaker
• Bluegrass Brewing Scotch Ale
• Dark Horse Perkulator Coffee Doppelbock
• Dark Horse Fore Smoked Stout
• Dark Horse One Oatmeal Stout
• Dogfish Head World Wide Stout
• Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine
• Rogue Shakespeare Stout
• Schlafly Coffee Stout
• Victory Abbey 6
• Victory Golden Monkey

Random Beer Roundup - The Edition with no name

January is in full swing and we have been busy! Knight Jason spent some time Wednesday afternoon with local brewers, restaurant and brewery owners, and other craft beer lovers speaking with members of the Senate to make an effort to forward a Bill that allows breweries in the state to sell carry-out growlers on Sundays. We are pleased to announce that the Bill passed by a vote of 9-2 and we are hopeful as it moves along to the next step.

We also did some bacon and beer experiments with our pal Clay this week. If you are interested in finding out more about this weird experiment, you may want to keep your eyes out for our second annual Craft Beer Breakfast coming up in a few months.

We are preparing for the Winterfest event coming up at the end of the month, on January 30th. If you have not purchased your tickets, you can get them online or from a variety of breweries and brewpubs around the state (you probably should call ahead if you want to buy them there). Get them early because you will not be able to get them at the door.

And there's some kind of football game on Saturday too, I hear. What will you be drinking pre, during, and/or post game?

If there is something coming up that is not listed, we would love to hear about it. News, reviews, info, etc., to share for our next Random Beer Roundup can be submitted to hoosierbeergeek@gmail.com.)

Hoosier Beer Calendar
Events are subject to change

Saturday, January 16th at at the Canyon Inn in McCormick's Creek state park on January 16th: Upland Brewmaster's Dinner

Thursday, January 21st at 7:00 p.m. at Chef JJ's Back Yard: Sun King Winter Warmer Brewer's Dinner

Thursday, January 28th from 5 - 8pm at Keg Liquors in Clarksville: Scott from Schlafly joins us for our January Beer Tasting.

Saturday, January 30th at the State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis: 2010 Brewers of Indiana Guild Winterfest

Friday, February 26th at Rich O's Public House in New Albany: Gravity Head begins!

Saturday, March 6th: KOTBR100 - Stay tuned for details.

March, Dates TBA - Craft Beer Breakfast

April 24th at Three Floyds Brewery in Munster - Dark Lord Release

What's Brewing

From Roger at New Albanian Brewing Co in New Albany:

Gravity Head begins Friday, February 26!

From Clayton at Sun King Brewing Co. in Indianapolis:

January 21st - 7:00 p.m.
Winter Warmer Brewer's Dinner
Chef JJ's Back Yard
http://www.chefjjs.com/grilling-classesgrilling-classes/special-events-with-featured-chefs/

From Jon at Power House Brewing Co. in Columbus:

Power House Brewing Co. will have live music by the Dugan Bros. Feb. 20th at 8pm.



At the Bar

From Lauren at Scotty's Brewhouse in various locations:

Monday
$5 Import/Microbrew 24oz MUG CLUB Refills
$3 12oz Select Microbrew/Import Bottles

Wednesday
$9 48oz Import/Microbrew Draught Pitchers

Thursday
$3.50 Pint Night – 16oz Import/Microbrew U-Calls

Sunday
$5 Import/Microbrew Draught 24oz MUG CLUB Refills

From Rob at Pizzology in Carmel:

Bottles:

Great Divide Hades

Great Divide Hibernation

Stone Pale Ale

Heavy Seas Loose Cannon

Sea Dog Blueberry Wheat Ale

Michigan City Celis White

Original Sin Hard Cider

Founder's Centennial IPA

Founder's Porter

Three Floyds Gumball Head

Three Floyd's Alpha King

Mad Anthony Auburn Lager

Bison Chocolate Stout

Saison Dupont

Draft:

Sun King Wee Mac

Brugge Tripel

Upland Winter Warmer

Two Brother's Domaine Dupage

Carry Out

From Corrie at Goose the Market in Indianapolis:

New on the shelves in the cellar at Goose the Market...

Bell's Hopslam comes but once a year. All the girls and boys on the "good list" can stop by the Goose for 6packs or singles.

A new Hoosier brewery in Brazil, Indiana, uses local honey for their first bottling: Hoosier Honey Wheat. Try Indiana's latest from the Goose in 6packs or singles. P.S. Folks at Bee Creek Brewery promise their next bottle--a hearty coffee stout-like brew--should be buzzing in soon.

As the first certified organic brewery in the USA, Eel River is also the first brewery powered by biomass. That may not sound very appetizing, but their beer sure is. Now at the Goose is Eel River's IPA and Triple Exultation (an old ale with kick).

From Todd at Keg Liquors in Clarksville:

Breckenridge - Oatmeal Stout (Colorado)
Eel River - Ravens Eye Imperial Stout (California)
Eel River - Triple Exultation (California)
Mad River - Serious Madness Black Ale (California)
Founders - Double Trouble (Michigan)
Fruli - Strawberry Beer (Belgium)
Meantime - London Porter (England)
Fischer - Amber (France)
Fischer - Blonde (France)
O'Hara's - Irish (Celtic) Stout (Ireland)
Hitachino - Espresso Stout (Japan)
Ayinger - Weizen-bock (Germany)
Bell's - Hopslam Imperial IPA (Michigan)

Event:
Join us on January 28th from 5 - 8pm as Scott from Schlafly Brewing joins us for our January Beer Tasting. We've got a good lineup of their bigger beers. Here is what we will be tasting:

Schlafly - Coffee Stout
Schlafly - Dry Hopped APA
Schlafly - Biere de Garde
Schlafly - Grand Cru
Schlafly - Tripel
Schlafly - Quadrupel
Schlafly - Reserve Barleywine
Schlafly - Barreled Aged Imperial Stout

From Josh at United Package Liquors at County Line and Meridian (Southside):

Some new items in stock-

Bell's HOPSLAM!

Founders Imperial stout & Double trouble

Boulevard BBQ Bourbon barrel quad (almost gone!)

Three floyds Black sun stout

Dogfish head Olde school barleywine

Samichlaus (2009 vintage)

Buffalo Bill's Blueberry stout

North Coast Pranqster (back in stock)

Bacon!

As a contributor to a world famous beer blog, I feel that it's my duty to keep my eyes open for all things tasty, and to find a way to relate them back to beer. So perhaps it's no surprise that an article in The Atlantic's food section titled "Nashville Takes on Bacon Bourbon" got my attention.

The technique used to infuse bacon flavor into a bourbon is called "fat-washing". The process involves adding bacon fat to the liquor, then cooling the liquor until the fat rises to the top, allowing it to be removed from the liquid. I immediately wondered if the same process could be done with beer, and then discovered (at the end of the article, actually) that Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver had already conducted a few experiments of his own. Back in August he told a New York times reporter:

“One of two things will happen,” Mr. Oliver predicted. “Either this will be the most amazingly disgusting thing you’ve ever tasted in your life. Or I shall rule the earth.”

I'm not the sort of person to wait around on Garrett Oliver, especially when I can conduct disgusting experiment on my own. Gina and I were joined by HBG KOTBR's Rod and Jess and Sun King Brewer Clay Robinson at our expansive south-side estate for a project titled "Chubby Scrubbing".


In case you're wondering, that's not the future of bacon (Bacon Two Point Oh), it's two pounds of bacon. We acquired the locally sourced applewood smoked bacon from Indy's Goose the Market. No one in Indy does bacon as well as The Goose - they've even got a Bacon of the Month club. We're all big fans.


We fried up about a pound and a half of the bacon, giving us a pan full of sweet sweet bacon fat.


The bacon fat was poured through a splash screen (we improvised) to filter out the large solid pieces and scraps of bacon.


We poured the bacon into a cake pan for lack of better options.


The pan of bacon fat was given a snow bath in order to cool it down for safer handling.



The cooled (but still liquid) fat was then poured into four pint glasses.


We added three varieties of beer to the fat.


Sun King Wee Mac,


Anchor Steam's Old Foghorn Barleywine,


and Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout.


That's every bit as tasty as it looks.


The fat immediately solidified when the beer was added, coating the sides of the glasses, and rising to the top in small pieces that combined to form a sort of head.


As tempting as it was to drink it right then, we put the beer in the fridge for a bit to further cool, and to gather our nerve to actually drink the stuff.


Before we started, I told everyone "you realize this is going to turn into a dare contest, right?" While spooning the fat off the top of the beer I started to realize how right I was.


We poured the beer out of our mixing glasses and into a measuring cup for equal distribution among the eagerly awaiting audience.


The end result was a lot clearer than we expected.

You might expect that the fat-washing would impart strong bacon flavors, but in all cases we found that the only thing accomplished was an oily mouthfeel (and maybe a slight ruining of the beer).

That's not what we we after at all! Damnit! We want bacon!


As it turns out, if you want bacon flavor in your beer, the best way to do it is to put a piece of cooked bacon in the actual beer.

Wait 5 minutes, then enjoy your beer flavored beer. And your beer flavored bacon.

Tasty.

In fact, it's so tasty that we plan on future experiments with the technique. And we plan on sharing the results of the next experiment with the public. Stay tuned..

By the way, this isn't the first time we've put stuff in our beer.