The Hoosier Beer Geek Six Pack: D.J. McCallister, Black Swan Brewpub, Plainfield, IN

Indiana's brewery and brewpub renaissance is spreading to areas wider than just Indianapolis - Plainfield is next in line with not just one, but two brewpubs opening soon. Today we'll focus on Black Swan Brewpub and head brewer D.J. McCallister.


1. Who are you and what do you do?

Black Swan Brewpub is located in Plainfield, IN and owned by D.J. and Erin McCallister. D.J. is a native of Beech Grove and has been associated with the Indiana brewing community since 1996. Erin is a journalist and works for BioCentury Publications Inc., a California-based BioTech/Pharma publication. Black Swan Brewpub will be a restaurant and brewery, with growler sales but no further outside distribution. We will have about 110 seats between family dining and the bar, with an additional 50 to 60 seats on our patio. We will also add room for interactive Brew Master Dinners as part of the brewery construction.

2. What inspired you to start brewing? How did you get your start?

I studied physics at Wabash College, but at the end of the day, I knew I was not interested in it as a career path. Instead, I realized the enormous amount of time I was spending thinking, reading, and living beer. Whether it was beer history, style exploration, home brewing, or learning about water chemistry, I couldn't get enough of it. It was about that point that I decided I wanted to transition from being a home brewer to being a professional brewer.

The following summer, Brooke Belli from Oaken Barrel allowed me to come in occasionally to clean kegs, scrub floors, and take out grain. I loved it! The street credit I gained through that experience, along with some good timing, parlayed into an apprenticeship under Greg Emig at Lafayette Brewing Co. I stayed with LBC until May 1999 when I decided I needed to take on some other challenges, and put myself in a position to open my own brewpub some day. Greg and Brooke taught me nearly everything I needed to know about commercial brewing, and it was an honor to serve under two of the founding fathers of the Indiana brewing industry.

3. What is the philosophy of the brewing operations/restaurant operations at Black Swan Brewpub?

Our overarching philosophy has four pillars: Simplicity, Freshness, Craftsmanship, and Customer Service. Our goal is to make these four things play off of one another in a way that creates a rare, unique experience for our customers or a “Black Swan” per se.

From day one of this project we have been committed to keeping the menu clear, concise, and appetizing. You will not come in BSBP and be inundated with a 10 page menu. For us, that is too much to process. While we may not have 100 items on the menu, the 20 (or so) things that we do have will be high quality, well made items.

We have a commitment to using local farmers and suppliers whenever we can. Tapping into the resources around us gives us a fresher product with a distinct line of sight to the people who grew, packaged, and sold it to us. Those things translate into a better product for our customer.

Whether we are talking about our brewery or our kitchen, artisanal excellence is imperative. Our award winning chef, Nick Carter loves what he does, as do I, and we are wholly committed to using our resources to put out food and beer that screams of hand-made goodness. For us to create meals and beers that our guests would probably not make at home will set us apart.

But at the end of the day we know our fate lies in customer service. Warm, hospitable, family-friendly service is what all of the guests should expect at BSBP.

4. What styles do you plan on brewing for the brewpub? Seasonals?

We are putting in an 8bbl custom brewery, and expect it to be operational and licensed by early next year. The real question is, what style of beer won't we brew? We have a 16 tap draft system in place as well as two hand pulls for cask conditioned beer and we are going to have a great time filling those taps with exciting beers. Right now we are expecting our line up to be categorized into three basic groups: standard, heavy, and seasonal.

Our standards will sit on 4-7 taps and rotate with familiar craft beer styles: IPA, Cream Stout, Brown Ale, ESB, Porter, and Hefewiezen to name a few. Our heavy's will take 2-5 taps and highlight beers with higher gravities, ridiculous hop contents, and bold flavors. Seasonal beers as well as one-off creations will occupy any remaining taps we have. With these beers we are going to have a lot of fun. You should expect to see lagers, several different Belgian styles, a few sour beers, and any experimental beers we are trying out. Of course, I can't forget our truly seasonal beers for winter, spring, summer, and fall. Our cask conditioned beers will be no holds barred.

Admittedly it will take time to fill all of the tanks and taps filled, but we are going to get there and have a great time doing it!

5. Plainfield is going from having zero brewpubs to two brewpubs instantly. How do you feel about that?

For the residents and travelers around west and southwest Indianapolis I think it is a great thing! For too long, new brewpubs have been drawn to other pockets of the Indianapolis area. It's high time the drought ended on this side of town, and it's only appropriate that the people get what they want, better beer and more of it.

From a business perspective, I do not give it much thought at all. Every day I wake up and execute my plan to the best of my ability, and that is my sole focus. With that perspective, the number of brewpubs around me is irrelevant. We have neither a rivalry nor a friendly competition with Three Pints Brewpub, but I'm certain we could share a mutual laugh at the timing of our projects. Who would have guessed it would work out like it has?

Overall, I genuinely feel that having more breweries in Indiana is a good thing for everyone.

6. Any insights on the menu yet? When is the projected open date?

Our award-winning chef, Nick Carter, has brought to the table a combination of creativity, pragmatism, and flat-out deliciousness. You can see it all at www.blackswanbrewpub.com. His goal is to match the level of creativity and craftmanship found in Indiana brewing right now – producing high quality, interesting food with a local and seasonal flavor.

For appetizers, we offer Brewpub Stuffed Peppers, which are peppadew peppers stuffed with chorizo and served with goat cheese fondue. We will also offer frites with a variety of flavorful tosses and aioli dips sure to please any palate.

Nick won 2nd place this summer at the State Fair in the Shoup Family Farms Backyard BBQ Cookoff for our “Hoosier” sandwich. This is a great sandwich, with sliced pork, tomato onion chutney, Capriole Farms goat cheese and mixed greens. Our reuben features house made corned beef. If you haven't had freshly corned beef, you are in for a treat.

Our entrees feature Indiana farm raised pork, lamb, and chicken. Some of the highlights are the Braised Lamb Shank, Brewpub Porterhouse (this is a 14 oz. Porterhouse style pork chop - a great piece of meat!), Pan Fried Chicken with mac & goat cheese, and an incredible meatloaf with chili pale ale sauce. We are proud to partner with out hardworking Indiana farmers from Fischer Farms and Viking Lamb to provide an excellent dining experience for you.

For dessert? Fresh baked warm cookies and milk: God Bless America!

Anything else about the company or yourself you'd like to add?

Look for Black Swan Brewpub to open in early October with a line-up of about 15 or 16 great Indiana beers. Nick and I are always here, so feel free to say 'hi' if you catch us walking through the dining room. Like any new business we appreciate your support and we can't wait to get our own beers on line and get your feedback. For more information on what's going on at Black Swan Brewpub, go to www.blackswanbrewpub.com, search Black Swan Brewpub on Facebook, or find us on Twitter @BlackswanBP.

2010 Great American Beer Festival - Day 2

 I have no idea what this means

Part of our Friday GABF experience included a media tour of Breckenridge's production facility and Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey distillery. While at Breckenridge, we enjoyed samples of Agave Wheat, Vanilla Porter and Lucky U IPA. We learned a few things too, after all, why invite the media out if you're not going to fill them with information! For example, we discovered that Breckenridge was the first brewery in Colorado to bottle their beer. We also learned that while Avalanche is the number one selling Breckenridge beer in Colorado, it's Vanilla Porter everywhere else. Breckenridge is currently expecting to be up to 30,000 barrels by the end of the year.

 

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey is really a unique entry in the world of American Whiskeys. For starters, they previously had both Flying Dog and Oskar Blues create their mash before building their own brewery (just to produce mash for their whiskey). Their whiskey is also created using a variety of methods and custom equipment to cross the techniques of bourbon distillers and scotch distillers. Once finished with their barrels, they ship them to brewers all over the country and even as far away as Belgium. The Rackhouse Pub hosted a sampling of Wynkoop's new canned beers and had a great atmosphere decorated with used whiskey barrels.

Our brewery trip ended at Wynkoop for the Pints for Prostates Rare Beer Tasting. Since we were running a bit late, we arrived at the very end of the tasting and our selection was limited to what had not yet ran out. We weren't concerned, as great options such as 2009 Foothills Sexual Chocolate, 2004 Bell's Eccentric Ale, Barrel-aged Ivan the Terrible and Sierra Nevada Brandy Barrel-Aged Tripel were still left. After making our way through the rare beers, we tried a few of Wynkoop's rare beers, including a Belgian farmhouse ale fermented with 100% Brettanomyces and a barleywine from 2007. Both were great choices, but we had a beer festival we had to get to!

 Sexual Chocolate

Ivan the Terrible

Rare beer from Wynkoop - Orville and an aged Barleywine

During the Friday session of GABF, we spent some time at the Farm to Table event, where brewers and local chefs experimented and paired unique courses with interesting beers. This is where Greg Koch ambushed Matt with a Greg-face. Matt also got a picture with celebrity brewer Sam Calagione. We found Blaine Stuckey over by the Mad Anthony table, sharing his unique brand of beer festival antics with the Denver crowd. He was also dressed to party.

 

 Sam and Matt - Sam, we will forever harass you at beer festivals because of your toast video

Greg and Matt - Only one of these two guys looks terrified

The Mad Anthony crew

Cheers!

KOTBR #112 - Flashback at The Northside Social

Far out! Imagine my surprise when I learned that the 70’s have returned! Okay, so only in the Hebrew calendar is it the seventies (Rosh Hashanah marking the beginning of year 5771), but this is enough of an excuse for me to haul out my platform shoes, dust off my polyester leisure suit, drape gold jewelry across my hairy chest, and make my way onto the disco floor.

Studio 54 is long gone. And discotheques are in short supply in Indianapolis. But I had heard of this new Broad Ripple establishment called the Northside Social. So I laced up my blue disco quad roller skates and headed up the Monon. But what did I find? A restaurant full of people, sitting around, talking, enjoying their meals and the extensive craft beer tap list. But where’s the dance floor? Where’s the disco ball? Where are the balconies where I can get my freak on? Nowhere. For those livin’ and lovin’ the disco scene, this place is a complete disappointment.

I couldn’t find any blow, poppers, or Quaaludes at the Social, so I opted for a beer instead. First up, Sierra Nevada Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale. To put it in Disco-ese, Sierra Nevada is the Bee Gees and Tumbler is “Stayin’ Alive.” This brewery is almost as old as disco itself. But like disco, it proves to be relevant in spite of its age with a wonderful lineup of seasonal and special brews. Tumbler is an example of that. It has a malty base with a slight bitter ending. There was a bitter hit like coffee and a toasty nose. The thin body made it easy to drink and, if I were workin’ up a sweat on the dance floor, the salty sweat would have brought out the maltiness even more. I suppose salty food would do the same thing. But all that food would just get in the way of my dance fever. 3.25 Mugs.

I asked for another beer, something a bit more trippy. What I received was Clipper City’s Loose Cannon IPA. I have to say, this brewery didn’t heed the advice of the Hues Corporation. This Loose Cannon is will certainly “Rock the Boat”. Golden in color, dry in finish, the hops weren’t overwhelming but left the beer with a bit of sweetness. It is a sticky beer leaving a sticky taste in my mouth. Not quite the same experience as the ones I have with my party drugs. But enjoyable none the less. 4.33 Mugs.

Despite the all the great food and great beer consumed at the Northside Social, nobody was interested in joining me by the fire exit, in the bathroom stall, or in the back alley. This boogie man wanted to get down tonight. I didn’t want to stop ‘til I got enough. But this dancing machine couldn’t find anything to cure his night fever. I left the Social. Alone with my thoughts. Pondering if disco could really be dead? What could I do now?

Oh, look, there’s a casting call for “Cats”…


What is it about the unnecessary use of the definite article that lets you know that whatever you're dealing with takes itself a little too seriously? There's nothing like putting the word "The" in front of your title to let us know that you're full of yourself.

I wanted to dislike The Northside Social on that premise alone. Or maybe it was the fact that every time we tried to stop by for a casual visit, the parking lot was full. Or maybe it was the strange choice of location. The Northside Social is an upscale looking restaurant with an upscale looking clientele, more fitting to Carmel than Broad Ripple. Usually I find that the numbers don't add up and that these sorts of places are a parody of what they attempt to be, but The Northside Social makes sure the emperor is fully clothed and serenaded with a crappy upbeat jazz soundtrack.

At this point you're probably thinking I didn't like the place. It's hard to argue with great service, a solid beer selection, and reasonably priced and delicious food, and The Northside Social delivered all three. It wouldn't be my first choice as a night out in Broad Ripple, but that says as much about me as it does about the establishment.

Back to the beer selection, or in this case, our selection of beer: We started with Sierra Nevada Tumbler Brown, a beer I had read rumblings about online. Cola-colored, slightly chewy, with a light front, a very "beery" middle, and a hoppy snap to finish, it's a very serviceable brown. Nothing to go crazy about, but definitely worth your beer dollars. 3.33 Mugs.

Our second selection was Clipper City's Loose Cannon Hop3 IPA, a triple IPA regular old IPA from Baltimore's Clipper City Brewing Company. This beer is not the giant hoppy beast you might expect out of a triple IPA, This beer might be exactly what you'd expect out of a IPA, and is a sweet and malty beer with perhaps a little more balance on the malt side. As much as I love a DIPA or Triple IPA with a malt balance, this one goes just a hint too far in that direction for my tastes. It's not quite hoppy enough for me, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy it - in fact I enjoyed it quite a bit. 3.97 Mugs.

This review was edited after a reader's comment alerted me to the fact that Hop3 is not actually a triple (or double) IPA. The score and my thoughts remain the same.


"Why the hell is the parking lot always so full?" Ooh, I'd love to know the story that prompted the sign on The Northside Social's door to read "Proper Dress Attire Required - Sleeves Required for Gentlemen". Is that a big issue in Broad Ripple? Are roving bands of sleeveless hooligans running amok in the village?

Those thoughts and questions ran through my head upon entering The Northside Social. As we took our seats and I was able to take in the atmosphere a little bit, I admit that I became a little confused at the vibe The Northside Social is going for. Decor, classy. Menus, classy. The multitude of TVs in the restaurant area, hmmm, interesting twist there. Would that keep me from coming back? Nope, not even close. Especially when the food and service is so good. Plus, whenever the waiter suggests anarchy, that's extra brownie points in my book.

We chose Sierra Nevada Tumbler, and it proved to be very fine, in my opinion. Caramel malty with a clean finish. I would like it to be a little bit sweeter, but that is my taste. 3.12 Mugs

The Loose Cannon from Heavy Seas has a wonderfully huge grapefruit nose with just a little hint of pine. With an aroma that strong, I expected a thicker body than what was there. I appreciate that the same strong citrus aroma also followed through into the flavor. 3.95 Mugs


I wasn't alive during the 70s, so I have a hard time making any analogies. Brown was a predominant color in 70s fashion, and Tumbler is a brown ale, so there you go. FLASHBACK! Overall this is a pretty standard yet solid brown ale. Toasty grains and yeast in the aroma with light caramel, cocoa and pecans in the flavor profile. I would guess Maris Otter might be the base malt. The body is fairly watery, which makes this a beer you'll drink quickly. Not a brown ale to seek out, but certainly a good one. 3.4 mugs

Loose Cannon is a stellar double IPA. Or maybe it's a triple IPA, I don't know. Are pirates retro? Sure, let's say they are. Arrrrrgghh. Tons of grapefruit aroma from the hops with a bit of lemon peel and chamomile. Lots of delicate spice notes in the body, including juniper, dry spruce, orange peel and rose hips. Grapefruit and tangerine hop flavors. This is one of my favorite readily available DIPAs, lots of malt to balance lots of hops. 3.9 mugs


I'll close out this roundtable by returning to Jason's 70s theme because the Northside Social strongly reminded me of one of the 70s most under-appreciated television programs. Before David Letterman hit the airwaves in NBC's post-Tonight Show time slot in 1982, that slot was occupied by Tomorrow. This program, which was a talk show that began airing in 1973, was hosted by Tom Snyder. Snyder's contagious laugh and congenial manner gave the show a laid-back vibe. The show featured just Snyder and his guests having an informal chat as if they were sitting in his living room. And Snyder always seemed to have interesting company willing to stir things up a bit, whether the company was the Clash, KISS, or John Lydon of the Sex Pistols. There was an intimacy to Snyder's interviews, yet they often seemed to skirt the edge of chaos. As you can imagine, it made for entertaining television. Look up the show on YouTube for a more vivid illustration.

The Northside Social gives off the same welcoming yet chaotic vibe as Tomorrow. On the welcoming side are the friendly servers, the muted and contemporary fixtures, and the corner space featuring cushy chairs and sofas. As for chaos, the Northside Social is like a noisy living room, with all the televisions and wall-to-wall clientele. But the high ceilings sufficiently dampen some of the noise, so you can converse yet soak in the lively atmosphere.

The beers that we reviewed rounded out a well-though-out tap list. Sierra Nevada Tumbler Brown Ale is a nice representation of the American Brown Ale style. Tumbler displays notes of sourdough bread, caramel, and malt, conveyed through a medium bodied mouthfeel. 3.50 mugs.

Heavy Season Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale is a beer with which I'm already familiar through my visits to the Corner Wine Bar, where they have it on tap. Loose Cannon is pineapple, citrus, and soap in the nose, along with slight sweaty funk. Its flavor is heavy on the pine notes with a light caramel and molasses back. The mouthfeel on this beer is medium, and I find it a very drinkable IPA. 4.00 mugs.


Sierra Nevada Tumbler Brown Ale
Mike: 3.33 Mugs | Gina: 3.12 Mugs | Rodney: 3.40 Mugs | Jim: 3.50 Mugs | Jason: 3.25 Mugs
KOTBR Score: 3.32 Mugs

Heavy Seas Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale
Mike: 3.97 Mugs | Gina: 3.95 Mugs | Rodney: 3.90 Mugs | Jim: 4.0 Mugs | Jason: 4.33 Mugs
KOTBR Score: 4.03 Mug