Every year, for the past 15 years, the Lafayette Brewing Company pulls together a celebration of strong ales and barleywines they like to call Winter Warmer. For the majority of the years it has been in existence, the festival has been held on the second floor of LBC and ticket sales are kept at a comfortably low number for a much more intimate event than your typical beer festival. Delicious whole hog BBQ was provided and Scratch Thing rocked the night away. In terms of beer, Alcatraz, Power House, Back Road, Brugge, Broad Ripple Brewpub, Mad Anthony, Barley Island, People's, Sun King and Upland were all in attendance, as well as a guest appearance by Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron. Lafayette Brewing Company stole the show (which was rightfully theirs to steal) with a 12-year old Big Boris Barleywine. That's from 1998 for those of you who are bad at math, and it keeps getting better with age. Here are a few clips from the festivities.
If you'd like to check out more photos from the event (much better ones than I took), check out Rod McPhail's photos
here.
Lafayette Brewing Company held its annual Winter Warmer this past Saturday. A dozen Indiana breweries set up shop in LBC's second floor entertainment venue and served big beers to about 300 individuals. A sixth barrel of Dogfish Head's Olde School Barleywine was also being sampled. And members of the Tippecanoe Homebrewers Circle were also in attendance, giving samples, and talking shop. In addition to three hours of tasting, there was live music, tasty barbecue, free giveaways, and keg lifting competitions. And to top it off, Greg Emig paid for local taxi rides to insure that everybody arrived home safe. A top notch event! Tickets sell out in an hour, so if you have interest, keep an eye out at the LBC website or their Twitter stream next fall. Here are some select images (from my phone because Rod forgot his camera...):
Panoramic view of Winter Warmer 2011. It's almost like you're there!
Blaine from Mad Anthony and John from Half Moon
The ladies of Crown Brewing with King Steve in the background
HBG's Rod (without a camera), Broad Ripple's Kevin, and the guys from Back Road
Live music (People's Chris Johnson played the sound check and sat in with the band later in day; who knew he played banjo?)
Post-WW2011: LBC's Greg talking to Bloomington Brewing Company's Dustin and BRBP's Kevin; Mad Brew's Blaine is in the background doing his shake weight impersonation.
The obligatory 2011 Winter Warmer group photo; can you find Waldo?
