Ground Rules & Tips for Tailgate for Nothing 8 | Saturday, April 20, 11 a.m.

We hope to see you at Tailgate for Nothing 8 this Saturday from 11 a.m. to ??? in Sun King Brewing Company's back parking lot. The theme: Pot Food! More details here.

Here are the ground rules for the event and some tips for you if you're going to attend:

- Weather. We all know that the weather in Indiana is unpredictable. Therefore, regardless of Saturday's weather forecast, we recommend that you bring a canopy if you have one in case the weather decides not to cooperate. Here's hoping that we have sunny skies and warm temperatures.

- Travel. The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is taking place on Saturday morning. The Race course is limited to the IUPUI campus. So if you avoid that part of downtown, you should be fine in getting to Sun King. If for some reason you're coming from the west side and would normally travel through campus to get to the brewery, maps of the Race course can be found here so you can plan your detour accordingly. And if you're participating in the Race, don't let that stop you from coming to TFN8. We'll be tailgating into the evening hours.

- Parking. When you arrive, please park your car in Sun King's back lot if there are spaces available there. Do not park in the main lot in front of the brewery. If there aren't any spaces open in the back lot when you arrive, plenty of parking should be available on the surrounding streets.

- Victuals. We don't have many rules for this thing, but one rule we expect everyone to follow is this: Please bring beer and food to share. The beer and food don't have to be anything super-rare or of gourmet quality. Just bring something tasty. Don't be a freeloader.

- Courtesy. Please pick up your trash before you leave. Our friends at Sun King are doing us a big favor by letting us hold TFN8 at their place. Therefore, please return their kindness by not leaving a mess behind. Trash bags will be provided by the brewery to make the job easier.

- Keep off the hill. The hill behind the parking lot is off limits. Please don't go there. If you do, you'll have to suffer Jason's naked hugs. And believe me, you don't want to suffer them.

- I gotta pee. A portalet will be provided on site. Please use it if you have to go to the restroom. Do not go inside the brewery to use their restroom. Of course, it's okay to go inside the brewery if you want to buy more beer, but don't go in just to use their crapper.

We hope that you'll come out and enjoy a day of beer-sharing and food-sharing with us!

HBG + Black Market Beer Brunch Recap

We at Hoosier Beer Geek are firm believers in occasionally enjoying a pint or two or more before noon. Indeed, some of our events, such as the Craft Beer Meal That Comes Before Lunch with Brugge Brasserie and Tailgate for Nothing, feature forays into morning beer-drinking.

This past Sunday, we continued our tradition of beer-themed events in the a.m. with our first ever Hoosier Beer Geek + Black Market Beer Brunch. The HBG + BMBB featured our beer selections (and one mead selection) with Chef Micah Frank's exceptional cuisine. A full house of attendees were treated to a menu consisting of a warm-up beer followed by five paired courses that presented traditional breakfast fare, but with Chef Micah's unique spin on each dish. Meals of this sort can leave one feeling bloated by the time the dessert course is over. But the brunch's portion sizes were perfect and, of course, delicious. So everyone left comfortably full and (hopefully) happy.

Our thanks go out to everyone who attended. We hope you enjoyed the brunch as much as we did. We also thank Chef Micah, Ed Rudisell, and the rest of the crew at Black Market for the amazing meal. We feel fortunate and honored that you hosted the event. And we thank Flat12 Bierwerks, Sun King Brewing Company, Daredevil Brewing Company, Black Acre Brewing Company, New Day Meadery, and Bjava Coffee for their outstanding contributions to the brunch. We hope that the future holds more brunches like this one.

Finally, we extend a special thanks to our favorite Manchester City FC fan and friend-of-HBG Don, who has attended every Hoosier Beer Geek Craft Beer Meal That Comes Before Lunch and was with us on Sunday morning at Black Market. Thanks for sticking with us, Don!

Don instructing us on the correct pronunciation of "Brugge." Take heed, Ted Miller.

Here's a rundown of Sunday's menu--

Flat12's Raspberry Walkabout - Our warm-up beer

Course One: Sixpoint Brewery's 3Beans Porter paired with French toast bites in crème Anglaise

Course Two: Sun King Brewing Company's Pink Taco Sour Ale with Scotch eggs and bacon

Course Three: Daredevil Brewing Company's Muse Belgian Golden Ale with biscuits and sausage gravy

Course Four: A beer float pairing Black Acre Brewing Company's Raspberry Blonde with cream cheese ice cream

Course Five: New Day Meadery's Breakfast Magpie Black Raspberry Mead, which is made with Bjava Coffee, paired with chocolate-toffee saltines

Vegetarians, you need not have despaired because Black Market cooked up fantastic vegetarian substitutions for the meat-based dishes--

Course Two, vegetarian-style -- A lovely tomato sauce and grilled green onions substituted for the bacon

Course Three, vegetarian-style -- Mushroom gravy with tofu substituted for the sausage gravy

HBG's April Pint Night | Thursday, April 18, La Margarita, 6:30 p.m.

We've finally scheduled April's Hoosier Beer Geek Pint Night. If you're looking for a novel beer to try, we think that you'll be very happy with our chosen beer.

Join us at La Margarita in Fountain Square (Murphy Arts Center, 1043 Virginia Ave., Suite 1, 317.384.1457) at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 18. Our featured beer will be Funky Galaxy by Oklahoma brewery Prairie Artisan Ales. Prairie is new to Indiana and is focusing their brewing efforts on the Saison style. Their unique beers are generating quite a buzz among beer geeks, and we're eager to try more of their beers (we had a Prairie beer called Standard at Mass Ave Pub, which we quite enjoyed). Funky Galaxy is billed as "a Galaxy-hopped Black Farmhouse Ale." La Margarita will be pouring the beer for $5.00 a pint.

What's the purpose of Pint Night? To provide the community with pints at a great price and, if you're interested in learning, to educate you about the particular beer on tap. In fact, we'll provide an information sheet on the beer and welcome your suggestions for which beers we should feature at future HBG Pint Nights. So come on out and enjoy some great beer and conversation with us.

Here's the Facebook event page for HBG Pint Night.

Reminder | Tailgate for Nothing 8: Pot Food! - Saturday, April 20, 11 a.m.

Click to enlarge.
We're now a little over two weeks away from our semiannual event, Tailgate for Nothing. This spring brings our eighth edition, which will take place on Saturday, April 20, from 11 a.m. to ??? in Sun King Brewing Company's back parking lot. The theme: Pot Food! Complete details here.

We hope that you'll come out and enjoy a day of beer-sharing and food-sharing with us!

HBG + Black Market Beer Brunch - now complete with menu!

We've been promoting this brunch on beer alone, but now we have a menu to match the tap list!  

Hoosier Beer Geek + Black Market Beer Brunch

April 7, 2013 + 10:30am

4 5 courses + 6 beers

Welcome Beer + Flat12 Raspberry Walkabout

French Toast Bites + Sixpoint 3Bean

Pickled Scotch Egg & Bacon + Sun King Pink Taco

Biscuits & Hamhock Gravy + Daredevil Muse

Cream Cheese Ice Cream + Black Acre Raspberry Blonde (Make Your Own Float)

Brickle & Chocolate + New Day Breakfast Magpie

$40

We're about 75% full, which means you aren't too late to RSVP but it will probably fill up very soon!  Vegetarians will be accommodated on the courses that have meat involved, so don't worry about that.  RSVPs are required, we hope to see you Sunday!

To RSVP, call Black Market at 317.822.6757
SOLD OUT!

Reminder: HBG + Black Market Beer Brunch - Sunday, April 7, 10:30 a.m.

Just a reminder that this Sunday, we'll hold our first ever Beer Brunch with Black Market. Here are the details:

Hoosier Beer Geek + Black Market Beer Brunch

April 7, 2013 | 10:30am

4 courses | 6 beers

Sun King Pink Taco

Black Acre Raspberry Blonde

Sixpoint 3Beans

Daredevil Muse

New Day Breakfast Magpie

Flat12 Raspberry Walkabout

$40 per person

There are still spots left for the brunch, but you must RSVP soon to reserve your spot.  We're only going to do one seating, so don't delay!  We'll announce the menu as soon as Black Market finalizes it, but we're going targeting a traditional breakfast fare. A vegetarian option will be available if you're into that.

To RSVP, call Black Market at 317.822.6757.

Scenes from Hoosier Beer Geek's Inaugural Pint Night at Mass Ave Pub

The very first Hoosier Beer Geek Pint Night is in the books. We thank all those who came out to enjoy Founders All Day IPA with us. We also thank Tracy Robertson and Mass Ave Pub for hosting us. If you've never been to Mass Ave Pub and you're into craft beer, we urge you to go. Tracy keeps all taps flowing with craft beer, and you're always bound to find off-the-beaten-path beers in stock.

For those of you wondering, yes, there will be another Pint Night. Indeed, this is going to be a monthly thing. So check back in with us here at Hoosier Beer Geek because we'll soon announce the next location and beer for April's Pint Night. In the meantime, enjoy this peek at what you missed if you weren't able to make it out for Pint Night I.

We hope to see you in April!

Hoosier Beer Geek + Black Market Beer Brunch

In our grand tradition of drinking beer as early as possible, we would like to introduce a new event.  The Hoosier Beer Geek + Black Market Beer Brunch.  Or HBG+BMBB for short.  For this breakfast event, our beer theme will be fruit.  We've selected our beer list and Black Market is putting together the menu.  Here's the details.

Hoosier Beer Geek + Black Market Beer Brunch

April 7, 2013 + 10:30am

4 courses + 6 beers

Sun King Pink Taco

Black Acre Raspberry Blonde

Sixpoint 3Beans

Daredevil Muse

New Day Breakfast Magpie

Flat12 Raspberry Walkabout

$40 per person

No tickets for this one, but you must RSVP to reserve your spot.  We're only going to do one seating, so don't delay!  We'll announce the menu as soon as Black Market finalizes it, but we're going targeting a traditional breakfast fare.  A vegetarian option will be available if you're into that.

To RSVP, call Black Market at 317-822-6757

CBMTCBL4: The Recap

Going into our belated fourth edition of the Craft Beer Meal That Comes Before Lunch, we looked back at previous editions, and tried to come up with a theme. Nothing really jumped out at us, so we decided to dedicate this one to some of the highlights of the previous editions, along with picking out a few of our own personal favorites to fill out the lineup.

Our first selection came from St. Louis' Perennial Artisan Ales. Saison de Lis is a light-bodied 5% ABV Saison brewed with Chamomile Flowers that served as a perfect starter for the day's activities.

For our second beer of the day, we went with Brasserie Dupont's Monk Stout, a lower ABV (5.2%) stout that packs light but full flavor.

Our next beer was Brugge's Black - with a twist. Our special edition was aged on plums, providing the Black flavors you've come to know and love with a plummy finish. Look for further developments on this recipe in the future.

Next up was this year's smokebeer, Schlenkera's Marzen. For those of us usually overwhelmed by smokebeer, this was a pleasant surprise. While the usual bacon-like elements were easily found in the beer, it was perhaps a more balanced or lighter smoke beer than we might have expected.

Beer five was one of the hopheads. Many of us at HBG feel that the entire He'Brew lineup is overlooked, and Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A. is a perfect example. This double rye IPA provides big hop bitterness, complimented by the rye malt, which provides the balance of caramel and bread flavors.

For our sixth beer we went sour. Hanssens Oude Kriek, a cherry lambic, balanced cherry sweetness with Belgian funk.

Keeping the fruit train rolling, beer seven was New Glarus' Raspberry Tart. Syrupy raspberry flavors dominate the beer, providing a perfect dessert.

But because one dessert is never enough, we finished with New Glarus' Wisconsin Belgian Red, a fruit beer packing a pound of cherries in each bottle. A pie in a glass.

cocktALEs in Retrospect

On April Fools Day, The Ball & Biscuit and its head bartender/operating partner Zach Wilks hosted us and 21 friends for cocktALEs. cocktALEs featured a flight of five beer cocktails, which Zach created with our input on the beer additions.

Our objective in teaming up with Zach was to show other craft beer lovers that beer and liquor are not strange bedfellows. The event made me realize how much I miss having a well-made cocktail. Before I became a beer geek, my drink of choice was usually a Bloody Mary or a dirty martini. But over the past six years, I've become so accustomed to having a good beer in my hand that I usually give no consideration to having a cocktail when I'm out drinking. Yet there I was at cocktALEs, downing each cocktail in the flight quicker than Don Draper swilling highballs at a Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce client meeting gone bad.

Our cocktALEs flight proceeded in the following order:

Mass Ave French 75
Cider Sangria
Mezcal Michelada
HopHattan
Stout Dessert Cocktail

Zach's styling of each cocktail was impressive. He even surprised us by changing the beer ingredient in the French 75, which was supposed to be Sun King Sunlight Cream Ale but was instead New Albanian's Elsa Von Horizon Imperial Pilsner. While the cream ale version that Gina and I tested before the event was delicious, the hop zing of the Elsa added extra sass to the drink's citrus and sugar notes.

I found it difficult to choose a favorite from the flight because all of the cocktails were flavorful. But as a Bloody Mary fan, I had to go with the Mezcal Michelada, which included mezcal, Hoosier Momma Spicy Bloody Mary Maker, and Sun King's Million Dollar Brewski Vienna Lager. This drink is the Mexican cousin of the Bloody Mary; it hit my palate with a peppery and tomatoey kick that mingled well with the smokiness of the mezcal and the malty sweetness of the lager.

When drinking a beer cocktail it's important to remember that beer usually plays a supporting role, very rarely taking a turn as the star. For our menu for cocktALEs, stronger liquors led the way, with the beer giving added dimension to the drink.

Each drink provided an entirely different flavor than the last, but the HopHattan - featuring New Albanian Hoptimus - was perhaps the most surprising, as the aggressive hop flavors of the Imperial IPA were matched by the bold flavors of the accompanying rye. Instead of an overpowering experience, the HopHattan was balanced while still being full-flavored. It's a drink that will make its way to my kitchen often.

I've seen some very recent negative press about beer cocktails and how much people didn't like the idea of them. I'm willing to try anything once, and the Ball and Biscuit set the bar extremely high. I didn't know what to expect, but I've been enjoying really fantastic cocktails at the Ball and Biscuit since they opened, and I went in with an open mind. All of the cocktails were really excellent. My personal favorite was the HopHattan. I already enjoy rye whiskey, and the combination of the rye and Hoptimus paired wonderfully together. The flavor complemented each other and never dominated each other. My other favorite pairing was the cider sangria. It will be perfect for the summer months coming up.

I will always be beer guy, but sometimes you just need to change things up a little bit. All of the drinks were well done and very surprising.

Title: I'll Be Back Zach, or The Ball & Biscuit Haiku

Beer before liquor?
Liquor before beer? Neither.
Beer cocktails instead.

We thank Zach and The Ball & Biscuit for hosting the event and being eager to experiment with these cocktails. We hope we can team up again for cocktALEs 2.

If you'd like to try some of these cocktails at home, Zach was kind enough to put together recipe cards for 4 of the 5 cocktails:

Mezcal Michelada

1.5 oz. Los Nuahales Mezcal
1.5 oz. Vienna lager (Sun King Million Dollar Brewski)
3 oz. Hoosier Momma Spicy Bloody Mary Maker

Mixology: Combine all the ingredients in an ice-filled shaker. Shake well and strain over ice. Top with beer and garnish with lime. A glass with a salted rim is great for this one.

Cider Sangria

.5 oz. Grand Marnier
.5 oz. Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
.5 oz. Applejack (from Huber Winery)
Squeeze of lemon and lime
3 oz. hard apple cider (Magners Irish Cider)

Mixology: Combine all ingredients besides the cider in a shaker with ice. Shake to mix and strain over ice. Top off with cider and stir. Garnish with a wedge of apple. This recipe works best scaled up and served punch style; be sure to add lots of apple, lime, orange and lemon slices.

Mass Ave French 75

1.5 oz. Death's Door Gin
3 tsp. powdered sugar
1 oz. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1.5 oz. Imperial Pilsner (New Albanian Elsa Von Horizon) or Cream Ale (Sun King Sunlight Cream Ale)

Mixology: Combine all the ingredients in an ice-filled shaker. Shake vigorously and strain over ice. Top off with beer and garnish with lemon.

HopHattan

2 oz. Willet rye whiskey
1 oz. sweet Vermouth
1 oz. New Albanian Hoptimus Imperial IPA
3 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 dash of Grenadine.

Mixology: Combine all ingredients in an ice-filled mixing glass. Stir for 30 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with Maraschino cherries.

Seat available for HBG/B&B cocktALEs event

This Sunday at 1 p.m., we will be staging a brand new craft beer event: cocktALEs. cocktALEs will feature a flight of five beer cocktails, hand crafted by Zach Wilks of the Ball & Biscuit. As of this evening 3/28 at 10:20am, we have had two seats one seat open up for the event.

Interested in claiming this seat? Here are the details for the event:

When and where: Sunday, April 1, 2012, 1 p.m., at The Ball & Biscuit, 331 Mass Ave., 317.636.0593.

The food menu: A buffet-style spread including cheeses, dips, and other finger foods prepared by Brad Gates Catering.

The cocktALE menu:  A beer cocktail flight that will proceed in the following order--

1. French 75 à la Bière

2. Cider Sangria

3. Hoosier Michelada

4. Hop Manhattan

5. Cherry Bourbon Milk Stout Dessert Cocktail

The price: $30 per person plus tax and tip, to be paid on the day of the event.

If you want to reserve, please email us at hoosierbeergeek@gmail.com. In your email to us, please include your name, your phone number, and your email address. We will accept reservations on a first come, first served basis.

We hope to see you on Sunday, April 1!

cocktALEs | No Seats Left

At this time, there are no seats left for our cocktALEs event with The Ball & Biscuit. However, more seats may become available as we get closer to the event on April 1st. Therefore, please keep checking in here at Hoosier Beer Geek because we will let you know if more seats open up. To those of you who reserved seats, thanks! We look forward to enjoying the event with you.

Brains and Beer: A Message from the Founder of Hoosier Beer Geek

While you might have come to expect that event listings (apart from our own) only show up in the Random Beer Roundup, when HBG founder Chris Maples calls in a favor, we listen.



Brains and Beer is for a good cause (Partners in Housing), features good beer (Fountain Square Brewing Company), and is zombie themed (Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means, such as witchcraft) It's just another example of Mr. Maples using the power of beer to bring people together for all the right reasons.

Here's a link to the event.

cocktALEs | A Ball & Biscuit/Hoosier Beer Geek April Fools Day Event

We love staging events that bring together Indy's craft beer lovers. We think that we've gotten pretty good at staging them too. Our two annual events, the Craft Beer Meal That Comes Before Lunch and the Anniversary Roundtable, are things that we eagerly look forward to every year (we're still working on a date for this year's CBMTCBL, so be patient). And our semi-annual Tailgate for Nothing (we're headed toward TFN6 some time late this spring) grows each time we stage that event.

But we like to shake things up. So we did some brainstorming. To help us out, we contacted Zach Wilks of The Ball & Biscuit. What did we come up with?

cocktALEs: A Ball & Biscuit/Hoosier Beer Geek April Fools Day Event

What is cocktALEs? Aside from being a catchy name that Jason thought up, cocktALEs is an opportunity for Zach and us to get creative by integrating beer with liquor. cocktALEs will feature a flight of five beer cocktails. The main recipes are Zach's; the beer additions are our contributions, with a focus on local brewers. In short, we've decided to dabble in a little beer/liquor alchemy to see if we can create the elixir of life. And we want to share that elixir with you

Interested in attending? Here are the details for the event:

When and where: Sunday, April 1, 2012, 1 p.m., at The Ball & Biscuit, 331 Mass Ave., 317.636.0593.

The food menu: A buffet-style spread including cheeses, dips, and other finger foods prepared by Brad Gates Catering.

The cocktALE menu:  A beer cocktail flight that will proceed in the following order--

1. French 75 à la Bière

2. Cider Sangria

3. Hoosier Michelada

4. Hop Manhattan

5. Cherry Bourbon Milk Stout Dessert Cocktail

The price: $30 per person plus tax and tip, to be paid on the day of the event.

How to reserve seats: Since we're not selling tickets to the event, you'll need to reserve a seat. At this time, we have only 10 seats available, though more may be available in the future. Therefore, if you want to reserve a seat, please email us at hoosierbeergeek@gmail.com and tell us how many seats you'd like to reserve. In your email to us, please include your name, your phone number, and your email address. There is a two-seat maximum per person with the reservations, and we will accept reservations on a first come, first served basis. Therefore, if you want a seat, you'll need to act quickly. Also, we will attempt to confirm with you a week before the event. If you fail to confirm with us, we will release any seats you've reserved.

We hope to see you on Sunday, April 1!

TFN5: The Feature Film

I really had no idea that when I started the interviews at Tailgate for Nothing 5 that I'd end up with 50 minutes of video. Considering how many folks I missed, I think that's pretty impressive.

I don't suspect that anyone is going to watch 50 minutes of video, but it's here for your viewing pleasure anyway. Enjoy.

RSS and email readers can access the video here.

TFN5

When Gina and I rolled into TFN5 fashionably (15 minutes or so) late, and it was evident this would be a shot-out-of-a-cannon experience. While previous tailgate efforts started with a slow rolling boil, it felt like maybe this time the pot was already spilling over.


Click to enlarge.


As the day rolled on the crowd continued to grow, providing plenty of new faces to the mix. I did my best to get out an interview the folks attending - I think you'll see from the video tomorrow that people love being interviewed.




One thing that we think went better this time - there seemed to be a lot more mingling in the crowd. We're happy to see that happen. Once again there was so much going on that it was hard to keep up with everything - I'd have liked to meet and interview more folks, actually - but I think it's safe to say that most folks enjoyed the day.





As a group, TFN is our favorite HBG event. Thanks to the folks that came out and helped make the day so enjoyable.




Tomorrow: TFN5 - The 50 Minute Interview Film (if YouTube cooperates)

I really did try, Rod.

If you attended, drop a comment - let us know how your day went, and what you thought of the event.  

More coverage available at Indy Beer Meetup.