My First Beer | Jim's story

We strive to provide you with variety and novelty here at Hoosier Beer Geek. Consequently, we now offer you a new HBG feature, "My First Beer." In our My First Beer series, we'll each provide you with a tale of two beers--the story of our first beers and the story of our first craft beers. And because we love our readers, we invite you to submit your My First Beer story for posting to hoosierbeergeek@gmail.com. Stories including debauchery are a plus (sorry to disappoint you, but my stories don't include any of that).

On with the show...

My First Beer

"Here. Try this."

This was my father speaking, and I was 12 years old. While 12 is young for someone to try beer for the first time, it was not unusual in my family because I grew up being invited by my parents to have a nip of something during big family meals, especially at holidays. From the time I was 10, I was used to having a small splash of wine or a little champagne at Thanksgiving and New Years. It didn't hurt that my great grandfather had been a bootlegger during the Great Depression and was still making some sweet red table wine when I was a kid.

But my dad's offer was unusual because it didn't occur during a holiday. There Dad was out on the deck, barbecuing some steaks on a summer evening, holding a Stroh's in his hand.

"Take a sip," he said as he held out the can of lager to me--the vintage tan-colored can, not the late-model blue one.

Hesitantly, I took the beer from him and sipped. The first thing registering in my mind was "putrid wheat." My face crinkled in disgust. It was the same face that bar/bat mitzvah kids make when they take their first slug of kosher wine after reciting the kiddush.

"That happens to everyone the first time," he said. "Try it again. You'll get used to it."

Frowning, I raised the can to my lips once more. I managed to suppress the strong urge to make "the face" a second time, but my taste buds were still reeling. I thought that if someone had soaked a loaf of bread in some rubbing alcohol and then squeezed out the "bread juice," this is what it would taste like.

"What do you think?"

"I don't think I'll ever want that stuff again," I answered, clearly demonstrating my utter lack of clairvoyance. But then again, I was only 12.

My First Craft Beer

1991...

The craft beer industry was in its infancy, and I was in graduate school in The Region, my boyhood home and, at present day, the location of two fine breweries. Mom, God bless her soul, knew about this wonderful restaurant in Chicago that happened to brew its own beer. She wanted to know if I wished to head up there with her (yes, parental influence again). I was always eager to venture into the city, and I was in sore need of a break from my studies, so I took her up on the offer.

The restaurant/brewery was a fairly new place at the time (three years old). According to Mom, it was called Goose Island and was located on the Clybourn Corridor, a section of Lincoln Park that was going through a gentrification phase.

So, on a warm Saturday night that summer, we headed up the lakeshore to see what this place was about. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. By this time, I had developed a taste for beer (of course), largely due to my college days of drinking the classic American macrobrewery swill. But a few of my college friends and I were a little more adventurous than that, occasionally indulging in the limited number of imports that were available in the late 1980s, including Grolsch, St. Pauli Girl, and Guinness Extra Stout.

I suppose I expected to drink beers at Goose Island that were a lot like these imports. Once we arrived and were seated, we went right for the beer sampler tray. If memory serves me well, here was the lineup of the sampler tray--

Lincoln Park Lager
Honkers Ale
IPA
Hex Nut Brown
Oatmeal Stout

There were five of us, so each one of us took a sampler. Because it looked to be the most radical of all of the samples, I grabbed the Oatmeal Stout before anyone had a chance. I wanted to challenge myself right away.

I was in love after my first sip. I was expecting a beer much like the Guinness Extra Stout, but this was richer, not as dry, more like coffee and chocolate, and slightly sweet. I was already developing a one-track mind for malty beers because I didn't even try the others, and when the server returned to the table, I ordered a pint of the Oatmeal Stout, savoring it all the way to the bottom of the glass. The experience was similar to a first kiss--thrilling in its newness, leaving an indelible mark that colors my taste in beers to this very day.

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Speaking of that indelible mark, a recommendation--please, please, please head up to Hot Shotz and get a pint (or two, or three) of Dark Horse's Tres Blueberry Stout while it's still on tap. I was skeptical about this beer because I don't think fruit and stouts mix all that well; however, the Tres is quite a notable exception to this rule (another notable exception: New Albanian's Thunderfoot Cherry Imperial Stout). The nose is full-on blueberry scone, and the dark chocolate flavor is enhanced, not overwhelmed, by the berries. Truly awesome stuff!

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How it works: AleFest Indy

We've been running an ad for the past couple weeks about this Saturday's AleFest Indy - "A charitable craft beer festival showcasing the finest beer styles in the world." You might be wondering exactly what "charitable craft beer festival" means: Who's running the show? Who's benefiting? How much is going to the charity? And why the limit on samples?

With those questions in mind, I contacted our inside guy - World Class Beverages' Bob Mack - who was happy to provide us with some answers.

Who's running the show?

Ale Fest is organized by a long time home brewer and beer business veteran from Dayton, Ohio, Joe Waizmann. Joe has been an advocate of great beer his entire life and when he says that his mission with Ale Fest is to promote great beer, he’s very sincere about that. He’s worked for years as a representative for Merchant du Vin, perhaps the premier beer importer in the United States and importer of beers like Samuel Smith, Ayinger, Rochefort, Westmalle, Orval and many others. In short, Joe has some serious credentials and is very, very sincere about promoting great beer.

Who's benefiting?

The charitable beneficiary of this event is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), Indianapolis chapter. LLS has been a part of many beer related events and World Class Beverages, Monarch Beverage Company and the Brewers of Indiana Guild all have a working relationship with them. Joe Waizmann will donate a portion of each ticket sold to LLS so the overall amount of the donation is based on attendance at the event. The percentage of the donation will be about 5% of the revenue. It some respects, that seems a small number but it is pretty typical of amounts involved in charitable contributions for this sort of thing and we do not ask anything of LLS in return.

As for the money involved, I have to emphasis that there will be more money spent on this event than is taken in. This is not a profitable event and is being done because World Class Beverages is using this event as a marketing tool for the brands that will be involved. For example, if 500 people attend the event at $30 a piece, that’s $15,000 in revenue. The facility (Murat Centre) will cost us somewhere in the neighborhood of two thirds that amount and advertising/promotion will cost us most of the rest of that amount. Additionally, a huge cost involved in this event will be beer and I would conservatively estimate that it will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $7,000 just to supply beer for the event. Add those costs together and you’ll get to $20,000 pretty easily for an event that will bring in $15,000 (with 500 people attending) and you’ll see that there isn’t much money left to go around, particularly after you subtract the money that LLS will receive.

Of course, these are estimates based on attendance levels and some of the overall costs have not yet been identified. And this doesn’t include any time, travel or other expenses that are personally incurred by the people directly involved in the event or the 50 or so volunteers who will be pouring beer at the event. With additional attendance, revenue would increase and that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but we are still a long way from breaking even on this event. But that really isn’t the intention of this event, either.

I’d also like to mention that if it was our sole intention to make money, we’d remove the sample limit because we are aware that some people will not attend the event when there is limited sampling. Money is not the goal of this event, education about great beer is.

Why the limit on samples?

I think it’s important to point out that Ale Fest is not intended to be a “drinking competition” and that some people are rubbed the wrong way anytime that a sample limit is present. But the goal of this event is to promote high quality and often high alcohol beers and for a wide variety of reasons unlimited consumption and high end beers don’t usually go hand in hand. There are still events out there that allow for unlimited sampling and I don’t have anything against those, per se, but there are also many very successful high end beer events that do limit sampling. Limiting samples avoid many insurance and legal issues and it tends to separate these events into more elite, somewhat educational and informative tastings versus drinking competitions where the message of better beer is largely lost in favor of larger volumes of beer. We’re aiming for the former.

We’re very openly promoting the “responsible drinking” nature of the event, so I don’t think that anyone is going to be surprised by this at the event itself. Additionally, the mission of World Class Beverages (which is quoted on the Ale Fest website) is to promote beer knowledge and passion in a responsible fashion, so this is the type of event that we feel fits our purpose.

Special glasses are being designed for the event. They are 6 ounce glasses so you can pretty easily get a 4 ounce + pour into them with foam. Additional samples will be available at an additional cost. But at the 20 sample level, you’re paying almost exactly $4.50 for a 12 ounce serving, which is rather low on the price end for these types of beers. For comparison sake, check out the price of a 12 ounce serving of Ayinger, Chimay, Allagash, etc. at a good bar the next time you’re in. Yes, we’ll have Barley Island, Bell’s and many others that might normally be priced at or below $4.50 for a 12 ounce serving, but many of these beers would run much more. With a 4 ounce sample, you’re also getting just short of 7 - 12 ounce beers and again, at higher alcohol levels, that is not a small amount.

I’m not going to knock anyone else’s beer event, but I think we’ll have a very, very strong beer selection. What other event would you go to taste four of the seven Trappist beers, for example? I think the list of breweries stands on its own.

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As for our take - We'd like to think that we're not naive at Hoosier Beer Geek; We understand the World Class is in business to make money. But in dealing with the folks at World Class we've found that they're genuine people who really love beer - they just happen to be lucky enough to make a living dealing with a product they love.

Four of the Knights of the Beer Roundtable (Kelly, Jason, Jim, and Mike) will be in attendance Saturday - in fact, we'll be serving. Stop by and say hi - we'll give you beer.

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Thanks KJ