Indiana Beer love

Discussion in 'Great Lakes' started by speedydd6, Feb 4, 2017.

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  1. ja1022

    ja1022 Crusader (468) Sep 27, 2009 Indiana
    Trader

    Agree with this 100%. Rivaled 3F early on. Drew came through Pipeworks and Spiteful so he's got great lineage and he killed it at the beginning. Since the Hammond expansion not so much. Even Deal With The Devil is different now.
     
  2. mayorQuimby

    mayorQuimby Zealot (633) Jun 5, 2009 Tennessee
    Trader

    Agree with a lot of the recent posts. 18th St is definitely still rolling on their early hype, imo. I said earlier in the thread that the In The Shadows beers I had in late-2016 were incredible. Pricey for a 4-pk, but relative to bomber pricing it was comparable. To those beers, though, I only bought them because my store was offering both up for free tasting and I knew then of the quality and freshness.

    I've been burned way too many times now by them. No bottle/can dating. Multiple infection issues with the Hunter beers. Exorbitant pricing on their large format bottles. I digress. I didn't live in Indiana when the quality equaled the hype (if it really ever did?), at their beginning. Either way, if I stumble on the In The Shadows series again and am assured of absolute freshness, I will be pulling the trigger without hesitation. Otherwise, my $ will go elsewhere.
     
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  3. fredmugs

    fredmugs Initiate (0) Aug 11, 2012 Indiana
    Deactivated

    Be careful. You'll get banned from their Facebook page if you criticize Hunter bottles. :slight_smile:
     
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  4. rdailey76

    rdailey76 Initiate (0) Nov 6, 2003 Indiana

    At least they do something with their Facebook page, because they couldn't trouble themselves to respond to me.

    Just to balance out the "hate" with a positive. A few years back, Flat 12 was having some bottling issues. I reached out to them, received an immediate response along with a growler fill, tour and a couple stickers.
     
  5. JohnnyHopps

    JohnnyHopps Grand Pooh-Bah (3,036) Jun 15, 2010 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    I'm not sure the theme on 18th Street here is hate, so much as they have become very predictable and expensive.
     
  6. WilliMo

    WilliMo Initiate (0) Jan 24, 2016 Indiana

    Yep, and if I had to describe my feelings in a paragraph, I'd say that about most of the central Indy breweries. Deviate is really the only brewery trying to push things, and everyone else is doing the same old stuff and charging quite a bit for it. I don't think I've been to any places that I have actively disliked, but I can't say that I get all that excited to visit any of these places. Sure, they might have one solid beer, but nothing memorable that makes you keep running back.

    I think the other thing that hurts the Indy brewing scene is that our distro has gotten quite a bit better. We have always had Founders and Bells and the other big ones in the neighboring states, but over the last few years we have added places like Praire, Central waters, Evil twin, Clown Shoes etc, and all at pretty reasonable price points. Personally, it makes me grade the Indy breweries with a bit more of a critical eye, knowing that there are lots of readily available solid-great beers just sitting on the shelf waiting to be bought.
     
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  7. CoeurdeLion

    CoeurdeLion Initiate (0) Feb 9, 2016 Indiana

    No excuse for poor customer service like that -- you have every right to be mad given that.
     
  8. CoeurdeLion

    CoeurdeLion Initiate (0) Feb 9, 2016 Indiana

    Yeah, don't really disagree here, but I'd add that if predictable means regular $11 - $13 sixers of Under Crown, Villain, Rise of the Angels, the APA lineup, etc then it's not really a bad thing for those of us within striking distance of either location -- so freshness isn't an issue. And bomber prices generally suck across the board, so hard to fault them too much in those cases IMO.
     
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  9. JohnnyHopps

    JohnnyHopps Grand Pooh-Bah (3,036) Jun 15, 2010 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah Society Trader

    Up here in Northwest Indiana, I have access to pipe lworks. When I make a trip across the state line, there's a good chance I could find five or six beers I have never even thought of. And to top it off, most of those bombers are only about $10. When 18th Street first opened, based on the lineage, I thought they could be Indiana's version of pipeworks. But look they re-released another IPA today that really isn't that exceptional.
     
  10. shirtless_mike

    shirtless_mike Maven (1,376) Aug 4, 2010 Indiana
    Trader

    18th St have bombers of 6% ABV pale ales collecting dust all over central Indy at about $17. It's ludicrous. I've talked to shop owners and they say they're marking them up on average about 2 bucks just to make something on them. Their gose's go for nearly 20 bucks at most places. Again - $2 markup and they sit forever. My buddy at Payless on 96th has cases of their barleywine (has a snake on the bottle. can't remember the name) and the Contessa saison 2 years old because people won't touch them. Needless to say I'm glad they're falling on their face down here.
     
  11. shirtless_mike

    shirtless_mike Maven (1,376) Aug 4, 2010 Indiana
    Trader

    And like some have recently alluded to - Indy has way better distribution now than we did 2 years ago. It really shines a light on how weak most of our breweries are. Deviate and Central State are really the only ones doing anything exciting. And Bier Brewery who just consistently make incredible styles true to form.
     
  12. chewymangos

    chewymangos Initiate (0) Jun 12, 2014 Indiana

    According to a manager at a local shop here he said 18th street self distributes and doesn't give any sort of deal or discount when purchasing their products in bulk so the liquor stores are paying a high price upfront even with 18th skipping a distributor.
     
  13. CoeurdeLion

    CoeurdeLion Initiate (0) Feb 9, 2016 Indiana

    The only pale that 18th Street has put in bombers in probably close to two years is Deal with the Devil and that is 8.5% -- and it's $12 or maybe $13 at the brewery. It's also damn good. All of their other pale ales are $11 / 6 pack of cans -- most of them damn good as well.

    Feel free to not buy beer that you think is over-priced, of course, but no need to make stuff up to pile on and bash any brewery.
     
  14. CoeurdeLion

    CoeurdeLion Initiate (0) Feb 9, 2016 Indiana

    They distribute through Indiana Beverage.
     
  15. mychalg9

    mychalg9 Pooh-Bah (2,061) Apr 8, 2010 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah Society

    I'll be down in Indy for work at the end of March. Anything new on the NW side to check out? Haven't been down there in 4-5 years so have no clue on what the scene is like currently. Any specific beers to look for?
     
  16. chewymangos

    chewymangos Initiate (0) Jun 12, 2014 Indiana

    Maybe something has changed because I know they used to self distribute and would see tweets when their van would roll up to the shop to drop beers off.
     
  17. chewymangos

    chewymangos Initiate (0) Jun 12, 2014 Indiana

    I didn't see anything made up because here where I am there are multiple bombers available and have been for quite some time. Overlords Revenge, Sinister, Villain and For Rent as well as Deal With The Devil are priced high and Pale Ales/Dipas that have all been released in bombers in roughly the past 2 to 2.5 years. His pricing for the gose's and sours are in line with what I see here for just about any of their bombers. 6 packs of cans are going to run close to $15 or $25 if we are talking about 4 packs of Grapefruit Dead. I also saw Contessa sit on the shelf here for a very long time. Some of these beers are decent to good with very few being truly great but like others have said there are no dates so you can't even be sure how fresh a bottle is.
     
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  18. CoeurdeLion

    CoeurdeLion Initiate (0) Feb 9, 2016 Indiana

    The "making stuff up" referred to "6% Pale Ale bombers @ $17" and then talking about only a $2 markup -- none of which is accurate, at least according to folks I know both at the brewery itself and based on what I know that store owners (and now their distributor) pay for their product up here. The bombers that you mentioned seeing all are big DIPAs as opposed to 6% pales, with the exception of For Rent (a 3.5% session beer) -- and if that is going for $17 / bomber, then yeah, laugh and walk away, but if it is, I highly doubt that it is based on what Drew is charging the stores down there, as it is MUCH cheaper than their DIPAs up here when they release it.

    18th Street beer is typically on the expensive side of "normal" up here in NWI at $11 / 6 for APAs and IPAs and $12 - $13 / 6 for DIPAs, with bombers and 750s of sours in the same price range typically, which falls well within the reasonable range IMO.

    The Grapefruit Dead pricing ($22 / 4 here) was really bad, I agree, as have been the prices on some of their BA beers, for which they've gotten some grief here locally. And the DD tickets for the Barrel Massacre were just insulting -- and again, there was major pushback, and then the Anniversary Party tickets were completely reasonably priced.

    Either way, buy what you like and what you feel is priced appropriately -- but no need to exaggerate to throw blame on a brewery for prices that are likely too high due to distributors or retailers. Nor to be "happy" that a good brewery run by a generally good guy is "falling on their face down here," even if that were true, which it isn't. That type of nonsense just rubs me the wrong way, particularly when I know and like some of the people being bashed.

    And BTW -- don't buy any of those bombers IMO. The most recent of those is Deal, which is from around Thanksgiving (at best), the Sinister and Overlord's are from last Spring / Summer (at best), and Villain has only been canned since the moved into the Hammond location (so more than a year). I'd personally take a hard pass on all of those as they are likely pretty faded and crappy by now.
     
    #138 CoeurdeLion, Feb 28, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2017
  19. chewymangos

    chewymangos Initiate (0) Jun 12, 2014 Indiana

    I misread your post and thought you were making the claims about Pale Ales. I knew most of those were not but was basing the pricing off you including DWTD as one. For Rent was not priced here like that and I think it was closer to $11 or $12. I don't buy the bombers because I know when the store got some of them and I had them back when they were fresh. Were 18th to release the same beer again I would assume they'll get mixed in with what currently sits.
     
  20. mayorQuimby

    mayorQuimby Zealot (633) Jun 5, 2009 Tennessee
    Trader

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