Indiana Beer love

Thanks for taking the time to post here and explain everything!

My store here in Indy just got Luscious Mounds and Evil Czech-munk. Been eyeing the Mounds 4pk, I guess I should go ahead and buy one. Any word when Nefarious Harbor will be canned? Sounds pretty awesome!

 

Thanks for the post and for expanding your distro. I bought a 4 pack of Evil Czechmunk recently in Greenwood. Looking forward to it finding its way further south.

I was exposed to ECB at the Columbus beer fest last year. I can't speak to improvements over the years, but I wasn't disappointed by any of the 5 or 6 of the beers I've had. As I mentioned earlier, Static Chipmunk is really on point.

 

Staying at the Omni hotel in Indy next weekend, any must hit breweries, stores near? Thx in advance

 

Someone mentioned it earlier, but you should really swing by Black Circle to try their White Bronco - it's easily the best of that style here in Indy itself. They're too new to be packaging and don't have production ramped up high enough to do growler fills yet, but they're definitely worth the trip.

 

Closest to you would be Crown Liquors downtown, they have a very solid selection. If you have transportation, Kahn's and SoBro Liquors are very close to each other and just 15 minutes or so outside of downtown plus are just a few blocks from Black Circle Brewing, which is definitely worth a stop if you're in the neighborhood.

As for breweries downtown... there's not much. The Tap has a great selection and their house beers are decent, though I generally drink guest taps there. Sun King is worth a stop if they have one of their King's Reserve beers or other special releases on draft, otherwise it's not worth it just for their house beers. Avoid Tow Yard at all costs. Flat 12 and TwoDeep are decent in a pinch, but not much to write home about. Indiana City is overall solid, but again nothing mind-blowing.

If you are willing to go a bit further outside of downtown, Deviate Brewing on the north side or Black Acre & Chilly Water on the east side are your best bets.

 

I appreciate the candor in discussing what is certainly a sensitive subject for the company, but I have to say that I found a lot of the ECB response on social media to be totally unprofessional. I mean really, sniping at consumers on Untappd? That's middle-school shit, and I would have hoped that whoever runs your social media would have thick enough skin to respond more appropriately. I get that it's a frustrating situation, but instead of lashing out when someone makes a juvenile comment, a polite response offering to explain or asking the consumer to contact the brewery for the full story comes across as MUCH more adult than: "So did you work at the restaurant, the brewery, or just believe everything you read on the internet?" (That btw is a direct quote of the brewery account's comment on an Untappd check-in.)

 

Crown Downtown for stores will be very convenient. No need for you to venture anywhere else imo searching for bottles. Mass Ave area (you can walk in ~10 min) will be best for bars with good beer, mainly the Tap as mentioned above. If you have a car, Black Acre on the east side (~15 min drive) is very good and some killer pizza next door at Jockamo's. But purely from a beer perspective, you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you have a car and don't go to Deviate on the northside (~25 min from your hotel). Also highly recommend the Koelschip (~10 min drive, probably a reasonable Uber from your hotel) on the old northside. I suggest looking at their site to get a feel for what they are and if you are interested as I don't feel like laying it out. If you go there, great food next door at Goose the Market that you can bring in too.

 

I guess I should have posted that I will have a car, the advice is greatly appreciated to all

 

I have found a few gems at Kahn's that I have not seen elsewhere - in Indi or outside the state. Nothing like a nice whale, but some harder-to find in our area distribution-wise. The staff if pretty helpful. Based on the reviews online i actually thought their store would be better. That might seem surprising (if you live in Indy and visit frequently), but I have just been to some stores that are really absolutely phenomenal (with the same rating).

 

Absolutely, the situation took everyone be surprise in how fast it escalated. We were not prepared to handle a situation like this, and all of the brewery staff were extremely annoyed by how the restaurant handled the situation. The FOH only has customers who visit to handle, us in the brewery are the ones who are out there statewide and have a reputation to uphold.

The Untappd comment you mentioned, was probably meant in more tongue in cheek than a passive aggressive snipe. People talk a lot of shit on untappd, so we are more than happy to talk shit back!

 

We always have 12 taps on now, with the three house beers, the two current seasonals (a rotating IPA (always) and a mexican lager (our spring/summer grocery release), at least one King's Reserve (but usually two - something sour and something bourbon barrel-aged), something from our small batch brewery in Fishers, something nitro, and a few other things to fill the list.

The list is on untappd or our website.

I should also mention that we've converted the serving counter to a bar now, and that we have a pretty nice patio.

 

Well then, I stand corrected. I'll be honest - it's been a few months since I've been to the brewery, and I used to go just for KR releases when I knew for sure they'd be on tap. Thanks for the heads up that they're always on now, that definitely will affect what I recommend to people.

 

I suppose... for what it's worth, it didn't read that way when we first saw it (the check-in was from a buddy of mine). I agree that he was talking shit and am not defending that, but it definitely made me think twice about wanting to buy beer from what I perceived to be an unprofessional company. I'll give your stuff another try based on your explanation and your claim that you've improved so much in the last year, but I know he for sure will not and has told several people in our local group who also were put off by the tone of the reply.

Cheers and thanks for being willing to discuss it at least though.

 

I respect the breweries that have been dropping by this thread, not necessarily to hock their product, but to clear up misconceptions and talk beer. This is the place to do it.

 

I appreciate you giving us another try. I know myself that I've had beers from breweries and have had to push myself to give them another go after having a bad beer.

If you have a chance, I'd advise any of the two "Chipmunk" beers, one of which got a "Bros" rating of 89 in the February issue. Nefarious Harbor (NEIPA) and well have a new small batch IPA called "Cashmere Ousside" which is a single hop Cashmere IPA with Sacc Brux as the year.

When it comes to in industry its very hard to claw your way back from a negative reputation of quality, you throw something like the Facebook allegations into the mix and well.... You can imagine.

I'm a beer drinker first, and as a brewer I'm am constantly trying to better each new brew and each batch into something I'd go back to again and again as a beer drinker.

If anyone is ever around on a Friday evening let some serving staff know there's members of the BA forum around an we'll be happy to bring you back for a tour.

 

Are you sure this has been distributed to Indy? While not extensive, I checked around for Heatwave at several liquor stores, and checked a few tap lists that your site notes as having your beers, and nothing comes up yet.

 

I am certain its out there. I know the Craftroads told us the last of it would be sold from their warehouse on Monday.

Best bet I can think of would be Parti Pak or somewhere like that, about 15 cases of a run of 40 got sent to Indy, so the bistro company was going to be pretty selective with where they let stock it. They also took 8x1/6bbl kegs. I looked back through a few weeks of untapped check ins for you but I could see any venues that I recognised the name of. Ill send an email tomorrow and see if I can find out!

 

I will 100% take you up on that sometime in the next few months, I'm always up to check out a place's setup. I'm a school teacher so probably won't happen until the summer, but I was planning on heading up your way this July anyway so I'll shoot you a PM around that time. Cheers man, thanks for a good discussion.

 

I think the beer is so-so but everyone I've brought to St. Joseph's has been blown away by the space. The beer certainly isn't bad so it's worth stopping in.

 

I'm just being nosey about why you said to avoid Tow Yard? I am not disagreeing with you. I went there twice last year. First time it took forever to get beer and food, and the food was cold. Second time, beer was not good and took forever to get food. Once again, the food was cold. I am not sure how they stay open. Every time I have been there it has not been a good time. Their space is nice, but that is it.