Scouting for Midwestern Beers in Indiana

More specifically - have them keep an eye out for Upland's Teddy Bear Kisses. It's a solid chocolate stout.

Less specifically - check out www.seekabrew.com to see every brewery that gets distributed to Indiana that doesn't come to Massachusetts.

 

I live about 30 minutes from FFF. It seems to me that the further I get away from the brewery while staying in the state, the better luck I have. Freshness is a concern, but Indy seems to stock FFF beers better than the liquor stores in Northwest Indiana. ... Flat 12 and Sun King always winners too.

 

Flat 12, Sun King, Upland, Three Floyds, Mad Anthony, Four Horsemen, Triton, Barley Island...so many good breweries. Our little pub isn't in Evansville, but Fort Wayne (not sure where all they are headed in the midwest). We carry over 150 different craft beers and offer carry out on all of them. If they are near Fort Wayne I'd love to meet them and get them hooked up with some great beers to take home to Massachusetts

 

I'm in the Evansville area and I can tell you that Teddy Bear Kisses is long gone. Three Floyds stuff was in good supply until recently been either that has fallen off lately or was all bought up over the holidays. My favorite stores in town are 1) Winetree East (by far), 2) Liquor Locker Weinbach, 3) Varsity Liquors (sometimes hit and miss) 4) Frontier Greenriver (best place to hunt for older stuff, nothing lasts long at Winetree or Liquor Locker).

Some good Indiana beers besides Three Floyds to look out for would be Sun King (only at Winetree and they didn't have much last I was there, again probably the holidays), Flat 12, Triton, Peoples, and New Albanian. Those would be my favs.

 

You'll be able to get Bell's stuff while in Indiana. Their Two Hearted IPA is always in demand by my daughter and her friends who also live in MA. If you let us know your style preferences then we can get more specific with our recommendations.

 

I saw a lot of Teddy Bear Kisses in Northern Wisconsin. If I knew it was worth getting, I would have grabbed a bottle. The cocoa nibs might have put me off a little though.

 

Basically what Alcorn said. Winetree is your best bet currently for the best selection of beers. Upland, New Albanian, Flat 12, Maybe some Sun King and depending on when they come they may be able to get growlers of Tin Man at the brew pub. I have a few fresh Zombie Dust that if they don't mind meeting a strange big ugly dude I could hook you up with.

 

you are gonna want to get some Flat 12 Half Cycle. Big fan of that recently....

 

A lot of what you might find is already covered in the replies above, but this thread (http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/great-lakes-recommendations.56899/ ) may also give you some ideas too. In my reply in that thread I recommend Arcadia's beers, but that brewery does not distribute in Indiana. Sours from Jolly Pumpkin are always good, but I think you might already get stuff from them back home. I recently saw New Holland's Pilgrim's Dole that was new on my favorite store's shelf, and that is a good Wheatwine.

I hope your friends enjoy their trip.

 

If I am reading seekabrew.com right you don't get Bells in Massachusetts. If you are a DIPA fan and your friends are going to be in town within the next couple of weeks tell them to grab you some Hop Slam 6 packs. It never lasts too long but we are getting a pretty healthy supply this year.