Indiana Beer love

My problem with some Indiana beers is the price. New breweries try to price their beer above more established brands. So I go to the store and consider a new beer and I can try a new Founders release for $12.99 or an Indiana beer for $14.99 or in the case of 18th St. $16.99. I find myself going with the established brand at a lower cost with the confidence I'll get a good brew. I'm thinking these new Indiana breweries should price their beer under established brands so they can develop a brand of their own then increase price incrementally as they grow.

 

You could dedicate a thread to all the shit breweries popping up around northwest Indiana too. Bad homebrew swill. Just sayin.

 

There could be a thread specifically for NWI breweries. I have considered starting one. With fff and 18th Street, a lot of NWI breweries go unnoticed. Four Fathers, Burn'em, New Oberpfalz, and sometimes Crown does some great stuff.

 

Thought about it and my previous post is pure trolling and not in the spirit of what the OP had in mind. So beyond the obvious 3F love, props to 18th Street. For me there was a time when their stuff was rivaling 3F but they seem to have slipped back some since the expansion to Hammond. Still good to great but not quite where they were maybe 12-18 months ago. I've also had stuff I like from Burn 'em, Four Fathers and New Oberpfalz.

 

Beat me to it..

 

Great minds think alike.

And so do ours.

 

Well then I guess you should've specified "Southern Indiana Beer Love".

 

People's Brewing Company in Lafayette has a nice IPA called Mound Builder, and their seasonal IIPA, Space Cowboy, with galaxy hops is good on draft.

 

I learned way back in middle school that anything south of US 30 is Southern Indiana. I still believe that to be factual. But enough geography, let's advocate for Indiana brewers.

 

I couldn't agree more. The Tales From the Crypt situation is the definition of someone trying to generate hype based on price. Indiana city wants 50 bucks to just have the right to buy a few bombers? If you want one bomber of BA Double Uddercut you have to pay 50 bucks for a ticket plus 25 for a bomber. $75 to try a beer that has never been released from a brewery that doesn't have a long line of history in BA beers. Few places in the entire country could demand that price and get away with it. Indiana city isn't one of them, and not surprisingly they can't sell 140 tickets. Mimi's breakfast Stout costs more for a bomber than a four pack of Founders Breakfast Stout. It seems like they are trying to immediately price their way in to high end craft status. Don't get me wrong I'd love to support the local brewery but at these prices it's difficult to justify.

 

My thoughts exactly on Indiana City. I've only been there once and thought it was fine, but nothing special (Black Acre is much better, and just down the street). I enjoyed their taproom more than the beers themselves. (They weren't bad, just not really noteworthy).

They describe and label their oatmeal stout as "Indy's premier stout" (when did that vote take place lol)? Also, someone from the brewery started a thread in this forum about one of their special releases and urging people to get their tickets early because of how quickly they expected them to sell out. The responses from some Indy folks weren't very kind. I don't remember seeing them post in here again.

Ok, so on a positive Indiana beer note, I went to Daredevil Brewing for the first time yesterday. I've always enjoyed "Lift Off IPA" and "JWP Stout", but had just never been there. Fun visit. Had a nice flight of beers and a full pour of JWP. Also picked up a crowler of their DIPA, "Rip Cord", for the game tomorrow. Good stuff.

 

Wow hadn't heard the Indiana City story. That's absurd.

Sounds like they're just trying to take advantage of the craft beer craze and think people are suckers for anything that's limited release and barrel aged.

I'll continue to visit breweries like Indiana City and try their beer and enjoy the brewery experience but I'm also going to continue to scrutinize lndiana beer in stores until they get real with their prices.

 

Breweries with small followings are destined to fail at ticketed events. A few NWI breweries have tried this (Devil's Trumpet comes to mind) and I have fallen on their face. One must remember but even the first Dark Lord Day was not a ticketed event. And fff was the only show in town at that time. Now there are way too many shows competing for the same dollar without being very good.

 

I'm glad someone else brought up the Indiana City thing. I'd love to try those beers, and have even looked for someone to split the cost with, but I just can't justify a $50 ticket for beers when no one can even tell me if they're good or not.

 

Deviate Brewing is my second favorite Indiana brewery after FFF. Small little taproom, but packed with quality brews.

 

While I complain about the pricing of some of the Indiana beer I do want to give some props and feedback on a few beers I've had lately.

18th st. - Cone Crusher. Very Good.
18th st. - Sex and Candy. Pretty Good.
18th st. - Steel Hands. Not Good.
Sun King - Lupulin. Pretty Good.
FFF - Space Station Middle Finger. Pretty Good.

 

So...I'm heading to Indy this week for business. I have to ask, any good bottle shop (or brewery) reco's from the path of central Illinois to Indy? Last year, on a family vacation weekend, I stopped by Crown Liquors downtown and thought that was a nice place. Any other good reco's from the Indiana fans? Happy to trade info if you head the Chicago (or Central Illinois) way Feel free to message me if you want to trade a few 'hot' spots!

 

I really want to like Sun King more, but everything I have ever liked from them is not distributed. If Sunlight and Wee Mac disappeared permanently, it would clear some needed shelf space. Their King's reserve stuff is so good. It was also nice when GFJ started receiving distribution.

 

The only TaxMan I've had is Death and Taxes. That's a solid brew. Had a buddy that went to the festival last summer. Heard it's pretty cool. Want to try to check it out this summer.

 

Will you be downtown or on another side of the city?

 

We'll be near downtown, but I'll have a car and lots of time when heading home on Friday.

 

Your main liquor store chains are Crown, Payless, 21st Ammendment, and Big Red. Each has a pretty good selection and I think each has a location downtown or near downtown. There is also a popular store called Kahn's that has a great selection and about 15 min directly north of downtown. If you decide to venture to Kahn's there is also a nice store about another 15 min north in a town called Carmel. The store is Vine & Table. They have a great selection too.

 

HopCat in Indy had a Taxman takeover with almost 30 beers last Friday. While I would wager that not all are available, I would think they would be plenty to try.

 

So much for Indiana beer love. 55 pages of Chicagoland NE Style IPAs but crickets here.

 

FFF, New Oberpfalz and Four Fathers are the only breweries I need from NWI (and honestly from all of Indiana)

 

Do we have enough pages to list all of the bad breweries in Indiana?

 

We have a shockingly high amount of terrible beer in Indiana, but we do have some great beer. FFF (obviously) Black Acre, Deviate, Daredevil, Central State, and Mashcraft. Those are my personal favorites.

I'm amazed that several places around Indianapolis are still open. I've never had a good beer from several downtown breweries. It makes Indiana beer as a whole look terrible. You can open a place with shitty beer and somehow make it right now.

 

Man, I tried 3 or 4 of New Oberpfalz beers that they bottled and all of them were either 'meh' or a drain pour. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since those were probably the first time bottling. But, still, it wasn't anything salvageable.

 

Same goes for NWI. There is one brewery in NWI (that I have mentioned in other threads) that literally has no idea what it is doing. Purposely making malt forward IPAs, I'd rather cellar a 90 minute IPA for a year.

 

I'd be curious to find out what you had and when you had them. They are a different kind of brewery since they don't focus on IPAs and am told they will never get into barrel aging. But I think the styles they do are well done for the most part.

 

I had their RIS, Elucidator, Imperial Rye IPA, and I think the Toad Storm. The RIS was probably the best out of the bunch, but it was still just meh. I bought all of them right when they popped up in Indy, so about a year or so ago.

 

Elucidator wasn't terribly impressive to me either (and I'm a pretty big dopplebock guy). At least on tap, I like the others. Perhaps its a matter of freshness.