15th Annual Indiana Microbrewers Festival...

[emelius]

Let this be my way of encouraging some of you to attend next July...I'll try to post pics/vids Sunday if I've recovered:o...

Every brewery in Indiana has committed to being there this go 'round...the beer list* is as follows...

*Please note that this list is incomplete(!) & that Founders (Grand Rapids, Michigan) is typically there but does not always announce what they're bringing...

Begin:

Abita: Purple Haze (bottle), Turbodog (bottle)

Alcatraz: Bock, Replicale, Alt.

Anchor: Steam (bottle), Summer Beer (bottle)

Atwater: Dirty Blonde Wheat (bottle), Pale Ale (bottle)

Avery: 16

[shellylh]

Looks like some good stuff.

[Absorbine_Sr]

Try the New Albanian stuff and let me know what you think.

[emelius]

will try on the way out...i'm in a massive line for Dark Lord...which is making me miss the Founders specialties...

[agile_one]

Looks like a wonderful line up. Have fun, and enjoy. Post your faves ...

[emelius]

had four New Albanians...

will prepare my thoughts later & i took a couple/few pics...

ELI is coming...

[emelius]

here's where one of the lines began...the line went back a few more blocks from there then wrapped around maybe half the complex...keep that in mind when you see the shots inside the park...the heat was 90+ degrees so it was not a pleasant wait...

after you conquer the line, you hafta go through the checkpoint to get your commemorative glass & beer map...

you get slightly larger glass (+1oz) of a different design if you pay an extra $15...that also allows you to get in one hour early...i had to work earlier in the day so i opted not to go that route...

not again!...they obviously heard that i was attending...

the first area was mainly non-Indiana brewers...then there's a food area, then there's the area with mainly Indiana brewers...i stopped off at the Hopapalooza tent which was a mixture of regions on my way to the FFF tent...i had the Arctic Panzer Tank in that pic...they had already ran out of Apocalypse Cow...i wasn't surprised as it is an excellent beer...the lactose sugars don't give it much complexity, but it do keep it from feeling like you're drinking hopped up water...i think it's the mouthfeel that makes that one special...

the line for the FFF tent...bunch of newbies thinking they were going to be getting Dark Lord early...

the helpful staff from FFF & IMF...nice banner...

they had a second cooler that had Robert the Bruce...unfortunately, they had also already run out of the Cow...

not a bad setup...they switched it to Dark Lord only a little before five o'clock...

what was left of my FFF Jinx Proof Pils when I thought to take a pic...damn i really liked this one...i would've been content drinking that all day...they did a fine job keeping the beer cold throughout the festival which was quite an achievement...there were many golf cart trips being made back & forth transporting bags of ice...

that's it for now...perhaps i'll have another go at it after Top Gear:)...i've shrunken all the pics for the sake of this thread, but if anyone wants the originals (who knows why), just lemme know...i'm having trouble with the videos as, apparently, i wasn't atop my mental game & shot much of the footage upside down:)...i'll try to get it resolved/rotated...

[emelius]

http://vid229.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid229.photobucket.com/albums/ee148/emelius/festival/beginline-1.mp4

let's see if this works...here's a view of one of the lines to get in...it kept going a couple blocks beyond that then went down another street about the same distance...i think i heard someone say that it certainly looked like more than the estimated 4,500 people were there...

http://vid229.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid229.photobucket.com/albums/ee148/emelius/festival/arrival.mp4

& here's a view of the first area before things really went into full swing...

[emelius]

yikes...remind me to post uncompressed on vimeo next time...photobucket's a disaster for linking videos...

festival :: dlline.mp4 video by emelius - Photobucket

that's the line for Dark Lord...take the earlier line from the photo of the FFF line & add 30ft...then that would be where the video begins haha...so ya...epic line...

as i waited in line, i got to talking to michael & vicky...they were a nice hoosier couple who were novice beer drinkers...i explained to them what they were waiting for & convinced them to stay in formation:)...but while we were talking something quite odd happened...there was a group of four or five people (couldn't tell who was together) that started saying rather loudly to those of us standing in line that the Dark Lord was crap!...they said it wasn't worth the wait & that, get this, they thought that great divide's yeti was much better:)...one of the guys started pouring his Dark Lord onto the ground...he got some very dirty looks & could probably sense that he was making a mistake...he & one of his friends started offering people in line a taste to see what they thought...much to their chagrin, every person who they let taste it LOVED it & was willing to wait in line for it (& did)...so i got my first taste of Dark Lord from a hater that may or may not've been from denver...my luck got even better when another from his party said they didn't want to finish theirs haha (they didn't want to subject themselves to that kind of torture)...i volunteered to relieve them of their burden...so by the time i got to the tap, i had already had a glass...

so here we are then...beauty...cheers!...

oh sweet nectar of the gods...here's to you dusty_chalk...woot!...

there's mike & vick:)...

it's just so right...i didn't want it to end...i would've gone back for more, but, if i heard correctly, there were only five minikegs of the stuff so it was unlikely i'd be successful...

[GPH]

Thanks for the pics and impressions! I'm thirsty now, too bad the fridge is empty.

[emelius]

ok...so then i went over to the Brugge tent...the Brugge Brasserie is located in Broad Ripple (where the festival was held)...it is owned by Abraham Benrubi who you may know as Jerry from E.R. or Ben from Men in Trees...he's from Indianapolis & i'm pretty sure, if memory serves, that he went to Broad Ripple High School...recently (in the last couple/few years) they've been bottling three of their brews--the Black, the White & the Trippel de Ripple...but for the best of what they have to offer you've had to go to the brewpub or this festival...anyways, i was holding out on trying their new boysenberry sour for this occasion...

so there's the Pooka...i tried to post a pic that captured the color fairly accurately...yes, it's a fine beer...& yes, there is a pinkish hue:)...not sure what i can say about the taste other than it tastes like the description...sour(ish) boysenberries...it was scrumptious, sumptuous...it wasn't nearly as sour as the Very Bad Kitty (also from the Brugge--picture later)...more tart i'd say like the Bell's Poolside which is a tart cherry wheat...i seem to recall that, at the time, i was thinking about liquefied sweet tarts:)...could've been the heat, could've been the Dark Lord taking hold...in any case, i enjoyed it immensely...i'm pretty sure that the background of that pic is some sort of sand box with a rotating hand rake for when you want to start a new structure haha...hippies...

[Dusty Chalk]

Nice, thanks for posting. I never thought I could enjoy beer vicariously, but I think I just did. Cheers!

[Dusty Chalk]

... Dark Lord... dusty_chalk...

At first, I was like, "whu?", but then I realized: branding.

In real life, I am less Vader, and more this guy: some hapless bastard

[emelius]

i took a lot of grief from a deranged fan for not actually being into Devo...despite my knowledge of Mark Mothersbsaugh, he felt that i didn't deserve to wear it...i told him it was ten dollars & that i liked it...then i decided it was time to try another beer...

[Dusty Chalk]

You should like Devo more (just because they're so cool and subversive), but I'm glad you wore the T-shirt.

[emelius]

next, we have the New Albanian Brewing Company tent:

first, i had the Beak's Best which is an American Bitter...it was quite alright, but i'm almost always disappointed by non-British bitters as the Brits are just really good (the best) at this style...i drank it with low expectations & came out a bit ahead:)...

then i had their ELI....it had a nice aftertaste that i just couldn't place...it was driving me nuts as, it (whatever it was) was soft & enveloping...i told the man manning the taps that i really like this & asked him if he could tell me more about it...he asked someone else who pointed to a guy standing off to the side...that guy was Jared Williamson who brews the specialty brews & is really the driving force of NABC imho....he said a bunch of things quickly that i may not've fully taken in...but, basically, the ELI is the result of them getting an unusable batch of hops for the Elector & having to go a different route...they put the Elector into special metal Hoff-Stevens kegs that have the bunghole on the side, throw in some oak chips (the taste i couldn't place!), infect it with brettanomyces lambicus (hence the name) & age it for 6 months...excellent!...they had it poured into a growler at the festival & i had the very very last pour:)...i hope they're able to bring the ELI back & soon...

i was told by a gentleman named James who's a big fan/follower of the brewery that the Elector was hoppier than the ELI...Jared said that was due mainly due to the aging of the ELI....i got back in line & gave the Elector a go...it was definitely hoppier, which i liked...but it just didn't have the guts of the ELI...& no woody (but not acidic in any way) aftertaste...still was very respectable...

had to have the Mt. Lee California Common to finish things off...i still don't know much about the Common...they told me that Mt. Lee is where the Hollywood sign is located--i've been there & still didn't know that...anyways, my impression of this one's pretty simple...i recall thinking that i wish every beer was at least this good...it should be the starting point as it was perfectly acceptable...something i'd be perfectly happy sipping anywhere w/o complaint...we'll just have to see if it really is common as i've never seen it on tap outside the festival:)...

one thing i made sure to ask Jared was if there was one go-to bar where i was most likely to find their best brews...he suggested the Fickle Peach in Muncie, Indiana...this surprised me a little...lemme tell you why...i used to go to Muncie on a fairly regular basis to visit my best friend who, at the time, attended Ball State University...so i'm not altogether unfamiliar with the area despite it being far from Indy...& so i, of course, know about the legendary bar The Heorot...it's world class...it's go there before you die good & still remains relatively unknown (perfect!)...so, with that bar there, why on earth would you take your beers down the road to a newcomer?...well...i still can't answer that one...best i can gather is that sure, if you're only going to go to one bar in Muncie, The Heorot is it...understood...but The Fickle Peach has a great (not legendary) selection on tap & is a bar on the move...i guess they have games...an arcade?...i'm anxious to check it out as it simply has to be dynamite to survive there...anyone in Illinois wanna go on a road trip?...