You know you're a drunkard when you don't bother to take down the folding chairs in your living room between interventions. - author unknown

Gee...only two years since my last post. I better slow down a little.

As anybody who knows me (or anyone who has read the the pitifully few posts I've ever bothered to post in this so-called blog), I have a enthusiasm for all things related to homebrewing and craft beer. I brew beer, drink beer, talk about beer, talk about brewing beer and then drink more craft beer, frequently all at the same time. There are those who describe my fondness for craft brewed ales and lagers as a thin facade to conceal a lifestyle best described as 'marginally functional alcoholic'. To them I say "Got any India Pale Ale?"

For the past year or so, I've been on a quest. It's not quite so noble as the quest for a cure for cancer or to find the Holy Grail, but its close. My quest is to visit every brewpub and brewery in the state of Indiana. And as of Friday night at approximately 8 PM, I believed I had achieved this quest. I have since learned that a couple of new establishments have opened recently and were missing from my list (Fountain Square Brewing Co. has recently opened up in Indianapolis and Four Horsemen Brewing Co. in South Bend. There may be others.) That's the problem with a quest such as this one. It never ends due to the constantly moving nature of the target. By my best reckoning, there are currently around 37 such establishments in Indiana. That, my friends and neighbors, is something to be celebrated.

These establishments come and go (Warbird Brewing, Wilbur Brewing, Mishawaka Brewpub, Alcatraz and others, RIP. You have not been forgotten.), but even a mere ten years ago I would have never in my wildest dreams imagined that Indiana would boast 37 breweries that turn out some of the best beer around (including the number 6 beer in the world as rated by the members of the Beer Advocate web site). Congratulations are due to all the owners, brewers, and hard working employees whose determination and effort made it happen. But even more congratulations are due to the patrons. The craft brewers of Indiana would not exist if there were no market for them to sell to. The beer drinkers of our fair state have thrown off the blinders of mass-marketing that the mega-brewers of the world have attempted to place over their eyes and seen the brave new world full of bold interesting beers out there to try.

Along the way, I've had the opportunity to sit down and talk with many of the the owners and brewers of these establishments along with employees and patrons. I'm not in the beer industry, nor am I a professional writer of any sort. These people had no real reason to take time out of their extremely busy days to sit down with me for interviews; the odds of me actually getting anything published are roughly the same as me suddenly developing fondness for Bud Light (I'd rather set my head on fire and have it put out with a sledgehammer). Nevertheless, many of these hard working folks did just that, and for that, I thank them.

So, for those of you to whom I foolishly promised to blog about my attempts to drink my way around the state, stay tuned for further messages. It's entirely possible that I might get to it before I begin my next quest...to visit every brewery in Michigan.



My non-authoritative list of Indiana breweries.....more or less in the order I visited them
(corrections and additions to this list are welcome)

New Albanian Brewing Co - New Albany
(2 locations....Grant Line Road Brewhouse, Bank Street Brewhouse)
Ram Restaurant and Brewery
(two locations - Indianapolis and Fishers)
Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery - Indianapolis
(two locations - Downtown and College Park)
Barley Island Brewing Co. - Noblesville
Upland Brewing Co. - Bloomington
Bloomingon Brewing Co./Lennie's - Bloomintgon
Big Woods Brewing - Nashville
Power House Brewing Co. - Columbus
Turoni's Pizzery and Brewery - Evansville
Wilbur Brewing - Martinsville - No longer in business as of Aug 28th.
Oaken Barrel Brewing Co. - Greenwood
Sun King Brewing - Indianapolis
Broad Ripple Brewpub - Indianapolis
Brugge Brasserie - Indianapolis
3 Wise Men Brewery - Indianapolis
Half Moon Restaurant and Brewery - Kokomo
Lafayette Brewing Co. - Lafayette
People's Brewing Co. - Lafayette
Crown Brewing - Crown Point
3 Floyds Brewing Co - Munster
Shoreline Restaurant and Brewery - Michigan City
Figure 8 Brewing - Valparaiso
Backroad Brewery - La Porte
Mishawaka Brewing Co. - Mishawaka - closed
(rumor has it that the actual brewery in Elkhart may be opening under a new name)
Mad Anthony Brewing Co. - Ft. Wayne
New Boswell Brewing Co. - Richmond
Lil' Charlies Restaurant and Brewery - Batesville
Great Crescent Brewery - Aurora
Flat 12 Bierworks - Indianapolis
Bier Brewery and Taproom - Indianapolis
Triton Brewing - Indianapolis
3 Pints Brewpub - Plainfield
The Black Swan Brewpub - Plainfield

Unvisited - yet (obviously, this is subject to change)
Bee Creek Brewery - Brazil (could not visit, no address published, no restaurant or tap room)
Four Horsemen Brewing Co. - South Bend
Fountain Square Brewing Co. - Indianapolis
Cutters Brewing Co. - Bloomington

At this year's Craft Brewers Conference, the keynote address included a video entitled "I am a craft brewer."

For all you homebrewers out there, you are craft brewers too. Some of the extremely talented folks over at HomebrewTalk.com made a similar video.

And just for the record....I am a home brewer.

Goodbye Cindy. You will be missed.
--------
When I come to the end of the road
and the sun has set for me
I want no rites in a gloom filled room.
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a while...but not too long
and not with your head bowed low
Remember the love that we once shared
Miss me....but let me go

For this is a journey that we all must take
And all must go alone
It's all a part of the master's plan
A step on the road to home

When you are lonely and sick at heart
go to a place we've known
Remember not me, but the seeds I've sown
Then bury your sorrows beneath a tree
Rejoice with me, for I can now see...
Miss me....but let me go.
- Cindy Cathcart

I want you to picture this scene.

Imagine that you work for a local lawn mowing and landscaping service. You drive a pickup truck that tows a trailer that holds the lawnmowers and other gear you use. Imagine that the truck that pulls this trailer has no working brakes, so whenever you park, you use a piece of 4x6 wood to block the wheels from moving.

Now imagine your doing a job at roughly noon on Wednesday. The house your working at is on a street that has a fairly decent downhill grade. Now imagine that as your driving your nice shiny professional grade ZTR mower up onto the trailer, the truck rocks so much that it overcomes the pitifully inadequate stopping force of the block of wood at takes off downhill, careening down the street with nobody at the controls. You hurriedly throw the mower into reverse, getting off of the now rapidly moving deathtrap trailer as it passes diagonally through a yard, bounces off a tree and comes to rest about a foot from another house. You very sheepishly knock on the front door of the house that was almost destroyed and prepare to apologize in very broken english.

Now, given that scenario, I don't think that most people would want to begin the conversation with the following:

(with a great big smile on your face) "Hi meester....I sorry I hit house with truck."

Wouldn't you feel that something was missing from that sentence? Like the word "almost" perhaps? As in "Hi meester...I sorry I almost hit house with truck"

If he had only added that vital missing word, the conversation would have gone much differently than it actually did.

The large oak tree on the south side of my house is now my new best friend, because without it, that truck probably would have ended up in my son's bedroom. I have nicknamed him GBT (the Great Barrier Tree) and given him two pints of homebrewed Smoked Porter as a thank you.

I missed the beginning of the Saturnalia Festival at the New Albanian Brewing Company/Rich O's Public House, but I still managed to get there in time for a real treat.

La Chouffe's N'Ice Chouffe


followed by a nice glass of NABC Hoptimus.

Just the thing I needed after an afternoon of X-mas shopping. And for those of you out there not quite done yet with your shopping yet, I have a request. Please...for the love of all that's holy...quit blocking the fucking aisle trying to decide if little Jimmy really needs that 14th Thomas the Train DVD and move to the side.....otherwise, I just might have to go postal and lay waste to all those around me with meat cleaver. And I won't feel a damn bit bad about it. I'm just about sure I can get a court to call it justifiable homicide.

No beer last night, but I felt the need to comment on a trend I'm seeing. I'm an avid homebrewer of mostly decent beer, and it seems to me that this hobby is having an explosion of popularity lately.

The local homebrew club I belong to seems to be getting new members at every meeting. A new homebrew supply shop (Cellar on the Square) has opened relatively recently in Corydon, Indiana. A co-worker has recently started to homebrew as well, and a couple more are interested.

So, to all you home brewers out there, I salute you. Brew on! and show the world that we need not live and die drinking the mass produced lowest common denominator swill being churned out by the mega-brewers of the world.