26 March 2008

Indy Craft Beer Festival Update and Random Beer News

It wasn't too long after we ran our Indiana Craft Beer Festival notice that I heard a rumor that the event had been cancelled. So I followed up with event organizer and Hot Shotz hot shot Brian Graham to find out what was happening:
[The Craft Beer Festival] has not been canceled, it has been postponed until the fall. The lack of homebrewer participation is the big reason. May 3 is National homebrew day and they will be brewing.

There have also been some concerns from supporting parties of the legality of having a homebrew festival and being able to charge admission.

I am working very hard to make this a reality.
We support Brian on his quest to make this work and look forward to attending his festival in the fall. We'll be sure to keep you updated about dates as further details emerge.

While we're speaking of Hot Shotz, you might like to know that they'll be tapping a firkin of Bell's Porter tomorrow (3/27/08).


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While they're running tap lines, I could use a couple in my kitchen - An Atlanta sports bar now features personal taps at patrons' tables. The article makes no mention of if you can get the Miller Light tap removed from your table.

No more getting drunk while you get your hair did - A chain of Michigan barbershops has been told they'll need a liquor license if they wish to continue to hand out free beer... sounds vaguely familiar.

At 6 a.m., Boston's beer goes the way of the 19th win - Red Sox fans were treated to an opening day without beer in bars throughout the Boston area. The reason? The game (which was played in Japan) started at 6 a.m. Massachusetts law says that beer can't be served before 8 a.m.

And back in Indiana, it's Dig-B with your Wabash beer scoop
- Our buddy Chris has the full list of where you can find the latest product out of Brugge Beer's Terre Haute facility. We've got a case (or was it three cases?) of this stuff in the HBG mystery secret beer vault - look for a review sometime soon if we can ever get a beer attack strategy sorted out.

4 comments:

  1. I hate to say that I think the Indy Craft Beer Festival is going to be a tough sell to the majority of homebrewers. I am a homebrewer myself and I can't possibly conceive of participating in a competition where I have to give up the entire 5 gallon batch of beer I brewed. I love the idea of being able to sample a lot of different homebrew, I just don't think there will be too many homebrewers willing to fork over a full brewdays work for a competition.

    I think a better idea would be to have the beer festival with professionaly brewed beer available at the tables for the fest goers to sample. Then have the homebrew portion of it be a 3-4 bottle donation to be sampled and judged by the professional brewers themselves. Regardless of how it plays out, I will be there to support Brian. I am actually glad this is being moved as myself and 2 friends are brewing 2 10 gallon batches the day this was originally planned for and I would have had to miss it.

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  2. Thanks for the link!

    I actually bought some of the Wabash Pale and Porter yesterday and tried one of the Pale. Hmmmm....not terrible, but not so great. Mild hops as you'd expect from a pale (I usually drink IPAs) a hint of lemon and a slightly metallic aftertaste.

    If this were in the $7 range for a six pack, I might be tempted to give it another shot. Alabama Liquor is charging $8.40, though, and that's the exact same price as a six pack of Bell's Two Hearted. That's no contest.

    Hopefully the Porter justifies its price a little better.

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  3. You just answered both of the questions about the Wabash beers I just posted in the comments on your blog.

    I feel retarded.

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  4. Reviewed the Porter from Wabash on show 149. Not terrible. I am sure WCB will be trying to force it down everybody's throats since it is "their" baby.

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