Beers, Scares And Chainsaws: How One Writer Survived Flat12's ZomBrewery

05 Nov Beers, Scares And Chainsaws: How One Writer Survived Flat12’s ZomBrewery

Posted at 18:55h in Flat 12 Bierwerks, Special Events, Uncategorized by Justin Knepp 1 Comment

By Sarah Burns for Indiana On Tap

Halloween is about dressing up, carving pumpkins, listening to spooky music, being scared, and kids getting candy from strangers. Ah… The good old days when our parents had to check our Smarties for glass. Good times!

It’s also when Zombies start making beer with humans instead of hops at Flat12 Bierwerks. Dr. Hopenstein (Head Brewer Sean Manahan) and his assistants were giving tours of the Zombrewery, where the Zombies had taken over brewing, on October 30th and on Halloween. Now, I hate haunted houses but I made the sacrifice for the sake of journalism to attend on Friday.

My first walk through of the Zombrewery was during a run through with the staff and volunteers that were “performing.” I had a chance to talk to Sean Manahan during my walk through about putting the Zombrewery together. They worked really hard all week on typical brewery business so that they would have all day on Friday to work on the concept. It only took them a couple of hours to set up. “The brewery itself is kind of creepy on its own when you’re in here alone, you’re starting to brew early in the morning. It’s kind of creepy anyway. It made it easy to take some of the dangers we face in the brewery and turn it into a haunted house,” Sean said.

There was a whole story behind how the Zombies took over. In an effort to push the limits of brewing, “we harvested a unique yeast out of Transylvania and that yeast then turned everyone into Zombies once the beer was completed,” said Sean. So, in order to get into character, Sean said they were going to drink a lot of beer. Makes total sense.

Once I had a couple of beers in me, I gathered up the courage to go on an actual tour. It helped that I had just chatted up Sean O’Connor, president and co-owner of Flat12, and told him that I would be burying my head in his back the entire time. I didn’t have to do that though and so, thankfully, I still have my dignity! The tour was a lot of fun and they found a way to make it educational as well which was cool. There were chainsaws involved though. I’m not of fan of those.

People were ballsy walking through the Zombrewery with cups of beer. Flat12 was smart enough to use plastic glasses but I was warning people they may want to drink it down a bit because, it’s a haunted house… You’re going to jump and then be wearing that pint of beer.

Speaking of the beer people ended up wearing, there were special release beers on draft in the taproom. There was Zombie Jack which is their Flat Jack pumpkin ale aged in whiskey barrels with some “funk” added that came out with a tart mouthfeel. I loved it. Double Jack was a solid 8.4% imperial pumpkin ale. Punk Jack was whiskey barrel aged Flat Jack sans “funk.” They also had their staples on draft of course.

The staff had a lot of fun putting this event on. Sean Manahan feels that the people in the industry are the best in the world. Everyone that was there was there voluntarily just to hang out and have a good time. Even Sutton Gardens, a third party company who supplies Flat12 with their gas, donated to the fun by giving the brewery a ton of dry ice for the event. The Zombrewery would not have been complete without it.

For being free, this event was really cool. I hope they continue to put this on. I had people come talk to me when they were done with the tour and all of them really enjoyed it. Cheers Flat12 to an awesome event. Can’t wait to see what you come up with next year!