Without argument, the most essential ingredient in beer is water. And for five days leading up to Saturday, that wet reminder was driven home with rain, rain, and rain. But on the sixth day, the beer gods smiled favorably upon us and said, “Let there be light.”
If you are the Brewer’s Guild of Indiana and/or a craft beer fanatic, you couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day Saturday at the 5th Annual Bloomington Craft Beer Festival at the historic Woolery Mill. This was my first time experiencing this event and I walked away absolutely blown away.
Walking through the crudely carved limestone pathways with my dad was a real luxury, as brewery upon brewery set up their respective booths and jockey boxes to pour their offerings to Indiana’s wonderful craft beer fans.
With dozens of breweries offering over one hundred craft beers, a food court, and live music, one could be overwhelmed. But one must start somewhere…
I caught up with our friends over at Twisted Crew to sample their 3-2-1 Bier De Garde and their gold medal winning Red Rye Wheat. On a day such as this, it was one hell of a start.
From there, my dad and I wandered over to Chapman’s Brewing Company where the VP of Sales, Steve Short, let us sample the new Pale Ale recipe. In short (I’m all about the puns ya know), they took an already solid beer and made it better. In addition to their exceptional offerings, Steve showed off the new Chapman’s logo.
Now, my dad will be the first to admit that he’s not a hop fan. Fair enough. But I did get him to sample a Lenore Pale Ale with pineapple from Scarlet Lane. We both agreed that it was a perfect beer for a hot day. In other words, he liked it!
When we hit up The Tap, my dad sampled Bluebeard, a blueberry berliner weisse, and instantly began singing (not really singing) its praises. I tried out the Wolf Tooth, a double wit white IPA. Both offerings were great and went all too well with the beautiful day that was unfolding.
The guys at Basket Case brought their greatest hits line-up, led by my favorite, Hoppy by Nature IPA. Their ACDC inspired t-shirts were also a clever homage to their musical inspired brewing roots.
Mad Anthony’s Good Karma IPA and Rock Bottom’s Hop Bomb! were show stealers in my opinion. I’m a sucker for a juicy IPA and these two crushed it. But I didn’t spend my time just sampling IPA after IPA. I wanted to make sure I tried different styles.
I had to swing over to Bloomington Brewing Company for a taste of Ruby Bloom, an amber ale that holds a special place in my heart and makes me blush just writing about her. As always, she did not disappoint.
Brugge Brasserie and Zwangigz Brewing were two of the breweries that had my dad and me talking. At Brugge we both sampled Pooka Boysenberry Sour. Sweet upfront with a puckering BOOM on the finish (I think my knees actually gave out, it was that sour, but gosh darn was it good!). Now, before the festival I forgot to take an allergy pill and it bothered me for a while. Of course, that was until I had the Ghost Pepper Stout from Zwangigz Brewing. A smooth roasty beginning quickly gave way to intense heat that I felt in my toes. But it was so intriguing, you couldn’t help but continuously sip on it because it was that good! Needless to say, I quickly forgot about my allergies. I mean, my head is still as clear as a whistle.
One brewery that really impressed me was Burn Em out of Michigan City. The Chin IPA (Chinook hops) was really impressive, but the beer that completely rocked my palate was the Hiphop-o-pOATamus, an oatmeal pale ale hopped with Dorado and Calypso. It is a sensational beer that had all of the Indiana on Tap boys raving!
Sun King, Flat 12, Upland, and 3 Floyds showed off what they do best, and the lines surrounding their booths proved that they are great at what they do.
This was the first time my dad had attended a craft beer festival and he was duly impressed by the beers he sampled and the number of people who came out to support Indiana’s growing craft beer scene. For me, it was twofold. On one hand I was grateful to talk with all the breweries I did – learning about their trade and business. On the other, I was able to participate in a growing cultural movement with my father – something that I feel very fortunate to have been able to do.
One might think that a beer fest could essentially be a gateway to a drunken haven of people just looking to become as soused as possible within the given time. I’m sure those people exist (I’m looking at you drooling cup thruster) and a few may have stumbled among us Saturday (I’m still looking at you drooling cup thruster). But they were very few and far between.
That’s not what this was. Not at all.
On a warm spring day in Bloomington, Indiana everything that’s great about beer in our state came together and it felt…right.
And in life, sometimes that’s really all you can ask for – those moments when the second hand hits the right spots at the right moments and everything feels in sync. Because what I saw was a large population of people dedicated to supporting the beer and breweries they love.
I saw a culture embracing beer and the hard working people who are responsible for making it.
I overheard people talking excitedly about breweries that they had never had the pleasure of visiting or sampling.
I witnessed friendships forged between producer and consumer.
But most importantly, I saw Hoosiers from all over this great state enjoying the beer that is helping define Indiana as a craft beer destination.
Emily
awesomesauce