Charlie’s Choice: I’m On A Boat (With A “Fridge Pack”)

By Writing & Reporting Community Member Charlie Sasse

Charlie’s Choice is a new recurring series for Indiana On Tap where Writing & Reporting Community Member Charlie Sasse will key you in on his favorite beers for every occassion. This edition covers his annual weekend boat trip.

In this edition of Charlie’s Choice, I will be discussing what I took to Dale Hollow Lake for an adults-only extended weekend. While packing for the trip I started in my kegorator creating a “Fridge Pack” then I moved over to my beer cellar for a few special offerings to share with the others. For anyone not familiar with the term “Fridge Pack” it is all of the leftover beer I have in my old ‘fridge-turned-kegerator. These beers have been left over from previous four/six packs, bottles pulled from the cellar and chilled but not drank, beers left by others from parties, or liberated in some other way. The “Fridge Pack” is a great way to introduce others to great beer through sharing.

On our way to Sulphur Creek Marina, we stopped at a liquor store off of exit 91 in Kentucky for “Slushies.”  Here I learned that slushies are frozen alcoholic drinks in Styrofoam cups that are not considered open containers as long as the straw is removed from the lid when the cop pulls you over. This is what the employees told us as we were leaving. I was pleasantly surprised by the diverse beer selection the little store had.  It was based mostly around Kentucky breweries, which was nice for someone from out of town looking for something not available at home. It was shaping up to be a fun weekend already.

Once we were tucked in and tied off in our cove on Dale Hollow Lake I opened up a West Sixth Heller Heaven Double IPA. This beer was so bitter and juicy that I immediately wished I had more than a four pack. Any DIPA at 9.5% makes me expect a big malt backbone and I was happy to be wrong in this case. There was a bit of malt, but this was a hop monster all the way through and I liked it!   I followed that up with Great Lakes Chillwave DIPA. Chillwave had a bigger malt presence than Heller Heaven which you can see immediately from the color of the beer. It was very piney and citrusy with a nice clean finish. The final DIPA of the night was from SweetWater Brewing and is named Hop Hash. There were fruit notes and hop bitterness but unlike the others the flavors in this beer were muted slightly. This, to me, drank like a 7.8% pale ale instead of a DIPA. That is not meant to be a negative; I really enjoyed Hop Hash quite a bit! After this there were jello and pudding shots flying around as well as the signature trash can punch (a staple of this trip). Friday night was coming to a hazy end.

Saturday I woke to a smoked salmon and Greek yogurt everything bagel for breakfast. which I chased down with a Horny Goat Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter. The peanut butter was strong in the nose but did allow the chocolate to come through in the flavor without completely overpowering it. This is a love it or hate it beer, and I love it. After breakfast and a morning swim it was time to share some sours. Several people on the boat were not beer fans in general, but when I open sours they all have a cup in hand. First up was the Flanders Style Red from Sour Note. Cherry skins were the dominant flavor in this beer and it was very refreshing, making it a great beer for a boat trip on a hot weekend. Next up I popped the cage and cork off of a Rodenbach Grand Cru. No complaints about this beer. Dark fruit and cherries dominate the palate with amazingly delicious wine-turned-vinegar tartness. Rodenbach makes damn near perfect sours and I have to think that nearly 200 years of brewing experience is the reason behind this. After a couple more standard sours like Monks Café and a Cuvee Renee it was back to punch and shots on floats in the lake. Saturday did not end as hazy as Friday, but not for a lack of trying.

Sunday morning was fantastic. I was fed biscuits and gravy with green chili made from hatch chili peppers. If you have been to Colorado or New Mexico you know what green chili is supposed to taste like and this was it!  After rehydrating from the day before I was ready to take it easy. Then a friend expressed interest in sampling some stouts and I happened to have a few on hand to share. We started off with a mini vertical (2014 and 2015) of Founders KBS. I poured them side by side so that we could compare them. Both were delicious with a little alcohol heat, which makes sense at over 11%, but there is also coffee, vanilla, and bourbon flavors that come through. The ’15 was a bit stronger and needed another year or so to age but was still enjoyable overall. I thought we should follow up one mini vertical with another, so we opened a 2012 and a 2013 Goose Island BCS. Both of these years came in at over 14% and you could tell. Big, thick, bourbon, molasses, chocolate, and something that reminds me of a grill are flavors that all came through. The grill flavor was not smoke, more like the smell of BBQ sauce as it cooks into the meat. After these two mini verticals at 10:30am someone came up with a brilliant idea to play super beer pong. I really do not believe there were any winners in this game.

Monday was our last day and we were all sad to leave. We cleaned up the boat, packed up all of the dirty clothes, condensed all of the coolers, and headed back to the marina. On the way back we started planning next year’s trip. When I returned home I unpacked my cooler and realized that I had several good beers that were either bought at exit 91 or originally from my cellar that will make my next “Fridge Pack” pretty spectacular!  The “Fridge Pack” is my favorite go to selection for events. Not only do I get a reprieve from the delicious hoppy beers I love, but I get to share with others and maybe convert someone in the process to a certain style of beer. I believe that sharing the experience of drinking good beer is one of the best ways to get to know people.