22 Apr Double Thai Day Set To Be Can’t-Miss Event
Festival season is upon us! Great news for all you beer lovers in Indiana. In the last several years it seems like the events centering around beer have tripled. With breweries seeming to grow at the same rate, sometimes it’s difficult to keep up with what all is happening. Good news is that whether you’re in the Michiana area or all the way down in Evansville, chances are there is a beer festival or event close to you and coming soon; prepare your livers!
I had the kick-ass opportunity to interview Eric Foust of Bare Hands Brewery in Granger, Indiana. Bare Hands is gearing up for their annual Double Thai Day on August 27th, which focuses on their tapping of their Double Thai PA (bottle allotment will be available to those who purchase the bottle allotment ticket package in advance). Eric revealed that Bare Hands has experimented with around 300 different types of beer (which is absolutely nuts!) and their Thai PA is one of their most notorious brews. Thai PA can only be explained as being an IPA brewed with Thai spices, mainly hints of lemon and ginger, and it is unlike anything I have ever tasted. It stays in extremely high demand, staying in rotation usually year-round. So when Foust and Bare Hands decides to tap their Double Thai PA, it’s only right to make a party out of it. Eric and I dabbled in everything from Double Thai Day to distribution to future beers on tap (mind you they have around 100 beers on Untappd) all while enjoying delicious beer.
Zac: So I see you’re starting to reach the Indianapolis area with your canned beers and your tapping at the TomTap, Twenty Tap, and La Margarita. Are we going to start seeing more of this?
Eric: Although you may see us at different locations around the Indy area, we are currently at full capacity.
Zac: Are you guys doing anything big for craft beer week? (Next week)
Eric: We have a collaboration with Black Acre called Rainbow Hurricane, that’s our Double IPA with mango and kiwi. First release will be at Black Acre on the 26th, and then Twenty Tap, TomTap and then La Margarita. Tom Tap will be on Wednesday, Twenty Tap is Thursday, La Margarita is on Friday. We’ll have a few beers of ours, the collab, and a few beers of theirs (Black Acre) at each place.
Zac: So, Double Thai Day; to everybody that, including me, what are you guys going to be doing for it?
Eric: Basically, it’s our annual release of our Double Thai PA. The event is all here (Bare Hands Taproom). The Taproom will be closed, everything will be outside, everything will be fenced off, just like last year.
Zac: So this is your second year holding this?
Eric: Yes.
Zac: So you guys are just debuting Double Thai PA, or are there going to be any other beers available?
Eric: Yeah, We’re going to have 20 plus beers of our own on tap, as well as 10 plus guest taps at any given time throughout the day.
Zac: You guys had a crazy amount of beers at the Indy Winterfest, like you guys had a FULL menu.
Eric: Yeah we had I think, 39 beers.
Eric: Yeah bands all day, they’re going to start around 1PM, so just let people come in, grab some beers and food, They will go all day long until we close up shop around 9PM.
(At this point we got a bit off track talking about mobile canning and beer distribution in Indy which I’ll bring up later.)
Eric: More about Double Thai Day, obviously music all day long, but especially for the Indy folk, We’ve got La Margarita (from Fountain Square) they’re going to bring their mobile taco truck up, and then (here from South Bend) Vegan food truck, as well as Greenbush (Brewing company in Sawyer, Michigan) Brisket van as well and obviously everything that Indiana On Tap is doing.
Zac: Well I’ll definitely be up here for it, going back to the variety, I know you guys will pull out some solid beers for the event. It will be an awesome time. A lot of people underestimate the small breweries like yourself thinking that you guys will only dump out about 5 or 6 beers at a time, but that’s not the case with you guys at all.
Eric: Yeah, there will be a lot to choose from. Actively on Untappd, we have 121 different beers, we had almost 300, I went back and marked a lot of those as “not in production” because we don’t make them very frequently.
Zac: (I had to laugh again, never heard that kind of number coming out of a microbrewery)
Eric: The biggest thing is, I want to make everybody aware that Indiana On Tap promos that you guys are doing, I only know of only 1 or 2 people who have signed up so far for the beer bus tour. So the biggest thing is that I would like to see is just more shout outs about it. It’s a great reason to join the Tasting Society, where only members have the opportunity to ride on it. (This is great opportunity for all you Tasting Society members!) It’s only recently that they debuted this, but it’s not expensive, it gives you a lot of stuff. You get a round trip for 50 bucks. Also back to Double Thai Day there will a boutique set up for the women to shop around. We’re definitely looking forward to it.
We went on to discuss a few more topics off the record and my interview ended alongside my 574 DIPA. Foust noted that for Indiana Craft Beer week, he has self distributed cans of Bare Hands Thai PA, Westy IPA, and Honey Badger Honey IPA which should be available at all Parti-Pak locations surrounding the Indy area, so if you’re near one, grab a can and try for yourself. Foust also went on to tell me that they will also be tapping their Galaxy Imperial IPA on May 4th for May the 4th Be With You Day, as well as special bottle releases of their Peanut Butter Stout around Christmas time.
If you are thinking about making a road trip come August 27th and you’re in the Indianapolis area, be sure to get on Indiana On Tap’s website and sign up to be a Tasting Society member so you can check out the brew bus. Tickets for Double Thai Day go on sale April 24th, and they will go quick so be sure to reserve your spot come the 24th. I’d like to also thank Eric again for giving me a chance to interview him about the upcoming event. Hope to see everyone there, and cheers.
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