22 Jan South Bend Brew Fest Offers Chances To Taste New Small Batch Beers
by Mark E. Lasbury for Indiana On Tap
Northern Indiana is a bastion of good beer, of that there is no doubt. As you move from east to west along the Michigan border and then around the lake, you have Fort Wayne with Trubble, Summit City, Junk Ditch and others, and Goshen/Elkhart with Goshen Brewing, Back Alley, Wedgewood, HopLore, Iechyd Da and more. Move a bit further west and you hit South Bend/Mishawaka, home to Bare Hands, Crooked Ewe, South Bend Brew Werks, and several others. A bit further and you get to the Michigan City area and Zorn, Burn ‘Em, Shoreline, and Back Road. Finally you get to the Region where good beer abounds; 18th Street, Windmill, Bulldog, Off Square – there are just too many to list.
If you are located in the central part of the state, you have to take every opportunity to get up north and try these breweries. Luckily, festivals offer the chance to try beers that they may not distribute. A festival is the next best thing to visiting the taproom or brewpub. The festivals up north aren’t as plentiful as those down toward Indy, but there some great ones: Shelf Ice, Zoo Brew, Valpo Brew Fest, Crown Beer Fest, Brew Haven…I know I’m leaving some out, but chances are Walter and I will be attending them so we’ll talk about them when they happen. As far as ramping back up into festivals after the holidays, this past Saturday’s South Bend Brew Fest offered us the first opportunity to get our beer own. We enjoyed the day greatly, and not just because we were going through festival withdrawal.
image credit: South Bend Brew Fest
As Walter and I attend more and more craft beer festivals (29 last year alone), we find things that we like and we notice things that have been done differently at other festivals and might help. There were a couple of things that stood out to us at South Bend, but they are so small and few that we might as well get them out of the way. Things like only having one person checking IDs and tickets during VIP, especially since most people were just on a list, rather than having tickets scanned are easily taken care of in the future. We also felt like there were more distributors pouring from packaged beers than last year with fewer breweries present pouring their own beers via jockey box. Breweries like Veteran, Burnt City, Jolly Pumpkin, Hoppin’ Frog (amongst others) were pouring last year, and we got to talk to many of their brewers, but they weren’t in attendance this time around.
Included in the brewery loss were several breweries from the central portion of the state, Daredevil, Fountain Square, Deer Creek and others, but Central State was there, along with Triton and Sun King, so there was still some representation. Probably a bigger deal was the lack of Southern Michigan breweries. There are so many within thirty miles of the Indiana border, and they make such good beer, I was hoping to see more there, even if they needed volunteer pourers. Livery, Beer Church, Silver Harbor, Watermark, Arclight…..the possibilities for good beer are nearly endless. I hope that next year the number of distributors stays the same and the number of breweries pouring their own beer goes way up.
But these small issues were far outweighed by several great features we noted Saturday. Firstly, the people involved were extremely helpful and wanted to discuss the beers and event with attendees. Festival director Jacob Hamman was busy as could be, but stopped and talked with us about the event and the day. Volunteers who normally work at the Century Center (the venue for the festival) were pouring beer and looking for feedback about what we liked and what we would ask for again. Having nice people working the festival isn’t all that rare, but usually they are a bit less engaged than the people we met Saturday.
The South Bend Brew Fest was well attended, but everyone got in just fine. photo credit: Century Center
Secondly, the VIP experience was handled extremely well Saturday. Besides getting in an hour earlier for tastes, there was a roped off area with tables for resting and eating. This VIP area was manned all the time, with people there to help with any kind of issue. This area was also supplied with food, including fires, chicken, drinks, and some of the best beef jerky we’ve ever had. Really, it was that good. The food was replenished constantly, unlike many festivals where there is a limited supply and when it’s gone, that’s it. There were VIP beers, and when the GA folks came in, they were offered to everyone (usually done, but still is nice). The T-shirts for VIP attendees might have been a bit over the top, but it is good marketing out in the community for next year’s festival.
But the biggest feature we liked on Saturday was that the breweries went out of their way to bring some interesting and non-flagship beers. Local and national breweries had offerings that were new, small-batch, or experimental. These included two session IPAs from 18th Street (Cascade Express and Velvet Cashmere), the return of Wrath of Pele from Burn ‘Em, and the Western Front and Gold Grillz from HopLore that were basically tapped for the festival. Even places like Sierra Nevada brought newish things, such as the session ales Hazy Little Thing and Hop Bullet.
Koontz Lake Brewing brought a Winter Warmer that hadn’t even been entered in Untappd, Bare Hands had a Mosaic Cryo Pale Ale was a whole four days old, and the Holiday Spiced Dubbel from South Bend Brew Werks was tapped first on New Years Eve. This was a great bonus for Walter and I, since we probably wouldn’totherwise have a chance to try some of these beers. Even better, they weren’t just new, they were good.
The Michiana Beer Reviewers were on hand at South Bend to podcast the event. image credit: MBR
Another feature we enjoyed were the brewers there. Upland brought their head brewer (Caleb Stanton) and their lead cellarman (Chris Stearly) to the festival. This is a coup and perhaps should have been promoted to the attendees. Questions to these folks get amazing answers. Likewise, assistant brewer Brian from Evil Czech was on hand and doling out good stories. For instance, he told us about the Wheat Walker wheat wine and how they used rice hulls for a bed since the 100% wheat bill didn’t contain any husks for filtration. He didn’t have to take the time to talk with us, but he did.
Let’s just say that Walter and I are definitely looking forward to next year’s version of South Bend Brew Fest. It is different every year, and allows us to expand our craft beer experience each time we come. Besides, after weeks of family and holidays, we need a good beer festival.
Walter’s Words of Wisdom: Don’t polish the already slick floors right before a beer festival; everybody feels the need to do their Tom Cruise in Risky Business imitation.
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