A place to celebrate, a place to mourn. A place to congregate, a place to plan. A place where lives are altered and dreams are launched and later realized. Welcome to the Heorot.
Maybe you’re like me and you’re a little confused. Isn’t the Heorot that craft beer bar in Muncie? Of course it’s that. But as I recently found out, it’s so much more.
I had visited twice in the last few months on a couple of afternoons on my way home from work to find some beers that I had never tried before. The problem with doing that here is that every time you come, there are more beers that you want to try than a person can (should) do in a sitting. I was blown away by not just their selection, but the quality. If a beer isn’t up to snuff, you won’t find it here.
I stopped by this week to see if the Heorot was amenable to Indiana On Tap writing a story about the fact that they had (once again) made the Draft Magazine Top 100 Beer Bars in America list. I was expecting to just drop off a business card and see if a manager would do an email interview. Instead when I walked in I was greeted by a Viking and his wolf. Luckily for me it turns out that the Viking was Stan Stephens, Heorot Owner, Viking connoisseur, wolf lover, local teacher, craft beer pioneer, and pretty much a real life version of ”The Most Interesting Man In The World.”
Stan was gracious enough to spare me some of his time and chat over some beers from Wolves’ Head Brewing (brewed here on site). We talked for a while about the Indiana craft beer scene, I got some of the back story of the Heorot and learned some things about wolves. I thought I had enough to do a small bit about why their selection and history makes them so great, but he then invited me to come to their 20th Anniversary Party on Saturday and I wasn’t about to turn down a personal invititation. I’m glad I took him up on his offer because it was at this event that I truly learned what the Heorot was all about.
What fascinated me most is that everyone I overheard not only loved the bar and the beer, they all seemed to have a relationship with Stan. He had taken time to get to know almost everyone who had taken an interest in what he was creating there.
In an era where 100+ tap craft beer bars are thriving, the Heorot offered something more than a draft list. In Muncie it’s practically a rite of passage to get your name on a plaque on the bar, not because you chugged a bunch of beers, but because it meant you spent enough time here to get to know the people.
The Heorot opened in 1995 with 7 taps, no TV’s and none of the ‘Big 3’ beers on draft. Today you will still not find any TVs, or the ‘Big 3’, but you will find 10x that many taps and a more than just a craft beer bar – a craft beer community.
If you have a story about what the Heorot or Stan Stephens means to you, please feel free to share it in the comments.
