This Week On Tap: Tow Yard’s Horse Power

I moved to Indianapolis coming up on three years ago now. About a year and a half after that, I started a now-somewhat-occasionally-semi-operational-periodically-but-not-really-ongoing blog with my good friend Conor O’Rourke called Bald & Bearded. It was never going to be much of anything besides a place for us to talk about music, beer, books, and things that bothered or intrigued us. Fun stuff, harmless, but has done the both of us a lot of good in different ways.

For me, it kind of inadvertently connected me with Indiana On Tap. See, my good friend and now-Upland employee Jon McNabb was sent to the GnawBrew Beer, Art, and Music Festival on his first assignment for IOT and asked me to join, knowing I was a fan of both good beer and the written word. GnawBrew was actually my first ever beer festival, believe it or not, and I thought I’d make a story of it myself for Bald & Bearded. Long story short, I sent a quick thank you to founder Justin Knepp for the passes, with a link to my story, and an offer to help with any more future stories or events; 10 days later I had my face on a website and a title of Content Contributor, then Managing Editor shortly after that.

GnawBrew holds a small but special place in my heart because of what it connected me to. I also love that festival because it’s flat out amazing, from the beer to the live music and the people drinking with you.

I had drank a lot of good Indiana craft beer at that point, but had no idea when I arrived at GnawBrew of what else I’d been missing out on. I got to drink some of Taxman’s best offerings months before they even opened; I sampled 3 Pints’ Yoshi’s Nectar months before they ever canned; we sampled a lemongrass ale from the collective Bloomington Hop Jockeys, a beer I can still almost taste today; and we made memorable friends with Josh and Elizabeth fromTwisted Crew.

Also noted on that day was my first taste of beers from Tow Yard Brewing Co. They hadn’t quite hit their stride yet, but within this past year Tow Yard has become on of my favorite breweries around. They simply make really good beer paired with really good food (check out their taco specials on Tuesdays and beer can chicken wing specials on Thursday, then thank me later), and they have a friendly staff to boot (looking at you, TJ and Chance).

Horse Power is my go-to beer from the downtown Indianapolis brewery – it’s a big hoppy Double Pale Ale (not an IPA, mind you) with a nice copper coloring that’s citrus-forward, but not so much that it covers up the alcohol, of which there’s a good amount of. 7.5%, give or take, to be precise.

You can always get Horse Power in the tap room; you’ll also likely find it at a liquor store or Kroger near you in an affordable six-pack of cans. Which brings me to another reason I love this beer: whether poured from the tap or drank from the can, this beer loses next to nothing in terms of flavor or quality. It’s consistent through and through.

So drink a Horse Power with me as I look back on year one with Indiana On Tap, with eyes set on bigger and better things for you in year two. See you at GnawBrew.

You can connect with Adam on Twitter at @Adam_On_Tap