Tow Yard Brewing Taps Central Indiana for NW-style Craft Beer

Tow Yard Brewing joins the burgeoning craft beer scene throughout Indiana and offers a unique tasting room experience yet to be found in the area. To complement its NW-style brews TYB introduces a unique food experience to Indianapolis’s Wholesale District.

“We’re doing the craft beer experience better,” Mike Deweese, Tow Yard Brewing Director of Distribution, said. “We’re giving people a place to sit down, hang out and eat some great local food while taking in some Indiana state and Indiana beer history.”

Out the industrial garage doors, patrons will find ample outdoor seating with Lucas Oil Stadium in view. Its location is ideal for sports and convention visitors while serving the local downtown business community for lunches and after work drinks with close proximity to Rolls Royce and Eli Lilly & Co.

TYB assembled an experienced team to bring this unique craft beer experience to life and tapped Indiana native, Bradley Zimmerman, as Head Brewer. Zimmerman was drafted back to the Hoosier state after spending nearly a decade honing his craft brewing skills at Elysian Fields and Big Time Brewery & Alehouse breweries in Seattle, the mecca of craft beer industry.

TYB Brews On Tap:

• Emerald Circle IPA, a heavy-handed hopped PacNW IPA
• Goldie Hops Golden Ale, an American style Golden Ale
• Hook It Up Shandler, a blend of the Goldie Hops Golden Ale with organic grapefruit soda
• The tasting room will also feature guest taps from only local breweries to showcase Indiana craft beer

About Tow Yard Brewing: Tow Yard Brewing is a craft brewery and dining spot, highlighting locally sourced food in its walk-up meat deli, located at 501 S. Madison, Indianapolis, IN, 46255. Veteran nightclub owner, Shawn Cannon, among others are investors in Tow Yard Brewing. For more information visitwww.towyardbrewing.com, on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/TowYardBrewing or email Mike Deweesemike@towyardbrewing.com

Contact InfoCompany: Tow Yard Brewing
Contact: Mike DeWeese
E-mail: mike@towyardbrewing.com
By Michael Anthony Adams of the Indianapolis Star

Writers love booze. They’re drawn to it. Like a coonhound on the hunt, or a shark to a pint of fresh blood, the writer has long been associated with a strong affinity for bending an elbow. So it’s only natural that Jason Wuerfel would decide to combine the two in the same space in a new business he’s calling Books & Brews.

The 33-year-old University of Michigan graduate had always wondered what it’d be like to own a bookstore. An English major in school, Wuerfel got the itch to make his dream a reality a few years ago when a friend told him about The Spotty Dog Books & Ale shop in Hudson, N.Y. Wuerfel called up the owners of The Spotty Dog and picked their brains about their store’s business model. He thought it was fantastic.

“The bookstore was always the dream,” said Wuerfel. “And then, when the market collapsed, there was no viability in a bookstore. How do you make your margins in order to survive?”

His answer? Beer.

But he needed cash. So, like many of today’s startups (more than $1 billion worth, in fact), Wuerfel turned to the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. More than 150 backers pledged $17,264 to help get Books & Brews up and running. And to stretch the promised dough, Wuerfel decided that he would hand-make every table, chair, barstool, bookshelf, and even the 7-foot bar in the back half of the store.

“One of things that always puts me off about the big-box bookstores is that there’s no sense of discovery,” said Wuerfel. “In a place like this, it’s so much smaller, so much more of a personal touch. We can direct people in much more specific ways than just, ‘Oh, here’s a horror section.'”

A personal touch isn’t the only thing setting Books & Brews a part from the competition. All of the beer served in the bar section of the store is brewed on site by Wuerfel. The bookpub owner (yes, I just coined the term bookpub) also is channeling Willy Wonka by allowing folks who pledged $500 or more to the project’s Kickstarter fund to help design a brew, name it, make it and put it on tap.

Contact Star reporter Michael Anthony Adams at (317) 444-6123. Follow him on Twitter: @MichaelAdams317.

Books & Brews opening-night party

• WHEN: 5 to 10 p.m. March 22, Whiskey Verbena to perform at 8 p.m.
• WHERE: 9402 Uptown Drive, Suite 1400.
• COST: $2.
• INFO: www.facebook.com/booksnbrews.