If this past weekend was any sign, the beer bubble in Indiana is far from bursting as two new breweries and an arcade bar opened in Central Indiana.
On Friday, April 1, Metazoa Brewing Co. opened its doors to a large group of beer lovers and their four-legged friends. Indiana on Tap’s Steve Williams attended the grand opening and mentioned Metazoa debuting 24 of their own beers and having a line of eagerly waiting beer drinkers out the door.
That same day, Noble Order Brewing debuted their newest location in Zionsville. Their original brewery is located in Richmond, but now their footprint can grow larger across the state. It sounds like their opening also went successfully, as Operations Director Sean Webster told the Times Sentinel that they were packed from the time they opened until around 11 p.m. that night.
Tappers Arcade Bar opened a few days later on April 3. With 47 retro arcade games and pinball machines, plus 12 rotating craft beer taps, one can only imagine they had a similar grand opening as Metazoa and Noble Order did.
On top of those three openings, Sun King Brewery recently started distributing throughout the entire state of Indiana for the first time and several more breweries are scheduled to open this year.
According to Gerry Dick of Inside Indiana Business, there are now over 120 breweries in Indiana, up from the less than 40 in 2010 and the Brewers of Indiana Guild estimates the economic impact of beer to be more than $1 billion statewide.
One of the best parts of the beer community is it appears everyone is in it together and the idea of putting your “competition” out of business doesn’t exist. It’s obvious there is more room for the beer industry to grow within Indiana, as long as the breweries continue to push out good beers, and the beer bubble isn’t about to burst any time soon.
