Right now I think craft beer is experiencing a wave of popularity it has not yet seen. The quality of beer is as good as I can remember, and we have nearly 10,000 breweries in the US making beer, most of them craft related. I have traveled extensively, and found good beer everywhere I went. Last year found me on the East Coast as well as extensively in Cincinnati and St. Louis where mature beer scenes make the drinking of craft beer exciting. And here in Indiana the number of breweries keeps growing, and I would not be surprised if we don’t have over 200 of them within a short time. As I’m writing this, a beer truck with 3Floyd’s Gumball Head artwork is driving by. Craft beer is here to stay, and there’s more of it to choose from than ever!
I have been writing about beer for a very long time, and through exploring and beer trading, I have long been aware of many breweries nationwide. Slowly I’ve watched many of them make their way onto the shelves here in Indiana. While I always advocate drinking locally, it’s hard to pass up beer that you used to travel for. I remember when Shorts became available in Indiana eight years ago, and I had long been crossing the border into Michigan to get their beer. I felt that way about Greenbush as well, and now they have a taproom in South Bend. And as I write this, breweries in Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and many other places are currently working on ways to have their beer be available in Indiana!
So now that there’s even more breweries available to us, and with more people into craft beer, the selections are more exciting than ever. And in addition to all that beer coming to us from out of state, 180+ Breweries in the state would love you to try their beer as well! Dozens of them distribute their beer, but I also like to get their beer at the source. That is why I appreciate Indiana being such a readily accessible state when it comes to exploring the breweries of the state I call home. From the north end all the way to the cities in the south, and everywhere in between, there is a lot of good beer made in Indiana, and I hope you get to try all of it if you want to!
So while it’s easy for me to write about Indiana beer because I find it amazing, and it is augmented with all the great breweries who distribute within our borders, I have been able to see a similar situation in many other parts of the country as well. As I work on this article, I am in Central Florida, and have already discovered an awesome brewery in downtown Orlando called 10Ten. I add them to the list of places I’ve already discovered between Orlando and the Tampa area on numerous trips. I guess I can just honestly say that if you can’t drink locally where you live, drink locally wherever you are!
So while I like to travel, and have a knack for finding good beer wherever I go, I also want to know that you don’t have to travel very far to find good beer. My readers in Cincinnati have an amazing beer scene, and I enjoy beer from there regularly. I may not be able to get Sonder or Esoteric here, but Streetside and others are now available to me through the cooler at A Taproom. Wherever you are, I hope you have somewhere close to provide you with access to good beer. We drink what we like, and unless you live near really bad breweries, I am sure you have a great selection close to you!
I like the beer that I can get but it doesn’t make me still long for breweries who don’t distribute Indiana. In early May, RAR from Maryland will be doing a tap takeover at Indy Crew Brew in Muncie. I traveled very far to get their beer last summer, so I am really excited to be able to drink it right here in Indiana. It seems that this is becoming the norm as breweries try to distribute as widely as possible. And with the Internet, good beer rarely stays a secret.
Now that the pandemic is hopefully ending, I hope you have a lot of opportunity to drink good craft beer. Whether you buy it at a local liquor store, from the source at a brewery, or at a good taproom, you’re drinking great beer and as I said at the beginning of the article, these are the best choices I’ve had in my lifetime. I’ll be at a few of the beer fests this summer, and maybe we’ll see each other. If we do, I hope to toast you!
So Much Beer So Little Time 