My friend Kelsy recently shared a post asking people if they tried the beer again that turned them onto craft beer would they still like it? I thought hard about this question and even though I tried craft beer early on in the mid-90s, it was the time I spent in Belgium where I learned to appreciate good beer. It was everywhere and my 23 year old palate was in Disneyland! Even though I had been to a few brewpubs by this time, and was learning a lot about beer, my Belgian experience truly shaped me as a beer aficionado, and set me on the course I think has led me to become a writer.

My trip to Belgium the first time was to visit a friend of mine from high school named EJ who was there teaching on a Fulbright. He was living in the city of Ghent in a tiny apartment alongside college students. As he walked with me back from the train station, he told me that they were over 1200 different beers made in Belgium, and he was going to try as many as he could while he was in Belgium. Having just began to appreciate good beer myself, this sentiment excited me, and I spent a week learning about Belgian beer. I would make two subsequent trips back to Belgium, but I gleaned most of my knowledge from that first trip.

I think the first beer I tried was a Belgian Wit. The flavor of orange and coriander was something my palate had never experienced. I also was unfamiliar with beer made from wheat. I also found it interesting that most of the wits came in 10 ounce bottles. And one of my most vivid memories of barhopping in Ghent was watching a talented bartender simultaneously open three bottles of wit, and proceed to pouring all three beers into 10 ounce glasses with no spillage! It was impressive, and something I would enjoy seeing again!

As we visited a lot of bars in Belgium, it amazed me how extensive the glassware was. Someone told me good bars had glassware for every beer they stocked! It was hard for me to imagine this, and if you have trouble visualizing this, refer back to the picture at the top of this article. I was usually drinking a Duvel because it had been recommended to me early on while my friends and acquaintances ordered Abbey Ales and Lambics. Belgian strong ales appealed to me first, but I would try a great deal of styles within that magical week.

On a trip to the grocery store, EJ explained to me the story behind Trappist Ales, and I would later learn that only a few breweries in Belgium and elsewhere were allowed to carry the name Trappist Ale. I Learned about dubbels, and trippels and sometimes wish my simple 23 year old mind had the wherewithal to venture to Westvleteren to try their highly sought after beer when I had the chance! These ales were like nothing I had tried before, and if I had had more suitcase space, I would’ve brought back a lot more of it!

I was having a hard time processing everything. There really was so much beer, and we would walk into the grocery store and pick up single bottles for the equivalent of a quarter. This is where I would have my first introduction to Lambics. I had never tasted beer this sweet, and the Kriek was probably my favorite because of my love of cherries. I learned a lot about sours, and being in Flanders, I got to try a lot of sour browns and not really understand what I was tasting until years later when I would try ones in the United States and associate them with that trip. It was around 2010 that my friend Noah gave me an Enigma from New Glarus, and this sour brown took me back a decade. I love sours very much now, and I suppose it was in Belgium in 1999 where I cut my teeth on the lifelong interest in them!

There were so many beers to try, but two Belgian beers in particular really sparked my interest. Bush had a beer called Bush 12% that was very impressive. By the time I found it in the United States again, they had been forced to change their name to Scaldis. It’s still an impressive beer, and if you can find it I recommend trying this robust Belgian Strong Ale. The other beer was called Kwak after the sound a beer makes when it hits a glass. I got to drink it from the bottle in Belgium, but the glassware for this beer is shaped a little bit like a test tube, and it is propped up by a wooden piece that makes it look like a rocket launch. This is one of the most interesting presentations of beer in the world, and I recommend ordering it if you ever have a chance here in the United States, or make it to Belgium.

When I got back to the United States, I was sad when I couldn’t find most of these styles of beer in South Bend where I happened to be living. But within five years, I was living in Indianapolis, and fortunately Brugge, a Belgian style restaurant would open up, and for the better part of two decades, I was able to drink fresh representations of Belgian ales. If you live in the Indianapolis area, perhaps you have fond memories of their Tripel De Ripple. I was enjoying these beers and also found other Belgian themed bars in my travels across the US. It was about this time that a lot of Belgian beer began to be imported into the United States regularly, but for me there was always a difference because of the freshness I had experienced when I was in Belgium.

My palate has changed, but these beers are still some of my favorites. Sours are all the rage right now, but if someone asked me what my favorite type of sour is, it will still be a Flemish Sour Brown. Rodenbach makes a delicious one, and the Monk’s Cafe is also good. A lot of breweries are making Abbey styles ales, and a lot of them are excellent, but when I drink a good one, it just makes me want to go back to Belgium, and drink them at the source!

Most of us won’t have a chance to get to Belgium anytime soon, but there is no need to worry because plenty of American breweries are making very good Belgian style beers. You probably won’t have to look very far to find some, and if you’re not familiar with the styles, I wish you good luck and good cheer as you get to experience some of this wonder for the first time. If you’re into more robust beer, I recommend trying Belgian strong ales first. Abbey ales are very similar, and then maybe you can venture into sours, and a lot of the other styles of beer I didn’t have time to mention! Here in Indianapolis, I await Christmas time for Oaken Barrel’s Epiphany which is a lovely Abbey Tripel.

Besides being able to find Belgian beer in the stores, good Belgian themed bars exist all over the United States. One of my favorites is in Philadelphia, and a brewery in Flanders makes the Monk’s Cafe for this bar. I’ve mentioned the Map Room in Chicago before because it is an amazing place for Belgian beer. If you happen to be in the Cincinnati area, Taste of Belgium has multiple locations. I looked at some of their tap lists and they don’t disappoint. Recently a friend of mine told me about the Back Abbey in Claremont, California which is a great Belgian themed bar on the West Coast. I’m sure you know of other ones if you’re into Belgian beer, and feel free to contact me if you know a Belgian bar that needs to be on my list!

Good beer is everywhere, but the Belgians made a lot of great contributions to craft beer, and in so many places in the brewing industry, we can see this lineage. Maybe Belgian beer is not for you, but I ask that you give it a second chance. I’ve been drinking it for almost as long as I have been enjoying craft beer, and I’m glad there are so many breweries in Belgium doing what we do in the United States now. And the simplicity of the wit is something you can find almost anywhere, so in 2021 you have no excuse for not being aware of Belgium’s influence on craft beer!

I recently saw a post on Facebook in which the writer questioned the reasons for going to beer festivals. He said that it is a lot of money to spend when it would be easier just to visit breweries. I’m all for visiting every brewery, but I don’t think it’s feasible for people who can’t travel like I do, and there are many reasons that I think beer festivals are excellent places to explore beer, but that will be a topic for another article. Visiting breweries is vital to craft beer’s existence, and since a large percentage of them don’t distribute widely, and some don’t even go to festivals, we all should go right to the source and drink at the breweries, whenever possible.

As I write this article, there are nearly 10,000 breweries across this nation, and a large percentage of them are very small. I live in a state with just over a 180 breweries, but even people who are very much involved in craft beer haven’t heard of all of them, or even visited many of them! As I visited every brewery in Indiana last year, I visited a lot of places with good beer I never would have tried if I had not ventured to the source. And some of them are making amazing beer like it’s a well kept secret. I try to do my part to promote some of these excellent breweries nestled all over my state, but since there’s so many of them, you should go out and try their beer as well. And with nearly 10,000 breweries across the U.S., there’s almost always breweries nearby if you know where to look.

As I visited every brewery in Indiana last year, I was always excited when I found a brewery not on my list. A lot of good breweries exist in their community, and are successful without the world at large knowing about them. On a recent trip to Peru, Indiana, I stumbled into Circus City Brews inside City Wineworks, and was able to add another fine brewery to my list. I found similar experiences all across the state, and on a recent trip to the Tampa area, we were encouraged to walk a block to Magnanimous Brewery after sampling excellent sours at Hidden Springs. It is often my experience when I go to an area to visit one brewery that I am pleasantly surprised when I find several other excellent ones nearby. If this is the kind of traveling that you would like to do, there’s a lot of fun to be had across this nation at its breweries!

With over 10,000 Breweries in this country, there are a lot of places to visit, and a lot of breweries to choose from. I have been fortunate enough to visit about 500 different breweries, and while that may be impressive, I travel constantly and as a beer writer, I like to visit new places wherever I go. I have tried extraordinary beer in places I never dreamed would have a brewery. Over the Fourth of July weekend, my mother and I trekked across the Chesapeake Bay to visit the tiny RAR Brewery in Cambridge Maryland. It’s been my experience that some of my favorite breweries have been out in the middle of nowhere. Closer to home, Cedar Creek, and Harry Stuff are two excellent breweries on farms miles from anywhere. They are certainly quaint places to drink good beer, but their excellence deserves recognition.

So while I recommend visiting every brewery that you can, it’s the ones who don’t distribute widely that are truly worth visiting. The ones who don’t make beer you can buy at the grocery store, or your local liquor store. The breweries who may can beer only to be sold in the taproom, or only offer growler sales if you want to take the beer home. This is beer at its freshest, and beer that should be enjoyed in a taproom! Smaller breweries are not sending all their best stuff to taprooms and other breweries, so when you visit, you can experience the best that they are doing currently!

If you need more reasons to visit breweries, consider that most breweries do special releases available only at the brewery. Four years ago I drove up to Grand Rapids to stand in line for over an hour to get the Tank Bender, Founder’s 20th Anniversary release. Lots of smaller breweries do releases all the time, and sometimes visiting these places is the only way you’ll find out about them. Here in central Indiana, I love visiting the breweries for the releases they do. A lot of my fondest memories across the last six months have been sitting in taprooms enjoying special releases. And when breweries do collaborations, this is usually the first place you’ll learn about them.

The bottom line is when you visit breweries, you want to experience good beer. I enjoy most styles of beer, and feel fortunate that I usually find something I like no matter where I go. Sometimes you will visit a brewery who is clearly a work in progress. For me that means I need to make another visit back to them to see what they’ve done. Last year I had an opportunity to visit some breweries whose progress I would like to check on when time allows. But for the most part, I experienced good beer at a vast majority of the breweries I was able to visit. As I’ve said before, the rating of beer is subjective, so you need to go out and see what beer you like as well!

As the craft beer bubble gets older, a lot of birthdays will take place. My last article was for the third anniversary of 2Toms which was amazing. Two weekends ago I helped Fortlandia celebrate their second birthday. While I enjoy most of the breweries in Fort Wayne, Fortlandia is a secret I want everybody to know about. They are making excellent beer, and if you are in northern Indiana you need to visit them! I am still thinking about the Black IPA I got to try when I was there.

So I could talk about my travels across breweries in multiple states forever because it’s my hobby, and it’s what I like to do. I like craft beer, and since we have more breweries than ever in America, there is nearly something excellent everywhere. When traveling, it’s always a good idea to check out local breweries, and I encourage you to visit all the ones in your area as well. We all have our favorite brewery, but since I want our beer scene to be diverse forever, I am trying to do my part, and visit as many breweries as possible.

I don’t ever think I will get to even a quarter of the 10,000 breweries in America, but that’s no reason for me not to try. I like craft beer, and I enjoy the people who brew it, as well as my fellow craft beer drinkers. While I like beer festival’s because they bring us all together, the intimate experience in our taprooms is something I long for as well. So whether you like the bustling affair that a beer festival is, or the experience a brewery visit offers, there is plenty of good craft beer to drink, and I hope you enjoy every drop. So please try to visit as many breweries as you can, and perhaps we’ll meet up somewhere!

I get to attend a good number of beer festivals, both as a volunteer and a patron. As things have opened up this year, we seem to have even more festivals than usual, and here in Indiana it has been a busy summer for beer fests. Some of them are quite large including next months Hops and Coaster Drops which has already sold out their 5000 tickets. I enjoy a lot of these festivals, and the great variety of beer available, but I have come to like the more intimate ones as well. I already wrote about one at Saint Benedict’s earlier this summer, and I would like to tell you about the second festival I’ve been able to attend at 2Toms this year.

What I like about 2Toms besides the awesome beer that they make is how they decide to run their festivals in their parking lot. Rather than offering many different selections from just a few breweries, these festivals feature a beer from many sought after breweries. I got to attend their Firkin Fest in February, and braced the cold to drink some amazing beers, many of them barrel aged. It brought a good crowd, and I got to try beer from over a dozen different breweries. The brewery seems to like to keep their festivals intimate while offering very excellent selections. I enjoyed that Saturday afternoon in February, and was very excited to have a chance to attend their third anniversary luau.

The way 2Toms does their festivals makes it feel like you’re at a party at their brewery where they just have lots of guest taps. I think that’s the way a brewery should host a festival, and one of the things I liked about the luau was that representatives from some of the breweries on tap at the festival were able to mingle with guests. I had friends from both Windmill and Hop Lore who made the trip to Fort Wayne, and it was a pleasure to be able to drink with them. The festival drew people from large portions of the state, so it was a very diverse crowd!

I arrived around noon to the brewery after having excellent brunches at both Junk Ditch, and Trubble. I love the breweries of Fort Wayne, and I wanted to visit a few others while I made the trip up for the festival. At Trubble, I had some excellent fried green tomatoes, and a breakfast poutine like dish that had me quite full as I stood in line amidst a large group of people all clad in Hawaiian shirts. I could tell it was going to be a fun festival, and when I was handed a large mai-tai glass for samples, as well as a lei, my suspicions were confirmed.

I was able to try quite a bit of beer at this festival. One thing that appealed to me about the selection was how many breweries out of the Chicago area that are not readily available in Indiana would be on tap here. Half Moon, Pipeworks, Whiner, and Spiteful were some of breweries I was looking forward to trying. There was also a lot of excellent beer from around the state, and Harry Stuff and Dot & Line both had memorable offerings. 2Toms delivered some great beer as well, and POG and Lava Flow both were standouts. I was able to try a lot of Sours, IPA’s, and dark beers, and even a beer made with chai from Pipeworks.

It was a nice crowd, and I ran into a lot of good friends from around the state. I usually don’t have a problem going to a festival by myself because I always meet into people I know. There was excellent music from a jazz band, and great food from the resident barbecue expert who had an excellent creation which included smoked spam! It was nice to be a part of this crowd, and Tom and Company did excellent job. It was a hot day, so it was nice that the brewery had ample seating inside as well in their temperature controlled taproom. There was also a nice area for patrons who had paid for the VIP experience. There was only a limited number of those tickets, so I’ll try to get a ticket earlier next year!

I enjoyed the festival as long as I could, but eventually I had to go home. I cover the state of Indiana, and excites me that some of the most exciting things going on in the brewing world happen hours from where I live. The Fort Wayne beer scene has impressed me on my multiple trips up here, and I probably will make it back up the first weekend in August for Fortlandia’s anniversary. 2Toms may host the best festivals in Fort Wayne, but they are an anchor to what is one of the most exciting beer scenes in Indiana!

So while lots of big festivals loom in the future, it’s nice to know more intimate festivals still exist. I look forward to afternoons like this where I have a chance to try interesting beer, and make new friends. Festivals are not for everyone, but I think the festival scene does offer something for everyone. And if you’re not into huge bustling crowds, smaller intimate festivals are a great place to sit at a table, and stand in a sample line whenever you want to. It makes for an enjoyable afternoon, and the kind of day I look forward to.

If you’re not familiar with 2Toms, I encourage you to look for their beer if you live in Indiana. If Fort Wayne is near you, please visit their beautiful Taproom. It is a great place for food and drink, and has been the backdrop for two excellent Saturdays for me so far this year. We still have lots of festivals here in Indiana, and maybe I’ll see you at one. In the meantime I hope you enjoy the rest of this summer and drink excellently!

A few weeks ago I covered the breweries of Indiana glossing over Indianapolis because I was planning on doing a feature on the breweries of the city. When I moved to Indianapolis nearly two decades ago, I had two local breweries in the Broad Ripple Brewing Company, and the Oaken Barrel in nearby Greenwood. I often ended up going to national chains like Rock Bottom, Ram, Alcatraz, and later Granite City only to watch Covid shut all of them down. Many breweries have come and gone across two decades, and I have been fortunate enough to drink beer from most of them. Currently the city has over 30 brewing ventures that include Indianapolis breweries, and taprooms for breweries in the suburbs, and other parts of the state of Indiana. The Indianapolis beer culture is rich, and I am now excited to discuss it here!

Starting on Indianapolis’ North West side, Deviate Brewing is a fine Indianapolis brewery who will be celebrating six years in August. I have been a big fan of their very creative beers for a long time, and always have a few of their special releases in my fridge. Their recent collaboration with Centerpoint, Satan’s Seedlings, is creating quite a stir in the greater Indianapolis area. Trader’s Brewing is in a nearby plaza, and I enjoy their offerings which include a coffee stout called AM Buzz, great IPA’s, and recently, a grisette which is a type of Saison. Wabash Brewing is located in the warehouse district that encompasses much of the north west of the city. I have been enjoying their beer for over five years, and on a recent visit to their taproom, I had a very memorable banana flavored beer!

The north side of Indianapolis includes large shopping districts that feature many excellent taprooms. In one plaza just east of the Keystone at the Crossing mall, Drakes, District Tap, and Doughnuts and Dragons combined have well over 100 taps of good craft beer, much of it local. All across the 86th/82nd St. corridor, there is excellent beer to be had, and this is the part of the city where I spent nearly a decade, well before we had lots of breweries to choose from. These are the types of establishments that I drank good craft beer at. The Beer Celler may be no more, but now we have breweries on these same streets.

I used to live in Nora, and within walking distance of my old home, two excellent Breweries now are offering beer. Big Lug Brewing is just east of the Monon Trail, and has been making great beer as long as I have been writing about it. On a recent visit, I enjoyed an interestingly named IPA called Performance Enhancing Nugs. They have amazing food which includes poutine, and they are part of the Sahm’s family of restaurants who has been offering good food in Indianapolis for a very long time. Just down the street, Daredevil Hall is serving up excellent beer and food. I had a very good Helles on a recent trip, and you can never go wrong with any of their West Coast IPAs! Also, Books and Brew has many locations, but their original spot is just south of 96th Street in the north east corner of Castleton.

Moving east, a handful of breweries are anchoring this corner of town. Triton Brewing is one of the oldest breweries in Indianapolis still operating on the grounds of Fort Benjamin Harrison. I have known many people involved with the brewery, and continue to be impressed with their sours. Blind Owl is nearby offering a Marzen which is still one of my favorite beers made in Indianapolis, and it pairs up with this brewery’s excellent pizza. In the same area, Bier Brewing has been around about as long as Triton, and it was well over a decade ago that I was regularly filling growlers in their Taproom. I found their kolsch to be satisfying in the summer months, and I regularly try their Hefeweizens when I see them at beer festivals.

Moving down to the Broad Ripple area, several breweries exist in one of the most densely populated bar districts of the city. There are too many excellent beer bars in Broad Ripple, so I’m going to only talk about the breweries. The Broad Ripple Brewpub has been a favorite spot of mine for a very long time. Their unique spot right off the Monon Trail has long been an excellent place to get English style beer, as well as the best scotch eggs in Indianapolis! Twenty Below is a great brewery under Twenty Taps which is also in a neighborhood I used to live in. When it was just a tap room, I would walk there with friends to enjoy superb craft beer. Now the neighborhood also has 1/2 Liter and Barbeque serving great beer with their slow cooked meat, as well as Black Circle. I particularly have come to enjoy Loom, Black Circle’s taproom on 46th street where you can do laundry while you have a beer!

The southside of Indianapolis offers craft beer drinkers a lot of good choices including a Scarlet Lane Taproom, as well as one of Bloomington’s Upland Brewing locations. Garfield Brewing is located in an old gas station just south of Fountain Square. I’m still blown away by the pistachio beer they released around St. Patrick’s Day! Beech Bank is also nearby, and Greenwoods four breweries are not far. Fountain Square Brewing is also one of Indianapolis’ older craft breweries who make one of the cities best pilsners, and porters respectively. Brew Dog’s Indianapolis location is also in Fountain Square, and I definitely recommend visiting them if you haven’t.

East of downtown has long been a hotbed for breweries. Out in Irvington, Black Acre continues to make good craft beer. Flat 12 paved the way for so many breweries, and now Rad Brewing uses their old spot on Dorman Street. Centerpoint is nearby, as is Indiana City. I have long been a fan of Indiana City and their Shadow Boxer is an excellent Oatmeal Stout. Metazoa is also blocks away, and should you visit this brewery during busy hours, you may notice that dogs possibly outnumber people! So it shouldn’t be surprising that the Puppy Slumber Party is one of their best beers. And just south of Metazoa in Fletcher Place, Chilly Water is the spot to drink craft beer in this quaint cultural district just south of downtown.

There are a lot of breweries in downtown Indianapolis. Ellison Brewing operates in the old Tow Yard building and makes a good tiramisu stout. The Tap is just up the street as is a Taxman taproom. Sun king might be one of the most well-known breweries in Indianapolis, and their main brewery on College is a happening place. Saint Joseph operates in an old church just up the street, and has a beautiful taproom where they serve their beer. 18th Street has a taproom on 10th Street, and Brew Link has a taproom in the Old Two Deep Brewing spot. Goodwood from Louisville has also opened a taproom in the old Ram building. And I can’t talk about downtown without mentioning the Tomlinson Taproom in the city market, who like Five’s in Anderson exclusively serves Indiana Beer on draft!

The near north side features a Mashcraft Taproom, as well as A Taproom. I have talked about them previously, but I appreciate how each month they bring a new brewery to Indianapolis. The month of July feautures Streetside Brewing from Cincinnati, and their brewer will be visiting the taproom on Friday, July 23. I have already mentioned Scarlet Lane’s Gastropub which is nearby, and I am happy to add that they are an all-ages facility now. And off to the west, Guggman Haus is making strides as they continue to brew awesome beer which can be enjoyed in their brand new beer hall.

And the last part of the city is the west side where two breweries bask in the shadows of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Quaff On has a beautiful taproom in Speedway, and this hard-working Nashville brewery is a favorite spot of mine. Across the street Daredevil’s main brewery is a great place to drink as well. We will see a new brewery on the west side hopefully soon when Chalet opens in an old firehall. And last but not least, The Herrmann Brothers do not have a physical brewery yet, but they continue to make great beer that hopefully will grace Indianapolis’ west side someday.

So that’s my synopsis of the breweries of Indianapolis. A lot of people are involved in making it a very diverse place to drink craft beer. I geographically covered a very large area that is the city of Indianapolis. While I have traveled all over the state of Indiana exploring breweries, this is my home, and these are the breweries I have spent the most time at. If you are from Indianapolis I hope you found something interesting in this article. And if you’re not from Indianapolis, I hope this gives you a reason to visit. Indianapolis is just a part of a very vibrant Indiana beer culture that I am proud to write about. I’ll be out drinking the rest the summer, and if I see you, let’s toast!

As a Beer writer I enjoy almost every style of beer. I do appreciate seasonal offerings, and I’ve met a lot of people who drink darker beer during the winter months, saving lighter beer for the hot times! I understand that, but given the amount of dark beer that’s released in the summer, I hardly have any rules on what to drink, and when to drink it. So as I write this article over Independence weekend, I am going to write about stouts, and discuss why they are excellent across these long summer nights!

I have always felt that stouts are a very sociable beer. Many of them come in larger bottles, and these are meant for sharing. The craft beer industry likes to make them more robust every year, and often times these beers are barrel aged. And like other styles before, there is a trend to fruit the heck out of stout these days! From pastry stouts to oatmeal stouts, or milk stouts to milkshake stouts, this is one of the most diverse styles of beer available. And as long as you appreciate dark beer, there is something in the stout realm that’s for you!

My love of stouts came very early in my appreciation of beer. One of the first good beers I got to try was a Murphy’s Irish Stout. I’ve always liked the flavor of it more than Guinness and the dry Irish Stout always holds a special place in my heart. As I have tried different specialty stouts, I sometimes think that the Irish Stout would’ve been a better base to work with then some of the other types of stouts. I’m getting ahead of myself, but it just goes to show that people no longer seem content to just drink the very simple stouts of our forefathers. Back in the nineties I usually found stouts to be rather uniform. It has always been a very cut and dry style of beer until craft beer got its hands on it.

When I started exploring crafted stouts, the variants were very simple: oatmeal, imperial, milk etc. I learned to appreciate the simplicity of these flavors. I also realized I liked coffee in my beer very early on. Nearly a decade ago, I remember trying Abraxas from Perennial, and being blown away by the fresh coffee flavor. To me it tasted like they had blended coffee with beer, and the match was perfect. And since then I have had nearly everything in a stout, and they’ve all been pretty good. Brewers are getting so creative on what they put in beer, and the public seems to be embracing it!

When I started writing about beer five years ago, I wrote several articles about stouts. Many of the breweries I wrote about are still doing the style excellently. 18th Street is making amazing stouts, and they recently released to plethora of barrel aged ones. Upland is still making Teddy Bear Kisses, and doing a good job with variants, including the minty Polar Bear Kisses. Indiana City’s Shadow Boxer Is still one of my favorite oatmeal stout’s as is Schlafly’s. 3Floyd’s is still kicking it out of the park, and the two dozen variants they did with last years Dark Lord is just exciting. Our beer culture has only gotten bigger in the last five years, and the amount of good stout we have to choose from is now just staggering!

A few months ago I was experiencing good releases every week from Garfield which included an amazing coffee stout. Scarlet Lane also released a large assortment of variants of their Dorian Stout. The White Chocolate Guava Dorian was awesome, and I hope they make it again. I traveled the state last year, and found good stouts everywhere I went including at Vincennes, and Ruhe. If that’s not an indication that the style is immensely popular, I don’t know what is!

I find good stouts wherever I seem to go. A few weeks ago I stopped into Wedgewood where I had a stout made with blueberry Mississippi Mud, as well as an excellent banana stout. Deviate and Centerpoint collaborated on Satan’s Seedlings which is an excellent barrel aged stout clocking in at 16%. I had some at Centerpoint’s Festival, and also on tap there last weekend. And on Monday as A Taproom welcomed in Cincinnati’s Streetside Brewing for the month of July, they tapped two amazing Demogorgon variants. I got to try a tiramisu and an apple brandy version which both were phenomenal.

So I could go on about all the different stouts we have available, but if you like craft beer I think you’re already aware. You probably have some in your beer cellar, And I think a long summer night is a great time to bust them out. I purchased a pack of milkshake stouts from Rochester Mills that I would like to drink sometime soon. I also have a lot of good beer from Mikeller(Beer Geek Breakfast and Brunch) that seems to be asking to be drank. I collect a lot of different beers, but stouts make up a large chunk of my collection, so I’m never at a loss for one.

Whether or not you like Imperial Stout‘s, or more simple ones, breweries are making plenty of them for you to drink. As the months get colder, sours will still stay popular, but I think will see even more awesome stouts coming out. Fruited Stouts are everywhere, and they are what people seem to like to drink. And as I travel, it’s fun to see all the different styles of dark beer available. As I said at the beginning of the article, stouts are what I first drank as I ventured into craft beer over 20 years ago, and I haven’t forgotten my first love when it comes to beer!

I’m writing this article high in the mountains of Pennsylvania where I’ve come to spend some time with my family. Good beer is available no matter where you go, and they certainly make excellent stouts here in Pennsylvania. Whatever you do this summer, take the time to enjoy a good beer, and if you love stouts, there is never a bad time to enjoy them!

At the beginning of 2020, craft beer was in a very healthy place. I had already worked, and attended a large number of brew fests, and sat down in early March calculating that I already tried beer from about 55 Indiana breweries. I decided I was going to make it my goal to visit and drink beer from every brewery in Indiana in 2020. Covid put a delay on my project, but by December 31, I was able to complete this project. My journeys took me to every niche and corner of Indiana, and I can honestly say that getting there may not of been half the fun, but it certainly added to the experience. And now that a few breweries have opened up in 2021, I had more work to do, and this weekend I finally visited Klooz Brews in Lebanon, and once again I can say with pleasure that every brewery active in Indiana has been seen by these eyes!

Brennan Corder of Crown Liquors once told me you have to drink beer to write about it, and I feel if you want to know what’s really going on in Indiana Brewing, you have to know the breweries. My visits to the 170+ establishments showed me a lot about what their tap rooms do, and what kind of crowd they look to attract. I learned about their beer, and the local flavor that the taprooms added. As I was exploring these breweries, I was exploring Indiana as well. I feel well-traveled, and now that I’ve had some time to process my adventures, I would like to take the time to write about them.

Since I did the majority of my visits to breweries across four months I got a good cross-section of what breweries are doing. I also realize that I was in a later phase of Covid, so I have been spending 2021 going back and visiting some of the places that resonated most with me. I told Barb at Ironwood in Valparaiso that it would be a greatest hits tour. I found some thing I liked at nearly every brewery in the state. Everyone of them, large or small, is doing something that they want to be successful. Whether they are in small towns or large communities, I saw breweries doing things they wanted to do to get their name out and be successful. I don’t want to write an article that’s so long that nobody wants to read it, so I am going to just focus on a few stand outs and also use pictures to tell my story!

Since I mentioned Porter County in the last paragraph, I want to shout out to Chesterton Brewing which is an interesting establishment owned by veterans, and donates a large percentage of their proceeds to veteran affairs such as Wounded Warriors. I first visited them just before Christmas, and the bartender graciously let me try most of their seasonal offerings. They had a Christmas style that had a presentation that included a sugared rim, and it was a nice touch that he presented the sampler glass exactly like it would come if the beer was served in a pint. I like what they are doing, and if you get up to Porter County, you have dozens of breweries you can visit because you are in the region!

The four counties across the northwest tier Of Indiana offer a concentration of breweries not found anywhere outside of Indianapolis. I had to make nearly a dozen trips often across time zones to hit every brewery between Lake and St Joseph Counties. These are great breweries from Studebaker in South Bend to Windmill in Dyer. Bare Hands, Burn ‘Em and so many other excellent breweries fell along my path, and I have made consequent trips this year going back. Off Square is a neat place right off 65, and the work that Viking, Devil’s Trumpet, and so many others are doing just speaks for itself!

I’ve written a lot about breweries and I haven’t even talked about Fort Wayne and it’s surrounding areas. I was thoroughly impressed with everything in Northeast Indiana, and stand outs include Hop Lore, Harry Stuff, and Parlor, and nearly every brewery in Fort Wayne. I was impressed with the intimacy at Fortlandia, and the massive offerings available at Summit City. 2Tom’s, Dot & Line, and all the other breweries located in the city make it one impressive beer scene. I don’t get to Fort Wayne as much as I’d like to, and I’m glad the interstate makes it only a short distance away.

The Indianapolis area has a plethora of breweries, and many of them are very excellent. One paragraph won’t do them justice, so I will feature Indianapolis in a later article. I was able to visit most of Indy’s breweries very early last year, and try to attend events throughout the city as often as I can. I work a lot of beer festivals, so the beer made in Indianapolis is readily available to me. I stay in the loop for special releases, and try to make launch parties! There are a lot of hard-working breweries in the city, and I wish them all success. For now I reside in Plainfield, and I have Brewlink, and Nigh nearby with Black Dog in Mooresville just minutes away as well! These breweries are doing an excellent job as are all the ones I didn’t mention. As I write this article, I am waiting to visit Scarlet Lane’s gastropub. I have written about food at breweries already, and if you haven’t had the cuisine at Scarlet Lane, I highly recommend it!

I have come to love a lot of the breweries in the middle of nowhere in Central Indiana! Backstep in Crawfordsville is a great brewery owned by firemen, and Cedar Creek in Martinsville is doing amazing stuff on their beautiful property including beer flavored ice cream! Far to the east in Centerville, Five Arches is quietly being amazing with good beer and food at the taproom. Bad Dad in Fairmount is making a great name for James Dean’s hometown, and Elm Street and Guardian in Muncie need visiting, as does Creatures of Habit in Anderson. This is probably a good spot to mention Primevil in Noblesville. I only got to try their beer once, and it blew me away!

And then there’s southern Indiana. The half dozen small cities in this region have dozens of breweries. I particularly like the beer scenes in Columbus and Bloomington. They are close to home and whether it’s Hog Molly, or Switchyard, 450 North or the BBC, I am always near a good brewery when I’m in those towns. Farther south I have found gems in Bloomfield, Vincennes, and Madison. Evansville and the Louisville suburbs that are on the Indiana side of the Ohio have a great breweries as well. I spent a lot of time in southern Indiana last fall, and I had fun visiting these breweries regularly. I wrote about the breweries of DuBois County in my last article, and I can’t say enough about them.

That in a nutshell is much of the research I did on my journey across the state of Indiana. There is really good beer being made all over the state, and I was blessed to try a great deal of it. Along the way I got to see over half of the county courthouses, and travel down some really awesome back country roads. I never would’ve made it to so many small patches of the state if I hadn’t been driven to find the breweries. So as I went out and explored the state looking for beer, I now know where some of the best beer in Indiana is, and it makes the trips back that much more worth anticipating! The rest of the year for me sees festivals state wide, and I hope to get back up to Monticello(Kopecetic) and Evansville. And there’s a lot going on in Lafayette that I like to stay aware of!

So I really glossed over 170+ breweries in the effort to keep the article brief. So Terre Haute, Fistful of Hops, Wild Rose, New Oberpfalz, and all the other stellar breweries, keep being excellent. I have failed to mention scores of fine breweries, and I encourage you to go out and find them yourself. I like to offer suggestions when asked because I’ve been to all of them. I took a lot of notes and maybe will create my own database. But I can assure you that the craft beer scene is always changing, and for this reason I probably need to visit every brewery again in the near future!

So as long as I continue to write about beer, I will drink beer from everywhere, but I will have a special goal to always drink locally as much as possible. I’m proud of the beer we make in Indiana. The quality of our beer has only gotten better with scores of new breweries entering the market. We have grown exponentially across the last decade, and who knows what the future will hold? I hope to continue writing about beer, and drinking it when I find it excellent. I hope your beer journey takes you to excellent places as well, and perhaps our paths will cross!

The last year and a half has done much to hamper beer activities in person. A few festivals have gone on here and there, and good beer continues to be released as breweries come and go, but something about the essence of a good beer festival has been lost across the pandemic! In the middle ages beer culture was a staple of society, and those dark days saw the outbreak of disease, plagues, and pestilence. When the outbreak had run its course, people would gather together and celebrate the end. So in the dark times of 2021 as we see the waning days of Covid, a similar celebration seems appropriate! And what better place to hold such a festival than in the rolling hills of southern Indiana on the grounds of a monastery!

I had heard about Chasing The Devil in early spring, and it peaked my interest. St Benedict’s is a very interesting brewery who is making some fascinating beer. They had opened a Taproom in the picturesque German community of Jasper last year which is where I was able to drink their beer occasionally. The actual Brewery sits on the grounds of the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, home to the Sister’s of St Benedict. It is a beautiful structure that barely seems at place in Indiana, and the perfect place for a festival of this nature!

My friend Dan and I thought it would be fun to spend the weekend in southern Indiana. It is a little more laid-back than Indianapolis, and I’ve always been fond of the area around Jasper which celebrates its German heritage quite famously. Along with the Brewfest, I realized it would be a good time to take in some excellent German food, and explore the area. DuBois County is home to two other breweries, and we got to visit Lighthouse, and Yard Goat on the trip as well. I enjoyed everything I did, but Chasing The Devil was truly the highlight!

I had always been looking forward to the Friday night event tied to the beer festival. It was originally supposed to be held in the tiny nearby town of St. Meinrad, but was later moved to the monastery grounds. We arrived Friday evening and were greeted by Vincent Luecke, the owner of St Benedict’s Brew Works. There was a tent housing a beer station with more beer being served behind. Studebaker, a local band was playing on a stage, and the brewery was also open providing food, and more beer to sample.

While I was familiar with a lot of the beer that Saint Benedicts makes, there were a many selections available I had never tried before. There were a lot of Belgian styled beers as well as different varieties across the beer gambit. We were given a taster and tickets for two free pints, so over the course of the evening I was able to try everything I wanted. Standouts from the session include All Saints, a Belgian Tripel, and Dark Souls which was a Quad. I was enamored with the quality of these Belgian representations and like the direction this brewery is going. The saisons were also good, as was the amber I tried.

With Studebaker playing an excellent set of classic rock, it was a very fine atmosphere eat and try beer. Over the course of the evening, we made friends, some of who had traveled down from Indianapolis, and as far as Mishawaka! We eventually got a table inside the brewery, and a game of Jenga ensued. While the turn out for the Friday night session was decent, it had a very intimate feel. I enjoyed the ambience very much, and sitting under the tent with the monastery in the distance, I felt I was drinking a tripel somewhere more exciting, like Flanders perhaps!

The Saturday event saw a very humid afternoon. Vince had a large table with European and American selections of craft beer for sampling. There was also a table of house beer, and New Madison Brewing had made the trip over from Madison with four of their excellent beers. More beer was available inside the brewery for sampling, and there was also complementary sandwiches for attendees. My friends and I got a table under the tent and spent several hours socializing and sampling beer. The Delirium Red from Belgium was a crowd favorite. For me, St Benedict’s Nun’s Dragon, a robust Stout was my best find of the day. There were a lot of selections of beer to choose from, and the crowd seemed excited despite the heat.

And even though it was a very hot afternoon, spirits were high as good beer and fellowship was in full gear. Many attendees opted for the air condition brewery where the tables were packed. Most people outside congregated under the tent, perhaps because of the proximity to the sampling tables! I had made some really good friends at this intimate festival, and as we enjoy the afternoon, I made plans to meet up with my new friends at upcoming festivals.

I had had a lot of fun, and as the Saturday event wound down, my favorite part of the day included standing in line to receive complementary bombers of St. Benedict’s beer. Each attendee was given a snifter, two bottles of the Dark Soul Quad, and an additional bottle of their choosing. I opted for a beer named after Abraham Lincoln whose boyhood home is nearby. These were beautiful bottles, and certainly made the price of the ticket for the event worth every penny.

I am blessed to attend numerous festivals, and I’m working and attending many this year. I don’t think I will find one as unique as this particular festival. While I can try Belgian beer at most festivals, there is something truly special about what St Benedict’s is doing. I also like the IPAs, and the dark beer they make. I have had this brewery on my radar for quite some time, and will expect good things from them in the future. I don’t think when Vincent set up this festival it was just to showcase the excellent beers in his repertoire, but the situation certainly allowed them to speak for themselves. The experience at the brewery was richer than what I had experienced at the tap room in Jasper, so if you make it down to southern Indiana, I encourage you to get to the brewery in Ferdinand.

I had fun Chasing The Devil in Ferdinand. I like to think we are nearing the end of Covid, and celebrations like this one are certainly appropriate. I think Vincent pulled off a great event, and I look forward to see what he plans on doing next. In the meantime I was able to take home a few bombers of his excellent beer, and I hope to enjoy them in the coming months. Wherever you are, hopefully there is a festival in your future. Maybe I’ll see you there, and we can raise a toast!

As a beer writer, I try to enjoy a diverse number of beers because I like to be aware of everything going on in our craft beer scene. A friend of mine said a few years back that you have to drink beer to write about it. I enjoy traveling as well, and just in the past months I have been able to try a lot of really good beer from many places. Bottle shares, and beer trades have only made this experience larger. And now that we have a plethora of beer festivals in the coming months, I don’t imagine opportunities to try good beer will be lost on me.

As craft beer drinkers, a lot of us drink our favorites all the time. But some of us are always seeking out the rare, the big, and the exciting in our beer. I’ve written recently about special releases, and they continue to thrill us! But it is the fact that diverse beer is being made all over the world which I don’t have access to that really excites me. I’m never going to try very much of all the great beer that’s made just in this country, so all I can do is enjoy the beer I have!

Most of us are sitting on a nice collection of beer. Unless you just want to collect it forever, there comes a time when it’s probably a good idea to drink some of it, especially with a few good friends. If you are reading this, go to your beer cellar, and make a few selections to drink this weekend. The odds are good you’ll have plenty of opportunities to replenish your collection in the coming weeks anyway. If you’re anything like me, I have a lot of beer that I sit on longer than I should. You can’t cellar IPAs very long, and if you’re into fruited sours, they can’t be sat on forever, and really should be stored in a fridge. Our fridge space is limited, so what I’m saying is don’t try to sit on your craft beer forever. You bought it to drink, so don’t forget to do that!

Just a few of the bottles the author has in his beer cellar.

So as I get farther into our beer culture, I am making friends all over the country. We trade beer, and we meet up when I get a chance to travel. I have a good friend who’s going to be in Grand Rapids in a few weeks and I don’t really need another excuse to go up there and experience what I call beer utopia. And then my friend Dan and I will be hitting northern Michigan for an extended beercation in July. I hope to revisit some of the really awesome places I’ve already been, as well as exploring the breweries of Muskegon, and Traverse City. In the meantime, trips to Florida and the East Coast have left me with a lot of excellent beer to enjoy. And of course Indiana already provides me with excellent beer, so what reason do I have to complain!

People often ask me what my favorite brewery is. This is a hard question, even if they want to know just who is the best in Indiana. I find at least 50 of them to be making stellar beer, and it’s only the ones who are hours away for me that I don’t really get to visit. I’m thankful for A Taproom for bringing distant Breweries to Indianapolis, and it is the other taprooms of Indiana that I frequent when I really want to enjoy what this state has to offer. I’m due to make a trip to southern Indiana for a beer festival in the tiny town of Ferdinand, and the idea of trying beer I haven’t had for a while sounds good to me.

So if you are anything like me, you are ready for the beer festivals, and probably have some trips planned this year that will take you to some distant breweries. We’ve all got kind of stir crazy over the last year and a half, and even though we’ve had craft beer to keep us sane, we’re ready to experience more. I love to travel myself and will spend the summer chasing down good craft beer because that’s what I love to do! We can go all over the place, or we can just hang out nearby. We have a radar for a good beer, and we drink what we like! It’s a good time to connect with your friends because after all craft beer is a very social experience!

So don’t sit on all your beer forever. Accept that invite to a bottle share because I know you’re sitting on good beer, and the odds are good your friends will be as well. I personally haven’t had a bad experience with all the bottle shares I’ve been to recently. And even as good as my collection is, I’ve been impressed with what a lot of my friends bring to the table. I know people who do a lot of traveling, and they get their hands on some excellent stuff!

So wherever your travels take you, I am sure you’ll have a chance to enjoy some great beer. If you can bring any back, you should do so, and I ask you to share. I’ve turned my sister-in-law into a connoisseur of sour beer, and my little brother and I scoured the shelves of a liquor store in Maryland looking for good sours. If you happen to be anywhere near Hagerstown, Maryland, I recommend the Wooden Keg. No matter what style you’re looking for beer-wise, it’s more than likely you’ll find it there.

So with at least three beer festivals or the next month, I’m going be busy. If you get to the Not So Frigid Digits fest at Centerpoint, I will be wearing a yeti costume for Indiana On Tap. If you run into me let’s share a beer. Otherwise I salute you with whatever you do this summer as you chase down good beer! It’s out there, and I hope you get to enjoy it! Be responsible, and stay safe. After all, I want to keep you all alive so you can read my articles!

In case you didn’t know it, we have been in the midst of a week that is set aside to enjoy craft beer. I meant to write this article much earlier in the week, but a lot happened in my world. Even with a lot going on, I still took the time to enjoy craft beer. Our culture is so much more prevalent than it was a decade ago, and the fact that we have a week dedicated to craft beer says a lot. As we enter the warmer months of this year, I see a healthy time for craft beer continuing.

A lot of people travel during the summer months, and as things are going back to normal, beer destinations, and beer driven vacations will be en vogue. My friend Dan and I are looking to revisit the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where we are going to try to highlight the tap rooms I most enjoyed last summer, while exploring a few new ones. I listen to a podcast where guests are asked where they would like to go on a beer-cation, and I realize there’s a lot of other parts of the country I need to visit. If time allows me, I would like to go out west later in the year with my little brother and experience some of Wyoming’s Breweries.

Last year I made it to every brewery in the state of Indiana. A few have opened this year, and I’m going to take the summer to visit all of them. I also mentioned recently I’m going to try to visit every brewery in Kentucky over the next couple of years, so I should probably start on that as well. I keep coming into contact with awesome beer, and that is one reason I love to travel so much. I will be in Maryland next weekend, and I’m finally going to get my hands on some more RAR beer.

And I can’t talk about the weather getting warmer without mentioning the plethora of beer festivals we will have to look forward to. I will have an article on them in the coming months, and I’m excited to see them popping up again. Beer festivals were always a highlight of the craft beer culture, and with so many more breweries present in my state, what the breweries bring to the festivals will go a long way toward determining what I find are the most exciting things going on here! And I wrote earlier that beer festivals are a great way for you to learn about a brewery that you might like to visit later, or try more beer from. It’s also an opportunity to focus on styles of beer you wouldn’t ordinarily drink. There are a lot of festivals coming up in a few months ahead, and I hope to see you at one.

There are lots of publications on craft beer and I wish I had time to read all the ones I subscribe to. I love to read about beer, but drinking it and writing about it seem to take up a lot of time. Maybe some long trips in the car will award me more beer reading this summer. And at any rate, I will read a little bit later in honor of craft beer week!

So my journey across craft beer week started with a bottle share to be remembered. My friends brought beer from all over the country, and I like trying beer I can’t get on a regular basis. That’s what bottle shares are for. I have a lot of good friends who will open up something amazing for good fellowship, and what better time to experience this than American craft beer week. I hope to have many bottle shares across the coming months, and last Sunday was a good start.

I can’t talk about this week without mentioning the really awesome concept we have here in Indianapolis. A Taproom is now in its second month and is featuring beer from Windmill. Each month they will feature a brewery on most of their taps whose taproom is hours from Indianapolis. I went to two events there last week including one for Cinco de Mayo, and this Thursday I showed up for the inaugural third shifter appreciation which takes place from 7 AM in the morning till 11. They hope to get this off and running, and as someone who works those hours, I am excited to see if they can make it happen. If you are a third shifter, I hope to see you at an another event in the near future. Also they will be featuring tap takeover‘s from Narrow Gauge, Listerman’s and others this year, so stay tuned!

And as I finish this article I’ve had a good weekend. My friend Dan and I hit several of the breweries in Greenwood this weekend. They have four breweries in that suburb of Indianapolis, and I enjoy what each one of them has to offer. Later today I plan on going to Anderson where the 5’s Taproom always provides a good time. It was a good week for craft beer in my world, and that seems to be the norm. We live in an exciting time for our hobby, and I don’t need a week dedicated to craft beer to see it. I’ll be out in a Taprooms this summer, as well as the brewfests. Keep drinking good beer, and maybe we’ll run into each other!

I get to meet a lot of people who like craft beer. And it doesn’t seem like I meet anyone anymore who doesn’t like at least one style of beer. Sour been have brought more people into beer recently then any other style I can recall. When I go on dates, the women seem excited when they find out I write about beer, and that I have made it to every single brewery in the state of Indiana. With a more diverse craft beer drinking population, it builds the potential for popularity among a diverse range of beers. I think this will occur over a long period of time, but as a beer drinker, this is cause for excitement!

When I first started exploring beer in the late 90s, I didn’t have a lot of craft beer to choose from. Therefore it was the flashy import labels that turned me onto beer. It wasn’t until I got to Belgium in 1999 that I learned about all sorts of styles of beer. I was visiting a friend who was working there on a Fulbright and he told me that there were over 1000 different labels of beer produced in tiny Belgium, and he was going to try them all! I never asked EJ how close he got, but it was impressive that he tried! I myself got to try dozens in the short time I spent in Belgium, and came back to the US concerned about the quality of our beer!

22 years later, all I can say is we have come a very long way. And I was blessed to see several amazing Belgian style Breweries start up here in Indiana. Brugge Brasserie was long my source for fresh Belgian style beer! More recently Taxman has stepped up to the plate making all sorts of crazy Belgian beers. No matter where you live, someone is making this style. And while I still like to get my hands on imported Belgian beers when they’re available, I like knowing I can drink the styles fresh as well!

And I suppose one could live on Belgian styles of beer alone because there are so many different varieties. But I don’t live in Belgium, and here in the United States, the beer we produce is about as diverse as the 9000 breweries making it! Craft beer has a style for everyone whether you like light beer, dark beer, hoppy beer, malty beer, sour beer, hazy beer, fruity beer, smoky beer, and so forth. And breweries continue to experiment creating new styles, so it’s hard to predict what might come next. The last wave of craft beer growth literally doubled the size of drinking population as well as the number of breweries, and that’s just exciting

Another exciting thing about the American craft beer experience is that they have resurrected styles of beer long forgotten in Europe, as well as saving some that were on life-support. Altbeir is primarily enjoyed around the city of Düsseldorf, but lots of craft brewers like to experiment with this ale from Germany, the land of lagers. The Danziger Jopenbier is a style of beer that I helped make when I was doing home brewing about 15 years ago. The style has been nearly forgotten, but I doubt we have seen the last of it. If you’re really into this subject, the Internet is a great source for lost styles of beer. Before I move on, I would like to mention the Gose. This once popular beer originating in Leipzig was nearly written off in Germany before craft beer discovered its potential!

And this is a good place to talk about the diversity in sours. I can’t get over how many breweries there are that make fruited sours, and they are turning them out at rates unseen until now! And then the dessert sours made by such breweries as Humble Forager and RAR are out of this world. I even had a sour by 450 N. that was supposed to taste like Mountain Dew! And just this Friday Brandon the bar manager at Hoosier let me try a raspberry salted caramel sour they will be releasing in early May!

IPA’s are so popular right now that people ask me if I written anything about them recently. I do talk about them and I enjoy them very much. I think the debate between hazy IPA’s(New England) and West Coast IPA’s is fascinating and as someone who enjoys both styles, I welcome the discussion. The style goes deeper and you may remember my article about fooling around with Fruited IPAs. Whether you drink a session, or a DIPA, you’re drinking the style of beer that comprises 1/5 of craft beer consumed(IRI, as reported in Beer & Brewing.

Stouts and Porters have never lost their popularity. When I started visiting brewpubs 25 years ago, these styles were always offered, And they remain popular as trends have made them into bigger beers. I don’t have to tell you that a large percentage of special releases center around barrel aged stouts, particularly the Russian Imperial variety. I have lots of them in my beer cellar, and they are what I primarily collect. A lot of breweries are doing exciting things with stouts, porters, and also Scottish ales. Darker beers are very popular, and if you like these styles of beer, you certainly have a lot to choose from. I have a friend who really likes stouts, and as I travel I’m always on the lookout to find a cool beer for him!

So with so many breweries, we have access to a plethora of great beer. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut and drink the same thing day to day. But I encourage you to try styles. Flights are a great way to find out if you like a style of beer, and it’s one of the ways I learn about what a brewery is doing. Beer festivals when they start happening more regularly are also a great place to try styles of beer. I encourage you to try stuff you wouldn’t regularly drink there because it’s a great opportunity to learn.

Then again I know some people only like one or two styles of beer, and that’s ok. The diversity in our palates is what makes us beautiful! We have so much beer, and our time is short. Drink what you like, but take the time to expand your palate if you have the interest! Otherwise you might just miss out on a lot of cool things that are going on in and around this hobby we call craft beer!