Category: Brewery Tour

A concise brewery bio

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Indiana Brewery # 3 – Upland Brewing

Our third stop on the Indian brewery tours is Upland. I have featured their beers a few times on this blog so it’s about time that I talked about the whole place.

They are famous for their sour beers with odd fruits as well as this big beer….
A dark and robust beer brewed in the traditional stout method. Teddy Bear Kisses features an abundance of dark malts and high alpha hops for a powerful impact of roast, chocolate, and sweet bitterness. The lucky few who cuddle up to a warming session with Teddy Bear Kisses sense the velvety malt character, balanced bitter intensity, and soothing chocolate notes created by long aging on fair trade cocoa nibs. Teddy Bear Kisses will make you feel warm and happy inside, but it’s definitely not your childhood cuddle toy.

Baltic Porters are an Eastern European take on classic English Porters. Influenced by Russian Imperial Stouts, Baltics are higher in strength than traditional Porters, and feature multiple layers of flavors and aromas. Badder Elmer’s is a meaty dark lager, utilizing cold fermentation temperatures to achieve a quaffable and clean brew, with malty highlights ranging from nutty to licorice and candy caramels. Fruity aromas lead to a complex malt character and supportive continental hop bitterness.

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Indiana Brewery # 2 – People’s Brewing Company

Our second Indiana stop is People’s Brewing of Lafayette. Like most medium to large cities. Lafayette had a thriving beer scene and it looks ready to revive thanks to beers like these….

Layflatter Lager
German Lager beer… Light and refreshing lager made for ball games and yard work. We used our Midwest malted Harrington malt and Centennial hops. This beer is brewed for the people of Lafayette, also known as “LayFlatters”.

Aberrant Amber
American Style Amber with an twist. We started with a classic American Amber, 22% Caramalt giving it an Amber hue. Then added a large addition of Amarillo and Centennial hops for the bittering and dry hoped with Amarillo, giving it notes of grapefruit and tangerine. The complexity of the malts and hops in this beer make it a great ale for anyone who loves flavor.

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Indiana Brewery # 1- Bee Creek

Our tour of selected Indiana breweries begins at Bee Creek. And their 3 signature brews…..

Hoosier Honey Wheat
“Our signature brew. This beer is brewed with the addition of Clover Honey from Hunter’s Honey Farm located in Martinsville, Indiana.

The use of Weihenstephan Weizen yeast gives this wheat beer a hint of clover, orange, and banana flavors that blends well with the added wheat malt to produce a crisp, refreshing ale perfect for any time of year.”

Clay County Coffee Stout
“A dark, rich beer brewed with roasted malts and combined with Brazil Santos Coffee (from Jameson in Greencastle). Expect a full-bodied beer with a sumptuous coffee aroma topped only by it’s opulent flavor.”

Blond Ale
“A clear, crisp, cold filtered Blond Ale carefully hopped to reveal a mild flavor and aroma. The lightness of the hops makes this Blonde Ale perfect for those familiar with mass-marketed beer; but with a major exception, this one is made right here…..in Indiana.”

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Venice Beach Brewing

As I was patiently waiting to see beer handles for El Segundo Brewing, another beach brewery was also bubbling away.


Venice Beach Brewing is headed by brewer Kerr Smith and has two beers ready….
Venice Ale
Our signature Amber Ale which we created right out of the gate. A unique blend of malt and hops crafted to perfection with love and lust. Not to mention a little help from the mighty Summit Hop.

June Gloom
Cloudy, like its namesake month, this superb Belgian White, a mix of half wheat and half barley, with a touch of coriander, makes this the perfect beer to chase those clouds away.

…..with two more (Dirty Blonde and Ink Chocolate Oatmeal Stout) in the pipeline.

There will be a release party sometime this month.

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E-Tour of Whitstran Brewing

The last Washington state brewery to visit is Whitstran in Prosser. And they have a unique brand style that works for me. A little sci-fi’ish but cool. Compare that to their Friar Series of beers…

Friar’s Blessing Raspberry Lambic
“The essence of raspberries sweetens this lambic for a refreshing brew with little hop presence.”

Friar’s Decadence Chocolate Chocolate Imperial Stout
“This is a sweet robust dark ale, with just a hint of chocolate from the baker’s cocoa added to the boil.”

Friar Lawrence Belgium-Style Ale
“The use of caramel and honey malts gives the sweetness, Goldings hops provide the balance and Abbey-style yeast introduces a unique spice character.”

Friar’s Penance Barley Wine Ale
“Fermenting for 9 – 10 months allows the complex flavors to blend to produce a unique brew that is available for a limited time each year.”

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Cosmic Brewing

You know the craft beer world is exploding. Especially now that the OC is the home of Cismontane, Bootleggers, the Bruery of course and now Cosmic Brewing in Irvine.

Their Hell Hound brown is starting to make it’s way into the LA beer bars. I will report further when I have sampled that and their saison.

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Logsdon Farmhouse Ales

Dave Logsdon started with Full Sail then moved to Wyeast Labs. So he knows beer from multiple angles and now he has a farmhouse line of beers under his own name.

Logsdon is entering the Belgian, farm-style ales category. He plans to release two beers this spring — a Seizoen and a Seizoen Bretta.

I love this quote that I saw in one of the articles about the new brewery, “We’re probably the only brewery in the United States that’s a farmhouse making farmhouse ales,” The beer will be made on a family farm with organic hops.

Plus, it has been set-up as a co-op. So maybe more beers from different brewers will come of this incubator of sorts.

Logsdon Farmhouse beers will pop up at New Seasons and Whole Foods as well as local restaurants in Hood River and Portland and maybe beyond later.

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E-Tour of Port Townsend Brewing

It is great to see new craft breweries springing up in smaller towns that used to have a brewery before prohibition and that is the case with Port Townsend which lost a 1906 opened brewery to the anti-alcohol crowd.

Now you can sample beers like these:

Boatyard Bitter
“Traditional Fuggles and Kent Golding hops (imported from England) dominate the flavor of this English style pale ale. British grown Maris Otter barley lends a round and smooth malt flavor. Truly a classic style.”

Hop Diggidy
“A classic Northwest style IPA. Hop Diggidy has a smooth malt background and full round hop flavors. Dry hopping two separate times in the process insures an aromatic and lasting hop finish. Enjoy this very drinkable Northwest ale.”

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E-Tour of Foggy Noggin

Our first stop in the state of Washington is Foggy Noggin. They are located in Bothell. You will have to really Mapquest it to see where that is. They brew English style beers like the two below that struck me….

Christmas Duck – Porter
“A mouthful of sweetened roasty flavors that linger long as a roasty dryness. Satisfying in every respect and a pint of the holiday spirit each time. Everyone deserves to celebrate Christmas year-round. Jingle Beers! Jingle Beers!”

Oski Wow-Wow – Scotch Ale
“Brewed in the olde Scottish traditional manner, Oski Wow-Wow is made with patience and love for the founders of this delicious beer style. The first 10% of the mash runnings are caramelized in the kettle, then liquified and added to the rest of the boil. Toffee and caramel flavors you have never tasted before are the result. Best enjoyed in Strawberry Canyon on a nice fall afternoon, you are sure to hear those enjoying the bounty of this special seasonal. One taste and you will shout – “Oski Wow-Wow!”

One more word, I think their logo is really cool. Simple but evocative.

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SoCal Beer Co.

I have yet to try any beers from this new-to-me brewery which brews in Modesto and is headquartered in Tarzana. Hopefully their Seismic IPA, Angelino Pale and Red Carpet will make their way into one of my local beer bars.

They have a nice website and a good roster of beers (even though some aren’t produced yet) They also have a charitable bent to them which is a plus in my book. Count me as cautiously optimistic.

Have YOU tried SoCal’s beers? If so, let me know your opinion of them.

UPDATE
I sampled the Seismic IPA and Red Carpet Ale last night at Blue Palms. Part of the SoCal tour that takes them to a beer bars here in LA. I and my beer buddy, Richard both preferred the IPA over the red but both made us hopeful for the rest of the line-up.