Featured image stolen by the lovely Cresant Smith.
It’s time to get funky, but we aren’t going to clap our hands or take any hops (of the jumping variety) to the left. Instead, we are going to Indiana.
Dear future wedding planners, please ban this song known as the Cha Cha Slide.
I recently went to the Sour Wild Funk Fest in Indianapolis, IN presented by Upland Brewing Company. I went with one of my buddies, Hipster Steve, and ran into my Louisvillebeer.com team member, Cresant Smith (a self-proclaimed fan of the “Cha Cha Slide”), along with a handful of other beer geeks. The session ran from 2-6pm and about halfway through my tongue hasn’t been warn out like that since “insert joke here”.
Honestly, I’m not big into sours. Don’t know why, they just aren’t my thing, especially big glasses of them, but a free VIP ticket to an event is hard to pass up. Hipster Steve and I skipped out of the VIP talk and went to go get some “pre-tastes” of beer with the brewers. I talked beer with most of the brewers, the industry and how Indianapolis has exploded onto the beer scene (I think getting close to 33 breweries!). Of the 25 breweries in attendance, 16 of them were from the state of Indiana. Ballin.
The Fest was hands-down the best run beer festival I’ve ever been a part of due to it’s smaller size, amazing location, and crowd characteristics. Although many bought the VIP status, it truly wasn’t needed to sample the plethora of tart beers.
The best beers I had were…
Tinmans Apricot Sour- overwhelming favorite from many others.
Black Acre Cuvee de Ivington- awesome INDY brewing kicking ass
Destihl Saint Dekkera Reserve with Paw Paws- My Alma Mater crushed it with the best overall offerings. *Hipster Steve gave this two thumbs up.
Destihl Saint Dekkera Reserve with Strawberries
Flat 12 Au Revoir- One of Josh H.’s last brews
Rivertown Pomegranite Lambic-
Upland DarkSynth- Amazing. *Hipster Steve gave this two thumbs up.
Urban Chesnut- Cuvee du Peche
There really isn’t much I’d change about the event, honestly. Uplands volunteers did an AMAZING job of having water and snacks on hand. The brewers were willing to talk to everyone and only a few beers were tapped out before 5 p.m.. Lots of mental notes were taken for our future beer festivals here in Kentucky, but Upland just set the bar pretty high. Not to mention, quite possibly the best chicken salad sandwich I’ve ever eaten.
I’ll admit, I left a little early to beat the crowd to 20 Tap (awesome joint) and I couldn’t take anymore sour beers. I’m pretty sure I looked down at my phone and said, “It’s only “bad word” 5:30 pm. Good god”. I stupidly ordered a barrel aged barleywine that I ended up sharing with a young couple and orders a cheeseburger covered in shoestring potatoes. Still, it was only like 8pm when we left so we walked down to The Sinking Ship. From then on, I was sunk.
Aye, aye matey.
