Burn ‘Em Brewing Tap Takeover at Twenty Tap – 7/29
Rhinegeist Tap Takeover at La Margarita – 7/29
Rhinegeist Tap Takeover at Twenty Tap – 7/30
Byway Brewing at BoomBozz Pizza in Carmel – 7/29
18th St. Tapping at The Pint Room in Carmel featuring Hunter Vanilla – 8/2
Upland Crab Boil at the Carmel Tap Room – $25 at the door. You get 4 crabs, unlimited sides, and $1 drafts $3 snifters. 8/6
TwoDeep TWOYear anniversary. Barrel and cask-aged beers, food trucks, music, and games – 8/6
The Indiana Brewers Cup is kind of a huge deal. Over 1500 entries (both homebrew and professional) are judged by dozens of certified judges. Competition is fierce, and should you happen to win here, you can consider yourself one of the best homebrewers in the Midwest. Think of every other festival as the regular season and this as the World Series. Even though Circle City Zymurgy has only been existence for four months, we came in to this granddaddy of homebrew competitions hoping we could make some noise. And while we came short of our ultimate goal of being crowned homebrew club of the year, we still had a very strong showing (and a heck of a lot of fun).
The tasting reception before the actual awards ceremony always promises a good time. It is set up like a low-key beer festival, only this time breweries and homebrew clubs are treated as equals. There six commercial breweries and eight homebrew clubs sampled out some of their best beer, cider, and mead (and even barrel-aged coffee!). Highlights of the evening included McClure’s Orchard’s Paige’s Peaches and Razzled (a gold medal winner that night), The Tap’s Double Barrel Buckshot (a smoked roggenbier), and the Broad Ripple Brewpub’s Welcome to Helles (the homebrew best of show recipe from 2015). Circle City Zymurgy was there pouring, nestled right between The Tap and New Day Craft (and gleefully smuggling samples from each. We served a California Common, a gose with cucumber and jalapeno, a Flanders red with cherries, a Belgian sour with crab apples, and a Hefeweizen run through a Randall stuffed with blueberries. Lines were long and steady and our beers were roundly praised. Speaking of which, did you know that Circle City Zymurgy is on Untappd? You can check out all of our offerings and review our beers. Your support is valuable!
As for the awards ceremony, five Circle City Zymurgy members took eight ribbons, and we finished as the second most successful club at the event. Club results can be found on our events page and Full results can be found here. The awards ceremony got off to an emotional start when the Godmother of Brewing in Indiana (and, full disclosure, my employer) Anita Johnson won the Golden Growler Award (think of it as sort of a lifetime achievement award). It was also exciting and rewarding to see several of our professional compatriots bring home medals. Friends of the club Bier Brewery, Tow Yard Brewing Company, Grand Junction Brewing Company, Flix Brewhouse Carmel, McClure’s Orchard, and New Day Craft all emerged highly successful.
But Circle City Zymurgy saved the best for last with our fun, rip-roaring, porkified after party hosted by our own Brady Smith. We had seven excellent beers on tap (including two award winners from that night), and the appetizers were a revelation. Highlights included bacon donut hole skewers, sopressata, and manchego cheese, and deviled scotch eggs. Outside people were hanging out, playing corn hole and beer pong, and enjoying a rare mild July evening. All this was soundtracked by the live bluegrass stylings of The Barefoot Hollers. From what I can remember, it was an excellent party (did I mention seven beers on tap?).
Whether they won awards or not, we are proud of all the club members who participated in the Brewers Cup. Their help coordinating our plan of attack and their willingness to step out of their comfort zones helped make this such a success. We only spent two months planning for the Brewers Cup and we still ended up with nearly seventy entries and eight awards. From here the sky is the limit.
Judging is already underway for Indiana’s largest brewing competition, and Circle City Zymurgy is looking to win big. During our short existence, club members have been racking up medals at regional competitions, but this event will really show where we stand in the local homebrewing scene. Over the past couple months, we have made a concerted effort to win big, and as a result over a dozen club members have nearly seventy entries in this competition. Not only is individual glory up for grabs, but we are also vying to win Homebrew Club of the Year. This category has long been dominated by the Foam Blowers of Indiana, but this year we have what it takes to unseat them.
But enough with the motivational speak. There is much more to the Brewers Cup than the competition. CCZ will also be pouring during the reception, along with several other professional breweries and homebrew clubs. And let’s not forget the (hopefully) yummy buffet to be served before the awards ceremony. No matter what happens, win or lose, it is going to be a fun time for everyone (though let’s hope we win).
We will be live tweeting (@cczymurgy) and live snapping (cczymurgy) the Brewers Cup. So you can still follow along even if you can’t make it. But if you are there, come and say hello, try our beers and cheer us on.
Where: Elements Financial Blue Ribbon Pavillion
When: TONIGHT at 5 pm
Upland Brewing sure knows how to throw a beer fest! When Circle City Zymurgy showed up early Saturday morning to the 5th annual Upland Sour + Wild + Funk Fest drop off point, there were already a multitude of vendors setting up tents, tables, fencing, and signage. Everything came together really quickly, and within hours the stage had been set for VIP ticket holders of the event. I cannot stress how many amazing sours were at this event.
From Rivertown‘s uber viscous and delicious Kriek to coveted Upland’s Paw Paw lambic, there were an outstanding number of funky varieties available. CCZ was nestled comfortably between Central State Brewing and Country Boy Brewing, which made it painstakingly easy to fill up on CB’s Ghost Gose and Central State’s House. But wait… there’s more! We teamed up with Great Fermentations and Wilks and Wilson for a super unique pouring experience as the first homebrew organizations at the event!
CCZ and Great Fermentations brought the funk with our Berliner Weisse (paired with cherry, ginger, and raspberry Wilks and Wilson gommes), Templeton Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Flanders Red, Apple Brandy Barrel Aged Flanders, Persimmon Lambic, Brett Saison de Brawndo, and a random assortment of beautiful, beautiful, bombers. We had a really positive response from the people we poured for, and some even asked my favorite question “Where can I buy this?” For those of you that missed out this year, STAY TUNED. We definitely plan on attending SFF again next year.
The road to Hammerdown Brewcup was paved in beer. Circle City Zymurgy made a few stops along the way to the competition. MadTree Brewing, Listermann Brewing Company, Braxton Brewing Company, and a victory lap back at Listermann Brewing before ending the night at Skyline :).
We had an awesome time, and were able to lock down three awards this go round. Altogether CCZ entered 13 beers into the competition. Jenn Myers placed 1st in Belgian Strong Ales for her Belgian Golden Strong “Hoge Vennen”, Steve Kent place 2nd in Smoke-Flavored and Wood Aged Beer for his Rauchbier “Bamberger Helper”, and Erik Howell took 2nd in the Sour Ale category for his Straight Unblended Lambic “Circle City Zymurgy Lambic.” The Hammerdown Brewcup results can be found here.
Bloomington Craft Beer Festival does not disappoint! Had an awesome time spreading the homebrew gospel at the Woolery Stone Mill this year. The weather was beautiful, the beer flowed like wine, and the cask tent was firkin close to our booth. CCZ shared a Berliner Weisse, Belgian Dubbel, Sweet Cider, and Dry Cider. Some of my personal favorite flavors (and hopefully available on draft in Indy soon) were Tin Man’s Weld Pear Sour Ale, Taxman’s Apropos Apricot Saison, Daredevil’s Rauchbier, and Grand Junction’s Midnight Espresso Stout. The Woolery Stone Mill has been a truly unique and beautiful venue for one of my favorite beer festivals of the year. We were so happy to be a part of the event.
Spencer Mason dropped by to show off his mole hands. Those cups made everyone’s hands look huge! Fantastic beers from Grand Junction Brewing this festival BTW.
People anxiously awaiting the Early Bird enty.
Thanks again to the Bloomington Hop Jockey’s for helping us setup! They were also kind enough to let us use their jockey box. Everything went smoothly for the most part. The weather was perfect serving temperature. No need for ice at all.
One of the things I like most about this venue.
I really hope they keep this tasting at the Woolery Stone Mill next year. So many great memories from this festival.
Circle City Zymurgy is looking for new members, and this weekend’s meeting would be a great time to sign up. The event starts at the Upland Tasting Room on 49th and College at 7PM. We’ll explain what CCZ is all about, grab a pint of delicious Upland beer, and then have a bottle share in the Uptown building. This event has been a long time coming, and we are super excited to share our progress with you. If you are interested you can sign up for the event via our Facebook event page. If you plan on attending the bottle share afterwards, please bring a bottle of something special (commercial or homebrew)! We’ll make sure to do the same. Lets make this event noteworthy!
Great times at the Sour Brewing Party VI: Jason Lives!!! event. Weather looked nasty at first, but the sun came out and so did the sours! Thanks again to Steve for making this happen, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Here’s a list of what was sampled:
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Brewery, Beer
Brouwerij Liefmans, Goudenband
Brouwerij Rodenbach, Rodenbach
Brasserie St-Feuillien, St-Feuillien Brune
Bruery Terreux, Tart of Darkness (2015)
Circle City Zymurgy, Flanders Red
Circle City Zymurgy, Lambic
The Lost Abbey, Devotion
New Glarus, Belgian Red
New Glarus, Raspberry Tart
The Sour Note., Sour Saison w/ Lemon
Three Floyds, Big Tiddy Assassin
Upland, Cherry Lambic (2015)
Upland, Peach Lambic (2015)
Upland, Way Down Yonder
Upland, Vinosynth Red (2016)
[/table]
The All American Homebrew Competition was held last Saturday in Cincinnati, and we are happy to report that three CCZ members came away with medals.
Brandon Meyer won a gold medal for his “Kentucky Breakfast Quad”.
Brady Smith won a bronze medal for his California Common, “Carrollton Common”.
And I won a bronze medal for my Schwarzbier, “Black is Beautiful”.
As our club grows and matures, I hope that we enter more and more competitions and earn more and more medals. I believe the sign of a great homebrew club is the willingness to participate and succeed in competitions. Check back periodically with the “Upcoming Competitions” portion of our site for more local and regional competitions,
Full results for the All American Homebrew Competition can be found here.
Cheers,
Steve Kent-Goldings
Our first official meeting kicks off on April 2nd at the Upland Tasting Room on 49th and College. This is a great opportunity to find out more about what CCZ is, hear about our upcoming events, and how to get involved with our club. The event is open to all, and should be a great time. We will also be discussing membership to the club at this event, so if you are interested in joining please come out!
After we “give you the business,” we will decamp to Erik Howell’s apartment upstairs from the tasting room to have a party/bottle share to commemorate the day.
For more information on our events, sign up for our email list and/or follow us on Facebook/Twitter. I hope to see everyone there!