Taxman Brewing – Circle City Zymurgy Wort Share

What a great day! Yesterday Circle City Zymurgy had the pleasure of joining Taxman Brewing in Bargersville for a wort share. We took the base wort for Exemption, Taxman’s Belgian Tripel, and made it our own. Altogether we had 12 homebrewers join in on the wort share in the parking lot of the brewery. In April, we will sample the different beers and choose the top six. The six winners get free tickets to Taxman’s Death and Taxes on April 21st and get to pour their beer there!

The base wort for Exemption was a great pick as it allowed us to make it into almost anything. We could choose to add extra grains, we chose our own hops, yeast, and other ingredients. A few of us chose to stick with a Belgian Tripel, some adding special/secret ingredients to make it different. We also have a black IPA, a milkshake IPA, maibock, and other styles in the making so you can really see the creativity we get from some of our homebrewers!

Most of us showed up a bit before 10:00 AM and we all had our beer into our fermenters and started cleaning up by around 2:00 PM. As you could imagine, we discussed what we were making, the Taxman beers we had throughout the day, and what we were going to do with our beer throughout the next few weeks.

Once everyone got their equipment stored away, Colin and David walked us through the brewery. We saw a room full of a ton of “clean” beers aging in different liquor and wine barrels and a room full of sour beers also aging in barrels. We went to another building where the grainmill, brew kettle, HLT, mash tun, brite tanks, and fermenters were stored. Colin allowed us to walk up the stairs and check out the main brewing area to look at the tanks and walked us by all of the huge fermenters.

After the tour, some of us finished up by going to the taproom and sampling some more Taxman beers and got some much needed food after our brew day! The Red Wine Barrel Aged Qualified and wilf-fermented Certified were definitely a big hit among the club. A lot of us had the Barnyard Burger which had a slice of pork belly and over-easy egg on top of the burger. Delicious!

Circle City Zymurgy wishes to thank Taxman brewing and all others involved in making this happen. We had a great time!

Guide: Obtaining Your Permit to Pour at Festivals

Want to pour at a festival? Great, its a lot of fun! There’s just a few quick steps that you need to do about a month in advance. Although everyone’s ID is checked at the entrance, you do still need a permit to legally be able to pour beer. It just takes filling out a simple form, a little bit of money, and then a few weeks to process. Here’s how to get started.

First, go to this link and click continue under the steps for a new registration. Fill out the form completely. Everything here is pretty self explanatory. Once you fill out the form, sign in with the login you just made. Click initial application on the left side of the screen and fill it out as follows:

A few notes come up before proceeding. They are as follows:

  • Completion of Server Training is required within 120 days of issuance of this permit. You will have the opportunity to complete Server Training online after this application is submitted.
  • An Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) Check of your BMV driving record is preformed on every application. Please allow 24 – 48 hours for the check to be preformed before your application is complete. You can use the receipt from this online application for 60 days to work until your permit arrives in the mail.
  • The total fee for this application is $18.87 ($15.00 Application Fee + $3.87 in processing fees.)
  • You will need to print your receipt at this time. If you do not print your receipt at this time, you will not be able to print it at a later time.
  • For additional information, please visit the Alcohol & Tobacco Commission web page.

Once you proceed again, just confirm your mailing address and hit continue. There is a set of 10 very easy questions that you need to answer. Fill these out and then continue. There will then be a final page that says “Pay Fees and Submit”. Proceed with paying for the permit. As stated above, print out your receipt and you can use this for 60 days or until the permit arrives in the mail.

Now that you have paid for your permit, you need to complete your server training within 120 days. You can start your training here. Simply sign in using the last four numbers of your SSN and your birth date. The training is very simple but can take upwards of 30-60 minutes so be sure to pay attention and have the time for it. Be sure to print out the certificate of completion and keep it in a safe place.

That’s it! Now it is just a waiting game. It typically takes about 2-4 full weeks to receive the actual permit in the mail. There really is no communication between when you pay for the permit and receive it, just a confirmation of payment and then you receive it in the mail so be patient! In the meantime you can use your receipt if you printed it out.

Happy pouring!

Circle City Zymurgy at Union Jack’s 5th Annual Pumpkin, Cider, and Fall Beer Festival

Man, what a day! Circle City Zymurgy had a great time at Union Jack’s Pumpkin, Cider, and Fall Beer Festival. The event was completely sold out and had about 650 attendees. There were around 40 different vendors pouring delicious beverages with a total of 76 different, unique beers being poured.

CCZ had a great presence at the festival. Along with myself, other attending members were Steve Kent, Wes Martin, Jeremiah Tyson, and Allen Brown. We brought 5 kegs of homebrew. Wes brought his “Great Horse Pumpkin Ale”, Jeremiah his “Jack ‘O’  Porter (served on nitro), Steve brought his PSL – also on nitro, Allen had his near 15% mead, and we had Jonathan Marting’s Pumpkin Roll Ale.

In the end, we poured a total of 25 gallons of homebrew. Everyone that came up for a taste wanted to try something different and I believe we had a great variety for everyone to have something to enjoy  (I’m pretty confident in saying that based on the constant line we had!)

There were a total of 9 homebrewers that attended and we were all right next to each other. As you could imagine, we had great conversations discussing the hobby we love. This year, Union Jack also held a homebrew competition with the winner receiving a $100 gift card to Union Jack. A big congratulations is in order for our member Jeremiah for getting 2nd place for his Jack ‘O’ Porter!

The festival itself was a great time. We really could not have asked for a better day. The weather was perfect and really gave an exact feeling of what Fall is all about. As soon as you walked in you were given a choice of two neat glasses that you get your beer poured into. The festival had plenty of great food to keep you going during your beer trek. A few vendors such as Indiana on Tap were there as well supporting the hobby and offering free or discounted offers.

Elysian Brewing, based out of Seattle, Washington, had a great presence as well. They had their own little area where 6+ of their beers were served. Each of theirs had its own unique style and taste as well. With a big name like Elysian, I definitely had to try them all.

In conclusion, this was a very prosperous event for Circle City Zymurgy. I heard multiple attendees surprised that our beer was homebrewed, expecting it to be made at a professional brewery. I also had a few people walk up to me after seeing my shirt and asking where our beer could be purchased. You can’t get a much better compliment than that. This will definitely have to be an annual event for CCZ!

Tap Takeovers in Town – 7/29 – 8/6

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

2016 Sour + Wild + Funk Fest Is In The Books!

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.

Rivertown Brewery & Barrel House Kriek

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.

2016 Hammerdown Brewcup Recap


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.

Gooble Gobble, Be One Of Us

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!

Sour Brewing Party VI: Jason Lives!!!

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]