1st Inaugural Homebrew Palooza

Circle City Zymurgy, in partnership with Indiana On Tap, is excited to announce the date of the inaugural Indiana Homebrew Palooza–Indiana’s LARGEST exclusive homebrew festival and celebration for craft beer fans. 

The 2019 event will feature UNLIMTED SAMPLES from over 12 different Indiana homebrew clubs (and an estimated 50+ homebrewers) spanning all the way from Evansville, to Fort Wayne, and everywhere in between. The event will also showcase great live music, local food trucks (Rusted Silo BBQ & Las Tortugas Mexican Cuisine), games and more. 

The event offers a unique opportunity for Indiana’s biggest craft beer fans and supporters to come sample one-of-a-kind homebrewed beer that you’ve never tried before and may never get to enjoy again. While attendees will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite beer, this event is truly more of a celebration and appreciation of the Indiana homebrewing community, their craft, and their unique beers. 

The event will take place in the massive and ideal outdoor lot next to Grand Junction Brewing Co.’s Tap Room in Westfield. Attendees are encouraged to visit the tap room before, during and after the event.

There is also an option for online ticket buyers to purchase a new (first year) Indiana On Tap Tasting Society Marketplace membership for only $5 more when purchasing a VIP or GA ticket. Normally $59.95/year by itself, this annual craft beer membership & rewards program is the largest and most unique of its kind in the state and good for over $1,200 toward the purchase of craft beer and more at 145+ Indiana breweries and locations. Offers are redeemed via an easy-to-use mobile app. Ticket buyers who choose this option will receive a separate email within 24 hours AFTER they receive their ticket order with their promo code to purchase/redeem their new membership for just $1. (The add-on price to the ticket is $4, plus the $1 at time of redemption = $5). To learn more about this amazing and unique membership program and the substantial savings, please visit www.TastingSocietyMarketplace.com. 

Tickets are now on sale with an opportunity to save big by buying online, in advance.

Early Bird Tickets (Available until May 1st): GA – $25 | DD – $10

Advance Sale Tickets (Available from May 1st – June 22nd): GA – $30 | DD – $10

Gate Sales (Available Day of Event if Tickets Are Still Available): GA – $40 | DD – $10

Proceeds from this event will be donated to the Boone County Habitat for Humanity and their “House That Beer Built” initiative! 

This is a 21+ event. All attendees must show a valid photo I.D. at the gate. You must be 21 years or older to attend—this includes designated drivers. ALL TICKET SALES ARE FINAL. The event will be held rain or shine.

Participating Homebrew Clubs (with more to be announced soon):

Circle City Zymurgy – Indianapolis | Bloomington Hop Jockeys – Bloomington | Sunblest Brewers Association – Fishers | Ohio Valley Homebrewers Association – Evansville | Foam Blowers of Indiana – Indianapolis | Midwestern Order of Nin-Kasi (M.O.N.K.) – Beech Grove | Illiana Beer Rackers Union (IBRU) – Highland | Lilly Homebrew Club – Indianapolis | Marshall County Brew Club – Plymouth | Dubois County Suds Club – Jasper | Tippecanoe Homebrewers Circle – Lafayette | Indiana Brewers Union (IBU) – Indianapolis

CCZ and the House that Beer Built: The Sod Generation

The whole crew

On August 4th Circle City Zymurgy returned to the Boone County Habitat For Humanity site to help in the project The House that Beer Built. That day was all about landscaping.

Sod for days!

Once again most of the focus was on the blue house. There we planted several bushes, some flowers and a tree. For that part of the landscaping project we had the help of some wonderful ladies who were well-versed in domestic horticulture. Their expertise made it easy to understand what needed to be done and were patient with those of us that needed a little more coaching. The bulk of the plants were planted around the front porch and the tree was planted along the driveway towards the road.

Aligning the sod

As you can see from the first image we had a very large crew for the day’s work. While some volunteers planted, the rest started working on laying sod. After the planting was quickly done, everybody jumped into laying sod around the house. For lunch we got lots of pizza, fruit and cookies. After lunch we finished up laying up the sod around the blue house and then stepped on the sod to make sure there was no air underneath. This step was necessary as if there was an air gap between the sod and the ground then parts of the sod will die.

Fixing the sod around the red house.

The red house also got some love that day. Earlier in the week the waterline had to be replaced. On top of the ground that was dug out for the repairs, the bracers on the backhoe tore through the sod that had already been laid. These areas around the red house had to be fixed and sodded anew. That process involved removing the edges of the remaining sod that had started to die and then cutting new sections of sod to fit those areas.

Thanks to the large crowd of volunteers that day we got finished much earlier than we did on our previous volunteer day. Heat was a major issue so we all made sure that ourselves and others around us had plenty of water to drink. Thank you Habitat for Humanity for all that you do and for letting us volunteer again for your organization. And thank you Amy Hartwig for all that you do and for several of the photos that I used in this post. We look forward to more days working with the project The House that Beer Built.

 

CCZ and the House that Beer Built

On site at the House that Beer Built

On July 7th several members of Circle City Zymurgy and volunteers from the Whitestown Methodist Church helped Habitat for Humanity in a project called the House that Beer Built. The project is a way for craft brewers and homebrewers to give back to the community.

Siding being put on the side of the light blue house

It was a beautiful, cloudless day though hot. Work was steady and hydration was very important. Two houses on the site were well into the build process that day. One was a red house that was further along. Cabinets were already installed in the kitchen area and all of the siding was installed on the exterior. The other house was a light blue color and needed more work done. As pictured a couple of the sides still needed siding put up. Sanding of the interior floor was done before subflooring installed for the laminate that will go on top of that.

 

We split up between the two houses and worked until noon when we stopped for lunch. Lunch was supplied by the Whitestown Methodist Church. All of the food was delicious and much appreciated.

Siding being put up on the front of the light blue house

After lunch we went back to work, most of it being focused on the light blue house. More siding was put up and the laminate flooring was installed in the living room. Around 3:30 we wrapped work up, cleaned up the site and went home.

It was a great experience to give back to a community that supports local craft brewers. We at Circle City Zymurgy look forward to further opportunities working with Habitat
for Humanity.

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!

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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!

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!