Indiana BrewHaus Radio Half-Hour Episode 8, Fountain Square Brewing

Hey Guys,

This week's episode was pretty darn good. Probably the best one yet. As per usual, I made several mistakes throughout the podcast. See if you can find them. I hope all of you enjoy this podcast as much as we enjoy taping it. 

Cheers,

Nate

Click here to open the audio in a new window!


Show notes:

IBH Radio Half-Hour
Episode 8
Fountain Square Brewing
Guest: Bill Webster

Hello friends of the hop and grain, and welcome to our final episode of 2011 of the Indiana BrewHaus Radio half-hour where we talk about all things beer: tasting it, brewing it, and discovering new ways to enjoy it. This week we are proud to be on location at Fountain Square Brewing on 1301 Barth in indianapolis! I am your host, Nate Shultz, German at heart, but Irish at liver, sitting beside my two co-hosts for the evening, who I am pretty sure are just here for the beer, Mr. Jared Brown and Mr. Benjamin Sutton! How are we this evening gentlemen?

chat:
Movie to check out on Netflix: How beer saved the world.
    Essentially a loose history of beer from beginning to current times
    Beer was used as: money, medicine; saved millions of people from plague; started the agricultural revolution, built the pyramids, brought us antibiotics, and created modern refrigeration.
It truly changed the course of history! If it weren’t for beer, we’d probably be living in caves!

Before we get to our guest for the evening, lets address the drinking game. I realize we have a lot of rules and it can be hard to follow all of them. Instead of instituting a new rule for the game, lets do this: Pick your favorite 3 rules from the list and follow those. Also, it is ok to make up your own. I actually encourage it. If you do have suggestions for new rules or would like to tell be about the ones you made up, email me at indiana.brewhaus@gmail.com!

On to the guest! Sitting with us tonight from the newly opened Fountain Square Brewing, Mr skip duvall/ Mr Bill webster. Welcome sir to the show. How are you this evening?

1. Tell me a little about yourself
3. If you have/had a mission statement what is it/would it be?
4. Tell me about Skip. What is his history with beer?
5. Why Fountain Square?
6. Any special events you have coming up that you want our fans to know about?
7. What kind of seasonals can we see from fountain square in the near future? Are you willing to devulge that?

Style of the week:
American Style light lager!

OK folks, lets face it. We have all drank at one time or another. Some of us can admit it, some can’t. I have, jared has, and i know ben has. Here is the real question: Is it ok? Answer: Of course! This country was founded on Ales, but it was made great by Lagers! Currently, beer accounts for 1.5% of the GDP not to mention the billions the industry pays in taxes. So, you drink a Bud Light or a Miller every once in a while, who cares! Don’t be a snob. Even brewers drink the stuff. Plus, let’s be honest: Craft beer is for enjoying, but a light lager is good for drinking a lot of. Again, something I do!
Like other types of beers, the American Light Lager has it’s fair share of historical significance. This type of beer stems from the German Style Lager which originated in Bavaria. In 1840 lagering techniques were exported to Bohemia, now Czech Republic. The result was Pilsner. This came as a result of partially malted ultra light Barley and Saaz hops. Some of the big breweries today call their beer pilsner, but they have cut the once all-barley beer with corn and rice which might be much cheaper, but has little flavor.

Alright, enough about cheap beer. Lets get back to craft beer!

Recommendations/ what you’ve been drinking this week
Jared
Ben
Nate
Skip/Bill

Beer News:
Winterfest is coming soon!
Go to brewersofindianaguild.com for tickets

Sun King is up for awards yet again! Go to this site to vote for their beer/can design!
http://www.craftcans.com/craftcanscoms-best-of-2011we-need-your-help

Apparel available for purchase! Email me at indiana.brewhaus@gmail.com

Homebrew tip of the week!

Adding fresh fruit safely to beer!

Here is my recommendation. If you must add fruit to your beer, even though i don’t recommend it, do this first:
First, wash the fruit well to remove any dirt or debris. Second, Heat and mash fruit on your stove to pasteurize it (not to hot, though. don’t want to carmelize it!) Finally, be sure to add it during secondary fermentation or you will lose all that fruit flavor when you rack it. So there you go that is my only advice. I typically don’t add fruit to beer unless i am making it for my wife who loves blueberry and cranberry beers. Actually she loves your cranberry wheat.


Thanks everyone for joining us this week on the Indiana BrewHaus Radio Half-hour. Special thanks to my guest for the evening, Mr. bill/skip You can find them online at fsqbrew.com or follow them on twitter on @fountainsqrbrew. Also, be sure to stop by Fountain Square Brewing Thursday - Sunday here on 1301 barth street here in indianapolis. Just look for the orange building! Thanks to my co-hosts, Jared, which you can follow on twitter at @jaredbrown, and Ben which you can follow on twitter @thepact or at benjaminsutton.com.
You can also follow me on twitter @nshultz or go to indianabrewhaus.blogspot.com for more episodes of the IBH Radio Half-hour, blog posts, drinking games as well as updates on what isgoing on around Indianapolis. Also, be sure to check out indianabrewhaus.com!

cheers!

Indiana BrewHaus Radio Half Hour, Episode 7, Flat 12 Bierwerks

Hey all,

This weeks show was probably our best yet! We got the chance to sit down and talk to Rob Caputo from Flat 12 Bierwerks. Rob talked to us about the 12 beers of Christmas release they have going on right now. If you hear this in the next couple of weeks, head to Flat 12 to check it out!

Click Here to open the episode in a new window!

Show Notes:

Indiana BrewHaus Radio Half Hour
Episode 7
Flat 12 Bierwerks
Rob or Josh

Hello friends of the hop and grain, and welcome to our first holiday episode of the Indiana BrewHaus Radio half-hour where we talk about all things beer: tasting it, brewing it, and discovering new ways to enjoy it. This week we are proud to be on location at Flat 12 Bierwerks on 414 Dorman street in indianapolis! I am your host, Nate Shultz, drunk and belligerent mall Santa, sitting beside my little helpers and co-hosts for the evening, Mr. Jared Brown and Mr. Benjamin Sutton! How are we this evening gentlemen?

chat/banter among hosts

Before we introduce our guest for this evening lets talk about our IBH drinking Game! This week, every time you hear anyone on the show say the word Christmas or any variation of that word. Take a drink of your beer. Again, I feel the need to repeat our disclaimer that if you are in your car listening to this. Don’t participate in the drinking game...goes without saying, but I feel the need to mention that.

On to the guest! Our guest this evening is fresh off the release of their glazed ham porter which i believe is part of a larger release of beers, which i am sure he will get to later on in the show. From Flat 12 Bierwerks, Mr. (rob caputo or josh). How are you this evening sir/gentlemen?

Questions:

1. Speaking of your porter, what was your inspiration for this beer?
2. We spoke briefly before the show about a special release you are having leading up to the Christmas holiday. Explain that a little for our listeners.
3. Tell me a little about the brewery. Who’s idea was it to start a brewery here in indianapolis?
4. The three of us have varying levels of brewing knowledge. I have been homebrewing for about 8 years now; Jared just recently, within the last 1.5 years or so, has started brewing; and Ben just is an appreciator of fine ales...who’s addiction is partially fed by me. Do you still homebrew in your “free time”?

Style of the episode
Cask conditioned ale.

I realize this is more of a method of finishing a beer rather than a style, but let’s face it, cask conditioned beer can really add character to a beer that may not come from forced carbonation. Cask conditioned ales are a typically English phenomenon. First of all, before we get into cask conditioned ales, we should talk about CAMRA.The method conditioning was all but extinct in the 1960s when a group of purists was formed called CamRA or the Campaign for Real Ale. This English political group used pressure and lobbying to keep cask conditioned or “real” ale a viable choice in British pubs. Although you can’t get it in half the pubs in Britain, it is nice to see someone preserving some history...I digress.

Although we could go on for an hour or more about cask conditioned or “real” ales. It boils down to this: At the end or toward the end of the primary fermentation process, a beer is kegged and rushed to a pub where it is cellared until at it’s peak. By “at it’s peak” I am referrering to a combination of flavor profile and desired carbination. Once that is reached, the keg is tapped and drunk quickly to avoid spoilage.

Recently CamRA did a study that showed that if a device called a cask breather(a device that replaces air in the keg with a gentle blanket of CO2) was used, cask conditioned kegs would last longer. Ironically enough, they chose to ignore their own research and side with tradition... go figure.


Homebrew tip of the week
Cask conditioning at home

Cask conditioning at home is actually more prevelent than you might think. Every time a homebrewer uses priming sugar to carbonate their beer and then puts it in a dark, cool place so that it can carbonate, mellow, and age....they are, in the cruedest sense, cask conditioning their beer... most brewers call it bottle conditioning, though. I still do this because i feel like it adds character to my homebrew.

Another way to cask condition at home if you have a kegging system would be to do the following:
Some books that I have read suggest altering a keg so that the dip tube doesn’t go all the way to the bottom of the keg and suck up all the living yeast and sediment at the bottom. Others suggest laying the keg on it’s side so that all the sediment sticks when the keg is brought upright again. I am not sure how I feel about either of these, but i guess they are cheaper than buying all the necessary equipment which could run into the hundreds of dollars.

Whatever you do, make sure you beer stays roughly the same temperature when you serve it as it was when you fermented it, around 55-60 degrees. If you don’t do that, you might kill the yeast and end up with a “dead” beer.

Beer news

Flat 12 - 12 beers of christmas starting December 1 going all the way until ???

IBH apparel will be available for purchase before christmas. I will be putting the design up online and if you are interested, be sure to contact me at indiana.brewhaus@gmail.com.

What have you been drinking on this week?/ recommendations

Jared - Flying Dog: In Heat Wheat
Nate - Yuengling
Ben - Elector Imperial Red by New Albanian
Rob - New Albanian Keller Pils


Thanks everyone for joining us this week on the Indiana BrewHaus Radio Half-hour. Special thanks to my guest for the evening, Mr. Rob/Josh You can find them online at flat12.me, or follow Josh on twitter @flat12_josh. Also, be sure to stop by Flat 12 Bierwerks here in Indianapolis at 414 dorman street. Thanks to my co-hosts, Jared, which you can follow on twitter at @jaredbrown, and Ben which you can follow on twitter @thepact or at benjaminsutton.com.
You can also follow me on twitter @nshultz or go to indianabrewhaus.blogspot.com for more episodes of the IBH Radio Half-hour, blog posts, drinking games as well as updates on what isgoing on around Indianapolis. Also, be sure to check out indianabrewhaus.com!

cheers!