Indiana fall beer events for every lover of craft

Aug. 30, GPO is at  Union Jack - Broad Ripple, 6-8 p.m., for a “Rhinegeist New Kids on the Block Pizza Party. ” Listen to some NKOTB tunes, eat pizza, and walk Step by Step through Rhinegeist's line up,” invites Wishin. ”Wear your finest '90s and New Kids on the Block attire! Best dressed wins a pair of tickets to Union Jack Pub-Broad Ripple's 5th Annual Pumpkin, Cider and Fall Beer Festival.” Your $15 ticket includes: All you can eat pizza and breadsticks, flight of Rhinegeist beer — including a rarity! Design your own slap bracelet and buttons, '90s-tastic photo op. This is a ladies only event. 

While events at Mass Ave Pub on Sept. 8  and Meet the Craft Side of Zink on Sept. 21 are currently in planning it’s a go for GPO’s 3rd annual Coffee Beer & Donuts on Oct. 7 in City Market Mezzanine, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. featuring 15 Indiana breweries and three Indiana cideries. Each of the breweries will be paired with samples from local bakeries and restaurants. “If you need a jolt of alcohol-free caffeine, local coffee roasters will give you the boost you need,” said Wishing.

Participants include -

Coffee Roasters: Bee Coffee Roasters • Indie Coffee • Limelight Coffee Roasters • Tinker Coffee Co. • Mile Square Coffee

Breweries: Ash & Elm Cider Co. • The Bier Brewery • Big Lug Canteen • Black Acre Brewing Co.• Carson's Brewery • Central State Brewing • Flat12 Bierwerks Indianapolis • Four Day Ray Brewing • MashCraft Brewing • McClure's Orchard • New Day Craft • Quaff On Brewing • Round Town Brewery •Scarlet Lane Brewing Company • Sun King Brewing Company • Taxman Brewing Company • Scotty's Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Company • Triton Brewing Company

Bakeries: 22nd Street Diner • Big Woods Speedway • Circle City Sweets • Four Day Ray Brewing • Hilligoss Bakery • Jack's Donuts of West Market Street • Porter Books & Bread • Quack Daddy Donuts • Reds Donuts • Taylor's Bakery • Titus Bakery • [More TBA] 

The proceeds from this event benefit non-profits, City Market and Girls Pint Out.

Bonus: if you check in with the Yelp app, Yelp will provide you with a food tray.

Other events: 

Kittens, puppies, meads and ciders star on Sept. 2

New Day Craft’s 2nd Annual Meadful Things and Outciders Festival on Sept. 2 at the Circle City Industrial Complex offers unlimited sampling of over 150 different ciders and meads from around the world, food trucks, entertainment, psychics, kitties and puppies from FACE to snuggle with and much more! 

Horror Reigns with Scarlet Lane starting Sept. 5

HorrorHound Ale Part 2 launches Sept. 5 at The Mass Ave Pub followed by The Sinking Ship on Sept. 6 with special guest and WWE star Kevin Thorn; Kuma’s Corner Indianapolis on Sept. 7; Scarlet Lane Brewing Tap House on Sept. 8. Ticket giveaways and showings of horror movies related to the HorrorHound Weekend reunion of Friday the 13th Part 2, Goonies, Lost Boys and Buffy the Vampire Slayer will surface during some of the tapping events, according to Nick Servies, Scarlet Lane Brewing spokesperson.

HorrorHound Weekend at the Indianapolis Marriott East runs Sept. 8-10. “Every year fans of horror and celebrities gather to celebrate the genre in Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio,” said Servies. “Horrorhound Weekend is a part of the Horrorhound company celebrating the horror genre with vendors and celebrities alongside special movie premieres. 

“The Official Beer of Horror, HorrorHound Ale, is a yearly collaboration between Scarlet Lane Brewing and HorrorHound and HorrorHound Weekend. The recipe changes with the yearly Indianapolis convention schedule. Part 2 of HorrorHound Ale is a Honey Session Ale made with a blend of Northwest hops and citrus honey coming in at 4.2% ABV and 20 IBUs.”

Servies adds, “Each recipe change brings another hand drawn custom label from the Scarlet Lane Brewing artist Ian Mcvay. The 12-ounce bottle label is designed to hold an autograph of your favorite horror celebrity to display in your collection.”

Servies explains, “Scarlet Lane Brewing got into HorrorHound because we are all horror movie fans and we have a horror movie film director/writer on our staff. He reached out to HorrorHound because they have premiered his movies before. We then sat down together and designed a beer and launched in Indiana during the 2016 convention. That original recipe went to Cincinnati for the 2017 show. We will now take it to Columbus, Ohio for the November convention. [Throughout the year] we continue to promote HorrorHound through the magazine availability in the tap room, we typically show macabre style movies/shows in the tap room, we have HorrorHound fliers and stock the HorrorHound Ale on draft and in bottles during all three conventions.”

A limited number of kegs will be available before and after the event, as well as select locations carrying the 12-ounce 4-packs.

Union Jack’s 5th Annual Pumpkin Fest Grows

“Sept. 30 is the 2017 date and we are expanding, so the name is 5th Annual Pumpkin, Cider and Fall Beer Fest. We are adding ciders and Fall beers this year and moving to Broad Ripple’s Opti-Park, 2-6 p.m.” announced co-owners Jay and Chelsey Wetzel.

“Enjoy the ~40 pumpkin brews plus ciders and fall beers and Seattle-based Elysian's Pumpkin Road Show, making its exclusive Indiana stop at our festival.”

Elysian Brewing Company was founded in 1995; in 2015 they were bought by Annheuser-Busch.

New this year, too, is a Homebrew Competition. Email chelsey@unionjack.pub to enter. First prize is $100 Union Jack Pub gift certificate.

Activities include keg tosses, pumpkin painting, pumpkin smashing.

$35 advance sales; $40 at the door (if still available)

$5 DD (at the door, day of only); 21+; Rain or Shine

Looking ahead: 

Oktoberfest beers are appearing so stop at your favorite spot and again hoist a Marzen in honor of the Oct. 12, 1810 marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig [who became King Ludwig I of Bavaria] to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Because the citizens of Munich were invited to attend the festivities held over five days on the fields in front of the city gates, people the world over ever since have been toasting the royal couple. For the record, King Ludwig I is best remembered as a patron of the arts [including beer] in all its manifestations from architecture to zymurgy.

Wabash Brewing Company, 5328 W. 79th St., is launching their 1st Oktoberfest on Oct. 14, noon - 9 p.m. partnering with Between Brews and Liberation Roasting Co., as the 503 Artisan Project, to support the 24Foundation [Cancer and Diabetes].

Ash & Elm conjures up Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine”

Ash & Elm Cider Company is hosting Indiana Humanities “InConversation” with Jonathan Eller, Oct. 23, at 6:30 p.m. Dr. Eller is Director of the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies at IUPUI, General Editor, Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury and General Editor, The New Ray Bradbury Review

Based on his short story that appeared in the June 1953 issue of Gourmet magazine, Ray Bradbury’s 1957 novel, Dandelion Wine, is a coming of age story about growing up in an early 20th century small town, identifiable as Waukegan, Ill. Aaron Hoymoya is crafting a hard cider based on the novel’s metaphor of looking back at simple joys, one of which is making wine from dandelion petals and citrus fruits.