For a growing percentage of the beer drinking population, the days of the brewskis and less than 100 calories beers are a thing of the past.
"People are developing a more sophisticated taste for beer," says customer Jeff Willingham as he sipped a 327 Amber, which he described as having mild hops, a very slight bitter flavor with a smooth finish, at Brickworks Brewing Company in downtown Hobart. "Microbrews and handcrafted beer is exploding, and now even the big breweries like Miller and Budweiser are spinning off with handcrafted beers."
Indeed, when Chuck Krcilek and his partners founded La Porte's Back Road Brewery in 1996, the microbrewery landscape was pretty barren.
"There was Three Floyds, which at the time hadn't moved to Munster yet, and the Mishawaka Brewery in Mishawaka, Indiana," he says.
But times -- and tastes -- changed.
"The craft segment of the market is up 10 percent every year," says Lincoln Anderson, who works in sales and marketing at Three Floyds Brewing. "Bad beer doesn't taste good, and people are figuring that out."
Tom Coster, owner and brewmaster at Brickworks, defines craft beer as "real beer -- pre-prohibition ales and lagers brewed with traditional brewing methods using premium ingredients."
And now, handcrafted beer lovers in Northwest Indiana have multiple microbreweries and a large selection of microbrews from which to choose.
The latest to open is Figure Eight Brewing in Valparaiso. The microbrewery, which opened in March, is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The owners, Tom and Lynne Uban, will have a signature beer along with three or four others that will change with the seasons, and there will be some special edition suds for sale.
"I don't think of the other breweries as competitors," says Back Road's Krcilek. "I think it brings more awareness, people move around, they try the craft beers and they want to try more."
Krcilek describes his house beer, Back Road Ale, as being great for training.
"If you've never had a craft beer and just had beers like Bud, it's a good way to start," he says. "It's not too hoppy and not too malty."
There are seasons for beers, says Steve Mazylewski, brewmaster at Crown Brewery in Crown Point.
"Typically dark beers are winter beers," he says. "Like our Grand Poobah Russian Imperial Stout. It's very thick and about 10 percent alcohol and helped get the Russians through the long winters."
Dark beers pair well with robust foods such as stews, ribs and anything that sticks to your ribs, Mazylewski says. They also pair well with spicy foods like the hot wings served at Crown Brewery, which also uses its spent grain from the beer-making process in making its bread sticks.
Brick Road uses its Amber Pale Ale as an ingredient in its beer-battered fish.
Brickworks uses its robust Potawatomi Porter, with its coffee and chocolate, to pair with hearty foods.
The flagship and No. 1 selling beer at Shoreline Brewery in Michigan City is its Beltaine Scottish Ale, which has won two silver medals in the World Beer Cup.
"This year we think it's going to win the gold," says Mike Fabricant, general manager of Shoreline.
"Nowadays hops are pretty much available year round, but originally they weren't," he says.
While mass-produced beers tend to have simple one-word nicknames -- think Bud, Miller, Coors -- microbrews often have fanciful names as well as a story behind them. Shoreline's Big Bella Heavy Scotch Ale is named in honor of La Porte's early 20th century serial killer Belle Gunness. Crown Brewery's Special Force Ale is named in honor of a U.S. Army Special Forces Ranger.
Fabricant notes that beers have historically been brewed for different purposes.
"India Pale Ales, or IPAs, were made for long voyages overseas," he says.
Shoreline's Sum Nug IPA, which Fabricant describes as "super hoppy with a big malt backbone," is another one of the brewery's signature beers.
The company also has branched out into making barrel-aged beers such as Froggy Loggy Lager, which has been aged in a French syrah barrel, giving it a bubbly wine-like taste.
"We're offered eight different styles of beer aged in bourbon barrels," says Fabricant. "The beer pulls from the oak, which gives it flavor and aroma."
Brewmasters create craft beer recipes.
"We have three brewers who have been brewing for 10 years each, giving them 30 years total of experience," says Three Floyds' Anderson. "It's like a chef. You give Charlie Trotter XYZ ingredients, and he'll create a masterpiece. So do our brewmasters."
When Jeff Willington lived in Germany for 2-1/2 years, he got used to drinking the pure German beers made with only four ingredients -- water, hops, yeast and the grains such as barley, wheat, rice, rye and oats that were used to create a malt.
"That's what the microbrewers are doing here now," says Willington, a diesel mechanic who is also a motorcycle riding course instructor and plays in a rock 'n' roll band. "Making pure beer."
Local Breweries
Back Road Brewery
308 Perry Street, La Porte
(219) 362-7623
Brickworks Brewing Company
327 Main Street, Hobart
(219) 942-2337
Crown Brewing Company
211 South East Street, Crown Point
(219) 663-4545
Figure Eight Brewing
1555 Lincolnway, Valparaiso
(219) 477-2000
Shoreline Brewery
208 Wabash Street, Michigan City
(219) 879-4677
Three Floyds
9750 Indiana Parkway, Munster
(219) 922-3565 or www.3floyds.com
Dark Lord Day
Dark Lord Day will be held April 24 at Three Floyd’s Brewery in Munster. The gates will open at 10 a.m., with the brew going on sale then. Golden Tickets have already been sold for this event, but one is not needed to attend the festivities. Several bands will be performing that day as well.
FYI: darklordday.com
