Happy Holidays!

Hope the season finds you well, in good cheer and full of great beeriness!

Look forward to an announcement and agenda for the January meeting after New Year's.

An Officially Unofficial Meeting this month

December 11th
The Coney
8:00 PM

There will not be a presentation this month, nor a tasting, due to the holiday, but please join us for a casual evening of homebrew-related information sharing and general BS-erie! Oh, and we'll probably have a pint while we're at it!

Any questions, please feel free to e-mail the club at indianabeerclub@gmail.com or check out the forum.

Cheers, and hope to see everyone on Tuesday!!

Dave

Turkey Day!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

Hope today went well for y'all, and that those traveling had/have a safe trip this weekend. Its such a busy season coming up, that we're going to forego an "official meeting" in December, but still have an "unofficial gathering" at the Coney on the second Tuesday of December. Hope everyone can make it to coverse about homebrew and beer in general.

Cheers,

Dave

November Meeting Notes

The Homebrewing Club met last night at The Coney in the upstairs hall at 8pm. Penn St. Nikolaus was freshly on tap and we started the evening with a round of beers. Due to other commitments, there were about five members missing who were present last month. There were no new members at this meeting.

After 15 minutes of socializing, we began the evening's program with a PowerPoint presentation by Bill Dietrich on the basics of extract brewing. Despite the experiences of the many people present, all of us walked away with some new things to think about. That's one of the nice things about brewing - just about every step can be done different ways, and there's a lot of room for personal preference (except, as Bill noted, sanitation ... all of us have to do that step!). It was a great talk. On behalf of the rest of the group, many thanks to Bill for his presentation. And, thanks to Erick Lauber for providing/setting up/running the laptop & digital projector on the Coney's screen.

After the talk, we had a few minutes of lively discussion about a few points of club business. The highlights were:

1. we suggested that the meetings be held the second Tuesday of every month (have to double check with The Coney). This allows us to have a set time every month that is easy to remember, regardless of date, and can be helpful when we advertise.

2. Because of the general hectic air of the holiday season, we will NOT have an official December meeting. There will be several people gathering, I'm sure, but we'll not have a formal presentation or tasting.

3. January's meeting will focus on another tasting and another presentation. Bill Dietrich has a DVD on all-grain brewing which he would like to show ... there are a few people interested in learning what it takes to move up to the next level of brewing.

4. We want to advertise and increase membership! We had a great turn out for the first meeting just by word of mouth and a few fliers. Let's up the ante. Talk to your friends & relatives, coworkers. Let's put some fliers at the local homebrew supply stores. We're going to look at radio ads and maybe an article/ad in the Gazette, too. Surely, there are more folks out there!

5.The first club 'goal' or competition, if you will, is going to be "Febtoberfest". The original framework for this comes from Dave Juart, and though it was modified a bit at the meeting, the premise remains the same: everybody brew something to be ready by February. We will then organize a special event (a weekend?) where everyone (and a guest?) will bring their brews to share. We can do some food pairings or have general appetizers, for example. We might ask a local brewer to come and 'judge' the entries and have a small prize for the winners, for example. We'll keep everyone posted, but in short we want to have a yearly event to call our own; one that promotes homebrewing and gets all club members involved.

After those few points of business, we got to the tastings:
1. Double Dub Bull Dubbel, an extract Belgian dubbel from Jon Defibaugh
2. Heavy Hefe, an extract pseudo-Weizenbock by Dave Juart
3. Not So Pale Ale, an all-grain dark pale ale (patent malt) from Bill Dietrich
4. Dry-Hopped Pale Ale, a dry-hopped extract from Jon Southard
5. Quad D's Deep Creek Porter 2007, extract from Dave Juart
6. Commonplace Coffee Porter, an all-grain porter flavored with Sumatran Mandheling coffee extract (from Commonplace) by Nate McElroy

Once the tastings were done, a few stuck around for a last round at the bar and to 'clean up' the remaining appetizers (Tuesday's is BOGO on the appetizers!).

All in all, another great meeting.

Meeting Reminder

Just a reminder (and an invitation) that our second meeting will be Tuesday, November 13 at 8pm at The Coney (642 Philadelphia Street). Join us for conversation, homebrew tastings, and a talk on the basics of extract brewing by Bill Dietrich.

See you there!

First Meeting Goes Great!

What a response!

I think I speak for the four organizers when I say we were very pleased with turnout. Last count had more than twenty people in attendance, all very enthusiastic about brewing. It was a great start, for sure.

Next meeting is November 13th, mark your calenders.

Inaugural Homebrew Club Meeting

That's correct! We are going to have our inaugural meeting at The Coney on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at 8pm. Come one, come all interested in homebrewing. Our flier will be posted at various locations in town, and we'll be spreading the word as much as possible.

At the moment, we're not sure how many people may show or what the interest/experience level will be, but there's only one way to find out!

P.S. - A huge thanks to Jon for creating the flier!!!

Homebrewers Club Forum Now Online

That's right .. the Indiana Beer Club, which is really going to turn into more of a Homebrewers Club, now has a discussion forum for its members.

Join us at:
http://indianabeerclub.hyperboards.com/.

The inaugural meeting is coming soon! Details will be posted shortly.

It's That Time Again - Oktoberfest!

Keep an eye out at our locals - time again for the Oktoberfest beers to start showing up. Those wonderful malty, subtle lagers that can showcase the talents of the brewer.

In our own backyard, I know that the Coney has just tapped Penn Oktoberfest ('cause I had the first pint of it!). They'll not be running Sam Adams' version this year, in favor of the Boston Lager. You'll find Victory's Festbier in bottles at Sudsy's, too, and many others should start popping up.

Prost!

That Voodoo That You Do

A decent little article about Voodoo Brewery from the Post-Gazette.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07256/816952-34.stm

Dead Reckoning Coming to Town

Tröegs Dead Reckoning Porter will be arriving at the Coney on Saturday, Sept. 1. It'll be nice to have a porter on tap! Oops, my mistake! It's coming, but it's in bottles.

Goodbye Mr. Jackson

As reported in tons of other beer-related places, beer guru Michael Jackson, author of the first beer book I ever owned, passed away this morning. If ever there was someone for whom to raise a glass, it'd be Mr. Jackson.

The Move Toward A Homebrewing Club

The summer has been difficult in terms of all getting together for an organized tasting, and as many may have noticed - we really haven't been sticking to the first Tuesday of each month.

The focus for the past several months has been on homebrewing, and we've brought a few more people into the fold. Jason & crew brewed their first batch (with supervision from Nate) of beer, a Franziskaner clone. Eli brewed his first batch in early Spring and is getting ready for another one. Jon finally did a batch last month (looking forward to tasting!). Nate is on his 5th of the year. And the latest member, Dave, is going hog wild with extract brewing. Since April, he has brewed at least 6 or 7 batches, and has gotten a couple more people interested.

That said, it may be time to think about organizing an actual homebrew club, one that is officially recognized. Of course, the rub is that I don't think any of us has actually been in an official homebrew club. We're putting some feelers out to see what's involved, pros and cons, etc. As we grow, we'll most likely need to get a lot more organized than we have been, but I know a certain local publican that would probably enjoy having us meet at his establishment :)

That said, keep in touch. We'll most likely keep the blog site running, even if we change the name of the 'club'.

July tidbits

The Coney still has a couple of Troegs offerings .. get that Sunshine Pils while it lasts, since it will soon be replaced by Newcastle Brown Ale. The Penn Weizen has been pouring for a few weeks, and it's an extremely good batch this year for those of you who enjoy German Hefeweizen. Nice and yeasty!

Have you been to Rivertowne yet? If not, why???

Also, Scott's been keeping the taps open at East End, and a few weeks ago brought out the Smokestack Porter. Get a bottle while they last!

A few more people are interested in homebrewing! If this keeps up, we might have to start a real club!

Keep in touch.

Rivertowne Pour House

For those who get to Monroeville or want an excuse to get to Monroeville, the Rivertowne Pour House is now open. With two great brewers (formerly of John Harvard's and Johnstown Brewery) working together to keep 14-18 taps flowing, there's good news pouring just an hour from Indiana.

Nice menu, great service. Check it out!

Action Alert!

Via Lew Bryson:

Want to buy smaller quantities at distributors and larger quantities at take-out shops?

PA Senate Bill 674, which proposes allowing beer distributors to sell 12-packs, and taverns to sell up to 3 six-packs. Pathetically incremental, I know, but it's a start. Please e-mail your PA Senator (you can easily do it here) and ask them to vote for Senate Bill 674. This bill will not affect consumption (it lets you buy LESS beer), it will not allow supermarket sales, it will not affect underage drinking. It is a convenience for citizens, that's all.

Here is a Post-Gazette article on the bill as well as a link from which you can write your legislators.

Is Voodoo Open?

If we're to read Lew Bryson's Seen Through A Glass" correctly, it looks as though Voodoo Brewery in Meadville is open?

Sounds like an IBC road trip is in order soon for Voodoo, Sprague Farms, and North Country Brewing.

Amici's Restaurant & Pizza

Just a quick notice .. for those who've not been to Ebensburg lately, you should check out Amici's Restaurant. It's on the main drag in downtown, where the Valley Dairy used to be. A small but varied Italian themed menu, nice atmosphere (white linen tablecloths), and medium pricey for the area. What was most surprising for this place was the beer selection. Amici's has 14 taps and many bottles. On tap last Friday were (among others) Anchor Steam, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (it's much different than the bottled version), Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, Brooklyn Atwerp Ale (a lighter Belgian ale), and a few other PA micros. On hand were also Stella Artois, Yuengling, Bud Light, and Guinness.

The April Gathering

Yes, we're still active, despite few posts and comments on this blog!

This has been a busy month for most of us. Between the semester coming to a close at IUP and the onset of good weather (that means yard work and just getting outdoors!) it's been difficult to get people together for a weekday evening.

This month, just a few of us (Nate, Jon, Lacey, Karl, Eli, and newcomer Jason) met on Tuesday, April 17 for a small tasting. Jon and Lacey provided a 2005 and 2006 Stone Old Guardian, and Nate provided the 2007 for a nice little vertical tasting. Old Guardian is a very nice barley wine and it gets better with age. The 2005 was smooth and warming. Definitely one to buy and put to sleep for a few years in the cellar.

Jason brought a few Bells Oberon Ale and Nate provided a few Troegs Dream Weaver Wheat, so we sampled a few nice wheat beers. Nate also had a bomber of Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA, which was alright but not a total crowd pleaser.

Eli treated us to his first batch of homebrew, and ESB which he coined an ESC (extra special corn). Admittedly, the beer had a few flaws (Eli criticized his own work most harshly, as most of us homebrewers do), but it looked great, had a thick, rich lacing head, and was well carbonated and free from infection. It turned out better than Nate's first homebrew years back, for sure. But that's the joy and frustration of learning a new hobby. We look forward to more from Eli!

May's meeting will be on the 1st or 2nd - not sure of the location or theme yet, but we'll send information soon.

The Coventry Inn Is Open

Stopped up tonight to check out the Coventry Inn. Place was packed, which was good to see on opening night. The menu is small, but hopefully the food will be good.

As far as the beer ... there are five taps: Guinness, Bass, Newcastle, Augustiner (Pittsburgh Brewing), and Labatt. Bottle selection is all American macro, lights, and then Sam Adams and SNPA. No British bottled. Disappointing for a "British pub". The bar is nice, however, and I didn't feel like I was in Indiana. Smoky, though.

Coventry Inn To Open

According to last night's Gazette, the Coventry Inn on North 6th Street will open its doors again on April 12. There will be limited but regular hours: Thu.-Sun. 4pm-11pm. Dinner reservations are highly recommended, but the bar area is always available.

I'm hoping that they'll have some interesting English beers!

How To Pronounce Some Beers

Since we like to promote all types of good beer here at the IBC - which includes tasting as many as possible - I found an interesting link that has a brief pronunciation guide for some of the trickier Belgian styles/names.

Beers have little .wav files that allow you to hear the pronunciations in English, Flemish, and French.

Enjoy!

Ironwood Sightings

Stopped at the Ironwood tonight. Be on the lookout for Weyerbacher Quad, DFH Panagaea, and some Yards selections.

Also, Hacker-Pschorr and a few Stoudts sixers are on 'clearance' (i.e. $1 off), so get that Fat Dog Stout while it lasts.

Coney's March Line-Up

For those who frequent the Coney (or not), there are a few new selections on draught.

First, the Penn Brewery tap has been switched to the Maerzen - it must be Spring! The St. Nikolaus is gone for another year.

Two new taps replaced Sam Adams Cherry Wheat and the Moosehead. They are Magic Hat #9 (Magic Hat) and Troegs HopBack Amber Ale (Troegs Brewing). Both of these and the Penn are $4.50 for a 20 oz.

This month's bottle selection (in addition to left over DFH 60 Minute IPA & Shelter Pale Ale, and Troegs Nut Brown) are Church Brew Works Celestial Gold (Church Brew Works) and Bell's Amber Ale (Bell's Brewery), both for $3.75.

March Beer Club Meeting Notes

Well, due to low RSVPs, we only had six people at tonight's meeting (hosted by Nate). It worked out well, however, and it was an enjoyable evening. Perhaps March is a busy time for many people, or perhaps Tuesday night is not good for some. Attendees were Nate, Eli, Jon, Lacey, Tom W., and Karl.

Jon & Lacey brought some excellent cheeses from the Cheese House? (shop?) on Rt 22, including an aged Provolone, a Dubliner, Gruyere, and an awesome Norwegian Goat Cheese.

The beer selection for the evening included nine beers:

*Weltenburger Asam Bock (Germany), a doppelbock [Tom W.]
Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza (MI), a biere de garde [Nate]
Victory V Twelve 2005 (PA), a Belgian strong ale [Jon & Lacey]
Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo Especial (MI), a Belgian strong ale [Jon & Lacey]
Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout (VA), a stout [Eli]
Samuel Smith Winter Welcome Ale (England), an English strong ale [Tom W.]
*Dogfish Head Shelter Pale Ale (DE), an American pale ale [Tom W.]
Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale (CA), an American strong ale [Nate]
Lindemans Cuvee Rene (Belgium), a gueuze lambic [Karl]

* denotes beer available in Indiana; remaining available in Pittsburgh.

No disappointments tonight - all the beers were spot on. The Jolly Pumpkin ales were a particular treat, as they closely resemble true Belgian ales though brewed in Michigan.

Thanks to everyone who brought beer!

Hopefully, more people will be able to make the April meeting.

Cheers,
The Indiana Beer Club

Confusion at The Coney

Well, I don't know who dropped the ball here, but I have to say that the Coney beer sampling was not as advertised by someone.

I showed up at 9pm, only to be told the beer tasting wasn't going to be until 10 or 10:30 ... NOT the 9-11pm stated by the Vecenie email. Apparently, tonight was poker night in the VIP room, and they don't finish until 10 or so. Vecenie reps hadn't even shown up yet.

My apologies to all those who showed up around 9pm (like me), but that's the information we were given. Apparently The Coney beer tastings are aimed at the college crowd, since I can't see many of our members showing up at 10:30 on a Thursday night (and having to pay a cover, to boot) to try 3 or 4 beers.

Let's hope for better next time.

Coney Craft Beer Sampling?

Just got the Vecenie beer news email - lo and behold, there's a Craft Beer Sampling scheduled at The Coney. Next Thursday, March 1, from 9-11pm. No details available on the Coney website yet.

I'll post more details as they come in. Hopefully, we will see some of you there.

UPDATE: At least two of the 3-4 beers will be Church Brew Works products. I was told the event is free and will be held Upstairs (in the nice bar).

We are still beer... er, here.

Despite how it seems here, the Club did not fall apart after the Gazette article. I think we've all just been a tad busy.

Me, I'm getting ready to brew my first batch of homebrew tomorrow night, so I've been busy planning, stressing and thinking about good brewery names and logos. You know, the important stuff.

We had a pretty good response to the article and I think things are going to just keep picking up. As the weather warms and winter goes away for a little while, I think we'll have more things planned beyond our meetings.

Speaking of meetings, we've not yet decided on a beer style/theme or meeting place, so if anyone has any ideas, please speak up or drop us a comment.

Lets try this instead, the Gazette article in digital form.

Here is the Indiana Gazette article that Nate posted on. Now, after some tweakery, it's readable. You'll have to click on it to get the big version, but you'll definitely be able to read it.

Good Gazette Article This Morning

That was a nice article by Bill this morning in the leisure section. I wish there would have been more homebrewing than wine making ;) but hopefully the plug for this blog and the club will help us grow and raise awareness about craft beer.

If an electronic version of the article ever comes available, we'll post the link.

To those who found us by reading the Gazette article - Welcome!

Ironwood Grill's New Bar Is Open

Visited the Ironwood tonight and checked out their new bar. Full report can be found here, if you're really interested.

I encourage everyone to check it out (the bar, not my review) and give your opinion in the comments below. I think it's good that local bars are taking up the challenge of providing a place for craft beer drinkers to enjoy a pint or two. Whether or not they'll garner a lot of business from our unique niche of customer base remains to be seen - as we tend to be a bit more savvy when it comes to beer purchasing.

The beer tastings at the Ironwood should start in April and run on the first Tuesdays of each month (what a happy coincidence for the club!). Perhaps we can assemble en masse for April's meeting and share our thoughts while sampling some new beers.

Beer Club coverage in the Post-Gazette.

Ok, its not our Club, but any coverage on clubs devoted to the appreciation of good beer can't be a bad thing.

As they describe it, the new group is all about exposing people to different, good brews.
"We're not people who know everything," Mr. Sunderman says. "We're just common guys who like beer."

That sounds a tad familiar.

February Club Meeting Notes

First of all, a big thanks to Jon and Lacey for hosting last night's meeting and for providing food and some good beers!

We almost tripled our 'membership' last night, with 11 people and we hope that our new guests will continue to join us. Welcome to TJ, Todd, Pete, Erick, Mark, Steve, and Carl and thanks for bringing a wide array of beers for us all to try.

Last night's lineup was quite varied, but considering the limited selection in town it would have been hard to stick to Belgian ales!

We sampled:
*Hoegaarden Witbier (Belgium), a Belgian white
*Victory Golden Monkey (PA), an abbey tripel
St. Feuillien Tripel (Belgium), an abbey tripel
Unibroue's Seigneuriale (Canada), a Belgian strong/dark
Southampton Biere de Garde (NY), a biere de garde
Lindemans Cuvee Rene (Belgium), a gueuze lambic
*Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (DE), an India pale ale
East End's The Ugly American (PA), an abbey tripel
*Stone Ruination IPA (CA), a double IPA
*Stone Arrogant Bastard (CA), an American strong ale
*Guinness Extra Stout (Canada), a dry stout
Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere (MI), a saison

*denotes beers available in Indiana; majority of others found in Pittsburgh

To find out more about these styles and their characteristics, you can check out the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) Style Guidelines. To find out how these beers are judged by the average beer lover, you can search for them at either RateBeer or Beer Advocate.

Many of our guests got to try some really good stuff that they probably hadn't had before. Many were surprised by the Cuvee Rene, as gueuze lambics aren't really well known around here. Some were surprised to find that they really enjoyed a heavily hopped beer, like the Stone beers and the DFH 60-Minute. Spread the word!

The only disappointment in the line up was the Southampton Biere de Garde. A couple of us felt that it was off, with a lot of DMS (dimethyl sulfide) and buttery notes. Those of us who keep notes on the beers we try didn't bother to record this one, since it would have been unfairly judged. Better luck next time.

In all, I think everyone enjoyed the evening. The company was varied by age, profession, and interests, but everyone seemed to appreciate the beer. Great side discussions on music, travel, and coffee, too! We hope to see everyone next month and we'll provide details in the coming weeks for theme and location of March's meeting.

Cheers!

Meeting tonight!

The 2nd meeting of the Indiana Beer Club will be held tonight, at Jon's house.

We decided to have this meeting be an invite-only sort of thing, to sustain growth rather than explode, but more so because no one really knows about the club other than the people we have talked to ourselves. I think we're looking at around 10 or so folks.

The original theme for tonight was going to be Belgian Pale(ish) Ales, of any form, sort of steering clear of getting into quads. However I'm bringing a French style beer (Ok, its fairly close in relation...) on request, Nate's bringing an IPA-Tripel fusion, and based on what we have in town for other folks to pick up (I'm just assuming most folks didn't go out of their way to get beers) its going to be a tad more diverse. I did a quick survey yesterday at Ironwood, options include:

Bell's
Winter White

Celis
Grand Cru
White

Dogfish Head
Pangaea - Belgian golden - 750ml
Raison d'Etere - Belgian Strong Dark - 6pk

Weyerbacher
Merry Monks - Triple - 6pk

Victory
Golden Monkey - Triple - 6pk and 750ml

Uncle Sudsy's has pretty much same beers, with the notable addition of Bell's Hell Hath No Fury, available by the 6pk.

A range of pretty decent to excellent offerings all, so I'm not too worried. It will be a good time, for certain.

Speaking of events...

Seems like we may have a good one for April 28, but until then, here's a quick look at what's coming up soon:

Pack your bags and get your traveling shoes, its the Northwestern PA Brewery Tour. Okay, its only one day, but its packed. Organized by the Brewerie. February 17th:

...a tour and sampling of 5 area micro breweries including: The Brewerie at Union Station, Erie Brewing Company, Sprague Farm and Brew Works in Venango, PA, North Country Brewing in Slippery Rock, PA and a sneak peak at Voodoo Brewing Company that will be opening soon in Meadville PA.

Did I just read sneak peak? Sounds fun!


That same weekend is Kelly's 'Hell with the Lid Off' Barleywine Festival. I believe its the third year for this event, and don't owrry you can do this and the bus tour, since this year its two days. Saturday and Sunday.

Picture a room, filled with 60 of your fellow GOOD BEER fans, fully stocked with a beer friendly buffet, and - if all goes as planned, a total of 35 barleywines (including verticals).

Yoiks!

Coney to Host a Beer Event!

Yes, you heard me correctly. I spoke with Tim McQuaide tonight, and The Coney will be hosting a beer event with some regional distributors and hopefully some microbrewers on Saturday, April 28 (Upstairs). More details will be posted as they become available.

Also, Tim mentioned that he may get a van together to go to the Seven Springs BrewSki Festival the weekend of March 23-24.

February's microbrewed bottles at The Coney are: Victory Hop Devil and DFH Shelter Pale Ale. St. Nikolaus Bock is still the Penn Brewery draft selection.

Good or Bad?

Today for the first time, a Sheetz in Altoona (the big one on 17th St.) will be allowed to sell beer to the public. The article can be found here. Will this be a good thing for promoting craft beer or not?

I guess it depends on their selection, first of all, then there's going to be the media attention (good/bad), and of course, the outraged handful of citizens in the minority whose 'rights' always seem to supercede the will of the majority. For example, these guys.

Another local beer club.

Well, the club is based in Pittsburgh and meets at D's Six Packs and Dogs in Regent Square, but so what?

Take a look at the Pittsburgh Beer Society

They meet the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month at D's. There are no annual dues; membership is open and free! Cost for each meeting (for now) is $10 for (6) 4oz samples.

Check 'em out if you're local to them.

Site Updates

I've taken the liberty of integrating the Google Calendar feature (its over there on the right) onto the website so folks can see whats coming up. It will always have our monthly meetings, plus local and regional good beer events. Please submit events, I'll be happy to add them.

If you have any other suggestions, let me know, in the comments or via email.

WQED's Dave & Dave Visit East End

For those who watch WQED (public channel 13 from Pittsburgh), Dave & Dave's Excellent Adventure show will be airing on Tuesday, January 30 at 7:30pm - during the show they'll visit East End Brewing in Pittsburgh and talk with Scott.

Might be a good show to tape and watch on Wednesday when I'm making a batch of homebrew!

Homebrewing Article in the Gazette

Keep your eyes open! Sometime soon (more details as they become available), the Indiana Gazette is having a Sunday Leisure section article on homebrewers and home winemakers in Indiana Co. We hope this will attract more people to the hobby in our area and raise awareness about good beer and wine.

Indiana Beer Club - Read This First

Welcome to the Indiana Beer Club!

Whether by personal invitation or from reading about us in the Indiana Gazette article, you have found our club blog - the place to get news and share thoughts about beer and the beer scene in western Pennsylvania.

The club was started in January 2007 by Jon, Lacey, Eli, and Nate. All of us have a passion for good beer, and we hope you do, too. The purpose of the club is to gather monthly as a social outlet (clubs should be fun, no?) but with a focus on craft beer in our homes and our communities. We are not a drinking club, per se, although we do enjoy drinking beer at the meetings - but rather, we hope to share our passion and collective knowledge about beer with those who are interested in learning more about this ubiquitous drink. If you are simply interested in drinking copious amounts of pale, fizzy lagers or finding a new place to get sloppy, then our club will most likely not meet your expectations.

Each meeting will strive to have a theme. As our group grows, we will probably have to switch from meeting in members' homes to meeting at local pubs. Starting out, each member brought a beer or two to share with everyone that he/she hoped hadn't been tried before in a particular style: Belgian ales, stouts, or IPAs, for example. As we expand, we'll most likely try to keep this type of theme, or sample several beers from a particular brewer. Depending upon the meeting place, we may or may not be able to bring our own beer - but rather coordinate with the publican to supply us with specific products.

Some members simply wish to try something new, whether a style or brand, and leave it at that. Some members keeps detailed notes on the beers they drink, in order to improve their knowledge and make recommendations to others. Whatever your preference, we can assist!

We encourage homebrewers to join our club. Several members have brewed or wish to learn, and it's usually more fun to have some help and conversation when brewing up a batch! We also like to share our homebrews with other members, and they really enjoy it.

When interest is high, we will try to facilitate organized trips to local beer festivals, such as the State College Microbrewers Festival and the Penn Brewery Festival. Our blog calendar will list several beer-related events in the region, and we hope that people will take advantage of them.

The rest? Well, for the time being there are no dues. When meeting, you'll be expected to BYOB - enough to share a small taste with everyone. Unless it's the theme for the evening, we discourage malt liquors and the macrobrewed lagers such as Bud, Miller, Coors, Yuengling, Molson, Labatt (well, you get the point) and their associated lite/light versions. If we meet at a pub, you're expected to pay your own way - for organized tastings, we'll try to get a list of attendees and figure out the lowest 'fee' for the meeting so that everyone gets their fair share.

Feel free to leave comments in the blog posts or to contact us at indianabeerclub@gmail.com.

We look forward to meeting you and sharing good beer and good conversation. Cheers!

Up And Running

The Indiana Beer Club now has a blog!

If you found this site, it was probably because one of us told you about it.

Started by a few beer geeks in Indiana, PA, the club is a select, hand-picked group of men and women who enjoy craft beer. We get together once a month to share and taste beer from around the block and from around the world. Our ultimate goal is world, er, town domination over all things beer! We hope to have publicans coming to us for suggestions about their tap lists. We hope to have the distributors and bottle shops ask us to run tastings and spread our vast wealth of knowledge about and passion for beer.

We seek not to eradicate the pale fizzy American lager from our local college hangouts, but rather stick them in a small dark corner where they belong - in the shadow of real beers with character. We are malty educators and hops evangelists. We rue the shelf space taken up by 40's of malt liquor and seek to replace them with bombers of impy stouts and magnums of saison. We look forward to the day we can walk into our own brewpub downtown.

So - welcome to our blog. Please join us in the wonderful world of malt and hops, yeasts and spices. Spread the word.

Drink quality, not quantity.