Hops festival spotlights Ind. craft beers, microbreweries

Bringing craft beers into public attention is like undertaking the Sisyphus challenge, said Story Inn owner Rick Hofstetter.

“Sisyphus was dedicated for all of eternity to roll a rock up a hill,” Hofstetter said. “If you look at a place like Portland, Ore., half of it is local beers. Or, I grew up in Germany, and every town had its own brewery.”

But most people are unaware of local craft beers in their area, Hofstetter said, which is the main reason behind the second annual Hoosier Hops and Harvest Festival.

Nine Indiana and 11 other breweries featured their drinks at the festival Saturday, offering four-ounce samples and 12-ounce glasses at each table.

From hoppy to malt-heavy, the breweries spotlighted every type of beer.

“I cringe when I see an ad like on the Super Bowl where the quality of beer is somehow equated with how cold it is,” Hofstetter said. “Saying it’s better because it’s cold, you can pass off some pretty mediocre beers.”

Classifying beer as a craft brew depends on how much beer is made at a time, World Class Beverages Sales Manager Bill Jackson said.

“It all comes down to the amount of barrels they’re producing,” he said. “If it’s six million or more, they’re microbreweries. Craft are microbreweries.”

The number of craft breweries in Indiana is approaching 60, Jackson said, with four in the Bloomington area and seven around Indianapolis.

One brewery in Indianapolis, Bier Brewery, sells out of their beer every weekend, Jackson said, because they make such small batches.

Big Woods, a brewery out of Nashville, Ind., opened in November 2009 and has expanded every year.

“We do very small batches of beer, one barrel at a time,” said one of the founders, Tim O’Bryan.

Malt beers are O’Bryan’s favorite style, despite the festival’s promotion of hop-styled brews.

While the company does make an India Pale Ale, a style of beer with an excess of hops, O’Bryan said their most popular brew is the Busted Knuckle Ale.

The pale ale beers have double the ingredients and double the hops, Jackson said.

“It’s like if you’re making soup,” he said. “It’s the seasoning of the beer.”

“Typically the aroma is not going to stand out in really hoppy beer,” he added. “Then you take a drink, and it’s an overwhelming flavor. As the beer travels down your throat, the malt comes through and balances the beer.”

With craft beers making up only two percent of the American beer market, Hofstetter said he hopes the festival puts more craft beers on the radar.

“They can be made in very small batches very creatively,” he said. “I’d like to see beer turn into an art form.”