Bierkultur: Craft beer takes Kirkwood

The Cutters have taken Kirkwood Avenue.

Along with Upland, Bloomington Brewing Company and other craft breweries from Indiana, Cutters Brewing Company has taken over taps at Bloomington’s most popular bars for the collegiate crowd.

At Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, the three Bloomington breweries (Upland, BBC and Cutters) have launched a Battle of Bloomington Beers. It’s a friendly battle between the brewers to see whose beer can run out first.

The Cutters spent $2 Tuesday at KOK, promoting beer and munching on KOK’s finest pub fare. At Scenic View Restaurant, the Cutters gave out a pint glass for every two pints bought, going through just about a whole case.

Wednesday night, they went to Nick’s English Hut for a tap takeover. Along with the usual slate of macros like Guinness and Pabst Blue Ribbon, Cutters served Floyd’s Folly Scottish Ale, Monon Wheat Ale, Lost River Summer Ale and their new Belgian Pale Ale.

Co-owner Monte Speicher   tells me that KOK has a keg of their brand new Sour Brown Ale. I’ve heard good things, so keep an eye out for it.

At Nick’s Hoosier Room, the Cutters, otherwise known as Speicher, his wife Amanda, Ian Hunt and Hayes Cooper, sat with Pete Mikolaitis, a manager at Nick’s, eating stroms and sipping on Belgian Pales and Monon Wheats.

They talked about what’s next for the nanobrewery, the youngest and smallest Bloomington brewery that recently relocated production to a larger space in Avon, Ind.
There’s a double IPA in the works, Monte said, which will be named Full Court to match their Half Court IPA.

Right now they are putting special pin tappings all over town, from The Atlas Ballroom to Yogi’s Grill & Bar. These five-gallon containers are not carbonated but allow the brewers to craft special blends and be creative in flavor blending.

When Mikolaitis pointed out that a large table down the bar had already ordered four pitchers of Cutters — two Belgian pale ales, one summer ale and one Scottish ale — Hunt and Cooper jumped up and headed toward the table.

“We heard you are drinking Cutters,” Hunt said. “Well I’m one of the brewers for Cutters, and we brought you a pint glass and a shirt.”

That’s what the Cutters are up to now. They’re going table to table, bar to bar, introducing new folks to their “Hard Working Beer.” As they expand — Speicher said they hope to be in the Chicago and Cincinnati markets soon — they’ll keep these roots close to heart.

What’s next? “Anything and everything,” Amanda said.

­— cscudder@indiana.edu