Goose Island

Every December since 2008, we've looked back at all the beers we reviewed during the year so we can pick our top beer of the year. This year, we used the same basic ranking system that we've used in previous years, under which we've ranked our top five beers with the option of also listing beers under "honorable mention." To decide our beer of the year, we awarded 5 points to a first place vote, 4 points for a second, 3 for a third, 4 for a fourth, 1 for a fifth, and 0.5 for an honorable mention.

Jake: Not sure if all of you have seen the press release in the Chicago Tribune, but John Laffler [one of Goose Island's barrel-aging brewers] is leaving Goose Island to start his own deal with the former cellarman [Dave Bleitner] from Two Brothers.

Apologies for my brief absence from the blog while other aspects of life got in the way. I’ll try to make it up with a bit of news and some extended ponderings near the end. As if the tryptophan wasn’t enough to put you in coma already…….

There is a full slate of beer events to look forward to this Saturday headlined by the annual Festiv-Ale beer tasting event in Indianapolis and New Albany’s inaugural Indiefest, to which The New Albanian is contributing the Southern Indiana Craft Beer Showcase.

This past weekend was the Beer Blogger's Conference 2012, where over 100 beer bloggers from around the nation, and even a few from over seas, flocked to Indianapolis - this year's chosen city. We gathered from Friday night through Sunday afternoon for education, networking, and of course - drinking.

If I had only known what laid in store for me that weekend, I may have cut back days before, but certain opportunities can not be missed when scrumptious beer is available.

And thus it begins --

Wednesday --

Voting is currently in progress to get your city on the ballot for the fourth annual BeerCity USA award. You can head over and vote for Indianapolis or write-in your hometown. I’m sad to report that when I voted we were getting trounced by several cities including…..ugh…..Cincinnati.

Some of the best Hoosier Beer Geek content never makes it to the site, as we regularly have very lengthy email conversations about any number of topics going on in the world of beer. Here is one such example.

So Goose Island is saying that they'll be making bourbon county stout year-round.

This Saturday the Melody Inn in Indianapolis combines two things I tend to enjoy - Triton beer and punk rock. Triton will be debuting their line of bottled beer along with some specialty beers starting at 9:00. Music starts at 10:30 and features the psychobilly romps of Detroit’s Koffin Kats. The sitter is lined up and I’m ready to roll!

We decided to dedicate this roundtable to the classic American craft beers. As part of my mourning process, I have decided to dedicate my review to the classic Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning.

So this weekend brings us some basketball tournament thing and the always popular St. Patrick’s Day. Flat 12 and the Elbow Room have your back with festivities including a special Flat 12 Irish Amber (?), food, and parade viewing. Upland taps their Ard Ri Imperial Red tonight at the Indy Tasting Room.