Fountain Square Brewing Co.- Winter Warmer

Winter Warmer

ABV: somewhere between 3 and 8 % would be my best guess
IBU: Mid range, I'm gonna say about 40?
SRM / Coloring: Light amber to heavy red

So It's getting cold in Indiana, and then warm, and then freezing, and then wet, and then frozen again.  I truly don't enjoy what global warming is doing with us at the moment.  Forget about the polar bears, I'm just trying to survive at this point.

This flip flopping of the weather has me more confused than Michael Lohan at a PTO meeting, but one thing is for certain, the warm days seem way warmer as a result and the cold days seem way colder.  As such, you're gonna need some beer to meet both ends of the spectrum.  Fountain Square Brewing Company has got you covered for the frigid days, i.e. Monday Wednesday Friday Sunday.

Most of the time with newer anything, whether it's restaraunts or interns or breweries, you gotta give them a bit of time to really work out all the kinks.  It's unrealistic to walk into a place and expect them to be exactly on point when they just recently started business.  Still, with that being said, I wanted to see what the newest Indianapolis brewery had in store for the opening. 

I walked inside and took a quick look at the menu, which consisted of the year round standards of Blonde, Pale Ale, Amber and Porter, but when I asked the guy behind the bar what his favorite was, he recommended the winter warmer most bodaciously.  However, he warned me that it had a unique flavor with hints of spice and fruit, and that most people wouldn't go for it.  Clearly he was oblivious as to whom he was speaking with.

The Winter Warmer is definitely a different twist in the beer world but definitely not in a bad way.  It's a medium bodied Ale with spices of ginger and something else that I couldn't quite put my finger on.  The real kicker though was the hint of rasberry that pulled the beer to the sweeter side on the end.  It tasted like some kind of an exotic cookie, and a cookie that can get you a little bit intoxicated is a win win in my book.

Flat 12 Bierwerks - Glazed Ham Porter

Glazed Ham Porter

ABV: 6.3%
IBU: 34.1
SRM / Coloring: Dark as the night

Everyone typically associates the holiday season with either turkey or ham, that's just the way it is.  Personally our family goes turkey, but the ham is a golden standard that has men and women alike pulling raw slices from a dish and acquiring taco-neck syndrome to reel it all in. 

I saw this and thought there's no way that they were able to put the essence of a glazed ham into a beer.  First off, it would taste awful funky, and secondly, how would you even go about doing it in the process?  Just throw a whole ham into the fermenting tank and let that puppy marinate for three weeks?  My mind was being thoroughly freaked and so I had to try this bad dad out.

This beer is more of a complimentary style to go with while eating ham rather than actually tasting like it.  It's a super dark porter, borderline stout that starts off a bit sweet like brown sugar or caramel, somewhat similar to the glaze on a ham.  Despite all that though it has a smokey flavor added in with a kick of bitterness on the back end as if it were whiskey barrel cask conditioned.  Definitely a winter beer and for those really interested in maxed out taste.

Flat 12 Bierwerks - Nunmoere Black ABA

Nunmoere Black ABA

ABV: dunno
IBU: ugh
SRM / Coloring: Jet Black

I was kind of disappointed in myself on this one.  I got a tweet from Flat 12 about the tapping of their bourbon barrel Nunmoere Black ABA on the tuesday before Thanksgiving, and without reading the tweet fully (which in itself is monumentally idiotic since it's less than 150 characters) I assumed that the tapping was for Black Wednesday.  For those of you who are socially inept, Black Wednesday is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and one of the biggest drinking days of the year.  Everyone comes back in town and wants to go turbo max with old friends before being tied down with the family.

I thought, "Oh what a grand idea, tapping the American Black Ale on black Wednesday," only it wasn't on Wednesday.  The tapping was for black Friday, so I show up at the Brewery for an unveiling and it ain't happening.  No sweat though, there's still beer to be had, and on tap is the original Nunmoere Black so I decided to go at it and give it a review.

I wish I had made it downtown for the bourbon barrel Black tapping because it would undoubtedly be fantastic.  Bourbon barrel aged beers tend to have an oaky / smokey flavor added to the beer which would have complimented the hops and bitter taste of the Nunmoere, just like being next to a bonfire.  However, the regular Nunmoere was somewhat lacking that extra edge and just came off as being dark and bitter with little other character.  This would be a beer to sample alongside the bourbon barrel cousin so you can really notice the difference the barrel adds.

Sun King Brewery - Wee Mac Scottish Ale

Wee Mac Brown Ale

ABV: 5.3%

IBU: 23

SRM / Coloring: Amber / Light brown

For those of you living in the Indianapolis / neighboring area, you've definitely heard of this brewery, and if not you need to get on your game. Sun King is one of, if not the largest brewer in Indy and the only one that actually packages their beers to sell in stores around the area. Their Wee Mac beer is one of their consistent favorites and one that they can, so you can buy it in four packs. I was downtown the other day and dropped in to get a growler, and decided to review this Hoosier beer standard.

This is a Scottish Brown ale, which means that it is going to have little bitterness from the hops and mostly defined by some caramel and malty flavors. It essentially is a more flavorful medium body ale, and a good middle ground beer. Sun King adds toffee into the mix to enhance the malty flavor with a little more edge to it. This would be the place to start for people looking to expand their beer repertoire; it's not a basic pilsner and the malt infusion and toffee flavoring adds complexity to a light / medium body.

Flat 12 - Joe Brahama Brown Coffee Ale

Joe Brahama

ABV: 5.1%

IBU: 28.5

SRM / Coloring: Deep Brown

Honestly they should call this Coffee Bitch Slap Brown Ale. RR and I ran down to the Flat 12 brewery on October 28th for the Bloody Blonde tapping party, which I might add is a fantastic blonde variation (see RR's post for more), but it isn't quite my cup of tea. In the tasting room I asked the guy behind the bar for something darker, to which he said,

"Well we got our standard porter and our milk stout. And then there's our Brahama, but that's pretty intense."

Either he was just giving me fair warning or he was a true salesman trying to peak my interest, at any rate I had to go for it. In the beer world, this would be a middleweight title contender, light in body but with a strong southpaw jab that can put you on your ass. In both smell and taste you get an intense coffee punch to the senses, but it isn't a thick smooth taste like with a porter, it's more of a sharp clean taste almost like an iced coffee. It looks like a porter, it smells and tastes like a porter, but it has the body of a bock or a lager. It's a crisp and cool beer with that strong coffee bite on the front, but instead of the bitter end with a normal cup of coffee you get a smooth sweet after taste which they attribute to infused lactose. Not a beer for the faint of heart or taste, you gotta know you want a strong and flavorful drink.