Brewery Updates & October Taproom Releases & More
And just like that it is October and fall has arrived. We had a great September and enjoyed seeing people out for Indy Jazz Fest and Daredevil Oktoberfest. For those that joined us we hope you had a great time. For those that missed these events both will return next year so plan ahead to join us.
October Taproom Releases
We have several taproom releases coming this month with a focus on wet hops and more double dry hopping. Also, for those that did not get out last weekend for our NEX IPA: Experiment #4 can release we still have those in stock. Like past NEX IPA can releases they tend to sell out quickly so don’t wait around on this one too long.
We know a lot of you had the chance to try our new Galaxy Double Dry Hopped Lift Off IPA on draft last week. What we can announce now is that this is the first in a series of DDH versions of Lift Off IPA that we will be doing regularly at the taproom. This joins our NEX IPA series as mostly taproom only IPAs that we will brew regularly.
Galaxy Double Dry Hopped Lift Off IPA. An amplified version of our flagship Lift Off IPA with an extra round of dry hopping using Galaxy hops. Available now on draft , 4-pack can release is Friday, 10/6. Taproom only. No distribution.
Denali Double Dry Hopped Lift Off IPA. An amplified version of our flagship Lift Off IPA with an extra round of dry hopping using Denali hops. Available around the middle of October on draft & 4-pack cans. Taproom only. No distribution.
NEX IPA: Experiment #5. For this variation of NEX IPA we are using Mosaic wet hops, Citra, Galaxy and Vic Secret hops. This will be more of the soft & pillowy version of NEX IPA for those that keep track (like #1 & #3) vs the more hop resin-forward variations (#2 & #4). Look for this at the end of October on draft and 4-pack cans at the taproom. A small amount of kegs & 4-packs will be distributed at the beginning of November in our distribution footprint across Indiana.
(Note: As always we keep our taproom taplist up to date on our website and on Untappd which are also linked to the Beer List page here on our Facebook page.)
Crawloween on Main & Zombie 5K Return, Oct 27th
Halloween fun returns to Main Street on Friday, October 27th. The 5K fun walk/run is at 7 pm and the official pub crawl to participating establishments on Main Street starts at 8 pm.
Final Bands at the Brewery of the Season, Oct 28th
The downside of an outdoor stage is at some point the outdoor music season ends. This year we are sneaking in a last event for Halloween weekend on Saturday, October 28th. The one and only Kyle Bledsoe will join us for a mix of Blues, Jazz and Americana soulful sounds. The patio will be tented for the holiday weekend of fun.
Upcoming Festivals We Are Attending
* Great American Beer Festival, Denver, Colorado, October 5th to 7th
* Munster Ale Fest, October 14th
* Hendricks County Hoppy Halloween, October 28th
* Broad Ripple Brew Fest, October 28th
Brewery Update & September Taproom Releases & more
The end of the summer has come quickly. If you have been in the taproom recently or a lot this summer get ready for a lot of change coming as we will have many beers rotating off to make room for many beers coming this Fall. Before we get to some taproom releases that we are planning here are some things we have been up to.
New whirlpool added to the brewery
We’ve added a new shiny stainless steel tank to our brewhouse. We bought a dedicate whirlpool vessel a few months ago, but we have been so busy we had to wait to fit in the time for some process tests to take advantage of it. Many of you are asking, “What is a whirlpool?”. A whirlpool tank receives wort from the brew kettle after the boil has completed. This allows the next batch of wort to be transferred from the mash/lauter tun to the kettle with less delay then waiting for a transfer through a heat exchanger to a fermenter. It will save us 45 minutes per kettle flip. The first batch we used the new whirlpool on was our NEX IPA #3 and now we are working on integrating it into our processes for all of our hop-centric beers. With a dedicated whirlpool tank we get more temperature control with hop additions post boil before transferring to a fermenter. We really like the initial results and look forward to utilizing it more.
Hops & Flip Flops Festival wrap up
We had a great turn out this year at the festival. The 5K race saw over 350 people participate this year and the new free Kids 1 mile race had around 50 participants.
For the Craft Beer Festival this year we had perfect weather and a great turn out of around 1000 people this year. The +20 breweries in attendance all had a great time pouring their beers and many came up to us during and after the festival to tell us how much they enjoyed the intimate setting of the festival. The results were that we raised more than $6K for our charity partners. Save the date for next year August 18, 2018.
Video: Kids Fit Hops & Flip Flops 1 Mile Race Start
Photo: Daredevil Brewing Co Hops & Flip Flops 2017
Photo: Daredevil Brewing Co Hops & Flip Flops 2017 Taplist & Tres Tico J.W.P.
Photo: Hops & Flip Flops Glass & Coolie 2017
Indy Jazz Fest comes to Speedway
We are working with the Speedway Lions Club and Speedway Chamber of Commerce to host the Indy Jazz Fest on Main event at our brewery on Friday, September 22nd. The free show will include a family friendly viewing area in as well as a +21 and over area on our lawn and patio area. Feel free to bring your own lawn chair.
More information on our website (http://daredevilbeer.com/events/indy-jazz-fest-hosted-daredevil-brewing/) and Facebook events page.
Save the Date for Daredevil Oktoberfest on September 30th
We are holding a full blown German-style Oktoberfest at the brewery and taproom following the traditional German calendar on the last Saturday of September. All the details are on our website (http://daredevilbeer.com/events/daredevil-brewing-oktoberfest). The event will feature Daredevil German style Ales & Lagers as well as live music by the local band Alpine Express. We will have pretzels, German-style sausages from Claus’ Market. Check out the event page for ways to pre-purchase Daredevil Logo Steins & Boots or even reserve a table and rock Oktoberfest like a pro.
When: 6 to 11 pm, Saturday, September 30th
September Tap Room Draft & Can Releases
If you read this far you will be rewarded with some of the new taproom only draft and can releases. First up, we have two German-style lager releases coming and cans for both for the first time. Daredevil Oktoberfest returns in early September and we will have cans for it and our Dunkel in mid-September. Second or next we have our NEX IPA: Experiment #4 coming on draft and cans in the second half of September. The NEX IPA #4 release will include featured hops of Chinook and Amarillo and we are very happy with how it is coming along. And last we are going to kick-off a new series of double dry hopped beers with Galaxy Double Dry Hopped Lift Off IPA coming out on draft and cans in the last part of September. Look for announcements early for the week that a beer or can release is planned as we usually do releases on Friday at the taproom.
Mid-Year 2017 Daredevil Update
It has been awhile since we last did any long writing on what is up at the brewery and taproom so with the mid-year upon us it seems like a good reason for an update. We also hope everyone has a great holiday weekend. We are closed on the 3rd of July and the 4th of July so our employees can enjoy the holiday with their families and friends
Get Your Hops & Flip Flops 2017 Tickets
It’s only just over a month to our annual Hops & Flip Flops Craft Beer Festival taking place on Saturday, August 19th. Once again there is a 5K race in the morning followed by the craft beer festival in the afternoon. Tickets for the VIP and General Admission sessions are available at the taproom and online. We will once again have a great lineup of beers that are not normally seen at festivals from 25 local, regional, national and international breweries. Don’t miss it.
Recent Accolades
It’s always nice to be recognized for our passion of making craft beer. We recently won two awards in the Can Can Awards, which is an annual competition for canned beers that brings entries from around the globe. This was our first time entering this competition and we were thrilled to see our Brett Project win Gold in the Experimental category and Vacation win Silver in the Kolsch category.
Brewery Business
It’s been a busy first half of the year. The larger part of our overall production (90%-ish) is our wholesale distribution. Lots is happening in the beer industry and we just continue to focus on what we can control, which is making consistently tasty beers people enjoy.
For people wondering what we are distributing you can always find our current beers in distribution posted online. Besides our seeing Lift Off IPA continue to be very popular we also are happy to be able to be able to ship more Vacation Kolsch, Rip Cord DIPA, and Muse Belgian Golden Ale as well as our new special releases hitting distribution for the first time during the this year including Brett Project IPA in January, Race Day American Craft Lager in April and just released our Pils German Pilsner. Keep enjoying our beers and we will keep making more. So far this year we are growing our volume about +40% compared to 2016 so lots more beer. That said we also sometimes are not able to keep up with demand — if your favorite place is out of Lift Off IPA that might be we didn’t ship enough. It also always is just good to ask about our beers if you don’t see them on the tap tower or the menu as that is the best way to tell places you want them to carry our products.
To support demand we also continue to focus on improving both our brewing processes as well as our capacity. On the quality side of things among the investments we have made this year was an upgrade to a new digital microscope.
On the capacity side we added a new JVNW 80 bbl tank in March.
At this point we have been in business coming up on 5 years in total and in June we celebrated 2 years since our move to the new brewery in Speedway. That was fast, crazy at times and mostly good. While we have had some welcome market success, and we are now are one of the larger breweries operating in Indiana we are still a small to medium sized business.
For those that are interested in our brewing capacity we now have 620 bbls. of active fermentation tank space which roughly translates depending on our mix of products to 10,500 bbls. of annual capacity.
Taproom
Our focus at the taproom continues to be to provide a mix of our year round beers, regular releases of taproom only American Pale Ales/IPAs and traditional German, English and Belgian styles that are made using authentic ingredients. At any given time we have 15 to 20 beers on. Right now we have 8 German-Style beers for example including both our Pils German Pilsner and Helles Munich Style Helles in cans.
We also continue to evolve the taproom menu. Our goal with our kitchen is to provide food items that pair well with our beers and that we can locally source. We recently added German-style sausages from Claus’ German Meat Market and the best local all-beef hot dogs from King David Dogs. Again, we are a brewery and not a restaurant, so we also continue to encourage people to carry or order in from local restaurants in addition to offering our menu. If you have a craving from something else to pair with our beer then go for it.
And for those reading the post we will let you know that our next release of our NEX IPA — NEX IPA #3 to be exact– is coming on draft and cans just after the 4th of July holiday. Reading this post is the only way to find out at this time. Specific dates for the draft and can release coming after the 4th of July holiday. We even are adding numbers to the can now for each release. See you soon!
If you read this far – Thank you!
Aggressively Fun!
Shane
