It has been a few months since we did a brewery update. That happens when things are busy. We had a great summer both at the brewery taproom and out at events near and far. Now with the weather turning to fall we have a slew of new beers coming and some general updates.

We spent the summer installing a new canning line with many new bells and whistles. The main benefit of the canning line upgrade is to continue to stay focused on our ability to consistently make high quality and shelf stable beer in cans as we continue to grow and make more. While it may sound simple and easy to put beer in cans the truth is actually the opposite. With our new canning line in place we are launching some new packaging options in addition to our 16 oz cans that we will continue to offer.

*12 pack/12 oz cans are now available for both our Lift Off IPA & Vacation Kölsch as the taproom. We also made our first shipment of both beers in 12 packs so you should start seeing them at your favorite store. If you don’t see them just ask for your store to add them.

*19.2 oz stovepipe cans are coming soon at the taproom for our Lift Off IPA. These are a great option for many occasions and because they are in cans they can go anywhere. Stay tuned for a release date.

Planned October Taproom Beer Releases

*Oktoberfest: We tap’d our annual Oktoberfest beer recently and we have some 4-pk/16 oz cans in stock while they last. Our Oktoberfest is authentic German lager true to the classic style that delivers a clean, rich, toasty and bready malt flavor with light bitterness for a refreshing crisp and dry finish.

*Negra Mexican Style Dunkel: Released this week! Returning to the taproom on draft and cans next week is our take on the traditional malt-balanced Munich style Dunkel brewed with a Mexican style yeast for a refreshing dark lager.

*Dark Mild: Coming later in October. One of our most popular traditional session style beers returns each fall. A dark brown, malt focused beer with toasty, nutty, caramel, roast and chocolate flavors.

*NEX IPA: Experiment #7: This will be our annual Wet Hop IPA release. This year made with Mosaic Wet Hops and Vic Secret hops. The official release will be on Saturday, October 27th with NEX #7 being available on draft and cans. We will also have a special logo glass and t-shirt release to commemorate the release this year.

Upcoming Taproom Events

*October 12th: Food Truck Friday. Join us as we host a +15 food truck rally in our parking lot + lawn + patio area. This is an all ages event. Our taproom will be open for normal service and we will have an outdoor beer garden + craft cider + live music + bounce houses. Free to attend. Our taproom is open normal hours all day 11-11.

*October 27th: NEX IPA: Experiment #7 Draft & Can Release. Our taproom is open normal hours all day 11-11. Come enjoy our annual Wet Hop IPA release on draft and pick up 4-pk/16oz cans. The featured hops in the release this year are Mosaic (wet hops) and Vic Secret hops. This is a taproom only release and this beer will not see distribution.

Daredevil Hall update. We know there is a lot of interest in the new location we announced in June. As we said then the plan was an opening later in the year and that is still all we can say at this time. We have spent the summer working through the building permit process, the ATC alcohol permit process and starting to hire key new staff as we add this second location. Stay tuned and we will have more news when we have more news.

We have some big news to share this week from the brewery. First, this week we are celebrating the 3rd Anniversary of our Speedway brewery and taproom on Saturday, June 23rd. Please join us for a very fun taplist, live music and a great time. It has been an amazing three years since relocating and it has been very rewarding and humbling to see people enjoy our beers. We make a lot more Lift Off IPA these days and we continue to add capacity to expand our lager offerings and other year round beers. As we approach our sixth year in business we have decided it is time to grow in another way and that is adding a satellite location. That new location will be known as Daredevil Hall and it will be at the Ironworks Hotel Indy, 2721 E. 86th Street, in the Nora neighborhood of Indianapolis. We will be filling the last space at the hotel building and moving into the west end cap ground floor space this fall.

Daredevil Hall will be a taproom and restaurant where guests can enjoy a rotating selection of Daredevil ales and lagers with craft beer inspired food pairings. While the taproom will be 21+ at all times the restaurant will be family friendly until 8 pm daily. In addition to our beers we will also offer a rotating selection of craft cider and wine.

The menu at Daredevil Hall will feature craft beer inspired foods from different regions of the world including Belgium, England, Germany and North America. Joining Daredevil Brewing as a partner in Daredevil Hall and the Executive Chef is Neal Brown. We have worked with Neal for several years as a supplier of craft beer to his different restaurants and we are very excited to get a chance to work with him directly on Daredevil Hall. Like us, Neal brings a passion for sense of place and takes inspiration from authentic and traditional ingredients and methods. 

A lot of you might wonder what does this announcement mean for the brewery and our Speedway taproom. First, for Daredevil it means we are growing our business in a new way. We are creating more jobs both at Daredevil Hall and at the Speedway brewery, as we will be making more beer and providing another place for guests and fans to visit us. The new Daredevil Hall at Ironworks will be a taproom & restaurant – we will not be doing any brewing at that location. All Daredevil beers will continue to be brewed at our Speedway brewery, where we planned ahead and have plenty of room to continue to grow by expanding our existing building. The taproom at the brewery will continue to offer a large, rotating selection of our beers and locally sourced menu the same as we do today.

Look for more information, as we get closer to opening in the fall. We hope to see many of you this Saturday at the brewery for the celebration and the NEX IPA: Experiment #6 draft & can release.

First, thank you to everyone that stopped in on Tuesday afternoon for the Lift Off IPA can release & flash sale. Second, we are sorry there was not enough for everyone that wanted to take part and that we ran out about 4 pm. Yes, that means we sold out in an hour of the 100-ish cases that were available. 

Being in the retail business we like to make everyone happy but unfortunately that is not always possible. We wanted to respond to some of the questions and also share some thoughts for how we can make improvements for any type of can release in the future. 

*We don’t really ever know what to expect for any can releases. We have releases where there is no rush and the beer lasts a few weeks and we have them where a lot of people show up and we sell out the same day. We literally just decided on Monday to do a flash sale and did not know if anyone would go out of there way to stop in on a Tuesday. We obviously underestimated the interest. 

*While we had no limit on the flash sale the average purchase was 1.5 cases. We understand people suggesting we place limits but again when we don’t have a crystal ball to forecast what is going to happen we rarely set limits. The few times we have set limits it’s 2 cases. If we had done that yesterday it would not have changed the short time to sell out. Only four people bought more than 2 cases. 

Future releases. We will explore a way to allow reservations using our online store that would let people pre-purchase and pick-up their beer in a certain time frame. We actually did this for a limited can release two years ago.  This is how we now do most of our keg purchases through our online store (daredevilbeer.com/store). That would let us better forecast interest and for people that have no way of being here when we open a chance to participate. In the end there is only so much available for any release but we do want to give as many people as possible to take part. 

 

Aggressively Fun!

Team Daredevil