Wednesday, June 05, 2019

PINTS & UNION PORTFOLIO: The week's beer outlook includes a way to help the Food Literacy Project by drinking beer.


My ultimate goal is to provide updates like this one at the Pints&union website, then disseminate them by e-mail and Facebook links. We're gradually making progress toward making the web site functional in this regard, so until then I'll try to get in the habit of offering brief beer updates here at the blog.

We have ten draft lines, six of which don't rotate (the top two rows in the illustration) and the seventh pouring St. Bernardus Tripel most of the time, although St. Bernardus Abt12 will make an annual appearance in winter.

Consequently three draft lines currently are changeable, although Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier (the standard golden/amber variety) will continue pouring through the end of August, giving away to Oktoberfest come September. For those who favor the Dunkel (dark) version of Weihenstephaner's famous wheat ale, it is available in bottles.

Meanwhile Sierra Nevada Hoptimum is described as a Triple IPA. I took a nip while changing the keg and it fully resembles these remarks:

Our brewers selected the finest, most flavorful hops, pushed them beyond their limits and forged them into this all-new triple IPA. This reimagined Hoptimum is our hoppiest beer yet, providing a blend of tropical and citrus hop aroma that delivers a refined yet aggressive character.

The Akasha Brewing Company crew visited Pints&union last week for the unveiling of Otterburn English Brown, and it's a wonderfully characterful slice of northern English ale insinuation, subtle and quaffable. When Otterburn depletes, there's a partial of Cigar City Maduro Brown waiting to be finished. My muse has yet to inform me what happens after that.

Queued and ready to replace Sierra Nevada Hoptimum is another exciting choice from Central State Brewing in Indianapolis: Honey Bop, a Farmhouse India Pale Ale with honey and sea salt. It's a collaboration with a bar/eatery in Indy.

Inspired by Love Handle's culinary genius in combining diverse ingredients to create the perfect dish, we took a simple base of flaked oats & Indiana malted barley and added orange blossom honey, a touch of sea salt, and a ridiculous amount of Citra and Simcoe Cryo hops.

Here's the list of bottles and cans. Note that Monnik IPA in 12-ounce cans currently is out of stock. We went through two cases in a little over two weeks, which is very good for a pub our size. Even though I seldom drink IPAs these days, Monnik's version is pleasing to me, simple and good: "American IPA featuring only 2 malts and hopped with Centennial, Cascade and Mosaic."



A final note about the new Pint Night Partnership at Pints&union:

Beginning Thursday, June 6 we’re offering a new Pint Night initiative to give back to our community in a more productive way. We’ll be selecting a charity or nonprofit to feature each month and donating a dollar from every regularly priced draft beer sold on Thursday nights. These programs and projects also will have a platform to inform the good people who frequent our little pub.

For the month of June, we’ll be partnering with The Food Literacy Project, which provides farm-based experiential education and entrepreneurial youth development programs that bring the field-to-fork experience to life for local youth.

Folks from the FLP Stewards Program will be here to chat about their farms and programs and will gladly accept any additional donations. Food and cocktail specials featuring produce grown in their fields are in the works. We’re really excited to be helping a good cause and look forward to hearing and tasting all the good things the Food Literacy Project has to offer. Check them out at www.foodliteracyproject.org

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