Beer Review: Indio

Well, after I announced I wasn't going to do beer reviews I got a bunch of emails stating that I should continue.  Okay, okay, enough with the begging.  Here ya go.  I enjoyed writing this one.

So recently a company sent me some samples of a beer named Indio.  I will admit this label kicks some serious ass.  I am one of those beer drinkers that enjoys an awesome label.  Honestly it's how I first started buying my beer.  I went by the label.

Indio, according to the press release, has been "brewed and sold in Mexico since 1893".  Looks like they were recently acquired by Heineken USA and apparently they crunched some serious numbers and found out that "there are five million multicultural millennial consumers in the U.S. who are characterized as confident, self-expressive and receptive to new ideas and ways of living".  I have no idea what any of this means.  I don't know what "multicultural millennial consumers" are.  I guess they mean young Hispanics since they later go on to say that is their target audience.

So, um, I have a question here before I get into the review of the beer.  I'm no cultcha expert but isn't the term Indio a negative one?  I thought it was a racist/classist term to describe indigenous people in Mexico?  Perhaps someone with more knowledge could answer that one for me.

Here is my review:

The taste is...typical of a mass produced lager with darker malts being used.  Tastes a lot like every other "dark" beer I've had coming out of Mexico.  It's a bit like a Corona with caramel flavoring added.  I guess it's not horrible.  It ain't great either.  However, I bet it's MUCH safer than drinking the water in Mexico!  Montezuma's Revenge or Indio?  I choose Indio every time!

Score:  1 1/2 Buddhas


 

We've Come A Long Way Baby!

                          Stolen from somewhere on the internets

This week The Ale Runner announced and then confirmed the rumor that we will be seeing Southern Tier enter the Louisiana market.  Looks like a possible May release.  We also know about New Belgium entering the market this week as well.   And of course I still think Lagunitas will be making an appearance this year.  I could be wrong and have no sources to back that up but it makes sense considering it's in Texas and Florida.

All of this is pretty wild.  When I started this blog five years ago(yeah FIVE years ago) I remember getting excited about Harpoon coming to town and we were super pumped about that new brewery opening up in New Orleans.  What was it called again?  Oh yeah, NOLA Brewing.  And there was this bar that was working on changing from a "dive bar" to a craft beer bar!   Look at Avenue Pub now!  Man, how things change.

At the first beer tasting we threw there were only like 6 people there.  Hell, I couldn't make it because of work.  Now when we throw a tasting we can have anywhere from 40-100 people.  We used to be super excited when someone brought Stone Brewing beers as well!  Crazy.

Our distributor situation back then was stupid.  I used to complain regularly on this blog about how they weren't doing enough to bring in craft breweries or promote them.  Now?  They all have their own special little craft beer division with major players from the craft beer market as employees.  Like craft beer A-Teams.

We've come along way since I started The Beer Buddha.  I originally started the blog as a way to learn more about craft beer but also promote the craft beer industry in what I considered a craft beer desert at the time.  Obviously times have changed and I feel my mission has changed as well.  I feel now my purpose is not only to keep promoting craft beer in New Orleans but also to keep the craft beer scene in check.   We can't allow those who want to take us into the world of craft beer douchebaggery to do so.  They are out there and they are trying.  I see it often.  Many of us have worked hard to help this craft beer scene grow and we also worked hard to keep the douchebaggery out of it as well.

Beer douchebaggery may work fine in cities like Portland, San Diego, Boston or Philadelphia but New Orleans isn't large enough to handle it.  We are a small city and we have a new and  fragile scene.  Douchebaggery could hurt it.  It could turn away new people who may be interested in trying craft beer.  We need more craft beer drinkers.  The more we have the better the scene will become.  Being a douche and acting like craft beer is some sort of hipster inner circle club just hurts us.  Those of you being beer douches be ready cause I'll keep ya in check!



 We've come a long way since those early days.  It's been a fun journey and it will continue to be fun!  New Orleans is slowly becoming a beer meccha for the South.  We have some work to do but it's definitely coming around!

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

PS Please note I have no idea if those cities I named are beer douchebag cities.  I named them because they are large enough beer cities to handle beer douchebaggery.

New Orleans International Beer Festival: The Day After

                                     Stolen from NOIBF Facebook page.

Okay, so it's the day after the New Orleans International Beer Festival and I have been able to do some thinking of my own and reached out to other folks who were there.  I feel the easiest way for me to write this is in a The Goods and The Bads format.  It was a fun event but I feel that there could be some changes made that would make it that more amazing.  I will start by saying this is a FOR PROFIT event.  They purchased the majority if not all of their beer.  They need to make money and there is nothing wrong with that.  That being said here are the goods and bads:

The Goods

1. Nice selection of beer.  When someone like myself can find beer that I have never sampled before that's a good thing.  Some of those beers:  Chafunkta, Evil Twin, Anchorage, Emelisse-Stillwater, Hof Ten Dormaal, New Planet.
2. A great focus on local beer.  Loved this part of it.  They had 4 tents/gardens named after localish breweries:  St. Arnolds,  Parish, Covington, Bayou Teche.  Not sure why St. Arnolds gets one but NOLA doesn't but my guess is this was a distributor thing as all 4 of those breweries are Southern Eagle beers.   Really enjoyed Bayou Teche's section.  Watching the boys from Bayou Teche jamming out to some cajun music was amazing.  Best beer tent in my opinion.
3. Cornhole Tourney.  This was great fun!  Me and the wife got knocked out first round but had a blast playing and held our own against a team from NOLA Brewing(Ben and Wild Bill)
4. Newcastle Photo Booth.  This was great.  I love being able to get my photo taken with the wife since for some odd reason it doesn't happen too much!
5. Cask Garden.  I love that they provided cask ale.  Well, sort of cask. Cask-ish?   Let's call it American cask since the whole idea of cask is supposed to be traditional ingredients and consumed over a couple of days.  Either way I loved it!

The Bad

1. WAY too crowded for the space.  It was seriously packed and the layout had everyone focused right in the middle instead of making everything spaced out which would have helped with crowd issues.  During our cornhole tournament we had people walking in front of us trying to get to beer tents.  It was nuts.
2. Bathroom issues.  As the wife and I were leaving we saw a line to the mens room.  It had to be at least 50 people deep.  Now this could have been as simple as people just not realizing there was another bathroom on the other side of the square but people I spoke with claimed it was busy too.  There were only two restrooms per gender.
3. The food situation:  Thankfully my wife and I ate before getting there.  We saw Rotolo's and some other food place.  That's it.  In the Festival Guide under Tips and Tricks it states:  Take a food break. There are numerous vendors on-site serving all types of food.  Yeah, this really wasn't the case.  Rotolo's dropped the ball big time by running out of pizza and having to get food brought in from another location.  HUGE lines.   The other vendor also ran out of food.  And there were NO prices listed.  Apparently the VIP area was serving Zea's but I heard they started skimping after awhile too.  My recommendation is to get some food trucks in there.  THAT would be amazing!
4. The guide encourages drinking plenty of water but water cost $4.00 a bottle.  Soda was $4.50.  This is unacceptable.  Now of course the company running the event probably didn't have anything to do with this.  This could have been the dome forcing these prices and whatnot.  I suppose the people were expected to drink the water provided at the tables which we were using to clean out the glasses. In my opinion at beer festivals water needs to be provided.   It helps with keeping the people hydrated which is extremely important.
5. The designated driver ticket.  Honestly I feel this is a huge waste of money($20).  As a for profit event I get it that you need to make money but come on I feel the designated drivers could have been provided with free drinks or something.  They are providing a huge, valuable service and should be taken care of.

Overall it was a fun event.  It was great seeing so many people enjoying craft beer in New Orleans!  Here are some photos from the event.

 The line.  That I didn't have to stand in thanks to the media pass!

 Josh Erickson from Chafunkta

 Pouring some Old 504 from Chafunkta

 This guy from Bayou Teche was a blast.

 Karlos and Byron jamming out

 I love Byron's shirt.

 Gar pouring some Bayou Teche cask

 Pouring beer out of a pirogue.

Vanessa Gomes and myself!

Like I said, overall I had a great time and I really want to thank Red Mountain Entertainment for not only throwing this event but also with working with me to provide tickets to Grant Capone who won tickets and providing me with a media pass!   

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

Abita Harlem Shake

I love everything about this.




Cheers!

The Beer Buddha

Bret Lyttle's Bed Review: St. Somewhere Cynthiana

On today's Bret Lyttle's Bed Review he reviews St. Somewhere's Cynthiana and I got to listen to his Beer Buddha theme song.  It fits me perfectly.  He is a true guitar master.  When I get a copy I will let you listen.  Here is his review.  Now I need to get my hands on some.

Brewery:  St. Somewhere

Beer:  Cynthiana

ABV:  8%

Style:  Saison/Farmhouse Ale

Appearance: Pours a hazy gold like money, with a nice white head.  Lacing present throughout.

Smell: Fruity tart aroma.  Fermented fruit.  Apples, peaches, etc.

Taste: Just like the nose the taste is also fruity but not overly fruity.  Perfectly balanced.  Very clean and dry finish.

Mouthfeel:  Nice light body.  Very crisp and dry.

Overall:  Hangs with belgian beers like Saison Dupont.  We got's some smarts Americans where it comes to beer.  You get quality with the cost.   I really love this beer.

Score:  4.5 out of 5  

Cheers!

The Beer Buddha