As a man who graduated from college not too long ago, I view it almost as a moral obligation to be a little bit annoying about beer.
I cherish beer in nearly all its forms, from mass-produced domestic lagers that taste like liquefied bread to hefty stouts and porters that might as well be bread. My phone houses a frankly embarrassing number of poorly taken photos of beers that my male friends and I have sent to one another over the years simply to say, “Hey guys, look: beer.”
That’s why I’m pleased to announce the start of IndyStar’s Beer Bracket, a four-round, single-elimination smackdown to determine Central Indiana’s favorite brewer.
Note the use of the word brewer there; the Beer Bracket will evaluate each contender’s body of work, not individual beers. Nor is this a contest of who has the best full-service brewery. So you’ll need to divorce your feelings about Taxman‘s Belgian-style ales from, say, its Brussels sprouts.
Of course, like any of these food or drink brackets, it’s sort of impossible to ask someone who they think serves the “best beer,” especially when Central Indiana brewers vary widely in terms of the number of beers they make, the scale at which they distribute them and the number of places you can find them. When voting, I encourage you to think back to high school calculus and, after shaking off the lingering trauma, take an “area under the curve” approach. If the vast selection of a place like Sun King or Upland has brought you the most joy consistently over the years, go ahead and vote for them. Conversely, if you believe a single glass of suds from a smaller brewer is so exquisite it elevates the brand to your No. 1 spot, that’s totally fine, too. Vote with your heart.
With that said, let’s break down the bracket.
How we organized the Beer Bracket
To determine the field for our Sweet Sipsteen, we laid down a few guidelines. The only rock-solid requirement for inclusion in the Beer Bracket is that each competitor must brew beer in the Indianapolis area, even if it is not based here. That’s why you won’t find Munster-based 3 Floyds or Nashville-based Quaff ON! among the competitors, even though you can and should track down a case of 3 Floyds’ grapefruit-punched Gumballhead wheat pale ale at a store near you or grab a midnight-black pint of the Busted Knuckle peanut butter porter that Quaff ON! ships to all Big Woods restaurants.
Meanwhile, Bloomington-based Upland makes the cut because it produces batches on-site at its Fountain Square brewery, one of nine locations around central and southern Indiana.
Some of the names in the bracket are obvious. When it came to whittling down small-scale, single-location brewers for the final few spots, preference was given to those within Marion County. Finally, seeding was roughly determined by each competitor’s number of taprooms and the size of their retail operation.
Ultimately, the lineup features a varied mix of brewers, from the Hoosier State’s first modern-day brewery in Broad Ripple Brewpub (established 1990) to upstart Christian Park hangout Kismetic Beer Company (established 2022). You’ll find big names that distribute throughout Indiana like Sun King and Upland, our bracket’s No. 1 seeds, as well as single-location operations like Metazoa and St. Joseph.
No doubt, there are several reputable Hoosier brewers that we remorsefully did not include. I encourage you to email me (nicely, if you would) at bhohulin@indystar.com with your favorite absent brewer so I can try them out and possibly give them their flowers in articles to come.
Brewers featured in IndyStar’s Beer Bracket
The following is a list of the 16 brewers included in IndyStar’s Beer Bracket, as well as their city of origin and a couple of their best-known beers. You can vote in each matchup in the next section.
No. 1 Sun King Brewery, Indianapolis. Known for Wee Mac Scottish-style ale and Sunlight Cream Ale.
No. 2 Taxman Brewing Co., Bargersville. Known for Deduction Belgian dubbel, Exemption Belgian trippel.
No. 2 Bier Brewery, Indianapolis. Known for Weizengoot wheat beer and PDG Pale ale.
No. 3 MashCraft Brewing, Greenwood. Known for Last Light fruited IPA, MashCraft red ale.
No. 4 Chilly Water Brewing, Indianapolis. Known for Blood on the Tracks blood orange IPA, Built to Last pilsner.
No. 7 Metazoa Brewing Co., Indianapolis. Known for Hoppopotamus IPA, Puppy Slumber Party milk stout.
No. 8 Kismetic Beer Co., Indianapolis. Known for its Italian pilsner and New England IPA.
No. 8 Broad Ripple Brewpub, Indianapolis. Known for its ESB (extra special bitter) pale ale and Monon porter.
Vote in Round 1 of the Beer Bracket
Below, you’ll find eight matchups between Central Indiana brewers. You can vote as many times as you like until noon Oct. 2. Round one winners will be announced Oct. 6.
While the higher-seeded brewers will certainly benefit from name recognition, these brackets have proved time and time again that a swell of community support can carry an underdog quite a long way. So spread the word and get voting.
Contact dining reporter Bradley Hohulin at bhohulin@indystar.com. You can follow him on Twitter/X @BradleyHohulin and stay up to date with Indy dining news by signing up for the Indylicious newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IndyStar’s Beer Bracket is here. Vote for brewers in the Sweet Sipsteen