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922 South Morton Street
Bloomington, IN, 47403
United States
812-202-6789
Cardinal Spirits is a craft distillery in Bloomington, Indiana that specializes in producing extraordinary spirits from local ingredients.
The Drop is your source for all things craft.
Filtering by Category: Craftpack
Links that make you go Hmmm.
Cool Material gave our exclusive whiskey glasses a little love last week.
How 14 common cocktails got their names.
Brew your coffee with vinegar. Um, whatnow?
A kitschy, dive bar-ish take on the Mexican bulldog. Yay or nay?
Spilling secrets: Did you catch our video on how we make our Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur?
Links that make you go Hmmm.
A roundup of new cocktail books, including a scratch-and-sniff book about whiskey, to put on your holiday wish list.
A couple of coffee reads for your Monday morning: Peet's, which bought Stumptown recently, acquired Intelligentsia last week, plus: the future of fancy iced coffee.
What do you think about these upgrades to shameful cocktail orders of our youth?
Well, fizzy fruit is our new favorite garnish.
MORE CRAFTPACK:
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Links that make you go Hmmm.
This is so great: what men vs. women Tweet when they drink. #girlsnight
Would you drink this cocktail that is nearly half bitters?
Really amazing fall cocktail recipes to try this week: Yellow Jacket with cinnamon-honey syrup. Warm spiked apple cider, a classic. And Spice Island, with a dusting of fresh nutmeg.
On a branding note, did you see that Jeni's ice cream pints got a makeover?
Links that make you go Hmmm.
This big index of simple syrup recipes is a handy thing to bookmark.
How to make a cocktail video, haha.
Cardinal Spirits cocktails and dining by candlelight? This is a dinner you don't want to miss.
Any food/drink bloggers out there? You might find this helpful: 39 blogging tools that'll make you work faster and write better.
Is there a more perfect drink for Halloween than this?
MISSED A CRAFTPACK? CATCH UP HERE:
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Links that make you go Hmmm.
Well, well, well! Here's a fun, boozy little project to do this week: apple and quince-infused brandy.
“A large part of tequila comes from God-knows-where.” The plight of Mexico's iconic spirit is fascinating.
Tiki Tuesday at Cardinal Spirits. Have you been? Have you been lately? Tiki masters Chris Resnick and Baylee Pruitt's cocktails are nothing less than works of art: this, this and this. (Can you guess what matching tattoo Chris and Baylee have?)
The next time you're sitting around a fire on one of these beautiful fall nights, drinking spiked cider and looking up at the starry sky, here's some heavy stuff about the universe to think about that will induce either awe or an existential meltdown.
Hey, what's your favorite apple cider?
MORE CRAFTPACK:
Links that make you go Hmmm.
Apple cider two ways. It's that time.
Have you heard about this new bar in town?
Where do you see the connection between science and art? It's something we think about a lot.
How to drink like an Italian: 5 bitter drinks that should be a bigger deal here in the U.S.
If you're throwing a Halloween party, you're going to need to know how to make a smoking punch bowl. Duh.
We love a great story behind a craft beverage.
So when Quaff On Brewing in Nashville, Ind., invites you to
harvest hops for a special-edition beer, you say yes.
Here's how to go about your hoppy adventure.
Story and photos by Jonna Mary Schwarz
First, head out to Brown County, and turn down a dusty dirt road to Waltz Valley Farms. Awe in amazement at the raw beauty of the inherited family farm that began two generations ago.
Be greeted by the farm's co-owner, Sue Waltz, and her colorful dress with matching apron. She doesn't know you, but as soon as she realizes her husband invited you, you are best buds. Find out that her husband, Mike Waltz, is part of the group who was integral to partnering with Quaff On Brewing, and who made initial connections to utilize the hops for the special-edition brew. It is the only crop on the farm, so it's the flagship.
Meander around, grab a beer from the Quaff On keg selection. Check out the hop vines growing straight up into the blue sky. A hundred Cascade hop plants from the first season, 2014, and 100 more for 2015 along with 100 Columbus hop plants also planted in 2015.
Sue Waltz, left, and more of the farm family.
Follow a herd of family and friends of the Waltz's to the ready-to-pick vines. Cheer as they cut the first vine, and smile as they pose for photographs of the family, two sisters and their brother, along with their spouses, gathered and content with the collaboration developed over the past two years with their local brewery.
Help haul hops on a flatbed pickup to a red tent with a picnic table beneath. Begin to pick hops. You know the hop is ready because it crinkles like tissue paper and snaps in the middle when bent. Pluck each bud from the vine and plop it in a tin bucket. Measure the hops frequently on a small silver scale, and add them to a black barrel nearby. Wave at the woman making hop wreaths off to the side of the table with the depleted vines.
Talk with Quaff On's brewer, David, who will be utilizing all types of hops you just picked to make Aquaffalypse, the brewery's special twist on an IPA made annually for Quafftoberfest, a four-day celebration coming up this weekend.
Note that the beer similar to Hare Trigger has already been brewed to get that alpha acid bitterness, and will be dry-hopped for one week with the Waltz hops to gather all the flavor of the local crop and create about 15 barrels of beer labeled with art designed by Quaff On owner Jeff McCabe's daughter. Have Jeff show you the sweet new art.
On your way to grab a second beer from Quaff On's stand, pop in to the gazebo where a local home-brewer from Indianapolis is explaining the process of fermentation. Ask him about this year's hops and split a brownie with his 5-year-old.
When you hear Sue Waltz at the microphone on the stage at the center of the gathering, stop to listen. Feel excited when she tells Kenan Rainwater of the Indiana Boys that he will have to pause his Americana bluegrass tunes for the announcement of Quaff On's tapping of their pumpkin ale. Name: Stick a Fork In It.
If you decide not to camp with the rest of the group, walk to your car parked to the side of the hop garden. Look up at the empty ropes strewn between poles, pass a hand along your stinging arms and fingers, and notice the taste on the buds of your tongue, the first hints of Aquaffalypse.
Try Aquaffalypse at Quaff On's Quafftoberfest gathering, this Saturday afternoon at its Bloomington location. The party will feature live music and brews.
Links that make you go Hmmm.
Should good vodka taste like nothing, or taste like something?
Soda is the latest drink to go craft in a big way. (Our Bloomington favorites are Bea Fizzy's mobile soda fountain and the homemade Italian sodas from Piccoli Dolci at the Saturday farmers' market.)
A more palatable way to down that daily shot of apple cider vinegar.
What do you think of this new club that rewards you for visiting Indiana breweries?
Sending good vibes to the crew that wants to open Bloomington's first cat cafe.
We’re on a mission to drink all the good drinks. Let’s get started.
Photo by @indyhops
We know this guy who often shows up to dinner parties with a few big bottles of sour ales from Upland Brewing Co. He starts pouring a little here and a little there, and suddenly everyone is rapt and ditching their glasses of snoozefest pinot noir for these acidic, amazingly flavorful beers.
Sour ales are barrel-aged beers with tart, fruity and often funky character that comes from using things like wild yeast strains and fresh fruit. Upland's are intriguing, complex, rare, unpredictable — and incredibly fun to drink. Conversation pieces, really.
We wanted to know more, so we chatted with Caleb Staton, the sours director and former head brewer at Upland, to get the scoop on these award-winning beers. (He's not the dinner-party guy we mentioned. Unrelated: Caleb, would you like to come over for dinner?)
** We are giving away two passes to Upland’s Midwest Sour + Wild + Funk Fest this Saturday in Indianapolis, featuring sours from 25 breweries across the country. The 4th annual event is sold out! Learn how to win the set of passes at the end of this post. **
MIRACLE FRUIT. A ton of whole, unprocessed fruit goes into lambic varieties like peach, persimmon, blackberry and cherry — specifically, up to 3½ pounds of fresh fruit per gallon of beer, Caleb says. This is a huge part of what makes Upland’s sours so remarkable. If you’ve ever peeled and cut, say, a kiwi, you can imagine how time consuming it would be to prep hundreds of pounds of them by hand. But they do it and it’s totally worth it.
Photo from Upland Brewing Co.
Fruit comes from local sources when possible, Caleb says. The brewery gets strawberries and blackberries from Heartland Family Farm in Spencer and peaches from Huber’s Orchard, Winery and Vineyard in Starlight. Some wild fruit is foraged, too. “We pay a guy to roam around in a van and pick up persimmons,” Caleb says.
Kiwi time. Photo from Upland Brewing Co.
Smooshing Michigan cherries into a barrel of lambic. Photo from Upland Brewing Co.
SMALL BUT MIGHTY. Upland is more devoted than ever to sours and it even has a separate brewery dedicated to making them, but it’s still a niche product. The brewery cranks out 20,000 barrels of beer a year, and less than 300 of those are sour ales, Caleb says. The phrase small batch gets thrown around a lot these days, but it really means something here. It’s what keeps Upland’s sours program experimental and exciting.
Upland releases more than a dozen varieties of sour ales each year, but they all start as one of three base styles: lambic, a Belgian style aged in white oak; an oud bruin style, aged in white oak; and a Flanders style, aged in bourbon barrels. A blend, known as Sour Reserve, has taken home gold at the Great American Beer Festival.
Photo from Upland Brewing Co.
PLAY TO WIN. Upland’s sour beers can be hard to get a hold of, which is part of their mystique. You can find some varieties in stores (a 750-milliliter bottle is around $25), but most are released in small quantities via lottery. Five lotteries are planned for 2015, and the next lottery in June will feature beers aged on orchid and kiwi, among others (keep an eye on Upland’s social media and website for lottery announcements). If you’re super serious about sours, you can join the Secret Barrel Society to get first access and more bottles than the lottery route. Annual membership is $250.
BETTER TOGETHER. Upland’s sours have always been a collaborative effort. The brewery made its first sour beers in 2006 using spent red-wine oak barrels from Oliver Winery in Bloomington. That partnership still exists today — in 2014, Upland released VinoSynth Red and VinoSynth White sours, both which are aged on Oliver grapes, in Oliver barrels. “To me, that really showcases that the program has come full circle,” Caleb says.
VinoSynth Red won Best in Show at the 2014 Indiana State Fair.
Photo from Upland Brewing Co.
Upland is clearly having fun fraternizing when it comes to sours. It recently teamed up with Yazoo Brewing Company in Nashville, Tenn., to make a tropical-tasting, rosy-hued ale with kiwi and cherry, called Three Degrees North. Yazoo will release a companion brown ale called Three Degrees South. Another upcoming collaboration with Great Raft Brewing in Shreveport, Louisiana, uses mayhaw fruit, which is like the crabapple of the southern wetlands.
Upland's Caleb Staton, left, and Yazoo's Brandon Jones. Photo from Upland Brewing Co.
SHARE, PLEASE. The next time you head out to a dinner party, take a cue from our popular dinner party friend and bring sours. Sours make you a fun party guest, and even though they’re flavorful on their own, they’re surprisingly interesting with food, too. “In some ways, they open up your palette like wine would,” Caleb says. Pour them either at the beginning of the meal — they really shine with charcuterie and cheese plates, he says — or with dessert.
OK, giveaway time! Upland’s 4th Annual Midwest Sour + Wild + Funk Fest this Saturday in Indianapolis is sold out, but we snagged two passes for one lucky winner. Here’s how to enter: Take a photo of yourself with an empty glass. Post it to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #soursplease and tag Cardinal Spirits and Upland Brewing Co. Enter just once, play fair and all that good stuff. And we’ll pick one winner at random at 5pm on Thursday, 5/14. Best of luck!
Photo by @robmyersphotography
