That was a Ghostbusters pun, and I probably should stop there as that is a really good title, however, I said I’d do a series, and here we go!

So, spirits, liquor, hooch, booze, whatever you call it, it is interesting!

My history with spirits is limited to just consumption until 2016 when I started looking into them more than just a drink to enjoy. I love a solid Old Fashioned or a Bloody Mary (Try it with Hoosier Mamma Mix) anytime, but I have been getting more adventurous and letting the bartender craft a cocktail for me when I go out, preferably without egg whites as that still bothers me in a drink…. texture maybe? It is because of my strong knowledge in beer that I have started studying for the Certified Specialist of Spirits! I feel this is just something important to better myself and better serve those whom I meet in the market.

I never planned for spirits to be such an important part of my business, but here I am with 3 distilleries that I work with! What’s that you say? I should only have 2? Well while you have been sleeping, I have been working with Indiana Small Batch and they acquired a new spirit so that means I have as well! Indiana Small Batch is working exclusively with local distilleries and is trying to do something no one else is by keeping it to local spirits. I met Toby (the owner) back in September, and because of him, I started off with Indiana Whiskey Co (in addition to Moonlight Meadery which is unrelated to him) He is a good guy and we clicked right away because both of us were doing something different with our business models, so the rest is history and we will be working together for the foreseeable future. Cool, right? But tangent is over, and the new spirit is from Black Diamond Distillery out of Brown County.

Black Diamond is doing cool things, and Im excited to try some of their aged brown liquors. Try their Rye Whiskey, Im leaning towards that one myself.

Broken Beaker is my go to guy for vodka and gin. It is to be noted that we are a week away from launching Coffee Liqueur. Its pretty exciting!

Then there is Indiana Whiskey Co! They have some awesome stuff in R&D, and their ‘Just Whiskey’ has been awesome in the market thus far too!

There are several cool things in the works behind the scenes, but knowing about Black Diamond as well as Broken Beaker launching their Coffee Liqueur is awesome! I think this is it for this post. It is 6am and I am plugging away at my desk already. I truely love what I do so it is perfectly okay!

SPW

So I decided to do a small series of entries over the next month, 1 a week, about beer, spirits, mead, and non-alcoholic. 4 topics, 4 weeks, 4 posts, 4…..Calling birds…?

BEER! So beer was an easy start as I have been around it longer than all the other products I work with. I started drinking at 21, like everyone else, beer was cheaper, and interesting. From Mix-a-six packs at grocery to doing my 100 beer card at The Heorot in Muncie, I was able to experiment and learn so much about beer. After my 8 years in Muncie, with my 4 year beer education at the Heorot, I went off to work at People’s Brewing Co as their first sales guy. I always mention I learned what to do, but also what not to do in sales from them, but never talk about the beer itself. Its great! I think they were the first to show me brewing on a large scale too. They are great and still good friends of mine.

Fast forward to today! Why beer is still so important? Well, it laid the ground work for Monon Beverage Brokers, I was drinking a pint or few when the idea first came up. It was the original concept behind what I do now too. It is funny to mention, as comfortable with beer as I am, I started with Moonlight Meadery and Indiana Whiskey Co, which are two things I knew far less about at the time (though I quickly learned!). I love that I have 4 solid breweries who I work with and all of which have different personalities.

I think it is the product itself that I like. It unifies people and creates a common ground, all alcohol does this too I suppose… It is just a more laid back beverage in my opinion, it isnt intimidating to those who aren’t knowledgeable about it, and there is a beer for everyone. Even those who dont like beer, they just havent found the right one yet. Wine and spirits can be intimidating, especially old world wines as they are named for their region and not the juice in the bottle, so if you dont know what the specific region produces, you may be in for a surprise!

As I started this entry, I think I had more of a direction in mind, and i’m not sure I ended where I thought I would, but Im happy with it. What do you want to know about beer?
SPW

Hey!

So as my business grows, so does the product list that I carry. I figure maybe a small update on a few of my favorite ones across the board with less of a selling aspect may be fun or even possibly helpful!

The most misunderstood product in my portfolio is Laughing Water by Scarlet Lane. I mean, what is a Australian Sparkling Ale? Well, it is Australia’s original beer style contribution. The most simple way to describe this is a hybrid of a Cali Common and a Cream ale. Really solid and easy drinking beer. I need to get around to trying Laughing Water with Lime. Side note about Scarlet Lane, they are on top of the customer service game. There was a mix up at an account and the brewer/owner dropped what she was doing to go and handle it in person.

Next I think mentioning Moonlight Meadery is good. Mead is underrated in Indiana, and if it wasn’t for our friends at New Day Meadery, Indiana would be far behind as far as mead is concerned. Moonlight does a really cool mead called Desire. It is a black cherry, black currant and blueberry mead. It is a 96 on RateBeer and just has a cool balance with sweet from the honey to sweet with the berries, however it is not too sweet.  Moonlight has a whiskey barrel aged cider coming out in cans soon too (13.5% ABV)!

Indiana Whiskey Co from South Bend is doing cool stuff with whiskey and I feel the Silver Sweet Corn whiskey is misunderstood just as Laughing Water is. It is simply un-aged, thus the lack of color, but the flavor isn’t lacking. I prefer to drink it in a Bloody Mary or other cocktail, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be drank neat.

Lastly O’Fallon has some cool stuff coming to market like a variety case of 12 (4 styles 3 of each.). Ginger Jo Latte is the only one I will mention, to find out the others, check out our brands tab as it will be added shortly. It is a brown ale made with Ronnoco’s black iced coffee and a blend of spices. It should be a solid brown ale that tastes like a latte, I will let you know once I get it in my hands!

What beer, mead, or spirit do I carry that you want more information about? Let me know and I will happily dig stuff up for you!

SPW