633. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Chain O’ Lakes

“This is our 17th Pints for Parks beer! Chain O’ Lakes is near the Fort Wayne area and loaded with plenty of trails, history, and of course lake activities. Brewed with Pilsner and white wheat. Simcoe and CGX Comet bring citrus, pine, lemongrass, and serious dankness. Crisp, dry, and boldy bitter.”

Yes, and that pine is very evident up front. I would like to say that I can taste the lemongrass, but alas, I cannot. Gets almost biscuity or malty as it warms.

610. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Tippecanoe River

“Time to celebrate our beautiful state during the changing seasons with our next exploration in our Pints for Parks series! Our 12th journey in our series takes us just a bit north to Winamac to Tippecanoe River State Park. It’s always a great time to get outside, but especially this time of year with the changing of the leaves and when you can have a delicious West Coast IPA as your trail partner. Built with our steadfast Sugar Creek Malt Co pilsner malt, creating a lovely clean malt profile, balanced out on the hot side by Simcoe, and loaded with Citra, Strata, and Nectaron hops throughout whirlpool and the two rounds of dry hopping. The trip down this river is incredibly fragrant boasting intense tropical fruits and citrus blended with some dank. This ride is smooth and clean with a nice bitterness, finishing crisp. Get your paddle and let’s go have some fun. Thank you for continuing to support our state parks, cheers to the great outdoors!”

Sharp and bitter up front, with pine and stone fruit and a nice clean finish when it’s good and cold. Definitely a West Coast IPA, but with just a hint of East Coast in there, too. I’m sort of up and down on their other beers, but their Pints for Parks beers (much like the Craft Brew Doodle Crew IPAs from the late, lamented Indiana City) are spectacular.

601. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Starve Hollow

“We raise our glasses again for our next foray in our Pints for Parks series! Our 11th journey in our series takes us just south of Brownstown to Starve Hollow State Recreational Area. Given that it’s summer and this beer is for honoring a wonderful recreational area we made a delightful and very refreshing IPL. Built like a pilsner, to be so clean and crisp, and hopped heavily like an IPA with Nectaron, Mosaic, and Citra, this beer is extremely smooth, floral and fruity, finishing light and dry, it’s perfect for any adventure. Thank you for continuing to support our state parks, cheers to the great outdoors!”

We got back today from a three-day weekend at Turkey Run, and on the way out on Sunday, we stopped at Moontown for lunch. The food was only so-so, as it has been the last couple of times, but the beer is still very much on point. I was pretty stoked to see that they had finally replaced the Lincoln ESB with a new entry in the Pints for Parks series—and especially so when I noted that this new entry is hopped with Nectaron. That particular hop always makes me think of nectarine, which is one of my favorite fruits; and this beer has got all kinds of things going on. I initially thought I would compare it to Natural Liberty, from Black Acre; but after I checked my notes, I saw that Natural Liberty is an American Pale Lager, while Starve Hollow is an India Pale Lager. Is there a huge difference? As my grandmother might have said, "I haven’t the foggiest." (I also think that the line separating India Pale Ales from American Pale Ales has more to do with semantics than with flavor or brewing technique; but please be reminded that I am not within shouting distance of being an expert about anything.)

What I can say for sure is that this beer is more interesting than Natural Liberty. It’s got some bitter, piney things going on, and it also has some vaguely sweet stone fruit things going on. (And if you’ve been stopping by here with any degree of frequency over the last several years, you will not be remotely surprised when I say that the first of those two characteristics decreases in direct proportion to the amount of time the beer has spent out of the refrigerator—and that the second increases.)

Best of the Pints for Parks series? It’s only my 4th, of the 11 they have so far produced; and those have all been excellent. But yes…this might be the best one I have so far tried.

592. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Lincoln

“It’s time for another venture into our Pints for Parks series! We are headed east of Evansville to Lincoln City for our 10th park, Lincoln. We brewed an extra special bitter, better known as an ESB. Typically, when brewing classic beer styles, we use all the highest quality origin sourced ingredients (i.e. German grown malt for German beer), but with this being a state park beer we always keep it local with our Sugar Creek Malt Company crew out of Lebanon, IN. Utilizing Sugar Creek’s Ye Olde and a couple of their crystal malts, along with UK grown East Kent Golding hops, and the classic ESB yeast strain from one of England’s largest breweries we share with you our take on the English classic. Like with many beers, balance and interplay are key and we think you’ll love our malt and hop expressions in this one. Great malty character present, with a pronounced hop flavor and aroma that lingers a bit in the finish as your mouth keeps asking for more. Biscuity and bready, earthy and herbal, slightly sweet with a nice resiny bitterness. Lightly carbonated, complex, and refreshing, no wonder why there’s so much love for a pub ale. Cheers to our state parks, thank for your support!”

And here is another style with which I have very little experience. The finish is right on the line between dry and bitter, and the rest of it is a little faint, but well made. I don’t always like every new beer I try, but I sometimes get the feeling that even the ones I don’t necessarily like (and I haven’t made up my mind on this one yet) are well made. This beer falls into that category—though I have no doubt that my lack of experience with the style is to some extent precluding me from forming an opinion.

580. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Mounds

“It’s time for another Pints for Parks series adventure! We are headed to Anderson for our 9th park, Mounds. We brewed a hazy juicy IPA featuring Strata, Citra, and Mosaic, favoring heavier additions of Strata throughout the process. A pleasant and bright tropical fruity nose greets you on your path to dankness. Take the path, it drinks clean, creamy, and easy, loaded with tons of fresh fruit flavors. Cheers to our state parks, thank you for your support!”

Strong grapefruit and pine up front when it’s cold, and some mid-range strawberry from the Strata as it warms. The bitter finish contrasts quite beautifully with the strawberry flavor, but the 9% ABV is too high for them to claim that it drinks easy. That said, it’s an excellent beer, and probably the best thing I’ve tried at Moontown.

536. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Cecil

“Our flagship IPA is made with 100% local Sugar Creek malt (Lebanon, IN) and oats. This juicy number was inspired by our early pilgrimages to Vermont and features a nice, healthy haze with layers and layers of delicious hop character.”

This one calls itself an IPA, and also comes from oats, but is higher in ABV (6.8%) and, oddly, smoother than Bam Bam; and it works in a way that Bam Bam doesn’t, probably because they shot for an IPA and got it, whereas with Bam Bam they tried for the middle ground between a session and an IPA and didn’t quite get either one.

535. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Bam Bam

“Brewed with a variety of wheat and oats, this incredibly light juicy pale ale bursts with fruity flavors, an abundance of citrus aromas, and drinks super smooth. Generously hopped with Amarillo, Simcoe, and Citra hops.”

The one I had in the taproom was lightly carbonated, with strong pine flavor up front, and smooth, light fruit on the back end. Took me forever to try this place the first time, and now I’ve been there twice in the last month and change. The two I’ve had in cans since then are slightly more fruity and slightly less carbonated. Generally unimpressive, but not bad, exactly. It checks all the boxes you would expect from an IPA (though it calls itself a “pale ale,” and not an IPA)—strong pine, strong fruit, dry-to-bitter finish, hazy appearance—and then it comes in at 5% ABV, which sort of implies that you could drink it all day. Honestly, though…I’m not sure I’d want to. It’s fine…but it’s not impressive.

533. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Hefczkowski

“A traditional unfiltered Bavarian style wheat beer brewed with malted German wheat, featuring subtle fruity yeast-derived notes of banana and spicy clove.”

I’ve never been big on the Hefeweizen style, and I’m still not sure I’m a believer—but the Banana Nut Bread Hefeweizen they tapped out of recently at Kismetic was so good that I am now willing to consider the style. This one is light and, indeed, subtle, with just hints of banana, and a spice that very well could be clove, but which doesn’t bowl me over with its presence. (I have never been big on clove at all, in any application—beer-related or otherwise.) This beer isn’t nearly as good as their Brown County mash-up, but between this and the two Hefeweizens I’ve had at Kismetic, I’m coming around to this style in a big hurry.

531. Moontown Brewing Company (Whitestown, IN) - Brown County

“Our continued journey through the Pints for Parks series has us traveling south to Nashville arriving at our 7th park, Brown County. We created a delightful beer for the time of year, and extremely fitting for our parks series. An India Brown Ale, described by Dogfish Head as the prototypical dark IPA and an original hybrid. Our IBA truly is the thoughtful melding of wonderful aspects from different beer types to create a one of a kind sensory drinking experience. Close your eyes and take a good inhale from your fresh pour, it smells like a juicy IPA. Take a sip and experience a citrusy tropical ride into a luxurious brown ale. This big brown ale is brewed with a big base of our local Sugar Creek Malt Company’s Ye Olde, chocolate rye along with a couple other specialty malts, and a unique addition of Belgian Candi brown sugar lending dark druit and molasses characteristics. We balanced it with classic west coast hops Nugget and Chinook, then dry hopped heftily with Simcoe, Amarillo, and Cascade. It’s complex from the first smell and sip, allow this to warm and open up into an even more intricate brown ale. Journey on, thank you for supporting the parks!”

I’ve been wanting to try this place forever. I see the signs every time we go up 65 (which we did a lot while the world was shitting the bed), but this past weekend, when we drove up to Chicago for our anniversary, (20 years!), I decided to make it a point to stop there. The main impetus is that they have been doing a series called “Pints for Parks,” featuring beers inspired by or dedicated to state parks here in Indiana. The one on tap when we stopped there was Brown County, which calls itself an “India Brown Ale.” I’m not sure if this is a style or a mash-up, but whatever it is, it’s pretty fucking good. Dark and creamy, with a vaguely fruit-ish hop punch there at the end. Dried fruit as it warms up, and a nice bitter finish. End of the day, I think it’s a brown ale with something of an IPA punch. It’s also lovely and amazing (much like Emily Mortimer).