Two Bandits, Two States,
a ‘Regional’ Brewer
A few days ago I made the short drive from Fort Wayne across the Indiana/Ohio state line to meet with Mark Young of Two Bandits Brewing in Hicksville, OH. My mission was to chat with one half of the...
Purity, skin in the game, and when Capitalism spits on you
I recently had a brief conversation with a person who is intimately acquainted with a local brewery here in Fort Wayne, IN, and whose livelihood is dependent upon selling the beer that said brewery...
Fortlandia – a true nano production in Fort Wayne
When five blokes get together to brew and drink beer, sometimes things don't exactly go to plan. There's quite a lot of potential for nonsense to be talked, and for fanciful plans to be made....
Birdboy Brewing Company – Phoenix Rising in Fort Wayne
If you're wondering what's been happening at Birdboy Brewing Co. of late, and you're a tad confused by some recent comings and goings, then you're not the only one. A lot has been going on both...
From Fort Collins, CO to Goshen, IN, beer promotes community
If you happen to feel an enhanced sense of community the next time that you visit the Goshen Brewing Co. (GBCo.) in Goshen, Indiana, it's not by accident. Founder and former head brewer Jesse...
Come Into My Parlor
When Parlor City Brewing opened in June of 2020, it wasn't exactly the ideal time to be launching a service business of any kind, let alone one in the food and drink sector. With the pandemic raging...
An Englishman and a Scotsman walk into an American brewery
There's an unusual beast prowling just to the east of the Wells Corridor, north of downtown Fort Wayne. He's a brewer working in a relatively small brewery, in a relatively obscure part of the...
A (S)ummit (City Brewerks) on styles
This is not really a post about styles or policing styles - at least not an in-depth one - but it may seem like it is. It's actually a post about a much larger issue surrounding styles - the bigger...
The Trubble with Chad Hankee
When Chad Hankee says he's bored, you'd better get ready for some changes. Here's a man whose projects, and indeed life's journey, have been about bending in the wind and changing tack; and that's...
Todd Stone & Junk Ditch – Where Plato meets Plato
Todd Stone is a young man with an old head on his shoulders. Trust me, that's a huge compliment in my book. He and I sat down at Junk Ditch earlier this week to talk about his journey to become the...
From Prints to Pints
When one reads the draft list of a brewery that's found in a tucked-away corner of an industrial park north of Fort Wayne, one wouldn't expect the head-brewer and I to have much in common. Only 50%...
A conversation with Tom Carpenter of 2Toms Brewing Co.
The resurrection of Ding's Beer Blog is going to be characterized by (at least at first) a focus on the local beer scene. That means Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana are in the crosshairs. I'm...
The past, the present, the six years between them, and the future
Here we all are. It's been six years since my last blog post on Ding's Beer Blog, but now I'm back. So where have I been? What happened in the period between January 2015 and today, May 26th 2021?...