Day Drinker is a recurring feature in which INDY staffers graciously accept samples of new and seasonal offerings from local breweries and tell you what we think of them. If you’d like your beer or cider to be considered, email food editor Layla Khoury-Hanold at laylakh@indyweek.com.
Tight Cassette
Crank Arm Brewing
This Belgian Grisette is bracing and clean up front, with citrus rind notes, but there’s a sharp bitterness on the finish. Still, it’s a refreshing brew, and would make a good palate cleanser between heavier suds. Grisettes were originally brewed for miners, which one of our editors misheard as “minors,” causing brief consternation.
Oak-aged Blonde Sour Ale
Durty Bull Brewing Company
This is a good, basic choice for sour novices, delivering on the trademark tang of most sour beers. But we couldn’t detect the hints of vanilla and oak promised on the label.
Key Lime Gose
Durty Bull Brewing Company
We had high hopes that this beer would taste as much like summer as its name implies, but we were left wanting more lime flavor. As one editor put it, “The taste is enough to make even a sour lover pucker up and shiver.”
Basement Sessions No. 1
Trophy Brewing Co.
This gose was brewed in collaboration with Blackberry Farm Brewery, but the can’s lengthy ingredient list, which reads like a recipe for potpourri, suggests a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation. The style’s funky saltiness comes through, but flavors like lavender and pineapple overpower the ginger and lemon verbea, which could have delivered contrast and crispness to round out the funk.
