INDIANAPOLIS — Brad Hawkins felt right at home hawking his beer at the Indiana State Fairgrounds last week.
When Hawkins opened his Salt Creek Brewery in a converted filling station in tiny Needmore three years ago, some tee-totaling neighbors protested he was putting the community within Satan’s grasp.
Fittingly Hawkins was among those breaking a dry spell at the State Fair. The last time spirits had been sold there was back in 1946, when all hell broke loose. Angry drunks splattered the fairgrounds with broken beer bottles after vendors ran out of cups. It prompted a decades-long ban on booze that was just lifted this year.
So Hawkins was pleased to see this year’s crowd having a devil of a good time without the wicked behavior some had feared.
“I know some people say the Bible doesn’t condone drinking, but what about gluttony?” he asked as he gestured toward vendors peddling deep-fried Twinkies.
Hawkins was one of several dozen Hoosier brewers and vintners who brought their wares to share at the Indiana Beer and Wine Exhibit. It was housed in the misleadingly named Grand Hall. It’s actually a small venue that took on a friendly, beer-garden atmosphere.
Eleven days into the fair, when I visited, more than 31,000 people had passed through the exhibit without a drunken incident. Strict drink limits and the tough containment efforts to keep minors from wandering into the exhibit hall curbed the party atmosphere that might have tainted the event and doomed its return.
It also helped that the exhibit’s overseer was Denny Newman, the longtime concessions manager at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He knows how hard it is to keep a lid on a drinking party.
Everybody was carded as they entered the venue. I mean everybody: An elderly woman in line in front of me at the entrance was peeved when a burly security officer asked for her ID.
“Can’t I just take off my hat and show you my gray hair?” she asked.
When the offer was declined, she left.
Too bad. Once inside she would have gotten a wristband with three detachable drink vouchers and been asked to pay $5 for tokens to buy a 12-ounce glass of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine or four smaller samples of beer or wine. She could have picked from eight breweries and vineyards, which had rotated with the others to show off their products during the fair.
She might have mingled with a crowd that leaned closer to her demographic than that of the midway. Among those I chatted with was Fred Risinger, 75, a retired Indiana University professor who’s spent the last 10 years as a part-time bartender with the Upland Brewing Co., one of Indiana’s biggest craft brewers.
Like many in the crowd, Risinger chatted with the beer- and wine-makers as he sampled their offerings. Though a Salt Creek Brewery fan, he appreciated the wit behind the Books & Brews' Shogun Soba Ale. It was peddled as an amber ale brewed with buckwheat, “giving it a salty-sweetness that we think could have calmed the feudal Japan chronicled in the James Clavell classic.”
The popularity of the venue, combined with a well-mannered crowd, is a setup for the exhibit’s return next year, said Andy Klotz, spokesman for the fair. In keeping with the fair’s theme of celebrating agriculture, it will likely remain a showcase for Indiana beers and wines.
That’s fine with Hawkins.
“This is our kind of crowd,” he said. “We don’t make our beer for drunks. We make it for people who see craft beer as an art form.”