To Jon Lang, there isn’t a better time to be a brewer in Indianapolis.
Although the beer scene in Indianapolis has boomed throughout the past 10 years, competition has hardly been fierce between Indy’s growing portfolio of breweries.
“If I need yeast, I call Liz over at Rock Bottom and borrow Rock Bottom strain. You don’t hear of any other industry doing that,” Lang said. “Flat12 and us go back and forth. Omar from Three Wise Men [Brewery] was here last week buying some stuff.”
Lang has been brewing in Indianapolis since 2001. He began at Barley Island where he won three Great American Beer Festival awards, most notably a gold medal in the American brown category for a brew called Dirty Helen.
After leaving Barley, Lang opened Triton Brewing Co. in 2011 with partners Michael Deweese, director in charge of sales, and David Waldman, operations director.
The brewery’s creed slapped across the top of their website reads, “Better Water, Better Beer,” and the reason why becomes obvious when touring the brewing side.
Through equipment in the far back room of the brew house the water used in each brew goes through a lengthy process to get it ready to be made into beer.
“You want to start with the best base you can and then build it from there,” Lang said. “We want to start with the best water we can because Indiana water is so hard. We carbon filter it, we soften it and then we reverse osmosis it.”
Each style of beer calls for a different style of water. After filtration, Triton does this by adding minerals to the water to mimic the water naturally found in places around the world.
“So if we’re brewing a Scottish beer, we’ve got to have a Scottish water,” Lang said. “The IPA is a California water.”
Since he opened up shop in their location on the base of Fort Benjamin Harrison on Indy’s northeast side, Lang’s team has seen great success. The company has recently begun distribution in Ohio and sees further expansion as a no-brainer.
In addition to cranking out crowd favorites, Lang said he enjoys playing with his beers to create different flavors.
“We take growlers and spice them up in different ways and doctor them up just to play with them,” Lang said. “Gingerbread Brown was born in a growler.”
Lang said Gingerbread Brown was an unexpected seasonal success for them. Rushing to get it completed for the late fall and winter months, the beer flew off the shelves last year.
“This year we did twice as much and blew through it,” Lang said.
He also uses his three-barrel brewing system to brew root beer for the tasting room, which he also keeps on tap at home for his kids.
“Just have to make sure they grab the right tap,” Lang said.
Lang is happy where he is today. Looking forward, he said he wants politics and fierce competition to stay out of brewing in Indiana for as long as he is a part of it.
“I think it’s that we are so small that we’re just trying to grow as a whole,” Lang said “If we start knocking each other out it’s not going to be good.”
