MONTICELLO, Ind. — Most days, Indiana Beach welcomes people of all ages. However, for one day this fall, the amusement park on Lake Shafer in Monticello, it will be closed for a private, 21-and-older event.
Indiana Beach is teaming up with Indiana On Tap for a new beer and wine tasting festival on Saturday, September 11 called “Hops and Coaster Drops.”
“We’re bringing in, probably, close to 50 vendors from all over the state that will be craft beer breweries, wineries and distilleries,” said Indiana Beach Chief Marketing Officer Tom Crisci.
For an afternoon, guests will be able to sample unlimited amounts of alcohol throughout the park, along with having access to rides and games. The tasting event will take place from 2-6 p.m. Rides will be open until 8 p.m. There will also be live music from 7-11 p.m.
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH TOM CRISCI:
For those who might be skeptical of the idea of mixing alcohol with roller coasters, Crisci says he’s not worried.
“We operate about 100 days in any given season, and on those days, we provide adult beverages for our guests 21 and older, so it’s kind of comical to see some of those (Facebook) comments. It’s like, we operate 100 days out of the year, and this is never really a problem,” he said. “So it’s confusing to see people say ‘oh, we’re going to go have a few cocktails and then get on a roller coaster, and a lot of clean-up is going to be required.’”
Crisci says their target audience for the event is “craft beer aficionados,” which he says should be a more “relaxed” audience than what they typically get on any other day.
“I’ve been around craft beer festivals, and it’s usually laid-back folks that just want to sample different craft beer from across the state of Indiana. So we really don’t foresee that quote-on-quote ‘clean-up’ being much of an issue,” he said.
For more information and tickets, go to HopsAndCoasterDrops.com.
List of vendors that will be at the event:
Afterburner Brewing – Terre Haute
Backstep Brewing – Crawfordsville
Bare Hands Brewing – Granger
Black Dog Brewing – Mooresville
Boone County Jail Distillery – Lebanon
Brew All Day – Indianapolis
Brokerage Brewery – West Lafayette
Cardinal Spirits – Bloomington
The Chesterton Brewery – Chesterton
Crasian Brewing – Brookston
Creatures of Habit Brewing – Anderson
Crooked Ewe Brewing – South Bend
Crown Brewing – Crown Point
Daniel’s Vineyard – McCordsville
Devil’s Trumpet Brewing – Merrillville
Ellison Brewing – Indianapolis
Elm Street Brewing – Muncie
Escape Velocity Brewing – Lafayette
Fenwick Farms Brewing – Rensselaer
Field Brewing – Westfield
Four Fathers Brewing – Valparaiso
Fruitshine Wine – Monticello
Gem City Spirits – Frankfort
Grand Junction Brewing – Westfield
Great Crescent Brewery – Aurora
Half Moon Brewery – Kokomo
Herrmann Brewthers – Indianapolis
Hog Molly Brewing – Columbus
HopLore Brewing – Leesburg
Huckleberry Hill Winery – Bloomfield
Klooz Brewz – Lebanon
Kopacetic Beer Factory – Monticello
Mad Paddle Brewstillery – Madison
Malt Brothers Brewing – St. John
New Madison Brewing – Madison
Primeval Brewing – Noblesville
Ruhe 152 Brewing – Nappanee
Summit City Brewerks – Fort Wayne
Sun King Brewing – Indianapolis
Tarnished Hollow Brewing – Noblesville
Teays River Brewing – Lafayette
Terre Haute Brewing – Terre Haute
The Tap Brewing – Bloomington
Thieme & Wagner Brewing – Lafayette
Trubble Brewing – Fort Wayne
Vodka Squeeze – Indianapolis
Wabash Brewing – Indianapolis
West Fork Whiskey – Indianapolis
Whyte Horse Winery – Monticello
Wildrose Brewing – Griffith
Windmill Brewing – Dyer
1205 Distillery – Indianapolis
2Toms Brewing – Fort Wayne