Wasser toasts AHB with new beer

Courtesy photo Wasser Brewing owner Chris Weeks (right) toasts Average House Band members (from left) Rod Kersey, Danny Martin, Fred Badalli, Sandy Williams, Steve Michael and Bill Hamm Thursday night during their appearance at his Greencastle brewery.

On the eve of its 10th and possibly final reunion concert, Greencastle’s own Average House Band was toasted at Wasser Brewing Co. Thursday night.

Toasted not just in spirit but with spirits. And not just any beer, but a special brew just for the AHB gang.

Brewmaster Chris Weeks, owner of the city’s first 21st-century brewery, has created Average House Band 8 beer in honor of the longtime local group that is holding reunion concerts this Friday and Saturday night at the Inn at DePauw.

Average House Band 8 is basically an IPA (India pale ale), Weeks said.

“Just say it’s a hoppy beer,” the local beermaker said, noting that it is line with Wasser’s Super 8, a beer named in honor of the Super 8 car of the old Packard motor line.

The Wasser location at 102 E. Franklin St. -- while most recently a NAPA auto parts stored owned by Average House Band member Bill Hamm -- also once housed a Packard dealership owned and operated by Roscoe Scott, late father of local legend Jinsie Bingham.

So it was no average house in which all this was going down Thursday, including a warm-up performance by the local rock music group most synonymous with the Greencastle music scene of the 1970s and 1980s.

To celebrate the return of AHB this time, Weeks set out to make a special beer to accompany the occasion, which is most often served with its own sides of laughter, memories and good times.

The beer-making process for Average House Band 8, Weeks explained, just happened to coincide with the harvesting of hops, including some special Rocky Fork hops, a fresh, wet variety just off the vine from just down the road from Rocky Fork where Putnam and Parke counties come together in beautiful rural Indiana splendor.

Weeks said he “added fresh hops to what was Super 8, and created a beer renamed after the Average House Band.”

The result, he said, is a brew featuring “a once-a-year addition in which you get an amazing aroma because of the fresh, wet hops.”

Wasser Brewing has made one 300-gallon vat of Average House Band 8 beer, which will be available as long as supplies last, Weeks said.

“Maybe a month,” he predicted.