IndyCar Driver James Hinchcliffe & Flat 12 Bierwerks

James Hinchcliffe takes his beer drinking and his Indy car driving seriously. But he’s also a funny guy. Some of this results from being Canadian, but much of it has to do with Hinchcliffe not being cut from the same flame-resistant Nomex as his fellow race car drivers.

Known as the Mayor of Hinchtown, for example, who else is the plenipotentiary of his own online village?

An accomplished racer, Hinchcliffe won the pole at this year’s Indianapolis 500 and counts four career victories in the Verizon IndyCar Series to his credit. Also, he had the unique distinction of replacing Danica Patrick at the Andretti Autosport team after she moved to NASCAR – making more than a few people forget she was once there.

Hinchcliffe, also known as Hinch, transformed himself into one of the most recognizable and beloved drivers in Indianapolis, one of the finest feats since “Danica Mania.” Perhaps there’s a future bid for mayor of Indy by Hinch once his racing days are completed. If nothing else, he is the toast of craft beer lovers in Indianapolis – as well as Hinchtown.com – after four years of collaborating with the city’s Flat 12 Bierwerks.

This year the Indianapolis Motor Speedway welcomed an impressive crowd of 350,000 to the Indy 500, where every seat was full, the infield was jammed and more than a few fans lofted one of the Hinchcliffe collaborations to salute the pole winner at the start: Hinchtown Hammerdown Pilsner and Bricks Red IPA. It was the 100th running of the world’s largest single-day sporting event and the Bricks Red, which honored the track’s brick-paved origins, carried 100 IBUs of Centennial hops. There was a pinch of milk sugar, too, in honor of the tradition of drinking milk in Victory Lane at the Brickyard.

Hinchcliffe’s career storyline includes an amazing comeback from a near-fatal accident in May of 2015, when a suspension piece pierced the chassis of his car after a practice crash – and also the driver’s femoral artery. Soon, Flat 12 was producing cans of Hammerdown with “Get Well Soon Hinch” stamped on them. Brewmaster Sean Manahan now kids his collaborator that he’s not himself anymore, since it took 14 pints of somebody’s else’s blood to bring him back to life.

Hinch’s first real question of his doctors at Methodist Hospital after regaining consciousness concerned the upcoming 2015 race that he was ostensibly practicing for: “Will I be OK in time for the 500?” The answer was “No, James, probably not.”

That’s when it began to sink in that the time missing from his memory was an iffy period where the smart, quick work of safety crews saved his life.

After a near-fatal crash in 2015, Flat 12 festooned a wall of its brewery and bottoms of cans with wishes for Hinch’s speedy recovery.

OK. So upon regaining consciousness Hinch didn’t first ask for a refreshing namesake pilsner. He may not have come back this year to win the race after winning the pole at 230.760 mph. So much for the fairy tales. But he did lead the race 11 times for 27 laps and finished fifth in one of the most compelling 500s ever run. The Most Interesting Man in the World has nothing on this guy.

So how did the Mayor of Hinchtown let his fans know he was really back for this year’s 500 and in seriously good health? He ran an ad on his Facebook page for his new Hinch-Lift app. The photo showed the driver carrying a sleepy-headed guy piggyback and the caption offered this:

Had a long night? Need a ride home but don’t want to pay Uber surge charges? Introducing the brand new discount ride sharing app, Hinch-Lift! Just hail Hinch from the app and he will come and piggy back you home! Costs are kept down by the complete lack of a car and all those pesky bills that go along with maintaining one. We are in beta testing now, but look for Hinch-Lift to be in a city that hosts an Indycar race near you this summer.

Hinchcliffe with the 2015 Hinchtown/Flat 12 collaboration.

Hinch gets it when it comes to racing, athletic stardom and beer. Be passionate and dedicated, but don’t take it all too seriously. That might be un-Canadian.

Hinchcliffe grew up in Oakville, located on Lake Ontario just south of Toronto. “Beer is definitely the libation of choice for the Canadian youth,” he said. “By youth I mean, of course, 19 years old because that’s what the drinking age is in Ontario. You’re sitting around watching hockey games with buddies or up at the cottage, especially in Ontario, there’s a huge cottage culture around Toronto and sitting by the lake on the weekend. Yeah, you go through an awful lot of beer when you’re sitting by a lake.”

Hinchtown, in fact, was conceived with a few beers at hand. “We were sitting in the basement of an office in Ludington, Michigan, drinking beer and started brainstorming ideas,” said Hinchcliffe. “It was the time of my career to build a website and I was with a few guys who were helping me out… We looked at all the websites that drivers were doing in F1 and IndyCar and NASCAR, etc. We came to two conclusions. One, they were exactly all the same and two, they all sucked. We wanted to do something different… We sat there for a couple of hours bouncing around ideas and we settled on Hinchtown and me being the mayor and it’s kind of taken on a life of its own.”

It wasn’t until Hinchcliffe first came to Indianapolis in 2009 that he got interested in craft brews. “It took a while,” he said. “It wasn’t something I was born with. For a long time I thought Heineken was a little too much to drink. When I moved to Indianapolis, there’s a huge craft beer culture at Indy… I started experimenting with different styles and different craft brews and learning to appreciate them a little bit better. I was a lager guy for a long time. It was probably before I got introduced to the guys at Flat 12. Being in Indy as the explosion happened, it definitely expanded my palate.” 

The relationship with Flat 12’s founder Sean O’Connor began shortly after Hinchcliffe joined the Andretti Autosport team in 2012, which raised his career profile considerably as the guy who would replace Patrick and represent GoDaddy in IndyCar. (Following three seasons with Andretti, Hinchcliffe joined Schmidt-Peterson Motorsports.)

Hinchcliffe told his accountant he was looking for something to sponsor that was “local and really cool.” The accountant put him together with another client – Flat 12 founder O’Connor – and the collaboration was born. From their first meeting over beers a little more than four years ago, the match-up with O’Connor turned out to be a good fit in terms of both beer and personalities.

Hinchcliffe has subsequently become the unofficial coach for the karting escapades of O’Connor’s son in addition to the chief beer collaborator. “Sean is motivated, he’s passionate about racing and passionate about beer,” said Hinchcliffe.

O’Connor is a former merger and acquisition specialist who worked in Europe for Indianapolis-based Klitsch & Associates, the hi-fi speaker company. When in Europe, O’Connor fell in love with Dutch and Belgian beers. He took the plunge in 2010 and opened Flat 12 Bierwerks in the Holy Cross neighborhood, a section of the city once popular with German immigrants who sustained several local breweries.

The German connection explains the spelling of the Bierwerks and the Flat 12 is a reference to innovation as well as racing. As engines go, a flat 12-cylinder engine is rare; in fact, one has never appeared in the Indy 500 in a racing car, although they have powered Ferraris in Formula 1.

“The name Flat 12 pays more homage to the history of racing than any specific genre,” said O’Connor. “I didn’t try to peg it to any one driver, or car or race. The 12-cylinder flathead engine was kind of developed here in Indianapolis and had a reputation for quality and American ingenuity. That’s what we pride ourselves on with the beers that we make – great American beer, ingenuity, stretching the limits and doing fun things.”

Fully recovered from his accident, Hinchcliffe put in time at the brewhouse to help with the collaboration brews.

With a name like Flat 12 and some good beers on the table in the taproom, the racing angle played well at his first meeting with Hinchcliffe, said O’Connor. “It was a really cool natural fit, in a much different way than if somebody had said, ‘Hey, I want to introduce you to Peyton Manning or Reggie Miller.’ Not that those guys aren’t Indianapolis icons.”

As for the Hammerdown beer, in its third year of packaging each May, Hinch was involved from concept to completion. Originally a golden ale, it was decided to switch to a pilsner with relatively low ABV and an excellent malt-to-hop balance. Compared to a traditional pilsner, what makes it delicious is the slight edge of sweetness and hop bitterness. It is well-aimed for hot race days at 4.8 percent ABV and 27 IBUs.

“But,” says Hinch, “I’m an IPA guy. I won’t lie. I always talked with Sean O’ Connor about doing another one and if I did another one I’d want it to be an IPA. We started chatting about it. Sean Manahan [Flat 12 Brewmaster], he kind of designed a flavor profile in his head and wanted to pay homage to the race as best he could… We made just one batch, a limited run, but I was in there at 7 in the morning throwing hops into the tank, stirring the pot and it was fun to be part of the process right from the beginning.”

While Manahan gives the nod to Hinch when it comes to Mario Kart on Nintendo, he’s the Merlin behind the beer, a single IPA at 6.4 percent ABV. “It was tricky to get 100 IBUs in there and make it work,” said Manahan. “It was really a matter of spreading it out and adding hops over the entire course of the boil so that the IBUs don’t punch you in the mouth. We wanted it to be aggressive – it’s a racing beer. But we didn’t want to be offensive.” In honor of Hinch’s friend and fellow Indy car driver Scott Dixon of New Zealand, some Wakatu hops were also part of the mix.

Prior to this year’s race, there was a veritable parade of enthusiasts at the Flat 12 brewery, which is painted a very canny flat red. Fans wanted the canned four-packs for the race and the party the night before on Georgetown Road. Flat 12 also is among those that have concession rights at the Speedway.

The Bricks, a Red IPA, was a popular limited release that debuted in advance of the 2015 running of the Indy 500.

In addition to its hometown, Flat 12 is sold in Cincinnati and Louisville, where a Flat 12 pub has been established in Kentuckiana. Using a 20-barrel DME system, the brewery has grown from 1,000 barrels its first year to 10,000 in 2016, in part because of the Speedway, which also hosts NASCAR and a major vintage event each year. But it’s the Indy 500 and the month of May schedule that is the biggest draw and the city’s claim to fame.

No wonder one of those selling the four-packs at the brewery said the company doesn’t sponsor Hinchcliffe. “He sponsors us,” she said proudly. Once again, His Honor has found a whole new approach. Instead of a macro brewer spending millions to go racing, he’s collaborating in order to go brewing. Meanwhile, his favorite brewer can go racing in a sport where sponsorships generally run seven to eight figures.

Although the Flat 12 brand is not a direct sponsor on the car, various promotions – such as the launch of Bricks Red at the  brewery featuring Hinch, fellow driver Conor Daly and racing simulators, or a photo of the car sitting on the track with a four-pack of the IPA on the nose – helps clinch the Hinch connection.

The mainstays at Flat 12 include Half Cycle IPA, Walkabout Pale Ale, Upside Down Blonde and Pogue’s Run Porter, plus seasonals like the Cucumber Kolsch. They’re close to the classic mold, but push the boundaries. The Walkabout, for instance, is another beer where Manahan has relatively high IBUs for the style without losing taste to bitterness. The Woodwerks cellar has been in operation since the brewery opened and this year expects to release about 60 beers aged in tequila, rum, whiskey, wine and port barrels.

The goal for O’Connor, whose family has been fans of the Indy 500 for five generations, is to have Flat 12 on the side of a car, which would require a significant boost in barrel production that is not on the immediate horizon. For Hinchcliffe, who knows?

Hinch enjoying the fruits of his labor.

Maybe one day he’ll race flat out at Indy in a flat red car with Flat 12 on the side. The ultimate goal is winning the world’s biggest race and clinching one of the sport’s greatest comebacks. This year was a good start. 

“To get back on the track a year after the accident happened and to put it on pole, I was especially proud of the guys at Schmidt-Peterson,” he said. “All the hard work that they put into the race cars to make them as slippery as they are. To be a factor in the race, really right up until the last stint, I think it speaks volumes just for all the effort put into it… Sure, the end result was not the fairy tale we were hoping for, but we can be proud of what we did… We laid it out there and it was a great effort by the whole team.”

Will there be a third Hinch beer added to the line-up next May?

“We’re playing it by ear at the minute,” said Hinchcliffe. “It’s tough. I always wanted to do an IPA and I wanted to do that with Bricks. It was a one-off beer. But man, it sold well and tasted great. It’s so tempting to make it again next year. It might be better to stick with it that way or have people remember the allure and the myth of the Bricks IPA and try something else…We’ll see what comes about organically.”

So there you have it. Straight from City Hall at Hinchtown, where we suspect you know which beers are on tap.

Photos courtesy Flat 12 Bierwerks.