IndyCar Driver James Hinchcliffe & Flat 12 Bierwerks

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.