Sun King's Seventh Anniversary Party and Grapefruit Jungle Release

If you’re a local beer lover you have one thing on your calendar this summer: Sun King’s Grapefruit Jungle Release. The annual event – this year it takes places Saturday, June 25th at the original brewery located at 135. N College – recognizes their popular, citrusy IPA (it features “a jungle of aroma and flavors”) and their anniversary. This year, they’re celebrating 7 years, and Sun King is looking brighter than ever and it has nothing to do with the lucky number. It’s a lot of hard work, great beer and sense of humor that win them points locally and beyond (just check out their website employee headshots and you’ll get an idea of their humor level).

I had a minute to catch up with Dave Colt, co-founder and head brewer at Sun King, before their big birthday bash and beer release takes place on June 25th.

Rachel: I noticed that your anniversary party each year is also the Grapefruit Jungle Release. Is GFJ more special than your other brews to get to share an anniversary day with your brewery, or it just coincidence?

Dave: It is not coincidence that we release GFJ on our Anniversary. We used to make it a couple of times a year and thought why not make as much of it as we can one time a year and have a big release. Since we love this beer at the brewery and we are throwing a party for ourselves let’s do both at the same time.

Rachel: What other limited release beers will you have on tap June 25th?

Dave: Every year in addition to GFJ we make an anniversary beer. This year’s style as voted on by the employees at Sun King is a Mexican lager similar to Dos Equis and Modelo. Our regular house line up will of course be available during the party.  Also for the first time ever you will be able to buy GFJ to go in cans as you leave.

Rachel: You’ve teamed up with local company Ambre Blends and created a GFJ lip remedy. Do you plan to have other collaborations like this in the future? What can we look forward to? 

Dave: We will be releasing another GFJ collaboration with Best Chocolate in Town, White Chocolate GFJ Truffles. We also plan to collaborate with Ambre Blends in the future as well as host of other local companies. We have been collaborating locally pretty much since the beginning of our existence. Some of favorite collabs have been with Just Pop In (Dark Chocolate Osiris Popcorn & Beer Cheese Pretzel), Best Chocolate In Town (Wee Mac Truffles), Broad Ripple Chip Co. (Sunlight brined Chips), Smoking Goose (Fistful of Hops Salami), and Indiana Pickle (Wee Willies). You can look forward to more fun on the collab front to be sure. We aren’t about to let the cat out of the bag on what we have working!

Rachel: What are some new brews you’re working on? 

Dave: We are currently developing the recipes for this year’s Gen Con beer, 20-Sided Rye, as well as the CANvitational Collaboration to be released during this year’s event on Saturday, September 10th.

Rachel: What are some new trends / styles you love in beer and how do you plan to integrate them into your brewery and brewing methods? 

Dave: We always enjoy learning about new trends and styles but what really drives us here at SKB is the spark of inspiration. We go where that takes us trend or no.

Rachel: As you celebrate seven years, what do you think the next seven years look like for Sun King?

Dave: The future looks bright and I hope we can continue to strive to be awesome or at least not suck.

Find more information and tickets to this Sun King event at SunKingBrewing.com or MOKBPresents.com. The event will be 4pm–10:30pm, with live entertainment and food trucks and tickets are $10 in advance or $20 at the door. Must be at least 21 years of age to attend.