Sahm's is building a beer camp for grown-ups near Indianapolis

A beer hotel opens in Columbus, Ohio, this summer, and that’s cool, but Indiana is getting a beer camp for adults and it’s just 45 minutes away from Indianapolis.

Imagine you and your friends sitting around a fire pit drinking craft beers made with wild Indiana yeasts. Maybe, you'll pack a growler for a woodland hike along a winding creek. You could play 18 holes of golf, or disc golf, before debating pale ale vs. IPA with the resident master brewer.

Thinking beer nightcap? No problem. There will be a tap in your cabin.

That’s just some of what Eddie Sahm has in mind for Camp Big Lug, under development at Pendleton Falls Park.

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Scheduled to open this May, the camp is coming together in and around the old Idlewold Country Club, dating to 1920 and partially surrounded by forest and Fall Creek in Pendleton.

The town purchased the golf course in 2008 and changed the name to Fall Creek Golf Club. The clubhouse became part of the park in 2014.

Big Lug Country Pub took over the golf club in December and centers the camp complex. The pub is a spin-off of Sahm’s Big Lug Canteen brewpub in Indianapolis.

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A brewery is under construction on Big Lug Country Pub’s ground floor. A deck seating up to 100 people is almost finished around the main restaurant.

Garage-door windows in another bar taking shape behind the restaurant will look out onto three or four rustic cabins sleeping up to 20 people each. Fire pits, bocce courts and horseshoe areas will be nearby.

Sahm plans bunk beds in the cabins and bathhouses in the golf club’s former men and women’s locker rooms.

“That’s why we call it Camp Big Lug. It’s not supposed to be a high-amenity, come-out-here-for-$800-a-night kind of thing. This is $40 a night,” Sahm said. “Come out here, play golf the next morning. Come out here, walk the falls. Get your bike out and ride around Pendleton.”

“It’s like this escape. You’re like at this grown-up camp.”

Expect a different approach to craft beer at Camp Big Lug. The brewer will rely on wild yeasts entering the brewery via glass garage doors facing the cabins. Camp guests will learn about the process at beer classes.

“This will be our most meticulous brewing because wild fermentation requires extreme caution,” Sahm said. “You want to make sure you give it the best environment. You don’t have a controlled environment; it’s not closed containers. You need nature to work its course. We’ll have to be careful about it … but we want you to see it. We want you to be able to understand what’s going on.”

The Beer Barn next door to the camp hosts a huge, covered patio strung with lights and furnished with picnic tables. Cooks working grills will fire brats, dogs and other foods to purchase on site without going to the restaurant. They’ll also lead grilling classes and demonstrations.

While the camp is adult-oriented, the barn, main restaurant patio and another soon-to-open dining room seating 35 people will be family friendly and open to guests who want to come just for a meal or a day at park. Big Lug Country Pub is open year-round.

Sahm has been thinking about a beer camp for a few years.

A visit to a McMenamins resort named Edgefield in the Portland, Ore., area fueled his imagination. There, guests could roam the property at their leisure, taking in various activities, seeing artists at work, touring a distillery or just relaxing in the garden with food and drink.

"We thought it would be fun to do something like that, on a much smaller scale, up here. It was just kind of like you could escape," Sahm said.

Sahm’s father, Ed Sahm, founder of Indy-based Sahm’s Restaurant Group, suggested the Pendleton park property. The Sahms leased the property and are paying for improvements.

Follow IndyStar food writer Liz Biro on Twitter: @lizbiro, Instagram: @lizbiro, and on Facebook. Call her at (317) 444-6264.