Importer and blue noses square off in Connecticut's Elf beer ban.

Thanks to Hank for forwarding this newsworthy link:

Connecticut Wants to Ban Beer With Elf Label, by Pat Eaton-Robb.

An Associated Press synopsis:

The Connecticut state Liquor Control Commission has notified Shelton Brothers distributors that it will not allow the sale of Seriously Bad Elf , a British import, in Connecticut on the grounds that the label might appeal to children. The state has wide ranging discretion to regulate the sales of alchohol according to state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

I told Hank that there's no better person in the importing business -- in fact, in any business -- than Dan Shelton to fire back at the blue-nosed censors, and unsurprisingly, he already has:

BANNED IN CONNECTICUT!

In the case of State of Connecticut vs. Santa Claus, the defendant pleads . . . bewildered. "I never meant to hurt anybody," an obviously shaken Claus told reporters, after posting bail at a Hartford-area police station.

When will the bureaucrats ever learn?

Did I mention that a keg of Seriously Bad Elf has been ordered for Saturnalia?

I'll be awaiting word from Our Man Mitch as to whether it's permissable.

Updating the bottled beer selection at Rich O's.

Yesterday I completed a major upgrade of the bottled beer menu at Rich O's, with the aim being to stock more and better American microbrews, leaning heavily toward the most flavorful side of the style ledger.

First, some background.

Generally, our regular, daily bottled list comprises around 200 selections, including everyday beers, vintage beers, ciders and meads. Another 15 to 20 beers rotate seasonally, by availability, or owing to my personal interest in feauturing them, and these choices are written on the blackboard -- not included in the printed beer list.

The printed beer list is checked and updated roughly on a quarterly basis. I look for beers that are not selling well, and close them out if there appears to be no hope for repositioning. To be honest, you never know how well a beer will do. As with any product, there is a magical, mysterious consumer matrix that incorporates price, quality, image and intangibles, and aspects of it can be buffed and polished to some extent, not always successfully.

There are times when one must punt. I've tried in vain to develop a following for Shipyard's (Maine) ales, and largely failed. I'll let them rest for a while, and maybe try again next year.

Obviously, given the perishable nature of beer, stocks must rotate. Something less than a third of the beers we keep in stock are ones that must move quickly -- for example, lighter beers, pilsners, lower gravity lagers, and the like.

However, the majority are beers designed to be kept for a while (at least), and among these are some that will keep for a long time. Among these are higher gravity beers and bottle conditioned beers.

Without further ado ...

Here are this week's microbrewed additions:

Avery "The Beast" Grand Cru
Avery "The Czar" Imperial Stout
Avery "The Reverend" Quadrupel
Founders Dirty Bastard
Founders Red's Rye
Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout

Coming in mid-November:

Rogue XS I2PA
Rogue XS Old Crustacean Barley Wine
Rogue XS Russian Imperial Stout

New imports:

Broughton Black Douglas (Scotland)
Christian Drouin Poire (French pear cider)

Moving from seasonal/rotating to full-time duty:

Glazen Toren Saison d’Erpe Mere
Uerige Doppel Sticke

A new wave of guest bottles is about to break:

Avery "The Kaiser" Imperial Oktoberfest
Bell's Wheat Two (and others in the "wheat project" to follow)
Breckinridge "Small Batch" 471 IPA
Founders Black Rye
Great Divide Hibernation Ale
Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza
Jolly Pumpkin La Roja

Previous guests/seasonal/rotating, and still available:

BBC Hell for Certain
Cassissona
Oaken Barrel Saison
Rogue Chipotle Ale
Shipyard Pumpkinhead
Stone 05/05/05 Vertical Epic
Stone 9th Anniversary Ale

BBC, Browning's and BBC -- in LEO.

In today's Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO), Kevin Gibson offers short notes on the BBC brewpub's 12th anniversary, a menu (and name) change at Browning's Restaurant and Brewery, and a neighborhood fest with BBC beer present for duty.

Nibbles, by Kevin Gibson.

Speaking of Browning's, Brian's single varietal (East Kent Goldings) ESB is cask-conditioned and on the Rich O's hand pull starting this afternoon.

Bouncing baby fermenters and serving tanks finally arrive.

A day later than expected, the truck from Canada (via Chicago) arrived this morning and disgorged two fermenters and four serving tanks from DME, which are now safely housed in the brewery until the next stages of the installation process unfold.


We are extremely thankful to the folks at Feeder's Supply, who let us borrow a forklift (with driver) and a pallet jack. In the photo above, the serving tanks are standing, and one of the fermenters lying on its side. Here's another view:


On Monday, Jesse and Jared cleared the decks in the brewery to make room for the tanks, and it looked like this:


Now things have become crowded again. The two fermenters will join the two already in place, and be plumbed into the glycol chiller.

The four serving tanks will be moved from the brewery into a space being readied for their occupancy. Those familiar with the Sportstime seating area will recognize the now former game room.

John and the good people from AAA Plumbing Doctor are cutting a floor drain today and tomorrow, and we'll do some waterproofing of the walls before removing two panes of the glass between the brewery and the seating area, and moving the serving tanks into their permanent home.

Special long-draw draft lines, a standard feature in most brewpubs, will connect the serving tanks with a draft station, which probably will be located in the area of Rich O's known as the (now former coffee room).

As if all this weren't enough for a chilly October morning, the roofers returned from a rain delay to resume work. Here they are, with the plumbers merrily jack-hammering beneath them:

To top it off, two out of the three big weekly beer deliveries came in within minutes of each other. Once the new equipment is installed and working, it is our hope to slightly reduce the amount of beer purchased from outside, to increase the amount of house-brewed beer and be able to offer six to eight draft NABC beers at all times, and to have a proportion left over to sell to the outside account that I still can't divulge at this time, but which is well on its way to fruition.

It would be nice to stop for the day ...

Bell's Batch 7000 (A Commemorative Brew).

I'm not a compulsive collector and rater of beers, but to each his own, and naturally as one in the business of selling good beer, I appreciate the way that the beer fans at Rate Beer and Beer Advocate (prime among such gathering points) share information and move an important market segment.

Tonight, in search of just one beer to sip during a World Series game being played in cold and rain, I tabbed the bottle of Bell's Batch 7000 (A Commemorative Brew) that I'd brought home to sample.

The thing is, Kalamazoo Brewing tends to be coy about their special creations, especially the numbered batch series -- shucks, just another mile marker, no big deal, and we hope you like it.

In fact, much of the enjoyment comes from not really knowing what the beer will be before drinking it, and this was the case tonight, as I popped the cap and poured a beautiful, oily, black liquid into my glass and registered a huge nose a full foot away from it.

Imperial stout? Double stout?

Well, yes. Both. It's been a while since I've experienced such a multiplicity of sensory rewards -- hints of smoke, molasses, perhaps even spruce, all peeking through the relentlessly roasted viscosity, and heavily alcoholic (as it turns out, 12% abv). Absolutely enormous, warming like a glass of whisky, and fully recommended for accompanying mixed nuts and baseball on a chilly autumn night.

In case you're wondering, yes, there'll be some for sale at Rich O's -- and you can bet I'll be begging Kalamazoo Brewing for a keg come Gravity Head time.

Swillmongers on television, but craft beer nearby as I watch.

About the best thing I can say about television is that in terms of evil, it’s a necessary medium.

Without it, I couldn’t watch major league baseball, pro basketball and the stray PBS documentary.

With it, I must endure commercial advertising, that wretched cesspool of pestilential misery with its rampant implications for the accepted manner by which people are tricked into believing they have lives.

Given my affection for the ideal of beer, it stands to reason that the most objectionable form of commercial advertising on television is that which exalts the insipid offerings of America’s bloated, aesthetically challenged megabrewers.

To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, the advertising strategies of America’s megabrewers span the range from A to B – so, let’s start with Anheuser-Busch.

A-B’s spending a ton of baseball playoff ad money to tout the virtues of its Select, trotting out August Busch IV (one of the more skilled people on the planet, we’re told, and certainly the bearer of the most honorifics since the unfortunate demise of Mrs. Ceausescu) to explain the special care lavished on the brand – the ingredients are more expensive, and extra time is taken in brewing Select.

The obvious question: If it’s that good, why not use the same care on the other brands? Doesn't the Busch drinker deserve as much?

Coors offers more of its patented brand of juvenile antics, i.e., swinish young men making suggestive noises while slurping sterile swill, while balancing this recurring Animal House technique with mountainous vistas of ice and snow serving as a backdrop for the wooden chairman, the defeated Pete Coors, as he babbles nonsensically about his product “starting here.”

Finally, there’s Miller – that’s SAB Miller, officially – devoting much of its ad time to the long neglected High Life brand, now revived owing to a bizarre affection for retro swill. The girl in the moon is brought to life, animated to perpetuate the merits of blind obedience to tradition, while not providing the slightest shred of information about the beer.

That’s because there is no pertinent information about the beer beyond the industrial mechanics necessary to produce it in the quantities necessary to bludgeon markets and establish virtual monopolies.

When the game resumes, you’ll notice the fans with their plastic bottles of mass-market, carbonated urine. Until they begin to question the liquid, the travesty will continue. But if the only information they receive comes from television, how can this ever happen.

Gee, maybe it's intentional ...

Irish Rover Too beer dinner recap ... a fine, fine evening.

On Monday evening, Diana and I attended the Irish Rover Too's inaugural beer dinner at the pub's downtown LaGrange, Kentucky location.

It was a supremely successful event, with 40 people in attendance. As you can see below, the cuisine was broadly Central European, the sort of fare you might expect in Austria and Hungary, but the beers (arranged with the loving assistance of "Beer Dave" of Bryant Distributing) weren't restricted to that area of the world.

Apertif beer: Wittekerke Wit (Belgium)
I chose Wit as a means of introducing the idea of spicing a beer. Many in attendance were familiar with Blue Moon, but didn't know the story of the style's Belgian origins.

Appetizer: Krautstrudel
A cabbage filled puff pastry, Bacon, onion, paprika, cabbage, sour cream, red pepper and butter, with NABC Kaiser 2nd Reising (pre-Prohibition Pilsner; Indiana).
By the book for this pairing, with a German-hopped Pilsner, but also providing a chance to explain American pre-Prohibition brewing.

Soup: Lecho
Onion, pepper, tomato and chicken stock.
Rockies Hazed and Infused (American Pale Ale; Colorado).
This pairing was a blind stab that turned out well. My guess was that the spicy and slightly acidic tomato stock would cancel out the flavor hops in the ale, and leave aroma hops in the nose. It's good to be lucky.

Entree choices:
Pork Chops with sauerkraut
With new potatoes. Butter, onion, sauerkraut, beef broth, red wine, green pepper, bay leaf, paprika, salt and pepper ... baked.

Or, Chicken Bacska Style
Bacon, onion, paprika, salt, chicken broth, butter, rice, green pepper, tomato and parsley ... baked.
With samples of both Ayinger Oktoberfest (Bavarian Oktoberfest) &
Tucher Bajuvator Doppelbock (Bavarian Double Bock).
I'm not sure it's possible to improve on classic soft, amber Marzen and malty, sweetish Doppelbock with dishes like these. I had the pork chops, which were succulent, as was the tender and appropriate sauerkraut.

Dessert: Apple Strudel
Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout (Oatmeal Stout; England).
The silky chocolate notes of oatmeal, a bit of roastiness to set off the apples.

Closing beer: St. Bernardus Abt (Abbey Ale; Belgium).
The real dessert, a secular equivalent of the currently notorious Westleteren 12, brewed by the people who used to do contract work for the St. Sixtus abbey.

Actually, my opening beer was a pint of Fuller's ESB, still one of my favorites, shared with the inimitable Michael Reidy, owner of the establishment and the original Irish Rover on Frankfort Avenue.

I readily accepted an invitation to do it again, perhaps in January.

It's official: Time to panic; the truck's on the way.

We just received word that the money's in the bank, the paperwork's almost finished, and our new fermenters and serving tanks will be loaded and shipped within the next two days.

Gads ... and it only took a year, three different point people, two banks and six months off my life.

Now comes the fun part -- figuring out the installation procedures.

You really didn't think we'd planned it in advance, did you?

In other work-related news today, the roofers have been stacking shingles in anticipation of starting work, and three of us took two trucks and went to a warehouse in Louisville's west end to pick up 2,000 square feet of oak flooring for the banquet and conference room that is taking shape in our building.

At 6:30 p.m. tonight, there's a beer dinner at the Irish Rover Too in LaGrange, Kentucky. I was amused to hear my name on public radio promos for the event, which referred to me as a beer guru. Of all the terms used to describe us, i.e., nuts, geeks, aficionados, fans, and the like, my favorite remains "enthusiast."

It's going to be a long week, isn't it?

NABC will simplify its core portfolio during brewery expansion (Fall, 2005).

During almost three years of craft brewing, approximately twenty different beers have appeared under the NABC banner.

In its own way, each of these has been good – in some manner, to some one. We haven’t poured out any of them, even the ones that didn’t turn out as expected (Hop Scotch, the result of a ambitious mashing experiment gone awry, springs to mind). Every NABC patron has a favorite brand, and so do I, and given the natural limitations of our small scale of production, it became evident early on that we’d never be able to offer all the favorites, all at once.

Taking this into consideration, and promising to return soon to the era of unbridled experimentation, permit me to serve notice that from October until early 2006, we’ll be curtailing the stylistic repertoire in order to make possible the achievement of three primary goals.

First, and foremost, this is to simplify brewing operations during the time required to complete our brewery expansion project, which calls for the installation of two fermenters and the remodeling of space in the Sportstime seating area to accommodate four serving tanks, which in turn will be brought on-line to a new serving area in the Rich O’s seating area.

Second, this time of brewing simplification can be used to good purpose in focusing the marketing effort on a core of brands rather than many, in refining our graphics and presentation, and then applying the same principles to rotating beers and seasonals once they return to the fold, because …

… third, a proportion of the production of the core brands will be earmarked for off-premise sale to an account in downtown New Albany, one that remains in the planning stages but might be up and running before Christmas.

Accordingly, here are the answers to some frequently asked questions:

Q. What’s this off-premise account I keep hearing about?
A. I can’t say, at least yet. Stay tuned for further details.

Q. What will be the “core” beers?
A. For the immediate future, these will be Community Dark, Croupier, Elector, Hoptimus and Bob’s Old 15-B.

Q. Why these five?
A. All have been consistently good sellers, and most importantly, all are brewed with the same house London ale yeast. Taken together, they represent very different flavor profiles and styles, with distinct identities.

Q. What about Tunnel Vision?
A. During a time when simplicity is the order of the day, Tunnel Vision has a few factors weighing against its inclusion in a scaled-down rotation. It uses a special Belgian yeast, expensive honey, and has proven to be a difficult beer to brew. Once capacity is expanded, the Tunnel Vision yeast can be used to brew other Belgian specialties (Blonde Abbey, St. Alfonzo, etc.), and you’ll see it return to the lineup.

Q. What about Bourbondaddy?
A. Bourbondaddy requires three to four months of cold storage for four huge, 50-gallon whisky barrels filled with maturing stout, and once these are arranged, it is impractical to move them. Given that there may be some reconfiguration of the brewery during the equipment installation, immovable barrels might be an impediment to finishing the project. We’d rather wait and do the next batch of Bourbondaddy after everything’s safely in place.

Q. What about Beak’s Best?
A. It was a tough choice, but we decided to give Beak’s a break and return to it next year. For no particular reason, we’ve always had problems with the consistency of Beak’s, and every time a little something’s gone wrong in the brewery – a smidgen of Belgian yeast crossover, the glycol system failure – Beak’s has always been the beer affected by the unexpected. It will be back, but not until after the first of the year.

Jesse and Jared will still have a specialty or two during the approaching “return to basics” time, and in 2006, we should be able to have the core brands and quite a few others on tap at the same time, as the goal of the brewing capacity increase is to be able to keep seven or eight beers on tap, not just four or five.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at potable@richos.com

Books about beer -- accompany with beer.

For those who are not yet aware, New Albany has its first full service bookstore in over 50 years -- this on top of the city's first brewery (NABC, 2002) in almost seven decades.

Good beer and good books. We're for them.

Destinations Booksellers opened roughly one year ago, and besides being a place where you can buy books and magazines, the store is located only five blocks down Spring Street from the Curmudgeon's abode, making it a convenient stop to shoot the breeze and discuss local politics.

Owner Randy Smith has been writing a books column for the New Albany Tribune, and his most recent effort discusses books about beer and brewing.

Brewers Large and Small Turn the Page; Beer books give peek at businesses and hobbyists by Randy Smith (October 12, 2005).

Remember that Randy can order any book, about beer or otherwise. Become a patron of Destinations Booksellers, and tell Randy that I sent you.

Saturnalia MMV winter solstice draft festival is taking shape, and here's the current list of invitees.

(This entry is being updated as orders are processed and beers arrive).

In December, we'll be staging a second winter solstice draft festival: Saturnalia, MMV.

The starting date is Friday, December 16. If all goes as planned, there'll be commemorative t-shirts available.

The beer list for Saturnalia MMV is taking shape, and the following will be updated as matters become clearer. The microbrew ordering has just now started, which accounts for the disparity with imports.

(* ordered)
(# in stock)

MICROBREWS
*Anchor “Our Special Ale” (Christmas Ale) 5.5% abv
#Avery Old Jubilation 8% abv
#Schmaltz He’Brew Jewbelation 5766 9% abv
#Great Lakes Christmas Ale 7.5% abv
#New Holland Phi 2005 9% abv
*Oaken Barrel Epiphany (Christmas Ale)
#Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar 6.22% abv
*Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale 6.8% abv

IMPORTS
*Corsendonk Christmas Ale … Belgium, 8.5% abv
#De Dolle Extra Special Export Stout … Belgium, 9% abv
#De Dolle Stille Nacht … Belgium, 12% abv
*De Ranke Pere Noel … Belgium, 7% abv
*Delirium Noel … Belgium, 10% abv
*Gale’s Christmas Ale 2005 … United Kingdom, 8.5%
*Hibernus Samaranth Quadrium … Belgium, 11.5% abv
#Kiuchi Nest New Year Celebration Ale 2005 … Japan, circa 9% abv
*JW Lees Moonraker … United Kingdom, 7.5% abv
*La Rulles Cuvee “Best Holiday Wishes” … Belgium
*Mahr’s Christmas Bock … Germany, 6% abv
*N’Ice Chouffe … Belgium, 10% abv
*Ridgeway Santa’s Butt Winter Porter … United Kingdom, 6% abv
*Ridgeway Seriously Bad Elf … United Kingdom, 9%
*St. Feuillien Cuvee de Noel … Belgium, 9%

Publicanista! for October 13 has been posted.

The October 13 edition of Publicanista! has been posted.

Apologies to those who have relied on e-mail to receive the newsletter, but the mailing list is being revamped and should be back to normal in a week or two.

But what I forgot to do ...

... was buy a CO2 regulator, meaning that all our well intentioned efforts to enable a cask breather and have uninterrupted firkin flow are useless.

It's been ordered.

One way to avoid stress is to have a beer, as I did last evening while watching the damned Yankees win. My choice was a 22-oz., year-old Old Guardian Barley Wine from Stone Brewing Company; it was rounding into form, but still requires some work on mechanics. I'll come back to another bottle next March.

Oddly, one of my black cats was taken with it, and was spotted licking the glass furiously after I'd finished. This may or may not be a good marketing device, given the approach of Halloween, but I feel as though we bonded, nonetheless.

Another method of reducing stress, such as in the case of the missing regulator, is to take a deep breath and realize that our customers have come to expect that we'll never quite be finished on a project when originally predicted.

Let's hope that's charming, and not too annoying.

The opening weekend of Lupulin Land was a success.

The opening weekend of Lupulin Land was well attended and hectic, although not as much so as Gravity Head – and rest assured, I’m good for only one of those epics each year.

Shawn Conn pours a beer, and Kevin Richards can't watch.

I’m very happy to note that with all the solid choices available, our own NABC Hoptimus Double IPA was consumed to the tune of an entire keg in roughly 15 business hours. Another keg is on tap now, but there won't be much after that, at least until Jesse brews it again.

We kept the Randall supplied with Cascades and poured Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA through it on both Friday and Saturday. Much discussion was prompted by the possibilities of this hopback-to-the-glass, most of it centering on the notion of using it to enhance the hop nose and flavor of an ale that was hoppy at the start, versus deploying it to modify an otherwise lightly hopped beer.

If you have any ideas pertaining to which beer you'd like to see augmented by a particular hop, please forward them to me. We have unlimited options, and ample time to play.

Randall will be back this coming weekend (October 14 and 15).

In other news, Syd Lewison’s description of Founders Devil Dancer as a “Imperial Barley Wine” is spot on. The brewery describes it as “Triple IPA,” but “Palate Stripper” might be closer to the truth. Save it for last; close the session with it, or risk losing the ability to taste for an hour or so.

The 2004 Devil Dancer keg currently is on tap, and there is another five gallons of the same ale brewed in January, 2005; I propose to save the newer version, and let it age until Gravity Head next spring.

Thoughts?

If you were there, let me know what you think. In order to stem the flood tide of comment spam, I’ve enabled the word verification feature here on the Curmudgeon’s blog. I hope you don’t find it too much trouble.

NABC beer will be on tap at the House of Bread Thursday through Saturday during booth days.

(Cross-posted at NA Confidential)

Frank Zappa once wrote:

You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.

He might have added, "a real festival."

For those of us who've been living here for a while, an alternative to mass market swill during Harvest Homecoming is rather hard to fathom, given the eternal inertia of ostructionism and the low common denominator generally espoused hereabouts.

Fortunately, people are working to achieve it.

Accordingly, it gives me great pleasure to report that in conjunction with the House of Bread restaurant (corner of Bank and Market in downtown New Albany), locally brewed craft beer from the New Albanian Brewing Company will be available in the restaurant's excellent outdoor seating area during the Harvest Homecoming festival's "booth days" (Thursday, October 6 through Saturday, October 8).

A necessary disclaimer: NABC is a small brewery in terms of capacity, and depending on demand, we might deplete available stocks and have nothing left to sell to the restaurant. We'll play it by ear.

We're projecting two beers on tap: Community Dark and Elector.

Community Dark is brewed with English barley malt, hops and yeast, and is a dark-colored, light-bodied ale known in the U.K. as Mild. Originally, the style was decidedly blue-collar, being brewed for miners and factory workers to replenish fluids after work.

Elector is reddish-amber, with the same base malt and yeast as Community Dark, but stronger, and with American hops used at a much higher hopping rate. In terms of style, Elector traces a lineage to England, but is to be considered a stylistic hybrid in keeping with the artistic license fostered by the microbrewing revolution in America.

Remember, it's the House of Bread's gig and licensing, and they'll be determining serving sizes and pricing. I hope to be there at various times during the weekend, so perhaps I'll see some of you and celebrate the breakthrough.

UPDATED: Opening night lineup for Lupulin Land 2005 on Friday, October 7.

Here's the list of probable starters for Lupulin Land, 2005, which begins Friday, Oct. 7 at Rich O's Public House/Sportstime Pizza/New Albanian Brewing Company.

CASK-CONDITIONED ALES -- MOST, BUT NOT ALL, FROM LOUISVILLE AREA BREWERIES.

With the aid of a cask breather, we'll try to keep the hand pump working throughout the first two weeks of Lupulin Land 2005.

1. (CHANGE) Friday, Oct. 7: NABC Elector Ale.

NABC Hoptimus Double IPA was not cask-conditioned -- sorry for the confusion! Instead, it will be pouring in regular keg form.

When Elector is gone: Bell’s Two Hearted Ale (firkin).

Friday, Oct. 14: Bluegrass Brewing Company (St. Matthews) Professor Gesser’s Mind Numbing Ale

Before the 14th or after, depending on readiness and sales: BBC Beer Company American Pale Ale (APA)
Browning’s Brewery (single varietal) ESB

AMERICAN MICROBREWS (AND ONE IMPORTED LAGER) THAT WE DISPENSE YEAR-ROUND.

Available before, during and after the annual hop festival.

2. Alpha King
3. Arrogant Bastard Ale
4. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale (keg)
5. Pilsner Urquell (Czech Republic)
6. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

GUEST AMERICAN MICROBREWS FOR LUPULIN LAND 2005.

7. Avery IPA
8. Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA
9. Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
10. Dogfish Head ApriHop
11. Founders Devil Dancer Triple IPA 2004
12. Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
13. NABC Hoptimus Double IPA
14. Rogue (John’s Locker Stock) Glen
15. Rogue I2PA 2003
16. Two Brothers Hop Juice Double IPA

IMPORTED BEERS.

17. Belhaven Twisted Thistle IPA (Nitro) (Scotland)
18. De Dolle Ara Bier (Belgium)
19. Jever Pilsener (Germany)
20. Poperings Hommel Bier (Belgium)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

IN THE BULLPEN

Local cask-conditioned ales (preceding)
Oaken Barrel Super Fly IPA
Rogue Dry-Hopped St. Rogue Red
Sierra Nevada IPA
Previously unannounced, but Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale is on the way.

INTRODUCING A VERY SPECIAL GUEST:
RANDALL THE ENAMEL ANIMAL.

“Randall, a Dogfish head invention, is an organoleptic hop transducer module –- a three-foot-long, cylinder-filter packed with a half a pound of whole leaf hops that we affix to the beer line leaving a keg.”

We have purchased a Randall from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, and will equip him for action beginning on October 7.

The Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA is the first Randall pour (Friday night, October 7).

For more detailed descriptions, see the Lupulin Land press release.

More good news: Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale kegs due on Oct.12.

Our wholesaler in North Vernon has informed me that our shipment of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale should be in the warehouse by Oct. 12, and this is good news, indeed.

Thankfully, excellent ales are in abundance these days, but for many of us the yearly arrival of Celebration Ale (not to be confused with the magnificent Celebrator Doppelbock from Germany's Ayinger) remains a much anticipated and, yes, celebrated time.

Assuming that the kegs arrive when predicted and deliveries are normal, I plan to run Celebration Ale until there are two kegs remaining, and hold the final ones for the week prior to Christmas. In theory, we have twelve kegs reserved for us, so the plan is workable.

Given past history in such matters, a crossing of fingers would not be excessive.

I've found that holding Celebration Ale for too long is to risk a noticeable decrease in the incredibly bold, dry-hopped character, so keep your eyes open, and be ready to enjoy this desert island beer when the time comes -- as it should soon.

Rich O's Public House in the LEO annual dining guide.

It was another hectic week, and only today was there time to survey the annual dining issue published by the Louisville Eccentric Obsever (LEO), which hit the streets last Wednesday.

Rich O's Public House received a nice mention from the inimitable Marty Rosen in the lead article:

“Across the river in New Albany, Rich O’s Public House is itself a microcosm of the globe, at least when it comes to beer. Nobody, but nobody in the metro region, boasts more varieties of beer; the only thing likely to be missing is mass-produced industrial lager. The beer will make you peckish, a condition easily remedied by the sublimely aromatic roasted garlic pizza served there.”

We got Eurasia, and lots more: Around Louisville’s ethnic dining world in 90 meals (go with it), by Marty Rosen.

For more information on food and dining in the Louisville area, bookmark Louisville Hot Bytes, the comprehensive resource maintained by Robin Garr, who recently revamped the site by incorporating a blog format.

Note that each of Robin's postings contains a link to his Louisville Restaurants Forum. Finally, remember that when you go out to eat, drop me a line about the beer list (if any) at the establishment you visited.

In other news, the brewery finally has a sign in place -- and after only three years of dithering. Could be a new speed record for us.