"If Your Mother Says She Loves You, Check It Out."

Last Friday afternoon, as I labored outside in the infuriating, unseasonable heat and humidity (90+ degrees F. in October) to prepare our house for the annual harvest Homecoming parade party on Saturday, my cell phone rang.

It was the friendly newspaper reporter for the New Albany Tribune, and seeing as he was providing the opportunity to take a break … could I tell him a bit about NABC’s proposed brewery expansion?

Well, honestly, the idea was just coming to the stage of transferring thoughts from pencil and scraps of paper to word processor, but if he wouldn’t mind it being exceedingly vague, I’d be happy to oblige.

Fine, he said; after all, it’s just for the paper’s “business wrap,” which usually takes up two paragraphs at the most, and on page three by the lingerie ads.

I told him what could be revealed at this very early stage of the game, cautioning that the whole thing was as prematurely nebulous as could be imagined, and then I went off to scrub toilets and forgot all about it.

That is, until Saturday morning, when the following appeared on page one:

Baylor planning brewery for downtown New Albany

New Albanian Brewing Co. proprietor Roger Baylor confirmed Friday he intends to renovate a downtown building with room to triple the brewing capacity of his uptown headquarters.

Geez.

It’s all good, and any publicity is good publicity – heaven knows I milk the system as often as possible – but I really must object to the headline. It’s the New Albanian Brewing Company that (I hope) will be coming to downtown, not just me. For the record, my partners are named Amy Baylor and Kate Lewison; either I give their names to people who don't repeat them, or I'm not asked at all, and it isn't fair.

At any rate, the basic information is there, and if it makes very little sense, that’s because (a) it’s hard to reduce 15 minutes of conversation into a few hundred words, and (b) I we’re at a very early and prematurely nebulous stage of the game.

First, we need to get through the remainder of the year, but yes, an expansion plan is on the drawing board. If you are a banker, please let me know. Otherwise, stay tuned.