Grassroots and the Fabled Garage Brewhouse

By John Campbell

Grassroots seems like an appropriate theme considering that I'm off to Madison, Indiana, to attend the Ohio River Valley Folk Festival this weekend. I would love to brag about the integrity of the event, their support of craft beer, local arts, and grassrooted, folk festivities, but I can't (See Roger's blog posts from last week for an in-depth explanation). Unfortunately, too many people have forgotten their roots in the race for success and supremacy. I can firmly state that we are not of that stock. We will always strive to learn, to improve, to grow, and to expand, but never by turning our backs on those who helped us, believed in us, and carried us along the way.

Today I felt it necessary to acknowledge our roots, the brewery that started it all, and the brewer who has been carrying us for at least a couple of weeks now. While all eyes have been on Bank Street, Jared Williamson has been laboring away at the original location in the fabled Garage Brewhouse where it all began...

3312 Plaza Drive, New Albany, Indiana

While David and Jesse have been preparing for the new brewery and working hard to streamline the delivery and installation, Jared has been working just as hard to keep beer in the tanks and recover from our unforeseen beer drought. The brewing system at this location is a 4 barrel brewhouse with 8 barrel fermenters that require two brews to fill and, even then, will only produce 16 kegs of beer. The bottom line is this: it is labor intensive, requires a long brew day, barely supplies enough beer for both locations, and just when you think you are caught up, it starts over again. Yet, somehow Jared has managed to pull it off. Our beer is back on tap and tasting better than ever thanks to his devotion, David's added know-how, some new equipment, a bit of loyalty, a dab of commitment, and a big-ass, heapin' scoop of integrity.






Despite the long hours, Jared managed to brew enough beer for me to take 8 kegs to the Folk Festival this weekend. Kinda sad that it will be pouring next to an Anheuser-Busch truck this year, ain't it?

Jared inspecting the latest batch of Community Dark

David's newest contribution to our old way of doing things.

Here's some good news for our die-hard New Albanian fans and hopheads: Hoptimus is in the tank and will be back on tap soon! Jared pulled some off the fermenter and we had ourselves a good ol' grassroots nip off the tank.








That is the face of a Craft Brewer and that is the way beer was meant to be.