Inaugural Volksfest coming to Clay Street in Louisville this Saturday, August 23.

From the press release:

VOLKSFEST 2008: Presented by BBC and The Taprooom, New Albanian Brewing and O'Shea's

Saturday, August 23, 2008 ... 2:00 p.m. - Midnight.

On Saturday, August 23, 2008 two great breweries of Kentuckiana come together to present a fest of the people -“VOLKSFEST” 2008! Festivities are from 2:00 p.m. -midnight and will include German food, a German theme movie plus live local rock n roll!

BBC & New Albanian Brewing will be blocking off Clay Street between East Market & Main and will be spicing up a usual sleepy Saturday downtown scene. This event is open to the public and is FREE, with proceeds from food and beer to benefit Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, St. Vincent DePaul Society and Louisville Film Society Educational Arm.

Drink, Drink Bier—beers to be served will include a strong line-up of five micro Oktoberfest brews, and other special craft beers hand-selected by Louisville's “godfather of beer” Roger Baylor himself. Food will be prepared and served by local favorites O'Shea's, Monkey Wrench and Café Lou Lou, featuring: Dogs, Brats, Kraut, German Potato Salad and Big Soft Pretzels.

The “VOLKSFEST” will also feature a movie awards ceremony hosted by 48 Hours Film Project, which, will take place at dusk and will be followed by a dual screen showing of the German classic “Das Boot” presented by Louisville Film Society. German entertainment will be from
2 pm to 4 pm, and then local bands will take the stage to keep the evening rocking.

All ages are welcomed so everyone will want to be downtown for a fest of the people … VOLKSFEST 2008!

For further info on the VOLKSFEST call BBC at 502-419-2412 or 502-584-2739

Abolish buzz kills. Drink Heine Brothers' Coffee Stout at BBC's "Up All Night" bash tomorrow.

The Curmudgeon has been down this path before, but this year's rollout of Heine Brothers' Coffee Stout is being accompanied by a great afternoon party idea tomorrow at BBC on Shelbyville Road.

As one who is growing ever fonder of the mixture of coffee and stout, I'll try to make this one. If so, I hope to see some of you there. Here's the press release from Mike Mays.

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BBC and Heine Brothers’ Coffee tap coffee stout at
Up All Night party August 15

Louisville, Kentucky: Local brewpub Bluegrass Brewing Company and coffee shop Heine Brothers’ Coffee have collaborated on a product blending the best of both worlds: an oatmeal stout brewed with a touch of fair-trade, organic coffee.

Their worlds collide in an Up All Night celebration August 15 at BBC’s St. Matthews store, 3929 Shelbyville Road, beginning at 3 p.m. Employees dressed in their pajamas will serve breakfast for dinner, including fried eggs; country ham and biscuits with red-eye gravy, and coffee stout cheesecake.

Carnival games like corn hole, ring toss, and a Wheel of Fortune knock-off will allow partiers to compete for t-shirts, coffee, gift cards, and more. One lucky person will win a growler of beer each month for a year.

Acoustic musician Tamara Dearing will perform beginning at 7 p.m.

BBC has twice before experimented with brewing stout flavored with Heine Brothers’ Coffee. The result: a full-flavored but light-bodied, lightly carbonated brew that sold quickly.

For the Up All Night celebration, Heine Brothers’ Coffee Stout will be poured through a special tap – often called a “Guinness” tap – so that it foams, forms cascading bubbles, and produces a creamy head.

“It seems natural to start a series of monthly celebrations with Heine Brothers’ Coffee Stout,” says BBC owner Pat Hagan. “It’s the fastest-selling seasonal brew we’ve ever made.”

Heine Brothers’ Coffee opened in 1994 and is the oldest locally-owned coffee shop in Louisville. Seven stores and a roastery employ more than 100 people. BBC opened in 1993. It has two restaurants employing about 80 people.

For more information go to www.bbcbrew.com or www.heinebroscoffee.com.

BBC's APA "Best of Louisville", and NABC to be at the awards bash on July 24.

If I’m not mistaken, the last time Louisville Magazine included a best beer of Louisville category in its annual critics’ choice “best of” issue (which includes reader selections) was 2003, when NABC’s Beak’s Best was chosen by editor Bruce Allar.

I know … we don’t brew Beak’s Best any longer, but I’ll come back to that tomorrow. Instead, know that the best beer category returned this year, and Bruce picked the classic BBC American Pale Ale (original brewmaster David Pierce’s Main & Clay version) as Louisville’s best. You’ll get no argument from me, because Dave’s APA remains my preferred session ale.

See: To have and to use five great beers.

Each year, Louisville Magazine partners with the Kentucky-Southeast Indiana Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to hold a Best of Louisville Bash. This year’s is at the Mellwood Arts complex on Thursday, July 24, and I’m happy to note that NABC will be there with samples.

While Mellwood is fresh in your mind, don’t forget the movie, food and beer project that’s on the drawing board for the center:

Coming soon: Louisville Vanguard Cinema ... and good beer there, too.

Hoping I can live up to this advance billing.

From Becca at Bluegrass Brewing Company (East, Shelbyville Road) comes notice of where I'll be on Sunday afternoon. It's a very generous introduction, and I'm happy to have lived long enough that most people have forgotten my wild younger years.

Stop by if you're in the neighborhood. I'll have growlers of selected NABC beers

This Sunday we will be welcoming the wonderfully talented Roger Baylor of New Albanian Brewing Company to provide us with delicious brews from across the bridge for our June tasting. The meeting will start at 2 pm this Sunday. Don't miss out on this one--Roger is an incredibly interesting man and this meeting will be absolutely delightful!

Cheers, Becca

Homebrewing: 4th Annual BBC Brew Day recap.

Courtesy of Ed Needham, here's a report on the recent homebrew/brew-in event at BBC (Main and Clay).

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Pictures of the 4th Annual BBC Brew Day, on April 26th, 2008 are up! Thanks to Kevin Spaulding, Louisville Ale Club president, and his photographic talents, there are photos posted at:

http://fotoewizzard.smugmug.com/gallery/4833999_iaNg9/3#P-1-15

You can save any one of these to your computer by selecting the size you want and clicking save. By choosing 'original' size, you get all the detail and resolution of the original picture.

According to (BBC brewmaster) Dave Pierce, "The homebrewers made 190 gallons, which is a new record." The food was fabulous, the beer, wonderful, and friends ... incredible.

FOSSILS secretary of beer, Ed Needham

Rich O’s Public House CLOSED, Sportstime Pizza OPEN on Saturday, April 12.

Louisville’s annual exaltation of phantom male potency, otherwise known as Thunder Over Louisville, will bring a half-million people to the banks of the Ohio this Saturday (April 12) in orgiastic expectation of a raised middle finger of a militarized air show and an unspeakably garish fireworks extravaganza that will allow them to forget – if only for a brief span of time – that the dollars in their pockets are increasingly worthless, and that there’s a NASCAR race under way somewhere in the last, greatest hope for mankind.

No, I’m not a fan of Louisville’s foremost annual celebration of bread and circuses, which inaugurates Derby Festival and signals the beginning of mint julep season in the metro area. However, I know that the majority of my friends and acquaintances enjoy the pomp and circumstance, and so be it.

We’ve long since learned that there’s no sense in staffing both dining areas at NABC/Rich O’s/Sportstime on Thunder day, and we’ll not be doing so again this year. Rich O’s will be closed all day with the exception of a special private party in Prost. Sportstime will be open with all the usual food and beer available from 11:00 a.m. to (circa) midnight.

Here are links to two special events near Thunder’s epicenter, both of which will be serving craft beers in the midst of what is otherwise a sea of swill. Have fun. I’ll be with the NABC brew crew in St. Louis to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Prohibition’s demise.

BBC (Main & Clay) aged bourbon barrel stout ... and Thunder plans.

NABC, Buckhead, craft beer and Thunder Over Louisville, April 12.

BBC’s David Pierce profiled in the May issue of Louisville Magazine.

The dean of Louisville brewmasters garners much deserved column inches in the May issue of Louisville Magazine – just in time for Derby visitors to learn a thing or two about beer.

Right. We’re talking about people who believe Louisvillians actually drink mint juleps during the fifty weeks of the year when Derby fest isn't running -- an incredibly insulting way of ruining good bourbon. They'd be better off with a pint of Dave's American Pale Ale, a bona fide Louisville classic.

It’s still great press for Dave and BBC. The magazine has upgraded its website, where the April issue is currently archived (but with at least one broken link). Area residents are better off buying a newsstand copy.

How dry I've been ... coming to an end, soon.

There hasn’t been much for me to say lately about beer in the sense of my drinking it, and that’s because I haven’t been.

Drinking it, that is.

That’s because I’ve been taking two varieties of pain medication, neither of them suitable for use with alcohol. As I’ve said many times before: As a professional beer drinker, alcohol does damage enough to my innards without compounding the problem by mixing it with pills. It is my responsibility to, well, to be responsible and save those cells for Gravity Head sacrifices and biking trips.

The pain medication came about because of my recent rotator cuff repair surgery. Recovery is going well, and the physical therapy regimen has been successful thus far, and so earlier tonight I availed myself of the loophole conceded me by Dr. Moskal, who said that in deference to professional obligations, a bit of beer here and there while still on the meds would be acceptable.

During my first two visits to work after a 12-day post-surgical holiday, I nipped at a wee few ounces of Schlenkerla Fastenbier (now gone); BarrelHouse Belgian Style Winter Ale and Boss Cox Double Dark IPA; and NABC’s recent lineup additions. Mt. Lee (California Common) and Jasmine the Mastiff (Sweet Stout). Seriously, just an ounce or two of each, and followed by perhaps four ounces of Croupier IPA on Friday night during a quick nibble stop at the Bistro New Albany.

Back to tonight.

To celebrate the conclusion of her first year of graduate school, the wife and I dropped in at Maido Essential Japanese on Frankfort Avenue in Louisville. You’ve read me tout Maido on numerous occasions, so I’ll spare you another (go there, damn it) and say merely that as accompaniment to a “spicy Seoul roll” that included kimchee, a draft pint of Dave Pierce’s seasonal BBC Dank IPA was mighty, mighty fine.

Gotta get off the pills. Soon. Just not enough hops …

Not just yet, but soon ...

(Go here for the March 30 Gravity Head update)

It seems like weeks, and yet my rotator cuff surgery was just 72 hours ago. Post-operative complications would seem to have been averted, and according to Dr. Moskal’s physical therapy team, I’m ahead of schedule on rehab and feeling good.

Time for a beer?

Alas, no, as alcohol doesn’t complement high-potency pain killers of the sort that I might have sold on the street to finance travel plans later in 2007. For the moment, there’ll be contentment in thinking about beer, and plotting the identity of the perfect first pint back.

As a “final fling” of sorts last Sunday, I drove to Bluegrass Brewing Company on Shelbyville Road in Louisville and scored carry-out orders of chicken wings and American Pale Ale.

While I enjoy most of BBC brewer Jerry Gnagy’s beers, it remains my view that of all the classic BBC styles brewed at the original brewpub before and after the company’s split into two entities, the APA hasn’t fared very well in St. Matthews – especially when compared to founding brewer Dave Pierce’s version downtown.

Having reiterated that, the APA on Sunday was quite good, and all in all, it was a pleasant buzz of nostalgia for the palate and the other senses. The place itself was hopping, which caused me to reflect on the way that something entirely new not so long ago has become an institution – and at any of the Louisville area’s five breweries, not just BBC.

Coffee stout and a Gravity Head starter from BBC (St. Matthews location).

It’s time for news from Bluegrass Brewing Company’s original Shelbyville Road location. First, a press release describes a new "cooperative" brewing venture, and then Brewmaster Jerry "Cut 'n' Run" Gnagy provides a heartfelt preview of the latest listed Gravity Head 2007 selection, BBC Leah's Etrange.

Bluegrass Brewing Company in St. Matthews and Heine Brothers' Coffee have teamed up to make a Coffee Stout. Heine Brothers' Coffee is roasting a special “custom” roast for Bluegrass Brewing Company using organic, fair trade, coffee beans from Mexico. This special coffee roast that we are using will bring out smooth, mellow flavors that complement the characteristics of an “oatmeal stout”.

There are many ways to add coffee to beer, and with the help and advice from the Heine Brothers roaster, Todd Stanis, and co-owner Mike Mays, we determined that adding ground coffee to our hot wort (unfermented beer) after boiling would extract good flavor without adding bitterness or burnt flavors. We will also add freshly brewed coffee after fermentation is completed and the beer is ready to be served, to give the absolute freshest coffee flavor and aroma.

We will be serving the stout at Bluegrass Brewing Company around February 9th in 20 oz Imperial pints with a Heine Brothers sleeve around the glass. If the brew is as successful as we anticipate, there is a possibility we will be offering this coffee stout in 750ml bottles at liquor stores though out the state.

BBC’s Oatmeal stouts was brewed with English roasted barley and caramunich malt, to give a roasted and slightly sweet malt flavor. The addition of flaked oats lends creaminess and body to this pitch black ale.

Alcohol by Volume = 6.8%
International Bittering Units = 25.0
Original Gravity = 15.5
Brewed on 1-19-07

When asked what he wanted to showcase at Gravity Head 2007, Jerry offered several possibilities, but this one intrigued me the most. Perhaps he can yet be persuaded to part with a keg of the classic Mephistopheles Metamorphosis ...

Leah's Etrange ... the original name was La Biere Foncee Etrange, but that's too much French for me, so we named it after one of the longtime servers here.

It is strong Belgian dark ale brewed with a bunch of Belgian malts, Amber candi sugar and pureed raisins, then fermented with Trappist high-gravity yeast and Berliner Weisse wheat yeast, which really gives it a tart and fruity finish. I would liken it to a sour Belgian red or an old bruin, but without the bacteria. I think it is one of the most off-the-wall, complex and interesting beers I've ever made.

We are going to put some in a couple side bung kegs with some oak or fruit if that interests you, but it's good just the way it is, too.

ABV 9.2%
OG 20.0
IBU 16.0
Brewed on 8-10-06