Smirking, the Louisville Bats add Sam Adams Rebel IPA to Slugger Field's paltry roster of good beer. Yawning, we stay home.

It's really hard to muster the enthusiasm necessary to care any longer about the willfully dismal record of the Louisville Bats when it comes to locally brewed beer ... about the team's perennial envelope-stuffed-with-cash Philistinism ... about management's proud ignorance.

In effect, every year begins with the management of the Bats looking me in the eye and saying, "We don't give a damn about you and your ilk. Enjoy the game."

I respond by showing up quite seldom, if at all. It's a shame, because the park is great. It's just that somewhere between 15 and 20 years of being insulted eventually add up to something that does not resemble an urge to support the team with my money.

Here's the occasional update on the situation at the one concession stand (hot roasted peanuts, main concourse, by section 115) that might periodically boast a locally-brewed beer, courtesy of Joel, who sounds fairly bored by the ordeal, too.

"My first Bats game in several weeks, and there was actually a bit of improvement at the 'craft' beer stand. Sam Adams' Rebel IPA had replaced the Redd's Apple Ale, joining Sam Adams' Boston Lager, BBC APA, and (still) the Leinenkugle Summer Shandy as tonight's selection."

It gets even worse for better beer at Louisville Slugger Field.

No sense in writing a dissertation.

Can expectations of Bats management and Centerplate possibly dip any lower? Our correspondent JZ went to a game a couple of days ago, and reports:

"It's getting worse, if that is possible. Even though tonight was the first game of a home stand, a visit to the 'craft' beer stand in the 3rd inning revealed no BBC (and thus the Sam Adams was the only choice)."

The previous dire preview: The Louisville Bats and Centerplate present: The Sahara of Slugger Field, 2014 version.

The Louisville Bats and Centerplate present: The Sahara of Slugger Field, 2014 version.

Here comes the first pitch of the 2014 season from Centerplate, and it's ... $6.75 for a draft craft beer at Louisville Slugger Field this year -- well, assuming you can find it. Amazingly, the situation may be worse than it was in 2013.

At a time when the Cincinnati Reds, parent club of the Triple-A Louisville Bats, is generating big-time headlines with a new craft beer concessions destination ...

Cincinnati Reds Go Big With Craft Beer, by Graham Averill (Paste)

Baseball season begins in April and over the last few years, there’s been a trend among major league ball parks to offer craft beer options in addition to the ubiquitous macro beer options. The Cincinnati Reds are taking their love for craft beer to a whole new level. This season, the Great American Ball Park will debut an 85-foot-long craft beer bar, dubbed the Reds Brewery District Bar, that features 60 taps and 23 different craft beers from all over the country.

 ... the Bats and Centerplate offer this delicious list of elementary-school-cafeteria-quality options.

The list does not identify brand names, so we turn to intrepid reader JZ, who gives us the report on the opening night options at the forlorn roasted peanut stand on the concourse by Section 115:

"BBC APA, Sam Adams Lager, Reds' Apple Ale & Leinies' Shandy. 2 out of 4 is not good."

Ouch!

If you're keeping score, that's one locally brewed craft beer (Bluegrass Brewing Company), one nationally distributed lager, and two MillerCoors foo-foo abominations.

As in the past, Louisville's chapter of Craft Beer Nation turns its lonely eyes to Against the Grain, which is the nearest option for good beer outside the turnstiles. Recently, AtG was hinting that it would be involved inside the ballpark this year -- you know, where the games being played actually can be viewed.

Accordingly, and with uncharacteristic excitement for my pay grade of cynicism. I asked AtG today at Twitter for scoop -- and here's a transcript of the conversation, with two random comments contributed by John King.

---

Roger
You guys doing beer inside the ballpark this year?

John
Looking at those prices, I'd be sneaking a couple cans in. And peanuts.

Roger
Yep. Centerplate needs to burnish it's monopoly, and the Bats need to pretend they're responsive

John
I can't judge, I pay $8 for Old Style to watch my team lose every year in Chicago.

AtG
We always have beer at the ball park! ... seriously, not immediately, draft box is still at shop & we don't have product to allocate yet.

AtG
It's low on the priority list & we've a lot on our plates at the moment.

Roger
Slim hope is better than none at all. Thanks.

---

There's nothing much to add, is there? Another season at Louisville Slugger Field, and another strikeout for better beer at the ballpark. John's close to the mark; cheering for good beer at a Bats game is rather like rooting for the Cubs. The season ends, and once again, you're disappointed.

Is this the year for craft beer in Louisville Slugger Field, or will it be another ignominious swill-out?

If you search the internetz for "Louisville Bats Craft Beer," you're pointed here: Promotion Schedule.

Then search for the word "craft" on the same page, and the results show: 0 of 0.

That's par for the course, although there are the usual $1 Budweiser Beer Happy Swill Hour promos throughout the campaign. A couple hours up the road in Cincinnati, home of the Reds -- major league parent club of the Bats -- comes this news:

GREAT AMERICAN BALL PARK BEER SELECTIONS FOR 2014

Louisville Bats craft-oriented fans, read it and weep.

The Bats home season starts in two weeks. Recently, when I've mentioned the impending 2014 yearly reprise of "The Sahara of Slugger Field," I've received tantalizing hints in return, to the effect that the adjacent Against the Grain brewery intends to reverse its traditional disinterest in the perimeters of the ball park lying outside its doors, and will be involved somehow in bringing better beer to the ballpark this year, perhaps in conjunction with other Kentucky breweries. This would make sense, especially if done via the Kentucky Guild of Brewers imprimatur.

I'm told nothing, and I know nothing. It's fairly simple: Since the inception of Slugger Field, the Bats and monopolist catering partner Centerplate have refused to comprehend a vastly altered beer world, and as someone who'd dearly love to spend money at games more often than I do now, a selection of craft beer reflecting the real world we live in would be quite nice.

Ultimately, the dollar-is-king-bottom-line Bats ballclub is relinquishing further windfall profits by not lifting a timid finger to the air and catering to consumer tastes in the year 2014. Maybe they're planning on doing so, and will surprise us all in two weeks. I can only hope. The city of Louisville deserves better than mass-market swill at the yard.

"We're giving fans what they want," except at Louisville Slugger Field.

A local insider forwarded this article to me, as transmitted via Craft Business Daily.

I hear periodic rumors that the lamentable situation at Louisville Slugger Field will change for the better during the forthcoming Louisville Bats campaign, but much like human rights in North Korea, it's best not to believe Gary Ulmer and Centerplate until they actually do something. Since there is no substantive record of action to improve beer choice and to grasp the utility of local beer for local sports, my advice in 2014 is the same as in the past: Don't hold your breath; it deprives you of much-needed oxygen and does nothing to alter their purely mass-market instincts.

The Sahara of Slugger Field (LouisvilleBeer.com; April 15, 2013)

However, in 2013 the beer-loving stewards of the stadium are giving us something even worse: Taste the Best of Belgium, a stand-alone beer kiosk featuring Hoegaarden, Stella Artois and that other universally known Belgian masterpiece, Bud Light, as guaranteed to give Centerplate, the Bats front office and AB-InBev’s foreign management the very first sustained tumescence, sans-Viagra, that they’ve welcomed in decades.

Now, read about sports venues in the modern world.

---

Craft Becoming Major Contender at Sports Venues (Really)

If this Sports Business Daily piece is right, sports venues are a lot more craft-centric than is apparent, and growing. Ovations Food Services executive VP Doug Drewes told the outlet that craft beer now represents 25% of total beer sales at its facilities, while import beers have another 25% share. Its facilities include 100-plus convention centers, fairgrounds, casinos and stadiums across the United States. "We're giving fans what they want, and it's turned into a 50-50 mix throughout the industry now," Doug said.

(In fact, Ovations is becoming a craft brewer too. The concessionaire is developing "its first brewery at Jungle Island, a tropical theme park in Miami," per a related Sports Business Daily story. It's not an isolated venture: "Ovations officials believe they could partner with teams to develop microbreweries at arenas and stadiums.")

Giant concessionaire Aramark told the outlet how it has seen craft grow at its 11 Major League Baseball accounts: Vice president of marketing Andrew Shipe said 69% of consumption at baseball fields still comes from A-B and MillerCoors. "But over the past three years, there has been a shift of 5 share points and now the craft beer category is worth about 20%," he said. "Ten to 15 years ago, that category hardly existed." He believes domestics will continue to decrease in share based on industry data and their own trends. (Interestingly, a December Turnkey Sports Poll of 2,000 senior level sports executives revealed that 34% would be "more likely to buy" a 12 oz. craft beer for $7 at a large sporting event, while 47% said they'd be more likely to buy a 16 oz. domestic beer for the same price.)

To these guys, the economics are easy. Centerplate, which serves the Denver Broncos' Sports Authority Field at Mile High, has seen taps dedicated to pouring crafts at Broncos games jump from 15% to 21% over the last three years, and craft has even more share if you count its bottles and cans. They've also opened two craft-centric, 50 yard-line bars this season as part of $32 million in upgrades at the field. But at $8.25 per 20 oz. craft draft to $6.25 for a domestic at Broncos games, "the allocation speaks for itself," per Justin Kizima, Centerplate's general manager at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

And many sports arenas are converting underperforming areas to craft venues, which often end up "churning out sponsorship dollars for teams such as the Bobcats and Pistons to cover the cost of converting those areas."

Centerplate will allow Schlafly to be available at the Yum Center.

Today on Facebook, Schlafly's Scott Shreffler (try saying those three words more than twice in a row without falling off your bar stool) announced that Schlafly would have craft beer at the KFC Yum Center.

Here it is, folks. Starting Saturday, you'll be able to enjoy a pint of delicious Schlafly Beer at U of L basketball games or any YUM Center event. You're welcome.

Here's the bright new kiosk (Scott's photo):

Given the messy payola and congenital backroom conniving that lies at the very heart of most concessionaire dealings with publicly-supported sporting venues, I asked Scott to explain how this was accomplished.

Roger, we ...

Sighhhhhhh ... the preceding quote was pulled because Scott asked me to keep it to myself.  It goes without saying that I have no idea why it goes without saying. Maybe that's why I'm becoming an outcast in my own industry. Perhaps I need to stop introducing inconvenient topics, cease rattling cages, and start trading beers with people 2,000 miles away. Maybe then I'd be happy. Maybe then I'd be brain-dead.

That's certainly refreshing, isn't it? Evidently there was no small-print advertising requirement, multi-dollar handshakes or mandated discounting of product.

On a related note, Sam Cruz of Against the Grain told me a few weeks ago that AtG intends to seek an arrangement to get the brewery's beer past the turnstiles and inside Louisville Slugger Field for next season, which is a Centerplate territory, too.

Wonder if I'm still blacklisted?

At LouisvilleBeer.com: "The Sahara of Slugger Field."

In the days since I filed this column, Against the Grain's Sam Cruz was asked by Eater Louisville to elaborate on the tweets I mention herein. Here's the link. Sam's also been discussing the same topic at the Louisville Restaurants Forum. Nothing has been heard from the team or concessionaire; no surprise there.

Coincidentally, Against the Grain's also about to garner some great publicity in Europe: Against the Grain road trip: "The Euro market is no stranger to Against the Grain beers."

Back to baseball: I've also recently taken a cursory look at the scene in Toledo and Columbus, Ohio cities where Triple-A ballparks seem to have a tighter grip on the modern world. As time permits, I'll continue to review choices in other places when the Bats travel elsewhere.

The Sahara of Slugger Field by Roger Baylor

It's not even the best of AB-InBev

The Triple-A Louisville Bats began play earlier this month amid the usual hot stove and cold fridge speculation as to whether Louisville Slugger Field finally would join the craft (beer) (food) (bourbon) (dining) (localism) (choose one) revolution currently underway in Louisville, as well as in most other baseball outposts scattered through the remainder of the United States.

If you’ve lived in these parts for any amount of time and possess the patience to read this far, you’ve already guessed the answer.

The Louisville Bats really must hate craft beer to marginalize it this way.

April 17 update: Why Isn't Against the Grain's Beer Available at Louisville Slugger Field's Concession Stands?, at Eater Louisville.

---

Courtesy of the Louisville Bats club and its conniving henchmen at Centerplate, there's the "Best of Belgium" at Slugger Field, now with Bud Light, too, which is about as Belgian as Ronald Reagan.

And what of American-made craft beer, the world leader in innovation, as so richly represented in the territories comprising the Bats' fan base?

It's just as sad a situation as during the last couple of years, with craft beer restricted to the virtual ghetto of the roasted peanut stand on the main concourse near section 115, with signage limited to table tents so as not to offend the behemoths who grease the wheels.

As craft beer and baseball fan JZ reports at the Slugger Craft-Beer Facebook page ...

Opening day choices: BBC APA, Kentucky Ale, Magic Hat No. 9, and Leinenkugel Summer Shandy.

Of course, the latter two are crafty, not craft, but there's even more from our friend DH:

Inside the park I opted for a Bats Brew, which was described to me as "an Amber out of Tennessee". Sort of a poor man's Fat Tire.

In 2012, a fan encountering Bats Brew was told that it was ABInBev's Amber Bock in crafty disguise. Rather like putting the Louisville Slugger name on a piece of wood lathed in China, although the Bats never would be able to grasp the analogy.

As baseball clubs at all levels begin to see that the very best reason to vend locally-brewed craft beer is market-based -- because fans want locally brewed craft beer -- our Bats and their Centerplate hatcheteers continue to succumb to the simple avarice of pay-to-play dealings with multinationals.

At least we're not the only fan base with this difficulty. Here is what the New York Yankees believe is craft.

The Yankees’ “craft beer” stand is anything but

Craig Calcaterra

Apr 4, 2013, 9:45 AM EDT

75 Comments

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Amanda Rykoff went to the Yankees home opener and discovered that they have a stand called “Craft Beer Destination.”  And what sorts of good craft beer do they sell there? Maybe Six Point? Maybe Brooklyn? Maybe something from Ommegang upstate? There is a lot of good beer in New York! What is it?

These so-called “Craft Beers” — (from left to right) Blue Moon, Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, Crispin Cider, and Batch 19 lager — are all products of MillerCoors. Miller and Coors aren’t exactly niche products.

"No water in the lines": Even golf courses are getting crafted.

This is encouraging news. I've been watching for years as golfers stopped by the pub for a "good beer," absent choice at their chosen course. In some locales, the combination is taken for granted; witness the Putts & Pints blog. NABC has been having success with draft beer at Hidden Creek Golf Club in nearby Sellersburg.

The next step for those facilities getting on board is to actively promote the fact that good beer is available. Sadly, it seems that in sporting venues hereabout (not only at golf courses), it's too often the case that operators seem reluctant to let consumers know about available choice. Why? probably out of an unjustified fear of annoying Da Big Boyz.

The best local example is Louisville Slugger Field, where historically, we've seen the ballclub acquiesce in Centerplate's complicity with the AB-InBev monopoly, restricting signage to table tents and doing little to let baseball fans know good beer actually is available. But let's focus on big positives, albeit 3,000 miles away, and hope that the trend grows here in Business As Usual Land.

GOLF COURSE BEVERAGE SALES GET BOOST FROM CRAFT BREWS: Premium beers enhance the experience for customers, say staff, by Marc Figueroa (U-T San Diego)

Whether it’s special Internet rates, free range balls or a free sandwich at the turn, many golf courses are trying everything these days to keep the tee sheet filled and stave off eroding participation.

And some North County tracks are looking to one industry that is booming in business to help boost its own.

Unlike golf, which has seen participation drop by more than 4 million from 2005 to 2011, according to the National Golf Foundation, the local beer industry is blowing up with nearly 60 brew houses in the county and more than 20 in the planning stages. And courses such as Castle Creek Country Club, Twin Oaks Golf Course, Pala Mesa Resort and Maderas Golf Club are capitalizing on it, serving up quality suds like never before.

“Our motto is ‘No water in the lines,’ ” said Scott Butler, tournament sales director at Twin Oaks, which dedicates its four tap lines to locally produced beer. “That means you can’t get a Coors Light on draft here. If you want one, we have them in cans in the back, but that’s not what we’re about. We’re pushing good beer.”

Baylor on Beer: Bats, Baseball, Beers & Bucks, at LouisvilleBeer.com.

My second of two February columns has been posted at LouisvilleBeer.com

Bats, Baseball, Beers and Bucks

Posted by Roger Baylor in Baylor on Beer | 0 comments

Photo by Flickr User: Andrew Malone

Professional baseball’s spring training is underway, and it isn’t too early to begin considering the prospects for locally brewed craft beer at Louisville Slugger Field in 2012. The Louisville Bats begin play in April, and only then will we know if the fragile, halting forward progress of craft beer availability during the past three years will be repeated this season.

I shan’t be holding my breath, but as usual, I hope I’m mistaken.

Wednesday Weekly: Craft beer finally wins at Louisville Slugger Field in 2010.

Look close near the bottom of the photo, and you'll see the BBC table tent. It doesn't leap out at the passer-by, but grassroots movements for change have to start somewhere, right?

The Louisville Bats have concluded the 2010 campaign, and several of the team's prominent faces are playoff-bound with the parent Cincinnati Reds. We can now look back at the craft beer year that was at Louisville Slugger Field, and in spite of occasional missteps, surely it must be counted a success.

Browning’s Brewery had beer on tap from the start of the season, and shortly thereafter, the stadium concessionaires Centerplate installed two new draft lines at the Section 115 portable stand.

NABC Beak’s Best and Kentucky Ale were the first two craft beers to pour alongside Browning’s. Later, Centerplate’s second order cycle from River City Distributing (whose management was pivotal in the process) brought BBC American Pale Ale and Cumberland Red, and these remained on tap the rest of the season.

Am I disappointed that Beak’s didn’t make the cut? Not really. I’m a realist, and I come equipped with considerable baggage in this context. I've been out in front of this fight for more than a decade, and when one is prone to calling a spade a spade, you cannot complain about the inevitable backlash.

Rather, losing a battle is one thing, and winning a war something else. It was a great feeling this year knowing that I could go to the ballpark and drink beer that’s authentically local – not “craft beer” from Anheuser-Busch, which is as much of a contradiction in terms as “military intelligence,” but the genuine article. I drank quite a lot of the available choices, and spent much more money that I would have if they hadn't been there. That's the bottom line, and as craft beer's share of the sales pie increases overall nationally, concessionaires stand to benefit from progressive strategies.

Whatever our feelings about their past performance, both Centerplate and the management of the Louisville Bats deserve our thanks. Could more have been done to promote craft beer? Probably, but it will come in time. It is very important for readers not to drop the topic until next year, but to let them know now that you enjoyed and patronized the craft beer option this season, and would like to see it expanded next year.

There is a Facebook page devoted to craft beer at Louisville Slugger Field, and while it probably will be moribund during the off season, check back every now and then. I'll be posting the occasional blip of information, and you should do the same, especially links to articles about the selection and practices at other venues you've visited. When spring training starts in 2011, we'll see what happens.

Here's the report on the latest craft beer news at Louisville Slugger Field.

Beak's Best (and Alltech's Kentucky Ale) remained on tap at Louisville Slugger Field on Sunday evening, but a source indicates that Centerplate, the stadium concessionaire, has ordered Cumberland Red and BBC Nut Brown Ale for the next homestand local craft beer go-around. I'm told that Browning's will remain, along with Shock Top, which is not a craft beer no matter how many times Anheuser-Busch repeats the blatant lie aloud.

Although I can't predict whether NABC will continue as a progressive beer option as the baseball season proceeds at Louisville Slugger Field, it is somewhat heartening that there appears to be a commitment to local choice at the portable concession stand behind Section 115. That's a start, even if the price for purely euphemistic 14-oz pours (a 12-oz actual measure) increased from $5 to $5.50 at some point when we weren't looking. I try to see it this way: Craft always is better than Bud, even at twice the price.

My only regret (and no small measure of frustration) in this experience is that there seems to be so little communication between concessionaire and wholesaler/brewer.

The reality is that Centerplate and Craft Beer Nation operate on business models so profoundly different that they might as well be on separate planets, and I'm not sure if this implies that we should learn to speak their language, or they learn ours. The truth would lie somewhere in between if the playing field were level, and it is not. The prevailing system of ballpark vending discourages most of the marketing techniques that Craft Beer Nation successfully deploys -- primarily, education.

Consumer education is job one in our craft beer world. Consequently, if NABC is on tap at the ballpark on a dependable basis, and we know that we're not to be treated as Charlie Brown, with the ball yanked away at the last moment, then we can aggressively help sell the product, educate the consumers, and create a vibe. We make the same wholesale money in such a situation. Centerplate makes an increased amount of money from its higher craft beer retail sales. It should be a no-brainer, yet it is not. Maybe some day, it will become axiomatic.

Imagine the excitement that might be generated from making the concession stand at 115 into a genuine locally-themed craft beer destination, with signage and artwork to match. Unfortunately, when I asked about hanging banners, I was told that a table tent would be an acceptable idea. At best, that's 8.5 x 11. Budweiser's colossal right field billboard apparently overshadows not only a mere wee table tent, but also the very possibility that ballpark customers with no intention of drinking Budweiser might find refuge somewhere inside the belly of the corporate beast.

And that's the part that slays me.

On Sunday, the crowd in attendance at Louisville Slugger Field was reminded twice to pay homage to Memorial Day and the gallant fighting men who fought and died for freedom. I have no argument with that, although surely there were more folks in attendance than just me who grasped the damning irony of "freedom" in the context of monopolistic, non-free capitalist product placement. What does a "free market" mean in such a place? Is it really the sort of economic system that people should die to perpetuate?

Apologies, but some times serenity is elusive. As local craft brewers, we can't be satisfied with the status quo, where public tax money is used to create venues where corporate monopolies are exuberantly enforced, and free choice is exceedingly difficult, if not outright impossible. This should not be taken as criticism of Centerplate, which operates within rules of the game that were in effect when their contract was signed. I genuinely appreciate that they're doing what they're doing now.

Rather, it is to stress that there is much work to be done. The battle against the A-B's of the world cannot be abandoned.

As for the illustration above, it was with palpable optimism that NABC's artist in residence, Tony Beard, produced this baseball-themed homage to Beak's Best and its namesake, Dr. Donald Barry. We hope to be able to post it at the ballpark some sweet day in the future.

Don is returning to New Albany later this week for his annual visit prior to decamping for Europe. Back here in Louisville, there's a four-game weekend homestand coming for the Bats, beginning Friday, June 4th, and ending on Monday. The team then departs for a long road trip, returning on June 17. If you attend this weekend, let us know what's available and how it's being served, i.e., which kegs are on ice and being served via the cold plate; it's easy to glance around the back of the serving area and see what's on ice.

And: When you see Centerplate and Louisville Bats personnel, please thank them for having a true craft beer option.

Louisville Slugger Field craft beer update: So far, so good (we think).

Here is what I know (so far) about the great crusade to have locally brewed craft beer in the ballpark.

I'm trying to be honest about this: So far, so good, but we're in the beginning stages of a business relationship with multiple entities, and I'm not going to mislead you into thinking that it always will be smooth. With a bit more time, I believe season-long craft availability can be assured. Right now, choices are expanded. Kepp your fingers crossed.

By game time on Thursday, although not without a misadventure or two, Beak's Best was pouring at the portable "hot roasted peanut" concession stand at Section 115, on the main concourse behind home plate. I wasn't able to make it over last night to check on matters, and tonight is off, too. Sunday night's a maybe for me. I mention this only because as this local craft experiment continues, it will be important to have our people on the ground at each game to help sell the product. In turn, that's because we must never ignore our mandate to educate beer drinkers.

We already know that craft beer is all about the beer in your glass. But it's also all about reliable information and teaching. With reliable information, we teach. It requires no information whatsoever to sell dollar Budweisers, as was being done at "happy hour" before Thursday's game. Unsurprisingly, a gigantic crowd of youthful humanity was standing in the sun, waiting in line, and waiting to two tiny plastic cups of liquid nastiness, for no other reason than Anheuser-Busch's relentless expenditures on advertising. Dollar beer time is a no brainer, in more ways than one.

For craft brewers, information disseminated one drinker at a time takes the place of megabuck saturation advertising, which few of us can afford. Obviously, a ballpark concessionaire is not going to be the agent for this sort of information, and we mustn't expect them to be. It's something that we'll want to do ourselves, and to effectively do it, we need to have a presence. If the beer can stay predictably on tap, we can organize to support it. We can educate the consumer as well as the concessionaire. We all can win.

A final thought about dollar Budweisers: Why the degradation, when Browning’s Brewery right outside the gates matches the cup size and price, pre-game, during such "happy hour" events? I did not know that. Now, I do.

So, according to the information I've received to date, which may vary from homestand to homestand and even from game to game, Centerplate's plan is to have NABC Beak's Best and Kentucky Ale on tap by means of a cold plate/jockey box, alongside Browning's Guillotine ESB and A-B's Shock Top, the latter two served via a two-faucet draft tower. The keg box is big enough for four kegs, and as I've been told by a Centerplate employee, it soon will be adapted to pour four by adding a second tower.

Pour size is 14-oz as announced by the concessionaire, but in reality, 12-oz as measured by me and other in our kitchens, and the price is $5.50. This is higher than last season, and so permit me to be blunt.

For craft beer to be sold in the ballpark under the beer distribution system as currently constituted, with a brewer, wholesaler and concessionaire involved, the only way that the dictates of sustainability can be met is for the price point to be slightly higher. I don't make those rules, but I must play by them. As a brewery, we cannot give the beer away and survive. We cannot operate according to Anheuser-Busch's marketplace expectations. A wholesaler must make money, and so must the ballpark concessionaire. Perhaps eventually we can have a craft beer happy hour to compensate.

Speaking personally, it would be easy for me to pick nits with various aspects of this embryonic experience, but I shan't. This is unexplored territory for all of us. Centerplate has been receptive to the idea of an expanded selection of craft beer in the ballpark, and River City Distributing has done a fine job of negotiating the terms of engagement. As the season progresses, I hope there is the opportunity for NABC (and the other brewers) to help sell the product through signage, our social medias and the all-important physical presence at game time.

If you're there tonight, please provide a report. More later.

Louisville Slugger Field update: Does the Nose know?

The Louisville Bats begin an eight-game homestand on Thursday, May 6. There'll be baseball at Louisville Slugger Field every night (or day) until the 13th.

I'm a lifelong baseball fan, and try to attend Triple-A games as often as possible, but the reason why these dates rank higher in my consciousness than under normal circumstances is that earlier today it was revealed that Centerplate, the ballpark concessionaire, has ordered kegs of NABC Beak's Best -- presumably, for tapping during this homestand.

Experience hath shown that anything can happen, and usually does. Details are non-existent at this writing. I'll tell you more when the information comes in. Until then, I'm just a bit stunned.

Bats, Centerplate as oblivious as ever, but Browning's ale is on tap inside Louisville Slugger Field.

Yes, there is Browning's beer inside Louisville Slugger Field. Last night, ESB was on the main concourse by the sports card shop.


It's identified as "import"beer, which is highly suspect grammar, and costs $4.75. When I observed to the worker that it isn't an import, she responded that she isn't supposed to know were it comes from. When I asked her if she knew it was made less than one hundred yards away, she expressed cluelessness.

The other worker acknowledged that yes, it's a "microbrew," but could not explain why it's identified as an "import" beer.

It is served in a white Budweiser/Bud Light cup. It tasted damned good in the heat, but I was afraid to be seen drinking it from such a receptacle.

Does the Louisville Bats management mandate persistent shoddiness like this from Centerplate, the supposedly "professional" caterer it provides a monopoly on subpar food and drink offerings? And while I'm at it, why should there be such a monopoly in a publicly-owned facility? All of you slamming your long-necks of vapid swill on the counter might want to think about that as you expedite your money to corporate headquarters in foreign countries.

Judging from the "Rally" mascot that performed profoundly unfunny routines throughout the evening, to the bored sighs of even the children present, I'm thinking the answer is "yes." Years pass, and the Bats just plain don't get it, do they?