Long live Mild. Let it be.

It's worth noting that for all of NABC's ups and downs over the years, Community Dark has remained the best-selling house beer in our own two New Albany locations.

Granted, the ingredients are North American, but the outcome is session-strength, traditional, English-style Mild. I've had Milds in the UK, and ours matches well, without toning down the color or adapting with Citra, as suggested (perhaps impishly) in the otherwise excellent overview here. Mild hits the spot with pizza, too, and at the 3.7% abv of Community Dark, it puts the lie to frequent assertions that flavor and strength must cohabit.

You can have a few. To me, that remains important.

CAN MILD ALE MAKE IT IN AMERICA?, by Jeff Alworth (All About Beer Magazine)

Alistair Reece is a peripatetic Scot currently living in Virginia, and a bit of a contrarian. “My dad used to tell me as a kid that ‘if it’s easy, it’s not worth it,’ and anyone can advocate for super hoppy strong ales when they are 10 a penny.” So of course he’s championing mild ale, a style so obscure many Americans have never encountered it in the wild. Each year, the United Kingdom’s Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) promotes mild ale in May, and Reece decided to launch American Mild Month to run concurrently on this side of the Atlantic. “Mild is such a rare beast that I wanted to give it it’s own moment in the spotlight.”

It's Mild Month. Has been since 2002, actually.

In the UK, it's Mild Month.

In New Albany, that can mean only one thing: NABC Community Dark. We've been brewing Mild since the brewery began in 2002, and Hoptimus aside, Community Dark may be our classic signature style. It's always been the biggest seller in our two establishments.

Community Dark and Bob's Old 15-B take Brewers' Cup medals at the Indiana State Fair.

NABC took home two medals at the 2011 Indiana State Fair Brewers' Cup Competition. The winners were announced in Indianapolis on Saturday, July 9.

NABC Community Dark, our English-style Dark Mild, received a Gold medal for Category 11 (English Brown Ale), while Bob's Old 15-B scored a Bronze in Category 12 (Porter).

Seeing as we entered only four beers, a 50% success rate seems reasonable enough. A complete list of the categories and winners can be found here.


It is instructive to note that in 2010, we entered a completely different lineup into the competition, selecting heavier hitters like Elector, Solidarity and Hoptimus, with barren results. This year, we decided to flip the wisdom, and chose the ones (for us, the few) beers corresponding to style definitions. Arguably, Community Dark and Bob's Old 15-B are the two most center-of-the-target beers we do, which would seem to be certified by the results on Saturday.

To me, this means (a) the judges were spot on, and (b) I still prefer we not brew with an eye toward winning medals, even if both our winning beers are quite good. What good's a rule unless you can break it with impunity?

Tony's graphics for Craft Beer Bullpen at the Dubois County Bombers games.

Here's what NABC plans to take to the Great Taste of the Midwest.

Following is what I've submitted on behalf of NABC to the Great Taste of the Midwest for inclusion in this year's program. The festival takes place on August 14 in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a must-visit at some point in your beer drinking career. This year, we're being placed close by The Livery, Schlafly and O'Fallon so as to enable a "collaboration corner" and feature cooperative projects brewed during the past year.

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NABC Beer Descriptions, for the Great Taste of the Midwest 2010 official program

(Includes both descriptions and details about NABC collaboration beer placements. *Recipe notes provided for collaborations brewed at NABC)

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At the NABC station, C02 pour:

Elector, Elsa von Horizon, Hoptimus, Thunderfoot

Cask-conditioned NABC (pin at the NABC station; tapping time TBA):

2008 Port-aged Bonfire of the Valkyries

Cask-conditioned NABC (firkins at the real ale tent):

Beak’s Best and Community Dark

Collaboration(s) casks, to be tapped at Collaboration Corner, not the real ale tent:

*NABC/The Livery Oaked Le Douche Mentale & Scotch pin conditioned Le Douche Mentale

Malts: Castle Pale, Castle Biscuit, Simpsons Medium Crystal

Hops: Wet Fuggles, Nugget, Fuggle, Cascade

ABV: 8.5%

IBU: 75

*NABC/O’Fallon/Schlafly C2 Smoked Belgian Dark Strong Ale

Malts: Castle Pale, Weyermann Rauchmalz, Castle Biscuit, Briess Smoked, Castle Aromatic, Castle Special B Mash hops: Mt. Hood, Crystal Kettle hops: Magnum, Celeia Yeast: Belgian Chouffe O.G. 1.097 or 24.3 Plato ABV: 10.4% IBU: 35 Color: 14.8

Collaboration Notes:
The Livery also debuts its 5th anniversary beer, Imperial Dark IPA (NABC’s Jared Williamson helped brew it) at its station, and O' Fallon debuts C3, the third collaboration series beer with O’Fallon’s, NABC and Schlafly, at its station.

Main NABC beer descriptions

Beak’s Best

Malts: Simpsons Golden Promise, Simpsons Medium Crystal, Castle (Belgian) Aromatic and Special B

Hops: Double hopped with Cascade pellets, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.059 or 14.75 degree Plato

ABV: 5.3%

IBU: 35

Color: 10.3 degree Lovibond SRM

American bitter & soul liniment
NABC’s session-strength American Bitter is named in honor of globetrotting historian and educator Don "Beak" Barry, and in 2003 it was the winner of the "Louisville Magazine Best Of" award for Louisville area microbrews. Like its namesake, Beak’s is fond of traveling (albeit in kegs), lending itself to refreshing contemplation.
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Bonfire of the Valkyries

Malts: Weyermanns Rauchmalz, Simpsons Black, Castle Aromatic, Castle Special B

Hops: Czech Zatec (Saaz)

Yeast: Common Lager

OG: 1083

ABV: 8.5%

IBU: 5.1

Color: 46.2 SRM

Burning away the hours 'til Ragnarok
Although it’s probably somewhere in the German brewing playbook, we couldn’t find the rule prohibiting the higher-gravity crossing of Black Lager with Smoked Lager, so we brew Bonfire each year in autumn and let it age until release just before Christmas. For the Great Taste, Bonfire has been aged in JW Lees ’08 Port pin.

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Community Dark

Malts: Special Pale, Dark Crystal and Chocolate malts

Hops: Double hopped with EK Golding

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.046 or 11.5 degree Plato

ABV: 3.7%

IBU: 12.5

Color: 25 degree Lovibond SRM

Inside is what counts
Inspired by traditional English Mild, the style that fueled the workers who made the Industrial Revolution, Community Dark is revolutionary in its own way: Dark-colored but light-bodied, and a session ale suitable for New Albany’s emerging downtown renaissance.

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Elector

Malts: Special Pale and Simpsons Medium Crystal

Hops: Triple hopped with Chinook pellets, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.074 or 18.5 degree Plato

ABV: 7.5%

IBU: 62

Color: 11.9 degree Lovibond SRM

Makes democracy pointless
Excessive hopping rendered moot the original modest plan to brew a traditional winter warmer, but the resulting hybrid was delicious and redefines the Imperial Red style category. The first batch of Elector was brewed on Election Day, 2002, a mere two years after the nation’s electors (most recently) made democracy pointless, and we persist in thinking that an Elector in hand is worth two Bushes in retirement, any election day, any old time at all.

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Elsa Von Horizon

Malts: German Pilsner, German Munich

Hops: Hallertauer Mittelfruh, Tettnang

Yeast: Common Lager

OG: 1.100

ABV: 10%

IBU: 80

Color: 5.4 SRM

Bekämpfen sie und ich beiße sie
It is deceptively simple. A Pilsner rich in noble continental hops is brewed to the strength of Maibock and beyond, and then even more noble hops are added to the recipe for balance and bite. Not even the Germans try it, and we consider this shyness as implicit encouragement to innovate. Elsa is a proud member of NABC’s Brewers’ Best Friend Series, along with Malcolm and Jasmine. They’re assertive, loyal specialties named for our brewers’ canine chums.

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Hoptimus

Malts: Special Pale

Adjunct: Pure, free-range sucrose

Hops: 4 additions of high alpha Nugget, 1 late addition of Cascade, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.097 or 24.25 degree Plato

ABV: 10.7%

IBU: 100

Color: 6.9 degree Lovibond SRM

Made of sterner stuff
“Vicariously” is for rank amateurs and subpar international lagers, because Hoptimus lives vivaciously through itself, and is best consumed in the prime of youth, when its bold hop character is at its snarkiest and most blatantly unrepentant. Hoptimus has been named “the beer most likely to be preferred by the most interesting man in the world, if he really were the most interesting man in the world, but he isn’t” by Publicans Monthly magazine.

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Thunderfoot

Malts: Special Pale, Simpson's Roasted Barley, Simpson's Dark Crystal, Flaked Oats

Adjunct: Pure free-range sucrose

Hops: Quad-hopped with Northern Brewer and Willamette

Special treatment: Dried tart cherries fall into the hopback, and medium-toast American oak chips and dried Bing cherries go into each keg for aging. One year later: In your glass.

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.106 or 25.2 degree Plato

ABV: 12%

IBU: 84

Color: 72.7 degree Lovibond SRM

Ultimate urban renewal
There can be no doubt that Thunderfoot actively renounces the art of the gentle tweak, the mild revision, and the imperceptible hint. Rather, Thunderfoot advocates palatal renewal the old-fashioned way – complete, irresistible and certain. 20 months old; brewed January, 2009.

Rover & Mild, tomorrow night.

I'll be at the Irish Rover (2319 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville) on Tuesday night, December 8, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Scotch eggs may be consumed, but the real reason I'm going is to celebrate the presence of NABC's Community Dark on the Rover draft lineup. We're calling the occasion, "Community Dark: A History of Mild," and in addition to our version of dark-colored, light-bodied session ale, John Campbell with have growlers of Bob's Old 15-B and WeeFoot Stout as evidence of the range of other, similarly dark English- and Irish-influenced libations.

Come out to the Rover tomorrow night for a few jars and some beer talk.

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.

Special pin of cask-conditioned Community Dark to accompany night two of the Purple People Party.

Tonight for the Purple People Party art show, Jared will be tapping a pin (five gallons) of cask-conditioned Community Dark, and with a delightful difference: It's a wooden pin that formerly housed Calvados-aged JW Lees Vintage Harvest Ale. The ale should be flowing by late afternoon.

Whe emptied, the pin will be refilled with bouncing baby Solidarity and hidden away to alchemize. You'll forget all about it, and then, when you least expect it ... Jared will break the seal and you'll read another e-mail.