Learn where Donum Dei Brewery will be staging a pop-up beer garden during Harvest Homecoming.

Harvest Homecoming's annual run in downtown New Albany is almost here, and in 2016, "booth days" take place from October 6 - 9 (Thursday through Sunday). Over at NA Confidential, I've been surveying the scene "behind the booths," where our independent local businesses operate throughout the year.

Donum Dei Brewery is situated near the original NABC location, just off Grant Line Road, approximately four miles from the historic business district. Unlike year-round businesses in downtown, which must adapt to a festival occupying their usual bricks 'n' mortar milieu, Donum Dei's owner Rick Otey must be creative in finding a pop-up spot to set up shop, and with luck, benefit from the crowds.

Just such a setting is the rear of a building on Main Street, which only recently was purchased and is being remodeled.

Preview: 410 Bakery coming to 140 East Main Street in downtown New Albany.

RENOVATION UPDATE: You know, that building where Abe's Rental used to be (140 E Main St).

Locals know it as "where Abe's Rental used to be," and it was a service station before that.

In the completed patio setting shown above, Rick found the ideal niche for serving beer during booth days.

We will be having a Harvest Homecoming Beer Garden! Come and relax and have a couple of pints.

The locations is 140 E. Main. The garden will be on the patio behind the building.

Hours will be:

Thursday October 6, 11-10
Friday October 7, 11-11
Saturday October 8, 11-11
Sunday October 9, 11-6

We will have live original music Friday and Saturday night 7-9.

Friday Bob and Erin Youell
Saturday South Upand

If you're downtown during the madness, don't forget about Donum Dei's pop-up, and for officially sanctioned activities, go here: 2016 Harvest Homecoming Festival Guide.

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New Albany bests the per capita average of Americans-to-their-breweries.

Last September, the Brewers Association revealed an important milestone: 4,000 active breweries, reckoned to be the first time there have been 4,000 breweries in America since just after the Civil War.

U.S. PASSES 4,000 BREWERIES, by Bart Watson (Brewers Association; published on September 28, 2015)

 ... What it does not mean is that we’ve reached a saturation point. Most of the new entrants continue to be small and local, operating in neighborhoods or towns. What it means to be a brewery is shifting, back toward an era when breweries were largely local, and operated as a neighborhood bar or restaurant.

How many neighborhoods in the country could still stand to gain from a high-quality brewpub or micro taproom? While a return to the per capita ratio of 1873 seems unlikely (that would mean more than 30,000 breweries), the resurgence of American brewing is far from over.

Unlikely? Heck, we can do that.

In 1873, the US population was around 43,000,000. That same year, the number of American breweries was 4,131, with the per capita ratio being one brewery for every 10,400 Americans.

Rounding off New Albany's 2016 population at 37,000 and dividing by three (NABC, Donum Dei and Floyd County Brewing), we find our city's current ratio at one brewery for every 12,333 inhabitants -- quite close to the 1873 numbers.

However, if we allow for the stand-alone brewery at each NABC location, the ratio changes to one actual brewing system for every 9,288 citizens.

Boom.

See how far we've come? New Albany has gone all the way back to 1873 and beyond, in a very positive way, so as the pundits say: Support your local brewer.

NABC has been in business for a while, but Donum Dei and Floyd County Brewing are relatively new. Check 'em out during New Albany Craft Beer Week.

Donum Dei Brewery

3211 Grant Line Road,

New Albany, IN 47150

(502) 541-2950

www.donumdeibrewery.com

Floyd County Brewing Company

129 West Main Street,

New Albany, IN 47150

(470) 588-2337

www.floydcountybrewing.com

New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse

415 Bank Street,

New Albany, IN 47150

(812) 944-2577

www.newalbanian.com

New Albanian Pizzeria and Public House

3312 Plaza Drive,

New Albany, IN 47150

(812) 944-2577

www.newalbanian.com

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THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: Hip Hops ... A look at two new New Albany breweries.

THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: Hip Hops ... A look at two new New Albany breweries.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

I'm always an issue behind when it comes to reprinting my columns from Food & Dining Magazine. This one is from Spring 2016; Vol. 51 (February/March/April). 

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HIP HOPS: A LOOK AT TWO NEW NEW ALBANY BREWERIES

In 1906, thirsty residents of New Albany had the choice of three local breweries to visit when it came time to refill pails gone dry.

Paul Reising’s plant was the granddaddy of them all, taking up a whole West End city block, where Bavarian-style beers had been brewed on-site since just after the Civil War.

A half-mile away, Virt Nirmaier crafted a well-regarded “common” beer at his brewery on State Street, the western route out of New Albany, up Buffalo Trace and through the Knobs. Nirmaier’s Common sold to taverns for $1.25 a keg or $5.00 a barrel. His charge for smaller quantities is unknown.

Near the present-day high school on Vincennes Street, the Nadorffs brewed beer and cut ice in winter from a pond on their property. In 1907, the family stopped brewing and opened a wholesale beer distributorship, which survives to the present day.

Soon the scourge of Prohibition descended, ending the first great era of American brewing, but in truth, our failed national temperance experiment merely hastened the passage from independent local brewing to larger economies of scale regionally and nationally.

Pendulums have a fortunate way of swinging back, and brewing returned to New Albany in 2002, when the New Albanian Brewing Company first mashed in.

Then, in 2015, there was an abrupt tripling of numbers: Donum Dei Brewery and Floyd County Brewing Company (FCBC) both opened, and while it may seem novel for such a small city to have so many breweries, this pattern is being repeated all across the country.

Late last year, the Brewers Association reported the existence of 4,000 breweries in America — more than in 1906, and in fact, the most ever at any point in the nation’s history.

New Albany’s two newest breweries typify this upward arc. They’re independent, small and family owned. You can have a pint, grab a bite and take beer to go. Donum Dei is on the north side, down the road from Indiana University Southeast, and FCBC lies a short caber toss from the downtown YMCA.

Let’s take a look at these two local brewing start-ups.

A “Gift of God”

Rick Otey is a 50-something electronics engineer who didn’t like the taste of beer until work took him to Seattle during the 1990s. There Otey enjoyed a transformative encounter with Red Hook Extra Special Bitter (ESB), inspiring him to brew at home and seek craft beers on his own turf.

Facing a career juncture in 2014, Otey and wife Kimberly decided to redirect a portion of their retirement portfolio toward greater liquidity, and Donum Dei Brewery is the fruit of their investment.

By personal disposition and designer, the brewpub’s ethos is thoughtful and unhurried. “It’s not so much what we do, as what we don’t do,” Otey explains. “There’s no rush. Beer is a living thing, and we wait until it’s ready.”

This mantra extends to the compact, café-style food menu, with appetizers, soup and paninis: “It’s as simple and local as possible, at a decent price,” Otey says.

The décor and lighting are almost Scandinavian, with clean and modern wooden accents. There is neither television nor Wi-Fi. Otey would prefer your phone remain sheathed, because he seeks to encourage conversation and reflection.

Donum Dei is Latin for “gift of God,” and although Otey offers it in a broader metaphysical context, the history of beer and brewing is intertwined with the pursuit of higher truth, as with Trappist brewers fashioning their ales for sale, barter and communal consumption.

Otey’s delicious Enkel (single) Belgian Gold is the ideal example. As brewed at 4.4% abv in a classic Abbey mold, it is gently fruity, as befits a monastic table beer intended to accompany meals.

Donum Dei’s beer range reflects Otey’s principled eclecticism. There has been a Saison, Brown Porter, India Pale Ale and Red Ale. During the first quarter of 2016, expect to see a big, malty Wee Heavy in the Scottish stylistic vernacular.

He’ll serve it when it’s ready.

Quest for the Ale

Floyd County Brewing Company (FCBC) anchors a corner of Main and W. First St. in rapidly changing downtown New Albany. In addition to the bustling YMCA, neighbors include The Exchange Pub + Kitchen, Feast BBQ, and Seeds & Greens Natural Market and Deli.

The new brewpub bears owner Brian Hampton’s strategic imprint. “The beer names, graphics and décor all come from me,” he says. “I did most of the woodwork, too. Right now the kitchen learning curve is taking up most of my time.”

Like his counterpart Otey, Hampton is a home brewer and beer-seeking engineer, and he views the ideal pub as a place of refuge and escape, outfitted to provide a comfortable setting to get away from it all.

Hampton sought to refit an older building, creating modern comfort with Old World ambiance. The result looks something like a medieval banquet hall, but scaled down to a Yorkshire public house, then filtered through Monty Python outtakes from “The Holy Grail.” A hundred-year-old house was connected to a new annex built to house brewery and bar areas, and it feels far more venerable than it is.

All that’s missing is the mead bench, but give Hampton time. He’ll build one.

Brewer Jeff Coe is charged with alchem-izing Hampton’s ideas into fermented form. He is concentrating on a bedrock repertoire, including Braun Jovi (Brown Ale), Hefe’ns Gate Hefeweizen and Vlad’s India Pale Ale.

FCBC’s best-selling menu item is fish and chips, but oversized turkey legs often are spotted being gnawed. Both pair wonderfully with Arrow Smith Amber, marrying a malty ale of medium strength to orange peel and coriander flavorings otherwise expected in a Belgian-style Wit. It’s reminiscent of Blue Moon with caramel malt, only better, and it serves to remind us of the medieval tradition of “gruit,” an ale flavored and balanced with spices rather than hops.

For my best advice to Donum Dei and FCBC as they move forward, I propose these highly appropriate words from Richard Atkinson to Leonard, titular sixth Lord Dacre, in 1570, as quoted by Martyn Cornell:

“See that ye keep a noble house for beef and beer, that thereof may be praise given to God and to your honour.” 

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Donum Dei Brewery

3211 Grant Line Road,

New Albany, IN 47150

(502) 541-2950

www.donumdeibrewery.com

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Floyd County Brewing Company

129 West Main Street,

New Albany, IN 47150

(470) 588-2337

www.floydcountybrewing.com

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April 26: THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: The mouse, the elephant, and a clash of nonpareils ... part two.

April 25: THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: The mouse, the elephant, and a clash of nonpareils ... part one.

April 18: THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: Euro ’85, Part 33 … All good things must come to a beginning.

April 11: THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: Euro ’85, Part 32 … Leaving Leningrad.

April 4: THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON: Birracibo’s local/regional “craft” beer percentage rides the bench.

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Dropping in on New Albany's Donum Dei Brewery.

This was the beer board at Donum Dei Brewery on Thursday, December 10.

This is the view of Donum Dei's front-of-house on Friday the 11th, with Christmas tree and 70-degree temps.

For the uninitiated, Donum Dei opened on St. Patrick's Day (2015), and is Rick and Kim Otey's labor of love. It is located a few hundred yards away from NABC's original location. If you can find the Lee's Fried Chicken by the railroad track on Grant Line Road, you're almost there; it's in the strip mall off Rolling Creek Drive, behind the El Nopal.

I've had all the beers listed above, most recently the Enkel and Populo. Rick's Enkel is a "single" in the Abbey style, pale, sessionable and delicious. His Populo is what people say they brew but usually don't: A genuine Brown Porter, not to be confused with Robust, and similar to Mild in being dark, light and refreshing all at once.

In case you're wondering, the 812 Nouveau refers to the wet hops of origin from the Eight One Two Farms near Columbus, Indiana.

Final word: Cheap pours all day Tuesday. Shall we refer to it as  the Northside Brewery Corridor?

Donum Dei Brewery and free-range, homebrewer-sourced Porter.

There are few genuinely new ideas, just new generations not previously exposed to them, which is to say that the homebrewing community always has had a level of input into the brewing revolution.

And a town can't have too many Porters, so I'll have to try Rick's when there's the chance.

NABC first brewed a Porter in late 2002. It was called The Black Hand, and was David and Beth Howard’s winning Robust Porter recipe at the 10th annual FOSSILS homebrewed porter competition, held earlier in the year.

In 2003, we did it again. Bob Capshew’s recipe won the competition, and permanently altered the course of NABC’s subsequent Porter production, serving henceforth as the everyday basis for Bob's Old 15-B.

Craft brewers seek public input for new brews, by Bailey Loosemore (Courier-Journal)

New Albany's newest head brewer doesn't share his community's affinity for porters.

But with so many people requesting one be added to Donum Dei Brewing's menu, owner Richard Otey said he couldn't let down the steady base of regulars he's built in the past two months. So he made a decision that's becoming more common in the craft brewing and distilling industries: He used a local homebrewer's recipe.

Donum Dei's grand opening is on St. Patrick's Day -- Tuesday, March 17.

What a difference a year makes. Above is a photo I took on March 4, 2014. Below is Donum Dei Brewery as it appears now, with opening slated for St. Patrick's Day.

As best I can determine, counting NABC's two brewing sites as one owing to shared ownership, the last time there were two working breweries in Floyd County was 1918, when the advent of Indiana state prohibition closed both Paul Reising and the State Street Brewery (Nirmaier's) to close.

Inside Indiana Business has more information. Plan to come out next week, check in, and see what Donum Dei has to offer. Opening hours are not posted at the Facebook site, but the grand opening ribbon cutting will be held at 4:00 p.m. on the 17th.

Congratulations to Rick Otey and crew.

Survey of coming breweries includes the latest news on New Albany's Donum Dei.

Donum Dei's new logo.

It's gratifying to have Kevin Gibson on the job as a free lancer, being remunerated (we hope) for the time and shoe leather required to assemble news and information about the local brewing scene. Notice how he manages to describe new businesses without resorting to boilerplate chamber of commerce-speak?

With the exception of Bannerman, I've been keeping up with these projects on a fairly consistent basis, especially Rick Stidham's Akasha. Because I'm based in Hoosierland, the extended excerpt from Kevin's piece details progress toward fruition at Donum Dei, which is located a few hundred yards (as the crow flies) from NABC's original location off Grant Line Road on the North Side of the West Bank.

Five new Louisville breweries to watch out for in 2015, by Kevin Gibson (Insider Louisville)

We’ll take a quick look at five new breweries that are either on track for or are working toward opening in 2015.

Akasha Brewing Company
Beer Engine

Donum Dei Brewery: Over in New Albany, at 3211 Grant Line Road, just a stone’s throw from the original New Albanian Brewing Company location, is another brewery in waiting. Richard Otey is brewing in his new space, which is nearly complete. However, he still is yet to offer a target opening date.

Originally, he told us he had planned to open sometime around Derby 2014; that prognostication later changed to summer, and then to Thanksgiving. Now, early 2015 looks most likely. But Donum Dei already has a batch of its pale ale brewed and ready to drink, as well as an enkle. Up next is wee heavy.

Kegs have been purchased, and the buildout seems mostly complete. Otey is doing most of the buildout himself, using reclaimed materials whenever possible, from rescued wood to 1940s-era mirrors to chairs from an old Wendy’s restaurant.

I stopped by recently, and the place looks within reach of opening. Still, Otey hesitates to throw out a deadline.

“Every time I try to make a deadline,” he told me, “it’s just that — it’s dead.”

He did tell me how he acquired his reclaimed brew kettle, which was purchased from a brewery in Vancouver Wash. — he found it on Craigslist.com on a Friday, left in his truck to pick it up on Saturday, and had it back at the brewery by Wednesday. He called it a five-day “turn and burn.”

Otey gave me a sample of the Donum Dei pale ale, his first test batch, that sure tasted better than a test batch — moderately hopped, it was well balanced and right on the money. He also gave me a sample of a roast beef panini that will be representative of the future food menu — another thumbs up. Expect sandwiches, soups, hummus and other such small eats once Donum Dei opens.

When will that be? Hard to say, although he admits February should be doable. Of course, as noted, last February he began construction hoping to open by Derby.

“I didn’t say which year,” he clarified with a smile.

Bannerman Brewing
Old Louisville Brewing Company

Donum Dei Brewery has a bouncing baby beer, and it's an IPA.

New Albany's first new brewery in 12 years has its first beer, and the birth is described at Donum Dei's page at Facebook.

The predicted opening date is "around Thanksgiving," and the location is the strip mall behind El Nopal, just off Grant Line Road (3211 Grant Line) on New Albany's north side -- a few hundred yards from NABC's original location.

Brief update on the new Great Flood and Donum Dei breweries, via WDRB.

Louisville's FOX affiliate gives some love to two new local breweries, open soon: Great Flood in Louisville, and Donum Dei in New Albany (off Grant Line Rd and near NABC's original location).

Two new craft breweries to open in Louisville, New Albany, by Bill Francis (WDRB TV)

NABC's David Pierce has been mentoring Great Flood as they brew opening batches, and if Rick Otey needs anything from us as he gets closer to small business fulfillment ... just ask.

New Albany's Donum Dei Brewery, coming soon to Grant Line Road.

Since the following was written and posted at NA Confidential in early January, I've met Richard "Rick" Otey on several occasions. He and his business partner are moving steadily forward, with a target date of May to be up and running. Otey's goals -- local beer, light food and comfy coffee shop-style seating -- strike me as reasonable. There may be yet another brewery in the works for New Albany; if you know anything about Wrecker Brewing Company, give me a shout.

(January 7, 2014)

I must confess to finding is somewhat amazing, and perhaps even admirable, that a fellow New Albanian has planned a new brewery, bought equipment and signed a lease without someone, somewhere telling me about it.

Well, why not? It's the sort of era when not one but two separate groups look to start a brewery in Tell City. I think it's a great thing, and so here's what little I know about the advent of Donum Dei Brewery.

My first clue came two months ago, when I saw a list of Indiana breweries in development, as prepared by the Brewers of Indiana Guild. Then John Wurth at LouisvilleBeer.com put together a page tracking the progress of brewing start-ups in metro Louisville, which pinpointed an address that sounded curiously similar to that of NABC's Pizzeria & Public House.

And so it is: 3211 Grant Line Road, which as it turns out, is the precise storefront once occupied by Earth Friends Cafe, in the 1990s strip building behind El Nopal. Where'd that garage door come from?

Yesterday Blake drove me past, and I snapped the photos above. Donum Dei means "Gift of God." And that's about all we know about it at present.

For quite some time, it has been a goal of mine to convince both city and indie business operators in the Grant Line Road commercial zone between McDonald Lane and the interstate to combine efforts and market the area as College Park, University Woods (prescient, those apartment builders of old) or some such tag to make the connection with IU Southeast and beautify and rationalize the vicinity. Having another brewery across the street fits perfectly. The Blair family is renovating the ramshackle former employment office into a dance studio. Now all we need is for a family-owned Turkish joint to move into the space left vacant when The Exchange moved downtown.

We just might succeed in spite of ourselves, which is the time-honored (read: only) formula in New Albany.