Falls City Common Beer and my introduction to Over the 9.

I finally made it to Over the 9, and had a wonderful time. The pretext was to have another beer or two with Cezary ... and the mission was accomplished.

My beer with Cezary Wlodarczyk, and what's up at Falls City, Old 502 and Over the 9.

The two top-selling Falls City beers are brewed under contract elsewhere, but Over the 9 has plenty of Dylan's beers brewed on site, with more to come. Many are at a human-friendly, sessionable alcohol content, and a few dip beneath the Bryson threshold. I was very pleased with this fact, and was able to have full pours of Cream Ale and Common, both in or around 4.5% abv.

The Falls City Common described below is delightful: Amber-brown in color, moderately hopped, and entirely poundable. There is a hint of adjunct, and no sourness. I can see many growlers of it in my future.

At RateBeer, an observer expresses confusion over the absence of sourness. While I support the notion of brewing Common (Komon) as a sour, as NABC has done, it does not appear likely that the style ever was intentionally sour in its heyday more than a century ago. This is explained in great detail here:

Kentucky Common – An Almost Forgotten Style, by Leah Dienes and Dibbs Harting

Whatever my future holds, it probably will not include regular commuting to Louisville for beer, insofar as the commute requires driving. I prefer walking or biking. To me, the fun thing about Falls City, Old 502 Winery and Over the 9 is that their 10th Street location in downtown Louisville is so close to New Albany. If the K and I Bridge ever becomes a pedway, as it  should, I'd be able to bike to 10th Street in 20-odd minutes.

Until then ... those growlers, and my complete satisfaction with being a Commoner.

Falls City's new beer is based on an old tradition, by David A. Mann (Louisville Business First)

Falls City Brewing Co. is making a push for its version of Kentucky Common beer — a brew that officials there believe has the potential to become a major new product for the company.

The brewery first debuted Kentucky Common during a Derby Eve brew festival earlier this year.

Falls City brewmaster Dylan Greenwood said he believes the company's Kentucky Common has the potential to become a flagship product for the brewery.

Kentucky common-style beer borrows a bit of inspiration from the state's distilling industry, in that it uses a grain bill (the grains used in brewing) that features corn and rye, Brewmaster Dylan Greenwood told me during a recent interview at Over the 9 restaurant on 10th Street.

"Kentucky Common beer to stand out at BrewFest."

This one's been on the docket for a while. It takes place tomorrow.

At LouisvilleBeer: "Derby City BrewFest: An 'Uncommon' Beer Festival on Derby Eve."

To summarize, tracking down facts about the historical presence in Louisville of a style referred to as "common" (or reflecting the German still being spoken locally then, "Komon") poses many challenges, but it existed, and appears to have varied widely. The term itself might have more to do with price point than anything else, in the form of a "session" or "table" beer, inexpensive, and suitable for daily consumption at a time when cultural mores would have embraced such a brew as a thirst quencher, as opposed to soda, water or iced tea.

Whether sourness was an intrinsic property of Kentucky Common remains the great debatable. It may have been a by-product of handling, as Leah Dienes of Apocalypse Brewery suggests in the article below. The idea the common might have been loosely connected with sour mash (see: bourbon) in some fashion may or may not be supported by available evidence, although it makes sense even if only in an isolated or accidental way, and undoubtedly bolsters the storytelling possibilities.

In Louisville, the Kentucky Derby is on Saturday, and the day before is the Oaks, a racing day generally claimed by locals as their own. Churchill Downs is a money-making conglomerate, which for several years has forged an alliance with the Stella Artois, making carbonated Belgian dishwater the "official" beer of the Kentucky Derby. Naturally, if you're interested in what's really brewing locally, Derby City BrewFest is a required destination tomorrow night. Here's another preview.

Kentucky Common beer to stand out at BrewFest, by Bailey Loosemore (Courier-Journal)

Also, don't forget to reject Stella Artois as faux Derby beer.

A few other seasonal Derby links:

The classic: Director’s Cut: ‘The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,’ by Hunter S. Thompson.

The outrage: Tradition, Americana, Churchill Downs and Stella Artois.

On horse pimps: "The Kentucky Derby Really Is Decadent and Depraved."

Just be patient: Derby Festival begins, bad beer flows, and so we learn to wait.

At LouisvilleBeer: "Derby City BrewFest: An 'Uncommon' Beer Festival on Derby Eve."

At LouisvilleBeer.com, John Wurth has the rundown on a new beer event in Louisville. Bluegrass Brewing Company is the organizer, and the idea originally was kicked around during Mayor Greg Fischer's beer committee meetings in 2014. Local beer writer Kevin Gibson has contributed a lot to the concept of a local celebration of what might (or might not) be our only indigenous beer.

I think it sounds like fun. Following are the basics and information portals.

Derby City BrewFest: An “Uncommon” Beer Festival on Derby Eve

Kentucky-area brewers will revisit the past as part of the Derby Eve Derby City BrewFest on May 1, 2015 as they will be serving up their own versions of Kentucky Common – a beer style that was invented in Louisville in the mid 1800s. The festival will be held outdoors on the plaza in front of the KFC Yum! Center with 15 brewers and over 60 craft beers ...

 ... Other breweries expected to brew variations on Kentucky Common beer include Louisville-based Against the Grain Brewery & Smokehouse, Apocalypse Brew Works, Cumberland Brews, Great Flood Brewing and Falls City; Lexington’s West Sixth Brewing and Country Boy Brewing; and southern Indiana’s New Albanian Brewing Company and Flat 12 Bierwerks ...

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