Musings on Falls City, standards of longevity, and that strange word "craft."

From the outset, let's be clear. I'm a big fan of what Falls City is doing these days. My wife and I like Over the 9, the Falls City/Old 502 gastropub.

We took friends there recently, and they also enjoyed it. Verily, by doing business where it does, Falls City is playing a leading role in reconnecting Portland with downtown, and this matters to me a great deal.

Falls City's latest bottle releases, Kentucky Common and Easy Goer Session IPA, are 4% abv and 4.5% abv, respectively, and that's huge; finally, there is ballyhoo about session-strength releases, and I'll be drinking a lot of the Kentucky Common.

To summarize, I'm coming from a position of friendship and appreciation.

This said, a headline at Louisville Business First is slightly misleading, and with requisite gentleness and scrupulous objectivity, I'd like to explain why.

One of the city's oldest craft beer breweries is rolling out the biggest product line expansion in its history

Before I tell you, let's look at the story from last week's roll-out.

 ... The brewery is adding a new year-round offering, Kentucky Common, which is inspired by the city's pre-Prohibition bourbon industry, along with a family of seasonal beers, including Easy Goer Session IPA, according to WLKY-TV.

Kentucky Common has ingredients that are similar to a bourbon distiller's mash, and that style is one that originated in Louisville, the story said.

Cezary Wlodarczyk, Falls City's CEO and president, said he hopes the beer will be offered at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington and Churchill Downs in Louisville. Wlodarczyk said the beer is iconic and deserves a presence in the state.

The headline identifies Falls City as one of Louisville's "oldest craft beer breweries." Allow me to observe that this is a tad far-fetched, although Louisville Business First merely takes its cues from Falls City's own web site.

In 1905 a group of bartenders and grocery store owners had had enough with being forced to buy, serve, and sell beer produced by a local beer monopoly. So they got together and created Falls City Beer. At that moment of rebellion and independence, Louisville’s first craft beer was born.

And ...

Craft beer before craft beer was cool. 

In fairness, I've embraced a cynical, post/pre-craft position with regard to the use of this word, and it is quite possible that "craft" currently possesses almost no coherent definition whatever. Still, as a functional curmudgeon, I strive for accuracy. In this instance, verifiable chronology is available to assist us.

• The original Falls City Brewing Company operated in Louisville from 1905 through 1978.
• The original American "microbrewery" was New Albion, founded in 1976.
• In 1984, the word "craft" was used for the first time, and the New York Times did not use the word until 1997.
• The "old" Falls City, which had nothing whatever to do with micro- or craft-brewing, was contract-brewed in Pittsburgh until 2007.
• Today's Falls City began contract-brewing in 2010 and brews on-site, too.

If 2010 represents Falls City's contemporary inception, then it was preceded in Louisville by at least seven other breweries during the period of "craft" beer's ascendancy -- some lasting, some morphing, others folding. BBC and Cumberland Brewery predate the "new" Falls City by 17 and 10 years, respectively.

A brewery reborn in 2010, while "craft" by most any sensible modern definition, is not one of the city's "oldest" in the same chronological sense.

Concurrently, a brewery originally born in 1905 hardly can be referred to as a "craft" brewery, since neither the usage nor the concept existed then.

The "new" Falls City has brewed certain of its beers on site, in Louisville, at two locations since 2011 or thereabouts, with a short break when the Barrett Avenue taproom closed and the brewery was reinstalled at the present 10th Street location. Flagship brands continue to be contract-brewed elsewhere.

All this is admirable, and as noted, I'm a fan. But Falls City, while "craft," is not one of Louisville's "oldest" "craft" breweries.

Of course, perhaps we might dispense with "craft" altogether and move forward with the reclamation of good, real and true beer. Falls City certainly is helping fulfill this mandate, because as Cresant Smith rightly observes in her assessment of last week's brand introduction, Falls City's Kentucky Common is delicious ... as well as historically accurate.

Falls City Brewing Co Expanded Line-Up of Beers (Louisville Beer Dot Com)

I was able to try the Kentucky Common and it was very easy to drink. It very well matched the Beer Judging Certification Program standards of what a Kentucky Common should taste like. Medium amber in color, moderately grainy/corn aroma with a medium sweet flavor. Bready, toffee notes and gentle carbonation. It finishes semi-dry and clean.

Note that Over the 9 will be my first stop for Session Day 2016.

Come drink beer with me on Session Beer Day, April 7, 2016.

_

Louisville's Mayor Fischer and "Lou's Brew": Some good, some bad, and some corporate.

Louisville's mayor is Greg Fischer, and following some wobbling and waffling early on, I'm the first to admit that he's taken positive steps with respect to the city being aware of the brewing industry, and promoting it.

Mayor Fischer, CVB introduce “Lou’s Brew” — a guide highlighting local breweries

Mayor Greg Fischer and the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau today introduced “Lou’s Brew” — a guide that highlights local breweries for locals and tourists.

The idea for “Lou’s Brew” resulted from the Beer Work Group created by Fischer in 2014 to grow the brewing industry — and create more jobs as part of the city’s effort to become a global food and spirits capital.

See the on-line guide here.

Following is a sampling of posts, the gist of which is to explain how Fischer's bourbon-centric misstep led to a good recovery, and the formation of a beer and brewing study group on which I served.

Oct. 13, 2014: THE PC: I'd like my world of beer to be special every day.

Oct.12, 2014: "Mayor Fischer to announce initiative to promote Louisville beer at press conference Monday."

Sept. 8, 2014: The PC: The steamy sweetness of watery boats.

Dec. 10, 2013: The PC: Bourbon, bone marrow, Greg Fischer … and Stella Artois?

But ... (there's always a "but," isn't there?)

While Mayor Fischer has done these nice things with beer, for which I'm appreciative, it is my view that he's been on the wrong side of numerous other issues pertaining to economic development, historical preservation and Louisville's social milieu. In short, he's the new model of Democrat, beholden just as solidly to corporate welfare and "trickle down"economics as Reaganites, and consequently, it just isn't possible for me to give him a free pass.

Greg Fischer announces major brewery deal for Louisville and is praised as visionary by Jeff Gahan.

Satire, yes ... but not far-fetched.

The minimum wage in Louisville goes up.

The minimum wage went up in Louisville, but Mark Peters of Coals Artisan Pizza (which I recommend highly) speaks obvious truth: Many restaurant businesses, especially "higher end", already pay better than minimum wage.

Kentucky Restaurant Association vows to fight minimum wage increase (WDRB)

The news video shifts from Coals to what might be a Taco Bell. That's not particularly consistent, although it's telling as to the source of the opposition.

Peters says: "Find your niche and protect it." I couldn't agree more.

"Kentuckiana breweries on track to double in 2015."

Some folks don't like "Kentuckiana," although it never has bothered me. The alternative, "Indiyucky", has its own issues.

There's lots of information here, so take a look.

I'm by no means "close" to any of these projects, apart from physical proximity to Floyd County Brewing, and drinking beers with Rick Stidham of Akasha now and then. However, it seems that they're all proceeding along a sustainable course, i.e., not positing sales to Alaska and Luxembourg just yet. I judge this to be a good omen, and wish them the best.

Kentuckiana breweries on track to double in 2015, by Bailey Loosemore (The Courier-Journal)

From the core of downtown Louisville, locally made craft beer is spreading.

No longer is the artisanal beverage restricted to a few select neighborhoods. With one new brewery already opened this year, one rebranded and six more on the way — in some areas traditionally lacking their own craft beer spot — the industry seems to be on a delicious mission to take over Kentuckiana.

For years, Louisville and Southern Indiana's local beer scenes stalled with only a handful of established breweries catering to the craft crowd. But between 2010 and 2014, six breweries opened to pick up the slack, and the total number of breweries is now on track to double in the area by the end of 2015 — mimicking a national trend.

According to the Brewers Association, nearly 3,500 craft breweries were operating nationally in 2014 — an about 125 percent increase over the 1,500 breweries operating in 2008.

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 ...

www.derbycitybrewfest.com
Facebook.com: /derbycitybrewfest
twitter: derbybrewfest

At LouisvilleBeer.com: "2015 Kentucky Beer Release Schedules."

John Wurth's collection of valuable information about local beer and brewing is incomplete only because some breweries have not responded to his solicitations. C'mon, guys and gals ... free promotional value here.

Hit the main link, enjoy, and hope for added content soon.

2015 Kentucky Beer Release Schedules at Louisville Beer Dot Com

Against the Grain
Alltech / Kentucky Ale
Apocalypse Brew Works
BBC
New Albanian

More about the city of Louisville's craft beer business report.

WDRB has good video accompaniment to yesterday's mayoral press conference.

Louisville planning to grow its craft beer industry

... Now, the city is getting behind the industry boom, and hoping to help it grow. A new report released today contains recommendations for furthering the growth of the craft beer industry in Louisville. The report was composed by a group of local industry leaders appointed by Mayor Greg Fischer.

Crescent Hill Craft House opens on Monday, August 25.

Looking for a wonderful draft beer list that refutes the oft-heard lament that one must drink beer from elsewhere, not from around Louisville, because our local beer isn't as interesting?

Pfui. Meet the Crescent Hill Craft House,  opening Monday, August 25. It is located at 2636 Frankfort Avenue in Louisville.

From the Crescent Hill Craft House page at Facebook comes the following overview (and the photo).

Beer: 40 'all-local taps' including BBC, NABC, Country Boy, Flat 12, & all the other locals.

Menu: Busy - everything local, from bologna to fried quail $7-19; coca-cola: $2.25; Weekend brunch 9-2.

Kitchen: "Chef-driven-food" from Chef Tim Smith, formerly with Napa River Grill & 60 West Martini Bar. Served indoors & out.

Meet: Brad Culver, owner/partner/GM, started with BBC "Bluegrass Brewing Company Restaurant & Brew Pub, Brewpub, Brewery" in 2003. Beau Kerley, owner/partner & GM, worked at Dark Star & BBC, the out-of-town investor, and Pat Hagan, owner/partner/founder BBC St. Matthews, and last but not least, Gordon, from BBC 4th St, tending a full bar.

Entertainment: Sports on TV. Piped-in, & occasional live music, small sound system.

Decor: Minimalist, quite bare. New patio out back.

Atmosphere: Rough, unfinished ceiling with bare concrete floor & brick; brutal lighting.

Bicycles: Racks in the back alley, but no entrance/exit.

Opening: Monday August 25.

Pop-up beer garden: ReSurfaced is coming to West Main Street in Louisville.

This posting includes some previously released palaver.

Yesterday in Louisville, Mayor Greg Fischer announced a "pop-up plaza and beer garden" coming to West Main Street in Louisville.

The web site is www.resurfaced.org.

Mayor Announces Vacant Space on Main St. to be Transformed into Arts, Performance Space

ReSurfaced initiative is a six-week project -- Sept. 19-Oct. 25

LOUISVILLE (Aug. 19, 2014) – A vacant block of West Main Street downtown will be turned into a temporary plaza with art, music, movies and craft beer, Mayor Greg Fischer announced today.

The project, called ReSurfaced, will take place Sept. 19 to Oct. 25 and involve local arts groups and architects, food trucks and local craft beer brewers, transforming 615 W. Main St. into a pop-up plaza and beer garden ...

As usual, a wee bit of local history is in order. Once upon a time in Louisville, there was to have been a 62-story skyscraper to be called the Museum Plaza.

It was not built, and the plan has been officially "dead" for at least three years.

In the run-up to Museum Plaza, several infrastructure improvement projects were completed by the city. One of them was on the 600 block of West Main Street, where four buildings were demolished, but their historic facades buttressed and kept intact. This was slated to be developed as the entrance to Museum Plaza from the Main Street corridor.

The space has remained vacant since 2007. Here is the bird's eye view of the hollow cavity.

This is the space intended to host ReSurfaced, and the beer is to be entirely locally brewed, which is a welcome development. The overall plan was discussed during recent meetings of a special committee to advise Mayor Greg Fisher on what the city might do with respect to supporting local breweries. I was happy to be a part of it. Now we'll see what happens next. ReSurfaced is a great idea, but as I've learned, implementation can be a real bear.

Temporary beer activation of the space once intended to lead to Museum Plaza.

As usual, a wee bit of local history is in order.

In Louisville, there was to have been a game-changing, 62-story skyscraper. It was to be called the Museum Plaza.

It was not built, and the plan has been officially "dead" for three years.

In the run-up to Museum Plaza, several infrastructure improvement projects were completed by the city. One of them was on the 600 block of West Main Street, where four buildings were demolished, but their historic facades buttressed and kept intact. This was slated to be developed as the entrance to Museum Plaza from the Main Street corridor.

The space has remained vacant since 2007. The hollow cavity is shown here:

Now the city of Louisville is interested in using the space as a pop-up beer/food/fun garden during four autumn weekends -- and the beer would be entirely locally brewed. The plan was discussed during recent meetings of a committee to advise Mayor Greg Fisher on what the city might do with respect to supporting local breweries.

This could be interesting, so stay tuned.

Experimental ‘space activation’ to bring a pop-up lounge to former Museum Plaza site, by Melissa Chipman (Insider Louisville)

Remember Museum Plaza? Hard to forget the doomed 62-story project, isn’t it. What was supposed to be one of the most innovative spaces in the city is now a vacant lot across from 21c.

But for four weeks this fall it will once again be a space for innovation, culture and fun.

News of Trojan Goose Island Beer Bridge just reached the subway.

This is a joke, right? But we're six weeks past April Fool's Day, aren't we?

As always, we're reminded of how very grateful AB InBev's worldwide shareholders are in the wake of amnesia.

Hunter's Double D and Seattle Slew Kabobs, please.

In 1987, May Day fell on a Friday.

I was in Vienna (Austria, not Virginia) for the weekend, walking into the center to watch the annual parade held in honor of the world’s holiday for workers, and punctuating the experience with periodic doses of lager beer.

My exact thoughts cannot be known even now, when they’re occurring, much less 27 years later, but I’m confident that among them on this pleasant spring day in the cradle of the Habsburgs was this: “Hot damn – I’m missing Derby for this!”

In 1987, I’d barely taken note of the encroachment of ATMs on the now lost art of exchanging traveler’s checks, and so I couldn’t have foreseen the advent of Twitter, on which I recently made another installment in a seemingly endless series of disgruntlements, NCAA Meets Derby Festival Edition:

The problem with living here is when they finally stop babbling about college basketball, they begin babbling about the Kentucky Derby.

Armed and ready with an answer was Jerod Clapp of the News and Tribune.

Given my proximity to the Downs, this is my least favorite time of year. Let's brew an anti-commemorative beer. Something sour.

It was sounding more and more like a plan, and what better as bistro accompaniment to soured Derby ale than Secretariat Burgers, perhaps with some jockey-itch sauce on the side. How I detest Horse Pimp Days in these parts!

But Jerod’s final idea was the best of all:

Ya know, it's HST's year in Louisville - "Hunter's Double D." After his essay on the whole thing.

For the unenlightened, my correspondent refers to the founding document in the pantheon of gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved.” Much to my surprise upon joyfully rereading this fabled piece, it actually is possible to lift on sentence as summary.

So the face I was trying to find in Churchill Downs that weekend was a symbol, in my own mind, of the whole doomed atavistic culture that makes the Kentucky Derby what it is.

It’s hard for me to fathom that in 1987, I was less than two decades removed from Thompson’s visit to Churchill Downs, when I was 10 years old. In three weeks, it will have been 44 years, and while the entire planet has changed its stripes numerous times since 1970, the Kentucky Derby remains just as decadent and depraved, and likely will stay that way.

That’s both timeless and thoroughly idiotic. At least we have better local beer now.

Congratulations to Matt Weirich, now conjuring at The Place Downstairs.

Matt is second from the right.

Matt Weirich was executive chef at NABC's Bank Street Brewhouse for just shy of three years, and now he's landed a position at one of the most anticipated new eateries in Louisville: The Place Downstairs. It's obviously a step up, and also nearer to Matt's home.

Congratulations, Matt!

Opening of The Place Downstairs sets standard for new Louisville restaurants in 2014, by Steve Coomes (Insider Louisville; photo from Matt's Fb page)

You sense an undeniable air of exclusivity when going to The Place Downstairs. To get to the restaurant, which opened yesterday, you walk a bee line through a gauntlet of customers waiting for a table at Mussel & Burger Bar, the always absurdly busy, upscale burger restaurant at 9200 Taylorsville Road.

Mumford & Sons at Louisville's Waterfront Park ... with NABC's Black & Blue Grass.

Or so the order we've received would indicate. This is a great pairing of music and beer, so be sure to look for Black & Blue Grass on tap.

WFPK presents Mumford & Sons with Dawes

13

AUG

Duration: Monday, August 13 | 6:30pm (gates open at 5pm)

Venue: Great Lawn

Event Type: Concert

Contact: PRODUCTION SIMPLE | 502.897.5331

Event Website: WWW.PRODUCTIONSIMPLE.COM/CALENDAR

Six headlines in one day.

Powered by solar panels and the combined efforts of three highly accomplished homebrewers, Apocalypse Brew Works opens on Friday, May 11.

Meanwhile, largely ignored, a familiar chain brewpub is slated to open downtown -- and yes, they'll actually be brewing some of their beers there: Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant to open May 21 in Louisville’s Fourth Street Live! (Steve Coomes; Insider Louisville)

Other prime Louisville locations for better beer appreciation get a look-see at Hoosier Beer Geek in "The Louisville Beer Trail," with proper emphasis on the role of localism hereabouts.

Are you "Building International Coalitions Through Beer and Pavement?" If so, I was happy to be interviewed there, and the results are here: Indie-Craft Interview #8: New Albanian’s Roger Baylor.

From humble beginnings as an offshoot of Alltech, the Lexington (KY) Brewing and Distilling Company sees its Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale going national, international and even lunar.

Last, perhaps the clearest explication ever of the reason why macro vs. craft is in fact an evolutionary/revolutionary struggle, one that demands we espouse principled positions and just plain take sides, is offered by the author David Sirota. Unfortunately, some beer geeks are choosing to focus on Sirota's simplified  descriptions of flavor components rather than accepting the veracity of the larger argument. It's the forest, guys -- not the trees.

Can beer save America? The redemption of the economy may start with the type of brew you keep in your fridge, by David Sirota (Salon)

 ... Nowhere, though, is the battle between the low-price/quantity business model and the higher-price/quality business model more clear than in the world of beer. In the fevered battle between the macrobrew behemoths and the craftbrew insurgents, both sides are digging in for an epic confrontation ...

... A Macrobrew Economy — a high-volume, low-price model — asks us to compete with other such economies throughout the world, and the problem is that countries like China will always have lower-priced labor, more lax environmental regulations and lower production standards to win a battle that rewards more and cheaper for more’s and cheaper’s sake. By contrast, a Craft Brew Economy — a high-quality, lower-volume model — is a different proposition. It follows the German model, which, as Time magazine notes, is all about being “committed to making the sort of high-quality, high-performance, innovative products for which the world will pay extra.”

Coomes: "Beer is booming in the Bluegrass."

And it's another fine essay on locally brewed craft beer by Steve Coomes. Speaking for myself, it isn't just that I have too little time to write about beer the way I once did. It's also that others are writing about beer, and quite well. I can barely keep track of regional developments, and that's a very good thing, indeed.

It doesn’t rival bourbon, but beer is booming in the Bluegrass, by Steve Coomes (Insider Louisville)

 ... Jason Schuster, specialty beer brands manager for River City Distributing, and one of two certified Cicerones (beer experts) in the state, attributed part of the beer boom to the area’s long-established restaurant scene.

“When you have a great restaurant selection like we do, and you have open-minded chefs who try lots of different things, you attract diners who like that kind of food,” he said. “It’s only natural that people who love that kind of food would be open to trying different kinds of beer … and our sales increases prove that people want much more than standard lagers.”

Four (!) new Louisville breweries are in the planning stages.

Here’s a long overdue report on Louisville start-up brewing news, as relayed by a number of sources, whom I’ll try and properly identify. To greater or lesser extent, we've known about these projects for a while, and have been patiently awaiting as they've come together. One would not want to rush a good thing.

First, from Insider Louisville, Steve Coomes reports that the O’Shea’s Family of Pubs, Louisville pioneers in imported and craft beer presentation, will begin brewing some time in 2011 from the Flanagan's location.

Then, at the Louisville Restaurants Forum, NABC’s David Pierce has been monitoring the situation with Against the Grain Brewing, which comes to us courtesy of some familiar faces in Louisville brewing:

There is a new and welcomed addition coming to the Louisville craft brewing scene, Against the Grain Brewing. Check them out on FaceBook: Against the Grain.

But there’s even more. LouBrew, a nanobrewery in Germantown, is being planned: LouBrew on FaceBook. To contribute to the effort, go to KickStart LouBrew. A while back, Jason Lyvers reviewed the nanobrew: LouBrew is coming, LouBrew is coming!! (Lville Beer)

Back at David's Louisville Restaurants Forum post, frequent contributor and beer enthusiast Rob Coffey mentions his own plans to brew commercially. When details are forthcoming, I’ll try to post them here.

Four new breweries in Louisville? My liver simply cannot wait.

NABC is all over the map this coming weekend (May 20, 21 & 22).

It’s that time of year, folks. Calendars get crowded, feet begin hurting, sweat pours down in buckets, and livers cry out in primal agony. Festival season is here. We bitch about it, but rest assured, we love every craft-beer-soaked-moment.

In metro Louisville, Derby Festival serves as one seasonal bookend, although it’s usually the third weekend of May when festival solicitations really start to flow. 2011 is no exception, so here’s a quick guide to where we’ll be serving NABC craft beer this coming weekend. We're splitting squads, calling up the reserves, and trying to make beer available when and where we can.

Friday, May 20

Madison IN: Opening night for the 6th Annual Ohio River Valley Folk Festival in Madison, Indiana. Gates open at 5:00 p.m., and musical headliners this year include The Greencards, David Bromberg Quartet and Carrie Newcomer. Once again, we’ll share beer vending duties with our friends from Upland Brewing Company (Bloomington IN). On Saturday, we’ll be joined by Dan and the crew from Great Crescent Brewing in Aurora.

Louisville KY: The 3rd Annual Louisville Loves Mountains block party will take place on Longest Avenue in the Highlands (by Heine Brother’s Coffee and Carmichael’s Bookstore). The event benefits Kentuckians For The Commonwealth, and celebrates Kentucky’s mountain beauty and heritage. Wendell Berry is this year’s special guest speaker. NABC’s Rosa L. Stumblebus (our draft truck) will be on hand with Tafel and Elector, and the crew from BBC (Main & Clay) will also be pouring during the event.

Saturday, May 21

Madison IN: The Ohio River Valley Folk festival starts at 11:00 a.m. and continues until around 10:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 22

Madison IN: The Ohio River Valley Folk festival starts at 1:30 p.m. and continues until about 7:00 p.m.

Louisville KY: The 3rd Annual Buy Local 1st Fair is from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Water Tower off River Road. The fair is sponsored by the Louisville Visual Arts Association, in conjunction with Grasshoppers Distribution and the Louisville Independent Business Alliance. NABC will be there with Rosa, and we expect other local brewers to attend, too. ValuMarket is the beer tent sponsor, and fair attendees will receive a coupon good for a free empty growler suitable for filling at ValuMarket's growler station.

Greenville IN: Capriole Spring Open House is at the beautiful farmstead from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. This year, the theme is “Cheese! Cheese! Cheese!,” with goat cheeses, condiments and accoutrements alongside a sampling of NABC beers poured by the Publican. It costs $10 person and $5 for children under 12, and I highly recommend you visit the web site for details and/or call for further information.

Is that enough to kick off summer?

Wednesday Weekly: The 'Ville, Indy and the base of the craft beer pyramid.

I’ve always maintained that Louisville is a great beer town, given the circumstances of geography and history which might otherwise argue against the city’s prospects.

Louisville is Southern, but it isn’t Mississippi, either. It’s a rather Northern version of Southern, with bits of the best of both worlds.

Louisville generally represents the highest cultural and educational aspirations to be found in Kentucky, the hinterlands of which perpetually resent the state’s biggest city precisely because of its cosmopolitan strivings, causing me to respect Louisville’s upward arch all the more.

Louisville’s tenure as an Ohio River port is helpful, although being a seaport would be even better; then again, proximity to the ocean hasn’t much helped New Orleans or Miami become great beers in the sense of Seattle, Baltimore and San Diego, which amply prove my “ports as great beer towns” rule of thumb.

Louisville enjoys a diverse and profuse restaurant and dining scene, and maybe some of this depth of appreciation for good food spills over into the realm of better beer, informing our pursuit of more challenging beverages.

Louisville has been home to top-shelf founding beer evangelists, and boasts watering holes of upper-echelon quality, with people and places in it for the long haul, including owners, brewers, bartenders and staff at Rocky’s and the sadly defunct Fat Cat’s (1980’s); Silo (also dead), Bluegrass Brewing Company, Rich O’s, the Irish Rover, the O’Shea’s pub empire (1990’s); and Cumberland Brews, Browning’s and too many second- and third-generation establishments to count in the past ten years. Louisville attracts beer business gamers and lifers, adds constantly to the list -- and the quality shows.

---

As for me, having lived this good beer life since the first Reagan administration, and passed my time both as active participant and periodic voyeur as years have gone by and changes unfolded, Louisville’s status as great beer town makes me feel proud and vindicated, although of late, to be honest, I find myself a bit troubled.

Are we falling behind?

These thoughts are an effort to put my tremulous finger on what’s bothering me; accordingly, I don’t pretend they’re entirely formed, or finalized to any firm degree. You see, if you scroll down to the bottom, you’ll find a lengthy list of links that chronicle existing and forthcoming breweries in the city of Indianapolis, two hours to the north.

Not so long ago, there were only two main areas of choice for locally-brewed craft beer in Indy: The three chain brewpubs downtown (Alcatraz, Ram and Rock Bottom), and the two independents in Broad Ripple (Broad Ripple Brewing and Brugge Brasserie).

There also were a handful of “good beer bars,” as in the case of the Marvin-era Chalkie’s in Castleton and Mike DeWeese’s BW3 downtown.

Now, five or so years later, there has been a veritable explosion of better beer options, and gazing at the boom from afar, it appears that brewery start-ups are leading the way forward, which is precisely as it should be. By early 2011, the Indianapolis metro area’s working brewery population easily could double in number, dwarfing Louisville’s roster.

As noted here previously, Indiana’s list of distinct brewing companies is approaching 40, and may already be there. When beer writer John Holl’s book about Indiana breweries is published this spring, it will be the third such volume in a year. Indiana is hot.

Obviously, donning my business-sized fedora for a moment, I hope to capitalize on this brewing profusion by rededicating the Public House’s draft lines to emphasize these Indiana beers, of which we brew just a few, too. It will give us a product that cannot be found to the same extent across the river.

But I digress, and this isn’t the point of today’s rumination.

---

Rather, it is this: Why is it that until only recently, given Indianapolis’s urban clout and its economic strength, both as crossroads of America and as state capital, it clearly underperformed when it comes to beer brewed locally within its metropolitan parameters, but now is going stratospheric?

And, why is it that Louisville, previously hitting way above its economic and geographic weight in terms of locally brewed beer, is stagnant in terms of brewery start-ups?

Apart from the brewery expansion projects undertaken by three of its pre-existing brewers (BBC St Matthews, Cumberland and NABC) and the presence of two contract ventures lacking bricks and mortar, we’re standing stock still. Where’s the new blood to impel evolution?

Yes, I know. Indianapolis is different from Louisville in many ways. Yet, it seems to me that in Indy, an area not lacking in the best American craft beers and world imports as provided by homegrown wholesalers like World Class and Cavalier, the focus turns increasingly toward an expansion of locally brewed craft breweries – those clearly comprising the foundation of the craft beer pyramid as it should be anywhere that purports to be a great beer town.

Isn’t it axiomatic? How can a town really be a great beer town if the prime focus isn’t on its own, unique, locally brewed beers? Would you go to Bamberg just for the Café Abseits, as wonderful as it is? Or do you go because there are nine breweries there?

In Louisville, we’re just not spawning new breweries, with the pre-existing expansions and contract exceptions already noted. Overall, Louisville as a still-great beer town seems largely content to protect consumer comfort zones, and indulge in the habit of looking further afield to adopt as its “local” beers those coming from other places.

There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, although it raises an eyebrow, doesn’t it? In my experience, the quality of locally brewed beer in Louisville is uniformly excellent. There’ll always be unique specialties and rarities, but on an everyday basis, why look elsewhere?

Am I forced to conclude that as a beer town, Louisville still is suffering through a small market, “inferiority complex” phase, having less to do with quality than perceived image? Is it that locally brewed craft beers are considered insufficiently trendy or not hip enough, and instead, palates are diverted to other locales to provide panache, star power and RateBeer tasting comments memorized by rote, if not actual experience?

These questions plague me. Maybe I worry too much.

Does this quasi-attention-deficit disorder owe to a neglect of the metro market by local brewers? Is it because local brewers in Louisville have not provided beers worthy of attention? Are we somehow screwing up?

On all counts, no, I think not.

Wonderful beer is being brewed in Louisville … as well as in Indianapolis, except that in Indy, it’s leading to greater interest in locally brewed beer and new start-up investments in locally brewed beer. In Louisville, outside of reinvestment by existing brewers (admittedly, a very hopeful phenomenon) it is not, and because of this, diversity and innovation surely suffer.

That’s why I fear we’re slipping, and that shelves groaning with beers from other cities, once a cause for joy, instead is impetus for mild concern in today’s evolving marketplace.

I may be right, and just as easily, I may be wrong.

Feel free to debate, affirm and disprove.

One thing I can say is this: My energies in 2011, and in the years to follow, will continue to be devoted to advancing “betterbeerthink” as it pertains to the cause of locally brewed beer in Louisville. Thanks for reading, thinking and drinking.

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: New and Proposed Breweries in the Indy area

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Alcatraz Brewing Company

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Barley Island Brewing Company

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Broad Ripple Brewpub

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Brugge Brasserie and Brewing

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Oaken Barrel Brewing Company

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Ram Restaurant and Brewery

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery - College Park

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery - Downtown

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Sun King Brewing Company

Metromix 2010 Local Brewing Guide: Other Breweries in the Greater Indy Area

Nimbus is running for mayor of Louisville! Progressive Pints all around!

With "mayor for life" Jerry Abramson recently announcing that he will not run for another term, Louisville needs a new kingpin ... and I'm delighted learn that one of our own, former Arizona craft brewer and current Bardstown Road coffee roaster (and Renaissance Man) Nimbus Couzin, is throwing his hat into the ring.

Louisville's Courier-Journal picks up the story: Physics professor Couzin to run for mayor.

Chat has started at the Louisville Restaurants Forum: NIMBUS FOR MAYOR !!!

My home and businesses are in Indiana, but let there be no doubt who we'll be endorsing in this one. I can't wait for the progressive, swill-free fundraisers!