How Rockhound Brewing's smoked hop pale ale and the Super Bowl in the year 2000 connect in my cranium.

The last time we visited Madison was 2014, and since then, several new breweries have started operations. One of them is Rockhound Brewing, located on Park Street, just a ten-minute walk from our Airbnb. It's sleek and modern, housed in the ground floor of a newer mixed-use building. Rockhound was rocking on Thursday night.

Prior to departure, I'd seen a reference on Facebook about a new smoked beer release at Rockhound called Campfire Stories, and resolved to try it. For once, I made no effort to research the beer any further; just order it, and drink.

At first, I found the results a bit odd. Not bad, just uncommon -- hops in the background and smoky nose, but something vaguely phenolic in the background flavor. At this point intrigued, I asked the bartender. She explained that Campfire Stories was a Pale Ale, with the hops smoked rather than the malt.

Only then did it hit me.

On January 30, 2000, a date verifiable only because it was Super Bowl Sunday (the Rams over the Titans), the late Matt Gould and Kevin Richards came to my garage to homebrew an idea we'd long discussed: Smoked Hop Pale Ale.

Unusually, this was my idea. One night at the bar, I drank a Schlenkerla Rauchbier, then without rinsing the glass (how often did THAT happen?) poured BBC American Pale Ale into it. I was drinking a hoppy ale and smelling smoke, hence the "eureka!" moment, comparable to the old commercials in which peanut butter accidentally met chocolate to form the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Consequently, Matt bought whole leaf hops, and Kevin joined him in smoking them over wood that wasn't beech, though the exact type escapes my memory. Hickory? Mesquite?

My then-wife was a homebrewer, so we had most of the equipment already assembled, which actually may have belonged to the FOSSILS homebrewing club. Don't ask for details. It was 16 years ago, and these days, it's a challenge remembering what I had for lunch yesterday.

Still, I know we brewed, and I know we drank lots and lots of "guest" beers while ducking in and out of the garage to watch the game, which came down to the final play. At some point a few weeks later, we tried the beer. It was rough around the edges, though better than I expected, and it had this slightly phenolic flavor ...

By the following year, Cumberland Brews was going full-tilt, and Matt was the brewer there. He brewed the second batch of smoked hop ale at Cumberland as a seasonal specialty, and if memory serves, repeated it in 2002. By 2003, NABC's starter brewing system was on-line, and at some point Michael Borchers created our house version, called ConeSmoker, but with a twist. Smoked malt was used, as smoking the hops seemed too variable.  

That's a chunk of Kentuckiana beer history to emanate from a single pint of Campfire Stories at Rockhound in Madison, and that's what I like about the wider world of beer.

Free and unfettered association.

___

Matt Gould, 1970- 2012: "The Last Round’s on Us."

Matt Gould's newspaper obituary is here. He'll be missed, and remembered.

The Last Round’s on Us

Posted by Roger Baylor in Baylor on Beer | 0 comments

It is uncharacteristic of Matt Gould that his passing came just as Louisville Craft Beer Week hit critical mass.

That’s because Matt wouldn’t have wanted us to make a fuss. Quite a few local craft beer lifers didn’t even know he had been gravely ill, or for how long. He’d surely say the show could go on perfectly well without a dumb old brewer, and then he’d growl at us to get out there and drink some beer, damn it.

But here’s the conundrum: Matt’s lengthy career in beer helped make Louisville Craft Beer Week possible. It helped make Louisville beer possible, period. I’m sure he knew it, and I hope he was proud of it. He had a right to be.

As his colleague and friend Joel Halbleib put it: “Matt was a Louisville brewing legend.”

Matt’s work as a brewer spanned the modern-day history of brewing in Louisville. He assisted Eileen Martin at the Silo, worked with David Pierce at Bluegrass Brewing Company’s original St. Matthews location, opened Cumberland Brews and built the beer program there, and finally went to work for BBC again, this time at the production facility on the beer corner of Main & Clay. Ironically, in the very end, Eileen was a co-worker once more.

R.I.P., Matt Gould.

It's a very sad day for the Louisville craft brewing scene. Matt "Brew Boy" Gould has passed away after battling cancer for many months. He was a Cubs fan, a fellow curmudgeon, and a thoughtful, gentle soul.

Matt was part of beer around here for as long as I can remember, first at the Silo, then Bluegrass Brewing Company (St. Matthews), and perhaps most notably as founding brewer at Cumberland Brews. Later he returned to BBC at the beer corner of Clay & Main.

As Joel Halbleib has noted, Matt was a Louisville brewing legend. Lots of folks will be out and about tonight, all around the city, taking part in Louisville Craft Beer Week events on the fest's final weekend. It's a safe bet that not all of them ever knew of Matt, or understand how important he was in furthering the craft beer revolution hereabouts.

So, let it be known. Please hoist a pint to Matt's memory tonight.

From "The Parting Glass" (Scots/Irish traditional song)

Of all the money e'er I had,
I spent it in good company.
And all the harm I've ever done,
Alas! it was to none but me.
And all I've done for want of wit
To mem'ry now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Oh, all the comrades e'er I had,
They're sorry for my going away,
And all the sweethearts e'er I had,
They'd wish me one more day to stay,
But since it falls unto my lot,
That I should rise and you should not,
I gently rise and softly call,
That I should go and you should not,
Good night and joy be with you all.

Cumberland Brews without Matt Gould?

Word began making the rounds on Tuesday night, and it was as bizarre as anything I can remember from 16 years of tumultuous Louisville microbrewing history. Matt Gould, brewer at Cumberland Brews since its inception in 2000, is out of a job. Apparently, he was terminated.

At times like this, which hat does one wear, and do so conscientiously?

I’m a blogger and sometimes beer authority, and this definitely is news.

I’m Matt’s friend, and this is a tragic occurrence.

I’m a business/brewery owner, and this is something that conventional wisdom suggests is none of my business … an “internal matter,” or something evasive like that.

I also confess to being somewhat of an unreconstructed socialist at times, and for me, the labor theory of value still has meaning. The cult of the coach in college basketball is an abomination, because no one – no one – has yet to purchase tickets to see Rick Pitino coach. Rather, the fans pay to watch the University of Louisville’s players play basketball.

In like fashion, it seems to me that a local craft brewery is all about the brewer. As an owner, I have a part to play, and pitch to make, but I never take credit for the house-brewed beer at NABC. No one has yet paid to watch me own. They pay for Jesse’s and Jared’s beers, and my job is to provide an overall structure for them to create and for their creation to be (a) enjoyed, and (b) something that pays for itself and makes a few bucks or profit to boot so that we can perpetuate the fun.

Certainly there are boundaries and guidelines, but this fact doesn’t change the fundamental equation.

Matt, good luck … and know that you’re much loved around these parts. If I could snap my fingers and hire you now, I would. Perhaps my ownership hat precludes voicing these sentiments, but I don’t think so. The human concerns of your friends comes first … doesn’t it?