Beak's Best standee for Dubois County Bombers games.

Women's World Cup Final = Bank Street Brewhouse beer specials.

We're doing Japanese-American beer specials tomorrow at Bank Street Brewhouse as the USA meets Japan in the Women's World Cup Final.

Beak's Best
American Bitter & Soul Liniment
Extra Special Bitter brewed with English malts and American hops, named in honor of globetrotting historian and educator Don "Beak" Barry.
35 IBU … 5.3% ABV

Samu-Rye!
Not at all lost in translation
Japanese-American Common: Tokyo meets San Francisco, with rye, rice and Japanese-bred Sorachi Ace Hops.
40 IBU … 5.5% ABV

The price is $3.25 for Imperial pints of either one, all day long. Of course, there's the build-your-own Bloody Mary bar, steak and eggs, and the usual Sunday drill.

And, speaking on behalf of myself: Kudos to our Sunday regulars for making Bank Street Brewhouse their weekly Sunday destination. I always knew there could be a Sunday go-to spot in downtown New Albany; now there are several, and I told the naysayers so, each and every one of them.

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

Knights of the Beer Roundtable: Top Three finish for Beak's

There's nothing wrong with 3rd place with competition this fierce. Follow the link and read the comments for all the beers considered in 2010 ... the lineup's impressive, indeed.

The 2010 Knights of the Beer Roundtable Beer of the Year - Brugge Brasserie's Spider

Brugge Brasserie Spider 16.0 pts.
People's Hopkilla 9.5
NABC Beak's Best 7.5

Beak's and Elector at the Black Keys concert (Iroquois Amphitheater) on Wednesday, August 11.

We're only a week away.

On Friday last week, teams from NABC and River City Distributing (our Louisville wholesaler) met for lunch at the Blind Pig in Butchertown. Hoptimus was involved, but not so much that I couldn't navigate home on my bicycle.

I mention this because we now know that Beak's Best and Elector will be the NABC beers on tap for the Black Keys show at Iroquois Amphitheater on Wednesday, August 11. Thanks to River City for designating NABC as the "official" local craft beer sponsor for the evening.

The Black Keys are guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. The group's most recent album, Brothers, is its highest charting album to date, and it is scarcely an exaggeration to peg the band's summer tour one of the season's hottest tickets. I'm happy NABC will be on tap for the perfect send-off to our annual journey to Madison, Wisconsin, for the Great Taste of the Midwest (August 14).

Hoosier Beer Geek on NABC Beak's Best: "Tastes like a good brewery smells."

From the Hoosier Beer Geek blog comes praise, both for the evolving Fountain Square craft beer habitat in Indianapolis, and for NABC Beak's Best. I may be biased, but I strongly believe that Beak's has itself evolved into a wonderful conceptual hybrid of an ale, a bit beyond session alcoholic strength, and yet not so strong at 5.3% abv that it precludes a jar or three.

Thanks to Cavalier Distributing for sliding Beak's Best into the Indy tap mix, and to HBG for the kind words.

KOTBR #105 - The Zoo That Is Fountain Square

The White Rabbit has four taps pouring three craft beers and PBR (at damn fine prices, I might add; the bottle list is great too). Sticking with Indiana beers (and continuing the zoo theme), we opted for a New Albanian Beak's Best (you know, beak... bird... bird's have beaks...okay, I'm reaching. So what?). This American take of the English Bitter beer has become one of my favorite go-to beers. It has a clean nose, a sweet first taste, and a hop punch that follows. Much like Sun King's Wee Mac, it is a highly sessionable beer. Especially if you drink like an elephant.

Here's the report on the latest craft beer news at Louisville Slugger Field.

Beak's Best (and Alltech's Kentucky Ale) remained on tap at Louisville Slugger Field on Sunday evening, but a source indicates that Centerplate, the stadium concessionaire, has ordered Cumberland Red and BBC Nut Brown Ale for the next homestand local craft beer go-around. I'm told that Browning's will remain, along with Shock Top, which is not a craft beer no matter how many times Anheuser-Busch repeats the blatant lie aloud.

Although I can't predict whether NABC will continue as a progressive beer option as the baseball season proceeds at Louisville Slugger Field, it is somewhat heartening that there appears to be a commitment to local choice at the portable concession stand behind Section 115. That's a start, even if the price for purely euphemistic 14-oz pours (a 12-oz actual measure) increased from $5 to $5.50 at some point when we weren't looking. I try to see it this way: Craft always is better than Bud, even at twice the price.

My only regret (and no small measure of frustration) in this experience is that there seems to be so little communication between concessionaire and wholesaler/brewer.

The reality is that Centerplate and Craft Beer Nation operate on business models so profoundly different that they might as well be on separate planets, and I'm not sure if this implies that we should learn to speak their language, or they learn ours. The truth would lie somewhere in between if the playing field were level, and it is not. The prevailing system of ballpark vending discourages most of the marketing techniques that Craft Beer Nation successfully deploys -- primarily, education.

Consumer education is job one in our craft beer world. Consequently, if NABC is on tap at the ballpark on a dependable basis, and we know that we're not to be treated as Charlie Brown, with the ball yanked away at the last moment, then we can aggressively help sell the product, educate the consumers, and create a vibe. We make the same wholesale money in such a situation. Centerplate makes an increased amount of money from its higher craft beer retail sales. It should be a no-brainer, yet it is not. Maybe some day, it will become axiomatic.

Imagine the excitement that might be generated from making the concession stand at 115 into a genuine locally-themed craft beer destination, with signage and artwork to match. Unfortunately, when I asked about hanging banners, I was told that a table tent would be an acceptable idea. At best, that's 8.5 x 11. Budweiser's colossal right field billboard apparently overshadows not only a mere wee table tent, but also the very possibility that ballpark customers with no intention of drinking Budweiser might find refuge somewhere inside the belly of the corporate beast.

And that's the part that slays me.

On Sunday, the crowd in attendance at Louisville Slugger Field was reminded twice to pay homage to Memorial Day and the gallant fighting men who fought and died for freedom. I have no argument with that, although surely there were more folks in attendance than just me who grasped the damning irony of "freedom" in the context of monopolistic, non-free capitalist product placement. What does a "free market" mean in such a place? Is it really the sort of economic system that people should die to perpetuate?

Apologies, but some times serenity is elusive. As local craft brewers, we can't be satisfied with the status quo, where public tax money is used to create venues where corporate monopolies are exuberantly enforced, and free choice is exceedingly difficult, if not outright impossible. This should not be taken as criticism of Centerplate, which operates within rules of the game that were in effect when their contract was signed. I genuinely appreciate that they're doing what they're doing now.

Rather, it is to stress that there is much work to be done. The battle against the A-B's of the world cannot be abandoned.

As for the illustration above, it was with palpable optimism that NABC's artist in residence, Tony Beard, produced this baseball-themed homage to Beak's Best and its namesake, Dr. Donald Barry. We hope to be able to post it at the ballpark some sweet day in the future.

Don is returning to New Albany later this week for his annual visit prior to decamping for Europe. Back here in Louisville, there's a four-game weekend homestand coming for the Bats, beginning Friday, June 4th, and ending on Monday. The team then departs for a long road trip, returning on June 17. If you attend this weekend, let us know what's available and how it's being served, i.e., which kegs are on ice and being served via the cold plate; it's easy to glance around the back of the serving area and see what's on ice.

And: When you see Centerplate and Louisville Bats personnel, please thank them for having a true craft beer option.