"What's the matter, Lagerboy, afraid you might taste something?"

It's been a while since my subscription to CAMRA's newsletter expired, but I've tried to keep up with the "real ale" scene from afar. During our visit to Plymouth in 2009, I was gratified to find so many excellent Bitters from the new generation of small breweries described here, and to read that Milds and Porter may be making a comeback seals the deal.

Cheers! It's a real ale renaissance; Despite pub closures and a dwindling lager market, record number of microbreweries are opening, by Jon Henley (Guardian.CO.UK)

... Hunter's is part of a remarkable early 21st-century flowering of traditional British ale. Helped by an increasingly enthusiastic public and a handy excise duty relief that effectively halves your tax bill as long as you make no more than about 3,000 barrels a year (thank you, Gordon Brown), some 50 new small breweries are expected to open around the country this year.

There are now, in fact, more breweries in Britain than at any time since the end of the second world war: well over 800, against half that number, of all sizes, less than a decade ago, and a mere 140 in 1970. And we clearly like what they're brewing: sales of "live", cask-conditioned ales, which ferment a second time in the barrel, have surged by 25% over the past five years.

I hadn't heard of the Red Ear Brewing Company, either.

Yesterday, John Campbell forwarded me a copy of a rules change being considered by Kentucky’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) regulatory arm.

"This administrative regulation amendment establishes the requirements for a licensed microbrewery to participate in private parties and charitable fundraisers. The amendment mirrors the regulation that allows producers of liquor and wine to participate."

In turn, I’m forwarding it to an attorney friend, and also inquiring of the management at River City Distributing, NABC’s Louisville wholesaler, because I understand very little of the proposed change and how it pertains to charitable donations.

But I made a game effort at reading it, and down around page 12, there’s a list of licensed microbreweries in Kentucky.

Okay … familiar stuff ... two Cumberlands (pub and production), two BBCs (St. Matthews and Main & Clay) and Browning’s (all in Louisville), Alltech in Lexington, and Newport’s Hofbrauhaus … but wait:

8. Midway Café
1017 S. Ft. Thomas Ave
Fort Thomas, Ky. 41075
Located in Campbell County

9. Vito’s Café
654 Highland Ave. #29
Fort Thomas, Ky. 41075
Located in Campbell County

The Midway Café link is of no help whatsoever, but the Vito’s site makes reference to the Red Ear Brewing Company as a new component of the café, otherwise famous for singing Italian waiters. Searching a bit further, there’s information on Red Ear at the Thrive: Northern Kentucky website.

The microbrewery will be run by Matt Wehmeyer, son of Vito's owners Mary and Vito Ciepiel. Wehmeyer's new business venture is named Red Ear Brewing Company after a familiar fish he used to catch called the "Red Ear Sunfish."

"I remember seeing a hundred different beers on the shelf and not knowing anything about them," says Wehmeyer. A recent trip to Asheville, NC is what really sparked him to move forward with starting his own brewing company.

"I took a trip to Asheville where they have like seven microbreweries, and I thought to myself that we needed more microbrews here in Cincinnati," says Wehmeyer. Red Ear is one of the first microbreweries in Northern Kentucky and one of the few in the Cincinnati region.

As Johnny Carson once confessed, “I did not know that.”

Readers: Did you?

"Mug Shots" today in LEO: "Free at last, free at last."

Sara was thrilled when I finished a piece early for once. I think this is one of my better recent efforts.

Mug Shots: Free at last, free at last

In Indiana, amid the usual crazed politicking of the general assembly, something unexpected has happened. I half expect to awaken from a dream and find my fridge stocked with cheap American beer, because narrow rays of liberal sense and intelligibility have somehow evaded the scrutiny of society’s persistent naysayers — the Prohibitionists, the health fascists and the do-gooders forever banding together to pick at the carrion of over-regulated adult pleasures — and Senate Bill 75 has landed on the desk of Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is expected to sign it into law.

“It’s a tourism issue and it’s a specialty item and it’s a true art.”

Yes, yes ... and yes.

By way of the C-J, the Associated Press surveys the Indiana legislature’s progress toward alcohol law changes. One in particular would impact my brewing business.

The study committee also voted against allowing microbreweries — smaller establishments that have limits on how much beer they can make each year — to sell their beer for takeout on Sundays.

But Republican Sen. Ron Alting of Lafayette, chairman of the Senate Public Policy Committee, has filed a bill that would allow such sales. He plans to give it a hearing before his panel.

Alting noted that farm wineries in Indiana are allowed to sell their products for takeout on Sundays and said microbreweries should have the same privilege.

“It’s a tourism issue and it’s a specialty item and it’s a true art,” Alting said.

I've never met Sen. Alting, but his quote above eloquently summarizes why there is no logical reason for using different sets of rules for small wineries and small breweries. Furthermore, rules governing artisanal production of beer and wine are not cut from the same cloth as those governing package store and othe retail Sunday sales.

The Indiana legislature has the opportunity in 2010 to balance this particular playing field, and NABC will have a team on the ground in Indianapolis this Wednesday to join the Brewers of Indiana Guild at the statehouse to meet elected officials and make the point in person. If you agree with me -- in fact, even if you don't -- please contact Rep. Ed Clere and Sen. Connie Sipes and let them know.