PC in SC: Hilton Head Brewing Company.

It isn’t so bad joining a snail’s pace queue at the departure gate to await an explanation as to why airplanes don’t carry spare tires in the trunk like cars do, and it’s even tolerable in such an emergency to depend on a corporate entity like Starbucks to provide caffeine sufficient to ride out the bureaucratic process, but to be forced to endure mid-1970’s musical dreck like Tony Orlando & Dawn, the Starland Vocal Band and Bread goes beyond the pale of acceptable stress in a civilized society, proving yet again that torture is not the best way to solicit compliance.

In the end, the tire wasn’t even bad, although US Airways didn’t make the call until after painstakingly rerouting most of the steaming passengers in front of us, and our flight from Louisville to Charlotte was only minutes late. After the connection there, touchdown in Savannah, and a visit to Budget, we hit the highway in search of the fabled recreational paradise of Hilton Head and my family reunion headquarters for 2005.

Had the reunion not been held at Hilton Head, it is doubtful we’d have visited any time soon, but in the end, it was a good experience.

In short order, we learned that Hilton Head is a 42-square-mile island off the South Carolina coast that was the home of a dozen antebellum cotton plantations (overseers and slaves only, owing to the pestilential conditions), and as recently as 1950 was without electricity and still strictly agrarian.

There are now 30,000 year-round residents, two million annual visitors, bicycles galore and whole families atop them, 300 eateries, 25 gold courses, more gated cul de sacs than Arlington National (cemetery, not golf course – Jesus, put the clubs away, will you) has tombstones, and one museum devoted to the only truly unique and interesting sociological phenomenon on the island, African-American “Gullah” culture.

Hilton Head itself is an open-air museum not so much of the wealthy, who indeed are different than us, so much so that like certain species of wildlife, they’re only seen at dawn before retiring for the night behind the very poshest of the velour gates, but of the upwardly mobile nouveau riche, the Bush-voting, golf bag-toting, chardonnay-sipping former occupant of the middle class for whom Hilton Head and places like it have been specifically constructed in the fashion of a Disney-like homage to serve the interests of the culturally clueless.

But there’s a brewpub on Hilton Head, so we went to check it out.



Hilton Head Brewing Company is located just off the traffic circle that leads into the Sea Pines area of the island, where we had the questionable fortune to be booked into a room in the South Beach/Salty Dog complex of tourist establishments. That being said, at least we had beach access a few hundred yards away, and immediate proximity to the Land’s End Tavern, where Palmetto Pale Ale (Charleston), as good a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale clone as you’ll find in the Low Country, is available on tap.

Thumbs up to that, and back to the brewpub. It’s hard to find, being one of several pubs and restaurants comprising a freestanding food court of sorts just off Greenwood Drive.

Like many brewpubs, perhaps even the majority, Hilton Head Brewing Company sends out numerous mixed signals, touting mass-market swill by means of typically obnoxious point-of-sale materials alongside an attractive, exposed brew house, and having not one but two “kid’s nights” weekly while selling all the foo-foo mixed umbrella drinks their parents can throw back … and so on.

Ultimately, one must judge the beer, and I was pleasantly surprised. The four styles sampled were Pub Light, South Atlantic Pale, Calibogue Amber and Raspberry Wheat, and only the latter was perfumed and forgettable.

The light is golden and bears hints of Kolsch-like fruitiness, and the pale ale is mild and Cascade-driven. The Calibogue is chunky for the style, with an a.b.v. in the 6% range, and malty sweet. I was tempted to mix the amber and the pale ale to take a bit of the sweet edge off the stronger ale, but in the end went with a full pint of South Atlantic to accompany moderately spicy chicken wings and my yearly hamburger with mushrooms and blue cheese.

That’s right, yearly. My previous burger was consumed in St. Louis at a Cardinals-A’s game in June, 2004 … but of course, White Castles and other hangover medicines don’t count.

We purchased a 2-liter signature growler with a swing-cap stopper for $20, and called it an evening. The Calibogue stood up nicely to a catered reunion barbecue feast on Saturday that boasted a mustard-laced, vinegary sauce atop finely pulled, almost grated pork, with collard greens and sweet potatoes on the side.

The grocery stores and supermarkets on Hilton Head island are reasonably well stocked with craft beers (Palmetto, Sierra) and the usual mainstream imports like Guinness and some of the German pilsners, a few of which are to be sighted on tap at various establishments.

Combined with the ales available at the brewpub, the situation is by no means desperate – and certainly helped with navigating the family festivities, which sometimes resemble the ambience of the airport musical selection.

Next time: Savannah, Georgia.

If you missed today's Microbrewers Festival in Indy, you missed an incredible array of craft brews, with nary a can of mass-market swill in sight.

Indiana’s tenth Microbrewers Festival, which is staged annually by the Brewers of Indiana Guild and associated sponsors, and benefits the Northside Optimist Club, was held earlier today at Opti-Park in Broad Ripple in Indianapolis.

Having just returned from South Carolina on Thursday and been forced to work much of the day Friday, I limited my stay at the festival to the three hours immediately preceding the opening of the gates and the arrival of the paying customers.

And, to a dozen or so small samples. Really.

Pre-fest always is the best time to jaw with brewery friends and reps, because everyone’s working to keep their heads above water once the crowd storms the gates, and today was no exception.

While making the rounds, I enjoyed some excellent sips, including the supple, spiced Grand Cru from Indy’s newest brewpub, Brugge Brasserie; an excellent barrel-aged barley wine from Lafayette Brewing Company; and some of the elusive, fuller-than-full, multigrain Breakfast Stout from Founders in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Veronica Sanders was there to boast about Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, winner of the best of show in the 2005 commercial category in the Indiana State Fair judging and inheritor of the title held by New Albanian since 2004. As regional microbrewing haven, Michigan was well represented this year, with New Holland, Dark Horse, Stoney Creek and Arcadia present in addition to Kalamazoo and Founders.

Marvin McKay says that he’s slowly but surely assembling the pieces of his intended follow-up to the late, lamented Chalkie’s, and may be up and running in a yet-to-be-disclosed location early in 2006. Best of luck to him; Marvin’s one of the classiest fellows in the business.

Both Cavalier and World Class distributors brought a boatload of good beers from across the United States – too many to mention here..

Just before leaving to meet Diana and search out a place to celebrate my forthcoming birthday (you’ll just have to guess how old), I had the good sense to say hello to Ken Price, brewer at Oaken Barrel Brewing Company in Greenwood, and Ken informed me that his Saison was on tap at the pub. What’s more, he recommended today’s Oaken Barrel kitchen special, a smokehouse combo of ribs, pulled pork, baked beans and corn on the cob.

Half an hour later, we were at Oaken Barrel’s doorstep. Ken’s Belgian-style Saison is clean and subtly fruity and finishes dry, with the requisite peppery notes. While neither overly complex nor Baroque, there’s still much to tease and tempt the palate, and a better complement to garlic-laced barbecue with a thick, sweet and tangy sauce is difficult for me to imagine … unless, of course, the meal were served in Belgium, not Greenwood. Nothing against the latter, mind you, but I’m funny about geography.

The fruits of today’s festival networking won’t be immediately apparent to Rich O’s patrons, but remember: It’s only nine or so weeks until Lupulin Land Harvest Hop festival.

Back from the Palmetto State, with more beer to come.

It’s difficult to maintain that you’ve returned from a brief vacation feeling “refreshed” when temperatures were in the high 90’s throughout.

However, on two of the days a morning dip in the ocean provided a respite from the heat and humidity, and of course, the tourist infrastructure is air-conditioned.

Importantly, there were more decent local beers than I’d been led to believe existed in the South Carolina and Georgia coastal “lowcountry”.

Perhaps they weren’t always spectacular beers, but they were drinkable, nonetheless, and occasionally quite good.

Specifically, I’d have killed for Palmetto Pale Ale on Friday night, when my cousins catered a lovely “lowcountry boil” on the grounds of a top-dollar and thoroughly Dickensian modern housing development near Beaufort (that’s pronounced BYOO-ferd, blue staters).

The concept of the boil is grand, indeed. Fresh shrimp, crawdads and any additional available seafood, ears of corn, kielbasa and new potatoes are cooked with a propane torch in a gigantic pot, unceremoniously dumped atop the table in trays and greedily devoured.

My family being, well, my family, a pony keg of Miller Lite was thoughtfully iced and tapped.

I drank Coke, itself a southern innovation.

Owing to Allen family demographics, these once-a-year family reunion trips almost always will almost always take place in the deepest, red-state South in late July. Last year’s was held near Atlanta, and in 2006, Orlando will be the venue. The exceptions will be hosted by my cousins in Madison, Indiana, and me (in 2010).

When it's my turn, I'm aiming to have fabricated evidence pointing to a long-lost German branch of the family tree, and organizing a Bamberg idyll.

Given the realities of my situation, one must be prepared to execute the famed lemonade conversion, and so time was devoted to surveys of historic Savannah and Charleston following the family festivities on Hilton Head. In all three locales, good beer was to be found ... and it saved my life.

There’ll be more here on these beers, breweries and pubs, although a working day on Friday and the 10th Annual Indiana Microbrewers Festival in Indianapolis on Saturday must come first.

It’s always good to be back.

Here’s one we missed: North Korean official visits Chinese brewery.

I cross-posted this one at NA Confidential; follow the link in the title to go there and read about it.

New Albanian Brewing's porter to become "old," but not as a result of aging.

Every other week, and sometimes more often if there’s time, I write Publicanista!, the official newsletter of Rich O’s Public House, the New Albanian Brewing Company and Sportstime Pizza.

You can subscribe to this on-line newsletter by going to www.newalbanian.com and following the directions in the box to the bottom right of the page.

Here’s an excerpt from last week.

NABC brewer Jesse Williams has a batch of Bob’s 15 B porter on the way, and therein a problem has arisen. Evidently, the official numbering scheme for style and sub-style definitions has changed, and according to the Beer Judge Certification Program, 15 B now refers to German Dunkel Weizen.

I’m inclined to leave the name unchanged for the sake of tradition, and to observe the vital dictates of remaining contrarian at all times with respect to style, but your thoughts are appreciated. Next Friday (July 22) we’ll have a cask-conditioned firkin of Bob’s 15 B pouring from the beer engine.

Both my business partner Amy and longtime FOSSILS club stalwart Ed Tash wrote to suggest that we change the name of the beer to Old 15 B, and Ed included this rationale:

I've been giving some thought to your dilemma, caused by the BJCP changing robust porter from 15 B to 12 B. I suggest you call your Porter "Bob's Old 15 B.”

Here's why. There is book about Jack Daniels whisky published about a year ago that attempts to explain the origin of Jack Daniels Old Number 7.

According to the author, the number 7 was the license number of the Jack Daniels distillery. The borders of the county the distillery was located in changed, and the distillery changed counties (without moving), which caused the distillery to be given a new license number. Jack Daniels had established “7” as a brand name and didn't want to start over with a new name, so he put "Old Number 7" on the barrels, bottles, etc.

I have not read the book, but I heard the author interviewed on WFPL-FM 89.3 when the book came out.

Now you know more about Jack Daniels than you ever wanted to know, but bottom line is that I think you should keep 15 B in the name; your customers already know the name and what to expect from the beer.

Besides, only a handful of geeks know that Robust Porter is now 12 B.

Ed makes a strong case, and Amy agrees -- so it will be.

The forthcoming batch of Bob’s Old 15 B will be the first to bear the qualifier … but not the last.

Cheers.

At least it wasn't served with a tomato wedge.

There was an auction yesterday to settle accounts at Kelly’s Lounge, once a fixture on wide, wide Dixie Highway in Shively.

The auctioneer’s circular didn’t explain the reasons for the bar’s demise, and it can’t be said to matter much to me either way, since I hadn’t been there in almost a quarter century, but the one time I did drop into Kelly’s to have a beer while waiting for a friend, something happened that I’ll always remember.

A man slid onto the barstool next to mine and ordered “the usual,” which was a pitcher of Miller Lite, a frosted glass … and a quart of tomato juice.

He proceeded to mix the light beer and tomato juice half and half until the can was empty and the pitcher was dry, except for the small portion he poured into my glass when I expressed amazement at something I’d never seen done before.

A Miller Lite with flavor, or carbonated tomato juice?

What did the tomato juice ever do to deserve such a fate?

For a list of this and other beer cocktails that you’ll never see me sanction, go here.

Dogfish Head's handcrafted Liquor de Malt is good beer, bad marketing.

Our scant allocation of Dogfish Head Liquor de Malt, billed as a bottle-condition, handcrafted malt liquor brewed with three types of corn (7% abv), was one case of twelve 40-ounce bottles, plastic-capped, and each coming with its own paper sack adorned with printed logo.

We quickly sold eleven of the bottles. The twelfth came home with me, and I’ve opted to ignore the explicit directions for proper use and instead pour the beer, sans paper bag, into my preferred tasting vessel, a 15-year-old Slovak pub mug.

Other than NABC’s Turbo Hog, I’ve not sampled an American malt liquor since my last visit to the Great American Beer Festival, when the temptation to relive memories of the early 1980’s compelled me to quaff a taster of Mickey’s Malt Liquor. It just wasn’t the same without tasting it directly from the wide-mouthed green bottle, but the flavor was as I remembered it.

Dogfish Head’s typically quirky version of what, in the American sense, should be an alcoholically enhanced, adjunct-choked lager marketed to those concerned with “bang for the buck” (the mainstream beer world’s equivalent of “raincoater” in porno parlance) is actually fairly good, with a creamy, lingering head and a deep golden hue.

The presence of corn is unmistakable in the palate, with Liquor de Malt exhibiting the sweetness left behind when the cob is tossed into the garbage, but there’s enough malt character for balance, and a hint of the trademark Dogfish hopping for good measure.

The beer itself? It’s fine, and illustrates the redemptive possibilities inherent in a microbrewery’s decision to personalize a mainstream style.

However, I must note that the marketing for Liquor de Malt is in questionable taste; we all know the stereotypes associated with malt liquor – all in good fun, I suppose they’d say, but the symbolism attached to drinking from a paper sack verges on tacky just the same.

The surreal absurdity of Pabst Blue Ribbon as alt-retro-chic.

“Just as young consumers might wear '70s-look sneakers or sip '50s cocktails, many are bellying up to the bar for the beers Grandpa drank — maybe a Rheingold, a Leinenkugel's or a Utica Club.

“They're sometimes called ’retro beers,’ brands that might bring to mind old men in ribbed undershirts but are finding new life with the young. It worked for Pabst Blue Ribbon, and now others are trying.”

From Marketers use word of mouth to pop the top on retro beer, by an unidentified USA Today staff writer.

Readers will be shocked to discover that I’ve had my share of Pabst Blue Ribbon, beginning in the 1970’s and continuing sporadically into the Reagan years, then screeching to a complete and well deserved halt for more than a decade until a mercifully brief refresher course was experienced during an evening or two in 2003.

One thing kept coming back to me as I read USA Today’s throwaway fluff piece about the latest marketing trend that has nothing whatsoever with the essence of the product being vended.

That’s the way Pabst tasted back when Grandpa actually drank it, long before the Internet and cell phones. It was a distinctly flavored product, and one that has very little to do with the inoffensive beer as it is currently manufactured.

Back in the day, you may or may not have liked Pabst, but you couldn’t accuse it of being watered down. In those days, you could pour it in a glass, and if you cared to risk your flatware, insert a spoon and see it stand straight up.

Now Pabst in a glass probably would be mistaken for Evian.

Today’s PBR, known primarily as Dennis Hopper’s beer of choice in “Blue Velvet,” and currently the darling of yet another blithely unaware target consumer group that drinks beer because of what they see and not what they taste, reminds me of the dastardly 70-calorie Pabst Extra Light of the early 1980’s.

The Pabst signature flavor is still somehow in evidence, but it is so compromised that it bears almost no resemblance to the rough-edged, grainy golden olfactory monster I remember seldom being able to get through without choking.

Oh, well. Sometimes I wish I could follow trends instead of always creating my own. It’s a curse, but at least the beer that passes between my lips does so because of its flavor -- and not because of an accrued image of Americana accepted as gospel by those who never experienced the genuine article.

Jeffersonville condemns Glenn Muncy's building, while the Curmudgeon condemns him.

Updating an earlier report in Potable Curmudgeon, and giggling uncontrollably while doing so, we hear the sounds of pompous bluster emanating from the neighboring city of Jeffersonville.

Muncy threatens lawsuit over building condemnation, by Larry Thomas, Jeffersonville Evening News city editor.

Here’s an excerpt:

The owner of the site of a once-thriving Jeffersonville business is livid that his property has been targeted for condemnation so it can be turned over to another developer.

"I'll sue them," Glenn Muncy said on Thursday, after learning that the Jeffersonville Redevelopment Commission voted 4-0 to exercise imminent domain* over property he owns at 228 Spring St., once home to Tubby's.

At various junctures in Thomas’s commendably straight-faced report, Muncy claims to have convinced the state of Indiana that “$500,000 in liens and judgments” against his property is a case of mistaken identity, insists he has investors waiting to form a corporation, vows that he’s just turned away a buyer for the building, and yes, “confirmed” plans to open a microbrewery at the site.

Perhaps the Jeffersonville police force still remains on Muncy’s back alley payroll, as the congenital fact fabricator and former last-place mayoral candidate belched back at me in 1993 while threatening to have them harass me after I politely declined to become involved with an early plan to establish a brewery, one just as spurious as the current non-starter.

Too bad, really. It’d be much funnier to taste his beer.

See Tubby, the sequel: As much a "master brewer" as the Curmudgeon is a neuro-surgeon.

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* "imminent domain" as in Thomas's original article; it should be "eminent domain."

Maido's updated beer list is impressive.

Thanks to those who've sent me updates in response to the request to keep us posted on where to find good beer in Kentuckiana.

Over the weekend, Jim Huie wrote with this list of his current beers at Maido Essential Japanese (1758 Frankfort Ave., 894-8775).

Draft
Bell's Two-Hearted
Stone Arrogant Bastard
BBC APA
BBC Dark Star Porter
Kronenbourg 1664
Woodchuck Pear Cider

Regular Bottles
Ephemere
Dogfish Head Aprihop
McEwan's Scotch Ale
Bell's Sparkling (almost gone)
Bell's Oberon
Bell's Amber
Rogue Oregon Golden (under a case left)
Rogue Honey Cream
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Left Hand Milk Stout
Samuel Adam's Cherry Wheat
Bitburger

22+ Beers
Rogue Morimoto Imperial Pilsner
Rogue Morimoto Soba
Rogue Morimoto Black Obi
Stone Ruination IPA
Talon Barley Wine
Kirin Ichiban
Asahi Super Dry

Jim adds: "I have a goal to someday have Ruination on tap."

Good luck on that one. My pub, Rich O's Public House, was allocated two kegs of Ruination IPA for June (they're gone as of last week) with the stipulation that they be sold only during June and not at any other time.

I obeyed Stone's "rules" and sold both kegs, one delicious pint at a time, and it wasn't until the nectar was depleted that I questioned following a rule set down by a brewing company that prides itself on breaking rules.

Jim has put together a truly great and diverse short beer list, including one of my summertime favorites, Rogue Honey Cream. That's right -- I'm a big fan of golden ales when they're built like that.

Gannett's sham rag Velocity omits us, but that's fine with me.

The past Wednesday was the occasion for Velocity's special dinng issue, purported to be a comprehensive listing of Louisville area eateries.

Last night I was asked why neither Rich O's Public House nor Sportstime Pizza appeared in this dining issue.

The answer is simple: I didn't return the survey because I was annoyed at the phone call from Velocity soliciting advertising for the special issue. It took five minutes to sift through the bluster to the point where it was acknowledged that we could be listed without buying an ad so long as we filled out a form, which was promptly received and immediately relegated to the waste paper basket.

Oh, well.

Irish Rover Too in today's LEO.

In today’s LEO, restaurant and food writer Marty Rosen reviews Irish Rover Too, the La Grange, Kentucky, branch of the long-established original Irish Rover on Frankfort Avenue.

No fears the second time around for Irish Rover Too

A strong case can be made that Marty, who in civilian life is the chief librarian at Indiana University Southeast, is the best pure writer among those ink-stained Louisvillians who tackle food and drink on a regular basis. He brings erudition to the table along with the meal and libations, and his prose is a joy to read.

Live a bit and you’ll come to realize that Irish pubs are akin to comfort food, but just because everyone’s grandmother could prepare meatloaf, it doesn’t mean that some recipes weren’t better than others.

Chain Irish pubs have begun to sprout across the landscape, and these are both reprehensible and generally populated by people who mistake Killian’s for beer. My advice in this instance, as with most other analogous situations in the pursuit of the perfect pint, is to avoid them.

The chains, and the people.

Outside of Ireland itself, I’ve been to Irish pubs throughout Europe, most of them operated by Irish expatriates, and all of them having at least Guinness in common, or else having no right to lay claim to comprehensible “Irishness.”

Last summer, while in the boondocks north of Atlanta for a family reunion, we discovered M'vorneen's in the unlikely locale of Cartersville, Georgia – and as with a previous experience long ago in Bucharest’s Dubliner, I learned yet again that a pint of stout goes a long way toward relieving a melancholy sense of unfamiliarity.

It is this unparalleled ability to relate to the inner desires of Anglophones that is the singular marketable commodity of Ireland. The Reidys always have done it well in Louisville, and I’m happy to see their La Grange experiment working out.

One road trip, three Indiana breweries: Brugge Brasserie, Broad Ripple and Oaken Barrel.

Recently my friend Greg and I motored to Indianapolis to have lunch and beers at Brugge Brasserie, the city’s newest brewpub. Afternooncaps were taken just up the Monon Trail at the venerable Broad River Brewing Company, then on the Southside at Oaken Barrel Brewing Company in Greenwood.

Coincidentally, the city’s NUVO newspaper chose the same week as our road trip to publish a feature on breweries and craft beer in Central Indiana:

Down to Drinking, by Rita Kohn
Head to Head: The Individuality of Taste, also by Rita Kohn

We began at Indiana's newest brewery.

Brugge Brasserie

Brugge Brasserie opened just a few weeks ago. It is an ambitious effort to duplicate the food menu at a typical Belgian restaurant – mussels, crepes, stews and café snacks – and accompany these culinary highlights with house-brewed Belgian styles.

So far, the results are promising. Décor is clean and modernistic, befitting a sit-down Belgian restaurant more so than a traditional café, and the server was knowledgeable and attentive.

We began with a herring appetizer. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was composed of pickled herring chunks, something more in keeping with the Baltic shoreline than Belgium’s North Sea frontage, although in fairness, it would be almost impossible to replicate the marvelous “new” herring filets with fresh chopped onion favored in Flanders and the Netherlands.

For the main course, Greg chose Carbonade Flamande (traditional Belgian beer and beef stew), while I opted for two pounds of mussels from Prince Edward Island, Canada, with a choice (typical in Belgium) of a half-dozen broths.

The meaty mussels were served heaping over the edges of the requisite black pot, and required a careful stacking of spent shells to avoid an avalanche. I’m compelled to quibble with the presentation of the side of fries – which, as most people know by now, is Belgian national obsession.

Brugge Brasserie serves what to my experience is an inauthentic variety of seasoned fries, something rarely if ever seen in Belgium, and brings them to the table in a paper cone (seen at Belgian street stands and never at restaurants) intended for sticking into holes cut in the tabletops.

Gimmicky. The fries should be parboiled, deep-fried and brought on a plate.

The Carbonade was suitably rich and tasty stew. The version served at Brugge Brasserie comes in an oversized bowl; like goulash in Central Europe and chili in America, there as many ways to prepare and serve the dish as there are cooks.

To be a spanking new brewpub is to frequently run through house beers until supply and demand are adjusted, so only three beers were available on draft on the day of our visit, along with Lindemans Framboise. We didn’t look to see if bottled Belgians are available.

Wit
Traditional Belgian-style cloudy wheat, yellowish-orange, heavier on the coriander than the orange spicing common to the style.

Pilsner
After all, pilsner derivatives (Stella, Maes, Jupiler) account for more than 70% of the beer consumed in Belgium. Really. Pale golden, noble hops; fresh-tasting Germanic derivative, as intended.

Abbey Dubbel
Dark and yeasty, with typical Belgian fruity esters coming out as the ale warmed. Excellent with the mussels and the beef stew.

For such a young establishment, all the elements are in place at Brugge Brasserie for it to be a showplace of a decidedly underserved genre, although certainly there’ll be ample tweaking along the way.

To top off a fine visit, we had an interesting conversation with owner/brewer Ted Miller, who recently was interviewed at Indiana Beer.

Ted attended high school with Kevin Matalucci, longtime brewer at Broad Ripple Brewing Company, then was followed by Kevin as Broad Ripple’s brewer, so it seemed perfectly reasonable to stroll the Monon Trail two scenic blocks, dodging roller blades, bikes and noontime strollers, and visit Kevin and his beers, always great favorites of the Curmudgeon’s.

Broad Ripple Brewing Company

Founded by Yorkshire native John Hill long before microbrewing and Broad Ripple were fashionable, Broad Ripple Brewing’s English-style ambience and flavorful ales remain a benchmark of the Indy beer scene.

Kevin’s ESB and IPA are bona fide Indiana-brewed classics, maybe heavier in body than generally experienced in England, but fiendishly drinkable and tickling the palate with bountiful hops.

Kevin is a gregarious and funny man, and I always look forward to hearing his updates during my infrequent visits to Broad Ripple.

Greg had never been to the Broad Ripple brewpub, so I enjoyed telling him the story about how the quintessentially British pub interior – wood, tin ceilings, upholstered wall seating, stained glass -- actually has not been in place for a hundred years. When John Hill arrived on the scene in the late 1980’s, the building housed an auto parts store.

Oaken Barrel Brewing Company

For a pint shy of two years, Ken Price has manned the helm at Oaken Barrel’s brewhouse. He says that business is good at the restaurant and brewpub, which is strategically placed along I-65 in Greenwood, permitting southerners a final chance at good beer before traversing the painful distance back to Louisville.

Oaken Barrel is installing a larger mash tun and brew kettle, and Ken looks forward to using the increased capacity to fill more fermenters, more quickly. After a period just prior to Ken’s arrival at Oaken Barrel, when Oaken Barrel aspired to be a regional store shelf player in the Upland Brewing mold, the company has sidestepped and opted for being a brewpub that does some distribution.

A good American-style IPA and a seasonal Maibock both stood up quite nicely with a plate of well-spiced chicken wings.

Greg may or may not have eaten … count the beers, and you’ll understand why I’m glad he volunteered to drive.

Excerpt from DUI Gulag.

Here's a pot stirrer.

DUI Gulag: MADD's Political Agenda

Here's an excerpt:

Instead of focusing on ways to remove the chronic/alcoholic drunk driver from our highways, MADD’s primary focus is upon "drivers who have had something to drink." MADD is undeterred by the fact that government accident and fatality data clearly show that low BAC "drivers who have had something to drink" do not pose a legitimate threat to public safety. The fact that a sleepy person or a person talking on a cell-phone while driving may be inherently more dangerous than someone who has had two or three beers to drink appears to be of no concern to MADD.

I think I wrote this once upon a time ...

Tim Webb returns with a fully updated "Good Beer Guide to Belgium."

British beer writer Tim Webb’s essential “Good Beer Guide to Belgium” guidebook has been updated, and the new version is being published this summer.

Webb's Belgian beer guide is a classic, but not just because it is essential for any beer lover contemplating a trip to Belgium who seeks the most accurate information on where to find the best beers and what to drink once there.

In terms of style, Webb writes with acerbic wit, refusing to suffer fools, international brewing conglomerates and bad beers alike. To read his guidebook is to receive a primer on what it means to be a beer aficionado in a world that unthinkingly accepts the mediocre.

In conjunction with Destinations Booksellers in New Albany, I’ll try to put together a bulk order for Webb's book if enough people are interested in owning a copy. Please let me know.

Frankfort Avenue Corridor/Clifton: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.

Readers, this is the sixth of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?

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FRANKFORT AVENUE CORRIDOR/CLIFTON
Beginning in the early 1990’s, the stretch of Frankfort Avenue from Story Avenue to the intersection with Lexington Road became home to numerous restaurants, shops and pubs, with particular concentration in the Clifton neighborhood.

Bourbons Bistro
2255 Frankfort Ave.
894-8838
By most accounts, this newly opened establishment (spring, 2005) has the most extensive list of bourbons in the city. No word yet on beer.

Café Lou Lou
1800 Frankfort Ave.
893-7776
It may boast the bizarrely trendy Pabst Blue Ribbon on its web site, but owner/chef Clay Wallace tells us that there is good beer to be found within.

Caffè Classico Espresso Café
2144 Frankfort Ave.
894-0199
If you’re a fan of European coffee and espresso and prefer the gentler, more refined continental approach to caffeine absorption, you’ll love Tommie Mudd’s Caffe Classico.

A Europhile by way of Buenos Aires (his wife’s birthplace), Tommie’s Italian espresso roast is sleeker, smoother and less oily than the Seattle-style that most of us grew up enjoying, and which in fairness, continue to drink at other Frankfort Avenue coffee houses (Heine Brothers, Java Brewing) – of course, depending on the mood.

Caffe Classico goes beyond excellent coffee, and also has sandwiches, light meals and a short beer list, mostly lagers, but also featuring Duvel, still one of the must-stock Belgians.

Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Avenue
899-3544
The original Irish Rover on Frankfort Ave. (recently joined by the Irish Rover, Too in Lagrange) has been the yardstick for Irish pubs in Louisville since 1994.

Michael and Siobhan Reidy offer the standard Hibernian lineup of well-kept draft ales and lagers, along with a kitchen that integrates classic Irish recipes with new trends in the island’s cookery. Highly atmospheric, and much recommended.

Maido Essential Japanese
1758 Frankfort Ave.
894-8775
A critically praised Osaka-style “pub, sake bar and eatery,” with a very good beer list assembled by co-owner Jim Huie, formerly a bartender at BBC St. Matthews, described in this Potable Curmudgeon blog entry.

North End Cafe
1722 Frankfort Ave.
896-8770
We’re awaiting word on the beer list at this recently expanded restaurant.

Baxter Avenue Strip: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.

Readers, this is the fifth of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?

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BAXTER AVENUE STRIP
Probably Louisville’s heaviest concentration of bars, restaurants and clubs, and in recent years the object of much scrutiny on the part of neighborhood activists, this area is in flux with the advent of 4th Street Live.

Flanagan’s Ale House
934 Baxter Ave
585-3700
Owned by the same family as O’Shea’s, and with an import-accented bottled beer list tending to be more stylistically challenging than the area norm.

Molly Malone’s Irish Pub and Restaurant
933 Baxter Avenue
473-1222
In the beginning, Molly Malone’s was long on expensive imported décor and short on charm, but this has changed, and the pub seems to have settled into its niche with good grace. A younger, perhaps rowdier crowd testifies to its location along the Baxter Avenue strip. Fine outdoor seating in front.

O’Shea’s Traditional
956 Baxter Avenue
589-7373
Steadily evolving during the first decade of its operation, O’Shea’s has become a dependable venue with solid pub grub, frequent musical entertainment and yet another above average outdoor seating area.

Irish standbys Guinness, Harp and Smithwick’s are joined by Rogue and Goose Island seasonals on a mid-range draft list, while the bottled list leans heavier toward the British Isles, but includes a few more esoteric styles, represented notably by Celebrator Doppelbock and Duvel.

Outlook Inn
916 Baxter Ave.
583-4661
This fabled late-night meeting place has less to do with good beers, although they’re served right alongside the more popular swill, than with thirty years of experience catering to Highlands drinkers.

Wick’s Pizza Parlor
975 Baxter Avenue
458-1828
Wick’s now operates at multiple locations, though it is known primarily for the original Baxter Avenue shop. Perhaps a good beer or two (Bass?) is available on tap, but the pie’s decent, and the other nearby choices place it squarely on the Baxter pub crawl circuit.

Willy’s
942 Baxter Ave.
583-2969
Originally “Wet Willy’s,” an idea that strangely coincided with a Florida bar chain of the same name, and famously ran afoul of local animal rights activists concerned with a proposal to have live alligators (or something equally absurd) roaming beneath a glass dance floor … conceived and operated by local “club concept” masters … catering to a very young crowd … none of which bodes well for quality of the 68 beers said to be on tap (including swill and cider) … but to each his or her own.

4th Street Live/Near 4th Street Live: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.

Readers, this is the fourth of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?

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4th STREET LIVE
4TH Street Live, which opened in 2004, is Louisville’s latest effort to remake its moribund downtown, this time in the image of the many Cordish real estate company’s developments throughout the United States.

As such, considering the company’s long track record, bountiful incentives provided by local and state governments, and an influx of people actually living downtown for the first time in recent memory, the effort stands a very good chance of succeeding.

The less said about Hard Rock Cafe and TGI Friday’s, the better.

Early results suggest that a demographic shift in entertainment habits is under way, with food and drink businesses in the Highlands and Frankfort Avenue and Bardstown Road corridors reinventing themselves by moving away from the younger party crowd that flocks to 4th Street Live’s posh, neon-encased clubs.

When 4th Street is closed off for special concerts, a special “area” alcohol license enables people to walk the street freely between establishments.

The Pub Louisville
569-7782
Nicholson’s Scottish pub in Cincinnati is part of the same tavern chain as The Pub, and the two share many traits.

Drafts are heavily English/Scots/Irish, with a representative list of bottled beers, wines and spirits. There is a stated intent to offer cask ales, but as yet, no information on their frequency. If Nicholson’s can be taken as a guide, then we may expect cask offerings from B. United International and Shelton Brothers, served with a cask breather, and very high priced.

Sully’s Saloon & Restaurant
585-4100
Boasting just enough Celtic imagery to be classified as “faux” Irish, and meriting further research.

Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge
568-9009
Obviously mentioned here not for the beer, and also not just for the Maker’s Mark, as the management expresses a commitment to showcasing bourbons from all Kentucky distillers.

NEAR 4TH STREET LIVE
Crowds drawn to the Cordish entertainment enclave are starting to see more locally owned options just outside the boundaries, including coffee shops, delis, and at least one beer-friendly establishment.

BBC 4th Street
2 Theatre Square (north of Broadway)
568-2224
As if the BBC saga weren’t already confusing, another outpost has popped up just south of 4th Street Live, on Theatre Square (itself the remnant of a 1980’s revitalization effort), roughly opposite downtown’s most atmospheric musical venue, the Louisville Palace.

BBC 4th Street serves beers brewed in St. Matthews by Jerry Gnagy, and food prepared by the owners of Third Avenue Café, who are the primary operators of this newest BBC.

Since brewster Eileen Martin, late of Browning’s, is managing BBC 4th Street, there is some talk of brewing on site at some point in the future.

Irish Pubs: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.

Readers, this is the third of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?

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IRISH PUBS
The Irish Rover paved the Anglo-Irish pub path more than ten years ago, and numerous competitors have followed in the Reidys’ footsteps. Kitty O’Kirwan’s (Irish) and Sir Churchill’s (English) are two that didn’t make the cut.

Irish Rover
2319 Frankfort Avenue
899-3544
The original Irish Rover on Frankfort Ave. (recently joined by the Irish Rover, Too in Lagrange) has been the yardstick for Irish pubs in Louisville since 1994.

Michael and Siobhan Reidy offer the standard Hibernian lineup of well-kept draft ales and lagers, along with a kitchen that integrates classic Irish recipes with new trends in the island’s cookery. Highly atmospheric, and much recommended.

Molly Malone’s Irish Pub and Restaurant
933 Baxter Avenue
473-1222
In the beginning, Molly Malone’s was long on expensive imported décor and short on charm, but this has changed, and the pub seems to have settled into its niche with good grace. A younger, perhaps rowdier crowd testifies to its location along the Baxter Avenue strip. Fine outdoor seating in front.

O’Shea’s Traditional
956 Baxter Avenue
589-7373
Steadily evolving during the first decade of its operation, O’Shea’s has become a dependable venue with solid pub grub, frequent musical entertainment and yet another above average outdoor seating area.

Irish standbys Guinness, Harp and Smithwick’s are joined by Rogue and Goose Island seasonals on a mid-range draft list, while the bottled list leans heavier toward the British Isles, but includes a few more esoteric styles, represented notably by Celebrator Doppelbock and Duvel.

Breweries in Metro Louisville: Please help edit and augment the Curmudgeon's area good beer selections.

Readers, this is the second of several posts that provide sections of my forthcoming Good Beer Guide to Kentuckiana, which will be posted at the Potable Curmudgeon web site.Your help is badly needed. What have I gotten wrong, forgotten, omitted?

----------------------------------

BREWERIES IN METRO LOUISVILLE
Swill may yet reign as Louisville’s beer of choice, but the city still manages to sustain five separate brewing entities.

BBC Brewing Company
636 East Main Street
584-2739
Located on the downtown Louisville site of the now defunct Pipkin Brewing Company, BBC Brewing is a production brewery wholly separate from the original brewpub from which it was spawned. This split came about as a result of what can only be called an “uncivil war” between brewpub and brewery investors, circa 2002.

Eventually a settlement was reached, and now BBC Brewing Company produces kegs and bottles for off-premise sales, with original BBC brewmaster David Pierce crafting versions of his classic styles (Alt, Dark Star Porter) similar to, and in the case of the APA, markedly superior, to those still brewed in St. Matthews.

No food service is offered at the Taproom, but visitors are invited to bring their own snacks and meals or consult a handy guide to local eateries that will deliver.

Bluegrass Brewing Company
3939 Shelbyville Road
899-7070
The original BBC brewpub (1993) is located on Shelbyville Road in the St. Matthews neighborhood on Louisville’s east side. The brewer is Jerry Gnagy, and the beer lineup includes classic BBC styles (American Pale Ale, Dark Star Porter, et al) as formulated by original brewmaster David Pierce, as well as Jerry’s own rotating seasonals (an excellent California Common, for one, and also the headsplitting Ultra) and even a few holdovers (Mephistopheles Metamorphosis) from Tim Rastetter, who served as a consultant for a brief period circa 2002-2003.

Food is served seven days a week, televised sports and live music are constants, and there is an attractive outdoor seating area.

Browning’s Restaurant & Brewery
401 East Main Street (at Louisville Slugger Field)
515-0174
Fine dining (Park Place on Main) and a brewpub (Browning’s Restaurant & Brewery), both under the same management, lie side by side within Louisville Slugger Field, home of the city’s Triple-A Bats. The showpiece tower brewing system that serves as the central design feature of Browning’s has often been mistaken for a spittoon by a series of “no speak beer” owners and decision makers, but the brewpub remains the only hope for a decent pint of beer within the confines of the notoriously beer-unfriendly Slugger Field.

Cumberland Brews
1576 Bardstown Road
458-8727
Matt Gould, the hardest-working brewer in Louisville, squeezes every last drop of quality out of an impossibly tiny 2-barrel system in the very heart of the Highlands, with personal favorites including Nitro Porter and Pale Ale.

Opened by the Allgeier family in 2000, Cumberland Brews has garnered consistently good reviews for the quality of its kitchen and the intimate conviviality of the atmosphere.

New Albanian Brewing Company
3312 Plaza Drive, New Albany
812-949-2804
Established in 2002, NABC is the microbrewing arm of New Albany’s Rich O’s Public House (the area’s finest specialty beer bar since 1992) and Sportstime Pizza, which began operations in 1987.
In April, 2005, the brewing baton was passed from Michael Borchers to Jesse Williams, and it is hoped that an increase in brewing capacity will be achieved later in the year.