Another year, another fresh round of Floyd County Health Department lies.

On the topic of Boomtown last Sunday, which was a fabulous success as a first-year music festival in downtown New Albany, I cannot put it to rest without mentioning the invaluable performance of the Floyd County Health Department.

Last year, the appropriately festooned Red Shi(r)ts specifically informed beer vendors that hand sanitizer and wet wipes were sufficient to pour draft beers, along with a non-statutory-based permit that is 100% bogus according to no less an authority than the Indiana attorney general himself (a ruling the FCHD refuses to heed). Now, the very same bureaucrats say we must have a hot water hand washing station, and in familiarly Orwellian fashion, they state that this was true last year, too -- just like last year, they said they'd always been enforcing fraudulent permits, when a public records request showed they hadn't.

That's why, as an entity, the FCHD is a lying piece of mongrel cur's feces -- and you can tell 'em I said so. Seeking to usurp the natural order of the state's regulatory division of responsibility is one thing; being unable to tell the truth ups the ante.

Last evening at Bicentennial Park, the brew crew assembled an insulated plastic drinking water cooler and a pail, filling the cooler with water from the hot liquor tank. Earlier in the day, our serving partners at Irish Exit had been told that one such station would suffice for the three vendors working under NABC's supplemental catering permit -- this coming after the roly-poly timer-server who visited us at Boomtown insisted that each participant have a station (how many lies does this make?)

Staff awaited the arrival of the inspector, who turned out to be the very same engorged fellow. He mumbled a few things to Irish Exit's workers and ignored NABC entirely, walking away without so much looking at the crucial addition.

Which means he didn't give us the yellow copy of his thumbs-up public health report, like the stack from last year, not a single one of which made the slightest mention of a hot water hand washing station.

I want my damned yellow sheet. Paper trails are important for bureaucrats, but they're even more important for potential lawsuits. You don't think I've forgotten the e coli references on the department's web site, have you?

The Diary of Our Own Jimmy Bracken: No beer houses in sight, but we remain dauntless.

New Albany probably wouldn't considered the ideal "craft" beer market, although proximity to Louisville certainly figures into any such reckoning.

On Sunday, May 25, we sold 17 kegs of NABC beer at Boomtown, and probably 4 or 5 more at Bank Street Brewhouse. The Grand went through 9 during the Houndmouth show. That's somewhere around 30 kegs in a day, albeit a quite special day.

The thing that struck me about Boomtown is this: In the main, it was not a "beer geek" kind of crowd. They were there for the music, and maybe for the Flea Off market stalls. They had a choice; our compatriots at Irish Exit were selling Lite and Pabst. And yet we did very well indeed.

Midweek, with Boomtown in the rear view mirror until next year, I learned that a second Greater Kentucky wholesale beer distributor was not interested in our products. I don't contest the reasoning, i.e., they have a full and cluttered "book" comprised of numerous beers from numerous breweries, many of them located hundreds of miles away. Left unspoken (though patently obvious) is the point that after all, this is what the consumer base wants.

One of the consumer bases, at least.

In short, it's the consumer base NOT represented at Boomtown, where there were few self-identified beer geeks to be found, and yet the better beer flowed freely.

To reiterate, I don't contest the wholesaler's reasoning. I merely point to a disconnect, one that I've no clue how to remedy. In Indiana, we can self-distribute. In Kentucky, we are obliged to use an intermediary, of which there are relatively few, numerically, and this is is frustrating but fine -- for so long as one of them agrees to partner with us.

When they don't, it's just plain frustrating.

The most bizarre part of all this is geographical. We cannot get beer to Lexington, Kentucky, because we can't find a wholesaler. But wholesalers in Texas, Missouri and Massachusetts have expressed interest. When you'd like to be local/regional but cannot, owing to the leaden weight of the three-tier distribution system, then do you shrug and join the parade by shipping far, far away?

I posted the following on Facebook, and for the record, repeat it here. I can't say there are answers these days, only questions. The bizarre part of all this is that

Several of you have asked; here's the answer: NABC would love to be selling beer in Kentucky outside Jefferson County, but we can't seem to find a wholesaler. The first one died. We divorced the second one. Recent matchmaking has been rebuffed. I'm considering a Kickstarter bid to relocate NABC a couple thousand miles away, thus making us sexy and fashionable for local markets here; but of course that's impractical. In the end, all we have is great beer. I'm quite happy with that. Thanks to those of you who both get it, and GET it.

Offensive to the senses, but too legit to quit.

Every once in a while, a customer will make a comment to the effect that "this place smells awful." It boggles my mind; after all, I've relied on my nose to lead me to breweries on more than one occasion, pre-iPhone. I'm guessing that the law in question originally derived more from Indiana's fabled prohibitionistic instinct than actual odor, and reflected a pattern of harassment not unlike that practiced by the Floyd County Health Department of today.

Sobering discovery: Most Indy microbreweries in violation, by John Tuohy, The Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS – They’re a “nuisance,” on par with slaughterhouses, tanneries, glue factories, bone factories or tallow chandleries.

They’re as “offensive to the senses” as a starch factory, foundry or fertilizer plant.

They need to be a safe distance from populated areas, hospitals, children and parks.

What is this public health scourge?

Microbreweries.

Fest of Ale in SoIn.

This week's edition of SoIn includes a diagram of this year's Fest of Ale grounds and a preview of the annual Keg Liquors celebration for the benefit of the Crusade for Children. 

Cooking classes and much food, close to us at BSB.

The cooking classes mentioned in the press release for "Class with Chef" will take place at Destinations Booksellers, just a few blocks east of Bank Street Brewhouse.

Class with Chef: The official press release.

Coincidentally, Randy and Ann are rethinking their bookstore space in much the same way as NABC is rethinking its Bank Street Brewhouse layout. They are looking to meld books, learning and instruction into a third space.

We're eliminating the expense of a restaurant, and focusing on brewing and using beer as the accompaniment in common with a diverse range of events and happenings.

By the way, downtown New Albany is a food court, and we have beers of proven merit to accompany nearby cuisine. Bring food with you, as discussed here:

My new favorite downtown New Albany dish is ...

Watch as "craft" defines itself out of existence.

There are a number of solid nuggets for thought in this article, most of which point to an inevitable day of reckoning when the word "craft" has become meaningless.

When will we get to that point? I'd say it occurred two or three years ago. Sometimes it takes a while for us to catch up.

As Craft Beer Starts Gushing, Its Essence Gets Watered Down, by Alastair Bland (NPR)

There was once a time when it was easy to throw around the term "craft beer" and know exactly what you were talking about. For decades, craft was the way to differentiate small, independently owned breweries – and the beer they make – from the brewing giants like Coors, Budweiser and Pabst Blue Ribbon.

But the line separating craft brewers from large multinational companies is growing blurrier. Small breweries are transforming into big ones, while big breweries are masquerading as small brands, selling "crafty" knockoff beers in an attempt to lure customers from the craft beer market.

The PC: Post-Boomtown reflections.

The PC: Post-Boomtown reflections.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

The state of Indiana’s laws governing temporary alcoholic beverage serving permits are not overly complicated, unless one takes enduring human nature into consideration.

Then it gets weird.

For instance, there is the concept of enclosing such temporary events, typically through the use of portable fencing, and providing attendees with delineated points of entry and exit. It is what we had to do in order to stage the Boomtown Ball on May 25 – not what we’d have preferred to do, but what the law requires us to do.

Whomever pulls the temporary alcoholic beverage sales permit is obliged to enforce the rules, or risk fines -- or even losing the yearly permit upon which daily business depends.

As such, I understand that you’d like to carry your beer from the enclosure and wander the streets outside. Unfortunately, we cannot allow you to do that. Alcoholic beverages sold within the enclosure are supposed to remain there and not be carried out. Similarly, alcoholic beverages purchased outside the enclosure are not supposed to be brought inside.

Stringing green plastic event fencing around the perimeter of Boomtown and posting policemen at the entrances to monitor containers were two essential components necessary for us to be issued a license, and to operate the event in a way suiting the Alcohol & Tobacco Commission.

Another was the inner fencing around the bar area. This was to delineate the actual serving area as an over-21-only place, as opposed to the all-ages space (everything else within the perimeter fencing). These measures satisfied the state, but not all of those in attendance.

For instance, there was the woman who walked up to a section of fencing we’d just repaired, and began tearing it apart to create her own exit.

“Excuse me, but that’s not an exit. It’s a fence.”

“But it isn’t clearly marked.”

Note that the state of Indiana does not yet require us to post signs stating the obvious, as in “THIS IS A FENCE.” To be sure, as a lifelong malcontent, I’ve often had the same reaction to fencing as the woman. But one looks at reality differently when his name’s on the festival permit.

A different lesson was grasped on the other side of the compound, where families were seated at tables adjacent to the mandated fencing. A feet away, there was a green, grassy, open area owned by St. Marks church. After Sunday, I know that in such situations children cannot be deterred from destroying fencing to go play in the grass, pushing the fence upward on the crawl while adults mashed it down in pursuit of their wayward kids.

Overall, the first-ever Boomtown festival went quite well, even if my own stress levels did not subside until the closing bell and final teardown. Being obliged to enforce rules that ordinary blokes are unaware exist (and why would they be aware?) is a challenge, but I suppose we all need to be good at something. We’ll do a better job of it next year, if there is a next year.

Until then, while the grass may truly be greener on the other side of the fence, would you consider using the actual exit portals to access it? And no, you can’t take the beer with you.

---

It has been two weeks since NABC’s Bank Street Brewhouse relinquished its food service and began a new life as brewery taproom, and while I’ll miss the Asian chicken wings, early returns are quite encouraging. It may prove to be the best decision we ever made.

We’ve been selling house-brewed beer, both on premise and for carryout, at a steady clip. The Big Four Burger mobile stand will set up shop outside on Fridays through August 22, concurrent with the Bicentennial Park concert series, and as word gets around, we’re seeing customers starting to bring their own food from nearby eateries.

On Sunday night, after the Boomtown festival shut down and the Houndmouth show commenced at The Grand, four of us ordered carry-out from Dragon King’s Daughter (literally, a stone’s throw from BSB) and spread it atop a metal table on the front veranda at the brewhouse. Progressive pints arrived as accompaniment. Sashimi flatbread and fried calamari proved to be quite well matched with cask-conditioned Beak’s Best Bitter.

The central point is that now, with the kitchen shuttered (albeit fully licensed, just in case), numerous ideas and opportunities are open to us. We can judge these many options by how they contribute to making Bank Street Brewhouse a place where various things happen, as enhanced by great beer, and as opposed to being a restaurant where only some things can happen.

It isn’t only what we can plan for the space as owners and managers, but what our customers bring to it in terms of utility. It’s now a placemaking project as much as anything, and that’s exciting.

About the only thing customers cannot bring to BSB is their own alcohol. It’s those pesky state regulations again.

I know there’ll be many “former” customers, primarily those who came to Bank Street Brewhouse for the food, and many of whom didn’t once drink a beer. I only hope that they have fond memories.

However, as much as we threw ourselves into the food component for five years, and hated to see it go away, the numbers don’t lie even if the health department routinely does. At inception, BSB was intended to be all about the beer. Now, it truly is all about the beer, come what may.

Thanks to all those who have taken the time to offer ideas and encouragement. More than ever, ideas matter, and yours are important to us.

Cheers!

Boomtown: Festival merriment in downtown New Albany today.

It seems as though I've been preparing for today since February.

Wait ... I actually have been.

Like most such complex undertakings, the Boomtown Ball simultaneously has functioned as longed-for occurrence and 800-lb gorilla. One thing I can state with certainty: New Albany never has seen anything quite like it.

There'll be a big fenced expanse centered on the farmers market, containing a temporary stage with music from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the Flea Off Market, some local vendors, and the Boomtown Tavern. Outside the enclosure, which must exist according to Indiana state alcohol laws, are New Albany's retail shops, eateries and watering holes, many of them observing special Sunday hours today. Later, around 9:00 p.m., local favorites Houndmouth play a homecoming show at The Grand (it sold out in three days). The Grand purchased ten kegs of Houndmouth for this performance.

Fingers crossed. Let's do this.

Boomtown Ball today, Houndmouth tonight ... and Flea Off, bands, beer and things.

"Big Four Burgers joins forces with NABC for Friday evening food at Bank Street Brewhouse."

The owner of Big Four Burgers + Beer in Jeffersonville is Matt McMahan, who operates Irish Exit in New Albany. He already had a food trailer under construction before the recent kitchen suspension at Bank Street Brewhouse, and the timing's perfect for both of us. The obvious next step is to cover Saturday during summer by a similar arrangement with food vendors. The BSB kitchen remains operational, and is licensed, so options exist there, too.

During the two weeks that have followed perestroika at BSB, feedback has been interestingly generational. Generally speaking, the younger generation seems happier with the notion of kaleidoscopic and variable food options, and my own cohort a tad grumpier. I'm viewing the situation as one in which a tremendous number of options to use the BSB space now have come into being, as opposed to a previous state of being in which almost every decision we made had to be taken against a backdrop of what was best for the kitchen. Had we been making money hand over fist ... but I digress.

Let's see how this burger, beer and music idea works out, beginning May 30, then go from there. The details are here: Big Four Burgers joins forces with NABC for Friday evening food at Bank Street Brewhouse

The Diary of Our Own Jimmy Bracken: "Oh, Mr. Putty tat. Don't you wike me anymore?"

I harbor no illusions when it comes to the give-and-take of discourse. If you hold strong views and have the ability to state them coherently, there'll be disagreements, and you'll make enemies. It's all part of the game. At times, the other guy musters the better argument, and that's just fine.

Then there are those "WTF" times when you're advised to smile and walk away, because the primary thrust of the argument being directed against you is that you're literate.

Don't hold your breath expecting me to apologize for being literate. It won't happen.

Yesterday was one such time for shrugging. To make a long story very short, a frequent critic returned to one of his favorite subjective themes: NABC brews sub-standard and boring beers. His objective evidence? That'd be the fact that ... that ... well, that in his opinion they're sub-standard and boring.

I can't speak to the absence of objectivity now choking beer enthusiasm like so many invasive weeds. We've somehow raised an entire generation that wishes to pose as a priestly caste, although without the first notion of objectivity apart from that of Kolsch being "bad" only because it isn't IPA. The noteworthy aspect of yesterday's discussion was that it was about localism in beer, digressing relatively quickly owing to the usual beer narcissist's knee-jerk objection: BUT YOU CAN'T FORCE ME TO DRINK BAD BEER.

Wouldn't think of it, although it depends on what the meaning of "geek" is. Let's move on to the keynote speaker. He wrote:

I wish NABC would be a force in the local beer community, but it just seems to fall to memory of what it was. Instead of competing with a force such as AtG, it seems Roger just wants to complain about the people in long drawn out sentences as if they are the problem and not what is going into the bottles.

It's an utterly fascinating sentence, this: "Instead of competing with a force such as AtG."

We need to be a force, and they need to be a force. Of course, force isn't defined. As I've noted previously, reducing the better beer world to the rote screenplay of a WWE bout is indicative of something, and perhaps many things ... though not better beer.

It seems to me that we're in the business of competing for consumers, not against each other, and the wonderful thing about consumers is that they come in all sizes, shapes, colors and levels of interest. Accordingly, there are markets for beer of a similarly diverse range in terms of variety.

It's why I like session beers, and why we at NABC are tying to keep four of them tap all of the time. We do it because people are drinking them, and as capitalists, we then are compelled to make more. That's really the purpose of the exercise.

One way to look at this might be that given AtG's customary single (and invariably solid) session beer, we've already "competed" with them and won. Personally, it's nonsense and I don't agree -- because there isn't any competition, between us. We do different things in route to a common purpose. What interests NABC at present is widening the scope of better beer, not just for the self-possessed cognoscenti, but for ordinary people who develop an interest in better beer and are ignored by the likes of my correspondent.

I could go on, but it's futile. Maybe if there is time, I can log in at RateBeerComments.com and hammer the bejesus out of his.

"I think we are one of the best breweries in the world."

I love a good shtick.

The Back & Forth W/ SAM CRUZ (jeremyrichie.net)

Against The Grain Is One Of The Booming Drink And Grub Joints Here In Louisville. How Did It All Come To Fruition?

“Honestly, I think it’s our commitment to quality and improvement. For so long, Louisville has had a handful of places that were the ‘it’ spots and I think many of them got too comfortable with the position. So when we (and we certainly aren’t alone) came into the picture, folks were chomping at the bit to get a higher quality product and experience. Which leads me to another point. We have such an amazing city with all the potential and abilities of other cities. So it only seemed fitting that we could do things as good (if not better) as some of the other ‘rock-star’ breweries in the U.S.A. That said, we can also be proud of it. Maybe it’s a bit presumptuous, but I don’t give a fuck. I think we are one of the best breweries in the world, and definitely the best in KY. I’d put our beer on the table next to anything on the globe. I guess it’s ‘that’ that propels us forward.”

Drinkin' NABC with the Beer Whisperer.

Here's a four-pack of Beer Whisperer. Enjoy.

Elector






Naughty Girl

Pete Coors 2: "We bought a craft brewery in Georgia" and can Keystone it as we please.

The Denver Post's Jeremy Meyers does a truly masterful job in helping swill scion Pete Coors portray himself as a doddering incompetent, as in the previous excerpt.

However, in the passage below, Coors makes quite plain certain truths about the nature and reality of craft: Once his "crafty" DNA (even HE knows the difference) is spattered on 'em, they're damaged goods, in spite of what shoe-gazing beer narcissists insist as they suckle at the Bourbon County teat.

Read as Coors speaks of craft beer acquisitions as though they were baseball trading cards, and imagine him confiding in his fellow monopolists during the annual sex on the beach beer baron confab that if Terrapin doesn't work out, he'll just toss it on the remainders table.

Pete Coors is a windbag and a has-been. I'm not sure what it says about you if you give him (or AB-InBev) your money.

But he appreciates it, thank you very much.

Pete Coors, big beer industry continues to grapple with craft beers, by Jeremy Meyer (Denver Post)

 ... (Pete) Coors said to continue to be fresh, the company is looking at developing more new beers, looking at the possibility of acquiring more breweries and even pushing its new cider brands. He mentioned the 2009 purchase of Terrapin Beer Co. in Georgia as one experiment.

“We know a lot about brewing crafty beers and we are looking at new things all the time,” he said, adding that Colorado Native and Batch 19 have been popular additions. “We have a whole portfolio. Anheuser-Busch has a huge portfolio. They have acquired Goose Island and others. We bought a craft brewery in Georgia, Terrapin. We are a minority interest, which isn’t working out the best. So we are learning about that. And we have a growing cider brand.”

Pete Coors 1: We have an "algorithm and an app" to verify our rotary dial of a light beer.

Nothing the scion of swill says in this passage applies exclusively to the "premium light" brands of watery alco-pop his companies and his brethren produce.

Pete Coors 2: "We bought a craft brewery in Georgia" and can Keystone it as we please.

Given that bar owners worth their salt are replacing crap with craft on tap, and relegating "premium light" to bottles and cans in the back bar cooler (seems like a "fact" to me), as a response to palpable demand, Pete's "research" comes off somewhat tainted. Bar owners can switch brand loyal customers to bottles and cans because brand loyal customers are neutered drones, locked into a dreary towpath, and unwilling to change.

But even if we accept the Coors flailing as legitimate in the context of dinosaur death throes, keeping a customer in his seat an extra 18 minutes (not 17, and not 19) might just as likely be achieved by combining the best of both virtues; keep a genuine session beer on tap, one that is lower in ABV and milder, yet flavorful, fills that stool for another pint and resists the Silver Bullet's fundamental vapidity ... at a higher return, no less.

Pete Coors can blow it out his reactionary ass. The sooner the dinosaurs are extinct, the better.

Pete Coors, big beer industry continues to grapple with craft beers, by Jeremy Meyer (Denver Post)

... “Basically the biggest trouble we have is on-premise sales,” he said. “We have a lot of bar owners who are enamored with craft beers. They are beginning to take off the premium light handles and putting bottles behind the bar instead and replacing the handles with craft beer handles. We lose 50 percent of our volume when that happens.”

The company is trying to compel bar owners to keep their beers on tap by impressing them with facts.

“We have done research that shows it’s not in the economic benefit for a bar to do that,” he said. “Having a premium light brand, whether it’s Coors, Miller or Bud on tap actually improves the economics of their business. People stay in their seats an average of 18 minutes longer when they have a light premium beer on tap. That means they are spending more money, leaving bigger tips. We have a little algorithm and an app that we give to our distributors to evaluate and analyze these businesses and bars.”

Sustainability: "It's about the soil."

Lately, and for obvious reasons, I've been fond of saying that the first ironclad rule of sustainability is survival. Without respiration, the remainder is rhetoric.

Then there's crop rotation.

What Farm-to-Table Got Wrong, by Dan Barber (New York Times)

... Today, almost 80 percent of Americans say sustainability is a priority when purchasing food. The promise of this kind of majority is that eating local can reshape landscapes and drive lasting change.

Except it hasn’t.

One section is of specific interest to beer fans.

... It’s one thing for chefs to advocate cooking with the whole farm; it’s another thing to make these uncelebrated crops staples in ordinary kitchens. Bridging that divide will require a new network of regional processors and distributors.

Take beer, for example. The explosion in local microbreweries has meant a demand for local barley malt. A new malting facility near Klaas’s farm recently opened in response. He now earns 30 percent more selling barley for malt than he did selling it for animal feed. For other farmers, it’s a convincing incentive to diversify their grain crops.

It isn't for nothing that we refer to food chains, and in the case of barley (and hops), local supplies count for little absent the means to malt and process them. While it's true that many readers already know this, remember that others don't. It can make for interesting barside conversation.

The PC: The uses of the past.

The PC: The uses of the past.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

For those just tuning in, this column used to appear at LouisvilleBeer.com, but henceforth will be published here each Monday. Previous columns at LouisvilleBeer.com are archived there.

---

In the late 1980s, reports began filtering into Southern Indiana alleging the existence of an institution known as the brewpub.

It sounded crazy enough, and what’s more, the deliverers of this news tended to have a wild-eyed, messianic appearance; they’d seen the future, and it was a place that made beer of its own and served it to you right there, on site, as you sat and stared at a television screen just like at any other bar.

In other words, the way it had been done for thousands of years before being confined to factories.

At the time, my exposure to better beer while living stateside had come exclusively from the import aisle, although the time was fast approaching when I’d be called upon to give a helping hand to friendly local homebrewers by diligently drinking the remnants of their previous batch -- seated in a camp chair, cigar in jaw, watching as they labored to render the next one.

That’s what I call voyeurism, of a heightened, refined sort.

Thus it transpired that in 1992, just a few months before turning 32 years of age, I’d never had the pleasure of setting foot in an American brewpub. Not a single one.

To be sure, I’d visited European breweries both large (Carlsberg, Heineken) and small (U Fleku, Spezial), but upon returning home to metropolitan Louisville, our somewhat barren local beerscape remained, awash with dreadful low-calorie swill manufactured elsewhere in a factory.

Unknown to me, change was about to come. Serendipity always reigns supreme in our lives, and as the leaves reappeared during that spring of 1992, there was a turning point.

In May, I went to Chicago to take the State Department’s Foreign Service exam. Failing that (literally), there was time to navigate the CTA transport grid and visit the original, independent Goose Island brewpub, which deeply impressed me. Perhaps enjoying my first ever American brewpub experience at Goose Island is directly linked to my supreme and abiding disdain of what Trojan Goose has become since selling out to the beer assassins at AB-InBev.

By July of 1992, I’d made the decision to get into the food and drink business at the Public House formerly known as Rich O’s. Later that autumn the Silo, Louisville’s first brewery of the modern era, opened with David Pierce in the brewhouse. The Silo brewed its own beer and served it to us along with food.

Finally, we had brewpub, and had come full circle.

---

A new era abruptly exploded, and with it came many more opportunities to visit brewpubs and microbreweries. I didn’t always travel in America, but when I did, I’d look for the places making beer on site.

Here is a list of 15 American breweries I visited during the 1990s

Baltimore Brewing in Baltimore, Maryland
Tucker Brewing in Salem, Indiana
Silo Brewery in Louisville
Pipkin Brewing in Louisville
Oldenberg Grill in Louisville
Oldenberg Brewing in Ft Mitchell, Kentucky
Silver Creek Brewing Corporation in Sellersburg, Indiana
Main Street Brewing in Cincinnati, Ohio
Barrel House Brewing in Cincinnati, Ohio
BrewWorks at the Party Source in Covington, Kentucky
Circle V Brewing in Indianapolis, Indiana
Crooked River Brewing in Cleveland, Ohio
Diamondback Brewing in Cleveland, Ohio
Champion Brewing in Denver, Colorado
Dixon’s Downtown Grill in Denver, Colorado

As you may have gleaned, what these 15 businesses have in common is that they are deceased, and if there is any one integral component of a sustainability doctrine, it is the necessity of the individual, business or ecosystem being animate, as opposed to dead. No pulse, no sustainability.

There were quite a few good beers brewed at these establishments, and also some stinkers. Some of them brewed for production and distribution, while others were oriented for on-site consumption. In my mind, each contributed something memorable to the narrative, and deserves to be remembered.

Ultimately, the reasons for them ceasing to exist lie outside the scope of today’s rumination, although we can reasonably surmise that these factors mirror those of other, non-brewing businesses: Variable leases, poor locations, business plans that went sour when the coin landed tails and not heads, or maybe plain bad luck. The slimmer the margin, the less margin for error.

And so on.

---

It doesn’t require Sigmund Freud’s couch to deduce that given recent developments in my own business, where we’ve suspended the food program at Bank Street Brewhouse to concentrate on our beer, thoughts like these would come to mind.

Except that it goes beyond this, I think.

Having witnessed one boom ‘n’ bust cycle, perhaps I’ve developed a sensitivity to the possibility of a second one amid the current, applauded expansion of brewing. I desperately want it to work out like Great Flood’s opening, not Mobreki’s closing; the latter was a brewing operation in Madison, Indiana that never really got off the ground, suffered from quality issues, and folded this past winter (Mobreki’s equipment has landed in Jeffersonville at Red Yeti, which opens today with guest beers; best of luck to them).

I’d like to think that we, as the brewing community, might avoid the mistakes of a previous generation. However, as a longtime student of history, ignorance of past lessons isn’t a good place to begin when seeking to avoid repeat performances.

It has been 10 to 15 years since most of the breweries listed above closed, and we can learn a lot from their experience. Unfortunately, institutional memory is slim in the current milieu of self-absorption, masquerading as beer appreciation. As a result, certain virtues often are viewed as clichés, but they shouldn’t be.

Quality is chief among them, because a reputation for quality is something one earns, over time. When quality is involved, you don’t mind history repeating itself. It isn’t always flashy. Rather, quality is about hard work – over and over again.

To me, the sought-after ideal of quality in “craft,” a word most of us use without ever contemplating its meaning, is an ethos manifested locally and independently. At RiverRoots this past weekend, I thought about it often while examining pottery and other handmade items, and listening to a fellow play the dulcimer.

It occurred to me that condemning the dulcimer’s construction because one doesn’t like the music it creates is misplaced, especially coming from someone styling himself a music enthusiast. In like fashion, last week an on-line commentator maligned the quality of my product line because all 30 beers we brew in a year aren’t IPAs.

I’m forced to conclude that he’s tone deaf.

What can we do about that, anyway?

Good times at the BoneYard Grill in Madison, Indiana.

Madison, Indiana, population roughly 12,000, is a split personality kind of place.

Downtown is built horizontally on flatlands by the Ohio River, surrounded by hills. Although you can see newer homes atop some of these hills, the effect is that of a hidden gem, and it feels like an open air museum.

In 2006, the majority of Madison's downtown area was designated the largest contiguous National Historic Landmark in the United States—133 blocks of the downtown area is known as the Madison Historic Landmark District.

Conversely, past the hills where the uplands begin -- the hilltops -- there's a whole other Madison. It's the newer part along the highway, built out during the past three or four decades, where the chain stores and big boxes are. The historic downtown is invisible from here, apart from wayfinding signage directing visitors to it.

My business in Madison tends to take me into the heart of downtown, where civic fests like this weekend's RiverRoots are held, and where the Thomas Family Winery is located. I seldom wander up onto the hilltop, but yesterday there was a RiverRoots pre-party at an establishment called BoneYard Grill, located on Clifty Drive (State Road 62). Blake and I were promoting NABC beers, and The Tillers were playing music.

Just as people used to say when visiting the Pizzeria & Public House for the first time, BoneYard's location is decidedly nondescript, in a commercial, slightly-bigger-than-strip-mall building. But inside is a pleasing, family-friendly sports bar atmosphere.

I was impressed with the joint, which is a ground floor indie operation.

The specialty of the house are chicken wings, grilled and not fried. BoneYard has creative sauce options for the wings. Later in the evening, I order jalapeno poppers, assuming them to be the sports bar standard, deep-fried artery busters, but BoneYard's version used fresh peppers, cream cheese and a sprinkling of bacon; tasty, and not entirely unhealthy.

BoneYard has a bottled beer list with a few choice imports and American craft beers, and last night, two Indiana beers were on tap: Barley Island Sheet Metal and Quaff On (formerly Big Woods) Hare Trigger IPA. I had one of each. Staff was energetic and helpful. Overall, it was a wonderful time.

I don't issue recommendations without genuinely believing in what's I'm writing, and even then, I don't always get around to remembering. This time, I wanted to make sure I gave BoneYard a tip of the cap, both because of the quality of my experience, and the fact that it's good for me to be displaced from my preferred comfort zones and explore other neighborhoods. In the future, I'll still revisit my downtown Madison haunts, including the aforementioned Thomas Winery, Red Pepper Deli; Madison Coffee & Tea and 605 Grill.

But now I have a place to go up on the hilltop.

Beer festivals proliferate as event season launches in earnest, with trenchant and curmudgeonly commentary.

Today and tomorrow is RiverRoots in Madison, and NABC's annual gig pouring better beer for great music.

May 16 & 17 is RiverRoots 2014 in Madison IN, with music, folk arts and Indiana craft beer

NABC will be on hand to share beer vending duties with craft-brewing Hoosier friends: Upland Brewing Company (Bloomington IN), who’ve been there with us from the beginning; Great Crescent Brewing from Aurora; Indianapolis stalwart Sun King; and Power House out of Columbus.

Meanwhile, Steve Coomes previews the Highlands Beer Festival (Saturday, May 17) and Keg Liquors' Fest of Ale (Saturday, May 31), in which we learn that the coming of Deschutes to metro Louisville has trumped the coming of various other saviors. Before I climax, myself, and speaking of the forthcoming Fest of Ale, NABC will debut our Session Station there.

This Sunday (May 18) is the the Louisville Independent Business Alliance's 6th Annual Buy Local Fair in Louisville. It's always a fine event, supporting independent local businesses.

Next Sunday (May 25; Memorial Day weekend) is the Boomtown Ball and Festival in downtown New Albany. The event is previewed in SoIn, a food and entertainment supplement thus far not sequestered behind pay walls.

It bears noting that while neither the city of New Albany nor local media has seen fit to mention the fact, a consortium of downtown food and drink operators will be running the adult beverage area for Boomtown, including Feast BBQ, Irish Exit, JR's Pub, 502 Winery and NABC. It's unclear to me how our participation can be deemed so important to the success of the day that we've been entirely omitted from the vast majority of advance publicity, but then again, I'm not the mayor -- at least yet.

Thinking about the new world order at Bank Street Brewhouse.

We've suspended the food service at BSB and are in the process of rebooting a taproom

Necessity is the mother of something, and so the schedule at Bank Street Brewhouse may undergo alteration. For now, Wednesday and Thursday hours for beers (only) at BSB are 3:00 - 9:00 p.m., with weekend hours yet to be determined.

When we say the food's gone away, it's exactly what we mean. Of course, we'll adhere to the ATC rules for such, and the kitchen remains fully licensed by the health department, pending the latter's periodic policy coin tosses. No food means no brunch on Sunday, and no brunch means no Bloody Mary bar, at least for now.

We're aware of no laws prohibiting carry-in food from other downtown establishments, so bring a deli sandwich or a picnic basket, and have a beer. We've all been doing it for years at small farm wineries, and at beer venues like Capital Brewing in Madison, Wisconsin.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments so far. We achieved aesthetic success; if it just wasn't for those damned, pesky numbers. I understand and share the disappointment expressed by many as news of our change in direction at Bank Street Brewhouse gets around. But for us, it's an exciting opportunity to think outside the boundaries and re-format our beer brands with place and community.

The object in coming weeks will be to create a whole new BSB program from the ground up, organically, and inevitably with a degree of trial and error. It will be confusing, even to us, but it will evolve, and at some point, it will make sense. As it evolves, we'll do our best to keep people informed.

All of us want food to be a part of it, just not food like before, because what we were doing before, while good, was unsustainable. Now, the sky's the limit: Expanded carry-in, or themed catering, or eventually food trucks; maybe even snacks (only) again from our own kitchen, some day. Or meat and cheese trays.

I appreciate the many constructive comments. Keep 'em coming, and thanks. We're open, serving beers, and planning.

It's time to reinvent, so changes are under way at NABC’s Bank Street Brewhouse.

Just the facts for now.

Here is the press release making the rounds, explaining that Bank Street Brewhouse henceforth will be a taproom and not a restaurant. I have the distinct impression that I'll be answering the phone quite often these next few days, and I'm eager to begin plotting the next course. We'll be leaving some things behind, even as numerous fresh possibilities are opened.

Reinvention is liberating, so stay tuned. See also Steve Coomes's piece at Insider Louisville: Bank Street Brewhouse ends foodservice, will serve beer only after midweek shutdown.

---

Changes coming at NABC’s Bank Street Brewhouse.

“You could knock me over with a feather, because it turns out that the numbers don’t lie, after all.”
--NABC co-owner Roger A. Baylor

Effective Tuesday, May 13, the New Albanian Brewing Company will indefinitely suspend food service at Bank Street Brewhouse, its downtown New Albany location.

NABC’s brewing operation and our original location at the Pizzeria & Public House are entirely unaffected by these changes.

In the days to follow, we’ll remain open for business (exact schedule TBA) for “beers only” while planning, painting and remodeling, and BSB will continue to regularly function as the brewery’s downtown New Albany taproom – altered yet ongoing.

The future taproom format will include NABC beers served on site, and NABC beer for carry-out in growlers and 22-oz bomber bottles. We’re planning an expanded souvenir shop. There will be enhanced opportunities to use the facility as a venue and host for special events.

There may even be nibbles at some point, and we hope to play an ancillary role in animating food truck culture in New Albany, but we don’t intend to be a restaurant as before.

That phase has passed, for now.

Long live the many fond memories.

We had a great five-year run at BSB, and did our bit to shepherd the process of revitalization in downtown New Albany. We actually accomplished many of our aesthetic and ideological goals, but now we need to indulge in some updating and reinvention of our own, because the targets have moved and the competitive climate always is changing -- as it pertains both to the food and drink scene in downtown New Albany, and the market for better beer at home and in the world outside.

We must change along with the rest, and so we will. We intend to remain part of the downtown fabric, just differently than before. It’s a reinvention, not a departure.

Profuse and sincere thanks to everyone who supported the founding BSB concept, whether employee or customer. We are grateful.

Rock on.

Roger Baylor
Kate Lewison
Amy Baylor