Thursday, December 07, 2006

Publicanista! ... December 7, 2006.


In this edition of Publicanista!:

I. PUBLICAN'S CHOICE: PENNIES, NICKELS & DIMES.

II. BONA SATURNALIA! COME UNLEASH YOUR INNER PAGAN AS WE PRESENT “SATURNALIA MMVI,” A WINTER SOLSTICE DRAFT BEER FESTIVAL BEGINNING DECEMBER 15.

III. FROM THE HAND PULL: SATURNALIA CASKS COMING.

IV. NABC BREWING NEWS: BONFIRE OF THE VALKYRIES AND NAUGHTY CLAUS WINTER WARMER KEGGED FOR SATURNALIA.

V. RECENT NEWS AND ARTICLES AT THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON’S BEER BLOG.

VI. DRAFT BEERS: OUR LIQUID, DAILY BREAD, ON TAP AT RICH O’S AND SPORTSTIME.

VII. BOTTLED BEER NEWS: NEW ITEMS ON THE BOARD NEXT WEEK.

VIII. EVENTS, HOURS AND RELATED FACTS.

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I. PUBLICAN'S CHOICE: PENNIES, NICKELS & DIMES.

Yesterday the management of NABC embarked upon a noble and unavoidable experiment guaranteed to try the patience of everyone involved, this always being the case when people go and change the way it's always been done.

For a variety of reasons that pertain to changes in accounting software and the manner by which we have started calculating our numbers, henceforth our prices will not include sales tax, as they have previously. As it has transpired, the computer and accounting package will be ready to accomodate the change before the printed menus can be updated.

The new accounting procedures come at a time when we've already started redesigning the food menu, and with a bottled beer list refit due as soon as I have the chance to gather the wholesale price increases. Leaving prices the same for now amounts to a de facto price increase of 6% on food and bottled beer, which in fact won't be out of line given three years since the last food price update, and I'll be tweaking the bottle prices over the next few weeks.

As for draft beer, I'll be taking this opportunity to perform the overdue, top-to-bottom examination of wholesale prices, with the goal of constructing a system that again will have most draft prices landing on the quarter in the dollar.

Your understanding and patience are appreciated.

II. BONA SATURNALIA! COME UNLEASH YOUR INNER PAGAN AS WE PRESENT “SATURNALIA MMVI,” A WINTER SOLSTICE DRAFT BEER FESTIVAL BEGINNING DECEMBER 15.

In pre-Christian Rome, Saturnalia was the annual winter solstice celebration that originally coincided with the feast days for Saturn (god of sowing and the harvest), Consus (god of the storage bin) and Opa (goddess of plenty).

Many of our contemporary winter holiday traditions derive from Saturnalia’s pagan roots, including the hanging of wreaths and garlands, donations to the needy, prayers for peace on earth, time away from work to be enjoyed with family, and of course eating, drinking and merriment.

On Friday, December 15, Rich O’s Public House and Sportstime Pizza pays tribute to these ancient pagan origins with the kick-off of Saturnalia, a draft beer festival scheduled to last past Christmas and New Year’s into January of 2007.

For NABC’s third Saturnalia celebration, I’ve gathered more than 40 special kegs of beer – some rare, some seasonal and others just innately festive – from America and around the world (see complete list below). Some of these hard-to-find beers will be appearing in draft form for the first time ever in metropolitan Louisville.

When the doors open at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, December 15, the first 17 sacrificial Saturnalia selections for MMVI will be revealed, tapped in a ritualistic manner … and the hedonistic pleasure will begin. The remaining kegs will be tapped as needed as the first wave depletes … and so it will proceed past New Year’s into January, 2007.

THE BEERS.

Pricing and portion sizes vary according to alcohol content and style. Selections marked with an asterisk * are appearing on draft for the first time at Rich O’s Public House and Sportstime Pizza. There will more than 40 draft beers in all, with 17 to be tapped on December 15, and the remaining ones following in due course as openings occur. This will take several weeks. During the festival’s run, information and updates will appear on these web sites:

Potable Curmudgeon

Publicanista!

NABC (under reconstruction)

Veterans observers of the process involved with procurement will recall that none of my festival draft lists are the same from beginning to end. The large number of trap doors waiting to be sprung, carpets ready to be pulled out from under and curves queuing to be thrown guarantees that 100% success is absolutely impossible. This year's Saturnalia is no exception, but somehow it's been more galling than in the past, primarily because spanners have been tossed into the works from directions that previously weren't considered problematic.

But ... the dust finally has settled for the most part. Here is the list:

BELGIUM

FRANCE

GERMANY

JAPAN

UNITED KINGDOM

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

SCRATCHED (ordered, but won't be delivered).

III. FROM THE HAND PULL: SATURNALIA CASKS COMING.

As part of the forthcoming Saturnalia festivities, there'll be cask-conditioned NABC Artemsia (mugwort/gruit ale) and NABC Strathpeffer (heather/gruit ale) in a yet-to-be-determined pouring order.

There also are two cask-conditioned English ales on order from B. United International, but I'm learning from the past and will wait to preview them until the firkins are in my grubby little hands.

For more information on cask-conditioned ale:

Horse Brass Pub (where our friend Biscuit used to work ... more on that later)
Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA)
Warm, Flat and Boring -- the Truth About Cask Ale, from Rate Beer.

IV. NABC BREWING NEWS: BONFIRE OF THE VALKYRIES AND NAUGHTY CLAUS WINTER WARMER KEGGED FOR SATURNALIA.

Here's the recipe notes for Jesse's and Jared's Bonfire of the Valkyries, a unique black smoked lager:

OG: 1070
Malts: Weyermann smoked 2-row, black, special B, aromatic
Hops: Saaz
Yeast: San Francisco/”California Common” (fermented cool, as a lager)

See: NABC’s Bonfire of the Valkyries: Magic fire mood music for Saturnalia.

Meanwhile, Naughty Claus Winter Warmer has been kegged and will debut at Saturnalia MMXI.

V. RECENT NEWS AND ARTICLES AT THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON’S BEER BLOG.

Here are recently posted articles:

ICRUD, re-crud and the prohibitionist gene in America.

Sometimes, things just happen. Like Kronenbourg 1664.

UPDATED: Note the changes: Saturnalia lineup and update.

Big day on December 16th: Cigars, Homebrew & Saturnalia.

Smarter, perhaps richer, and yet ...

It's all about Scotland, at least for today.

Rich O's medals in Rate Beer's "Best Beer Bars in the United States."

Rich O's Public House cracks the Top 20 in Beer Advocate rankings.

VI. DRAFT BEERS: OUR LIQUID, DAILY BREAD, ON TAP AT RICH O’S AND SPORTSTIME.

Our NABC beers (on tap during Lupulin Land 2006).
Brewed in New Albany by NABC’s Jesse Williams, with assistance from Jared Williamson.

Bob's Old 15-B ... We're calling it a robust, brown Porter precisely because style definitions were meant to be bent.

Community Dark ... Based on English Mild, and our light-bodied dark quaffer. 5% abv.

Croupier IPA ... Jesse's homage to our casino employee clientele is modeled on the English interpretation, with a few American flourishes.

Elector ... Making Democracy pointless since 2002; English malt, American hops. 7.2% abv. Double Red?

St. Radegund Bitter ... Classic British character in the ESB range.

Guests from near and far.
Market pricing.

Staples:

Alpha King

Arrogant Bastard

Bell’s Two Hearted Ale

Guinness Stout

Lindemans Framboise

Pilsner Urquell

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Smithwick’s Irish Ale

Spaten Premium Lager

Sprecher Root Beer (non-alcoholic)

Upland Wheat

Rotating (limited engagement).

Barley Island Barfly IPA

Barley Island Black Majic Java Stout

Bell's Double Cream Stout

Bell’s Hop Slam Imperial IPA (2006 Lupulin Land listed selection)

Browning's Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout

Delirium Tremens

Gaffel Kolsch

Great Divide Titan IPA

Kronenbourg 1664

Rogue Dead Guy

Rogue JLS Release #16 Imperial Porter

Rogue Monk Madness

Samuel Adams Winter Lager

Schlafly Hefeweizen

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

Spaten Oktoberfest

In the bullpen.

Bell's Java Stout

VII. BOTTLED BEER NEWS: NEW ITEMS ON THE BOARD NEXT WEEK.

Timed to coincide with the advent of Saturnalia, there'll be a different rotating bottle slate next week.

In fact, I'm undergoing one of those periodic rethinks about our bottled list in general. It'll take a while to implement, but look for some changes come January, 2007. Meanwhile, here's the current list.

N'Ice Chouffe (750 ml)

Farsons Lacto Milk Stout (11.2 oz)

Hambleton Toleration Ale (gluten-free; 16.9 oz)

Remaining stocks of previously listed bottles (all running very low):

BBC Professor Gesser's Mind Numbing Ale

Bornem Double

Boulder Beer: "The GABF 25th Year Beer"

Founders Bad Habit Belgian Quad

Le Baladin Wayan

North Coast Brother Thelonious Belgian Style Abbey Ale

Podkovan Dark Lager

Rogue Chipotle Ale

Don't forget to check the chalkboard in the front room at Rich O’s for bottled specials and seasonals. These are the bottled beers not carried on the everyday bottled list, and represent a wide variety of flavors and textures for your tasting enjoyment.

VIII. EVENTS, HOURS AND RELATED FACTS.

General business hours:

Sportstime Pizza opens at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday. Rich O’s opens at 3:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and at 1:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. We are not open on Sunday except during special events. The same food and beer is available at all times in both rooms, so you may have lunch and a beer in the Sportstime Pizza dining area during those hours when Rich O’s isn’t open. The brewery is available for a look-see if one of us is around and we’re not busy.

Smoking.

Rich O's: The front dining rooms at Rich O's are designated as non-smoking areas. The bar area and Red Room are open for smoking (cigarettes, cigars, pipes). We strongly discourage clove cigarettes, which are divisive even among smokers.

Sportstime: Smoking is permitted in the entirety of Sportstime Pizza.

Wi-Fi.

Both dining areas are hotspots. Please observe proper etiquette when using our Wi-Fi service, and do not disturb or offend others with the Anheuser-Busch web site or other examples of web-borne smut.

2006/2007 events:

Weekly on Thursday evening @ 7:00 p.m.

Drinking Liberally (New Albany & Southern Indiana) meets in the Red Room each Thursday. Contact organizer Lacy Davis for details.

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Friday, December 15

Saturnalia MMVI

NABC, Rich O’s Public House and Sportstime Pizza pay tribute to the ancient pagan origins of Christmas with Saturnalia, a draft beer festival showcasing seasonal specialties and festive ales.

See above for the list.

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Friday, March 9, 2007

Gravity Head 2007

The ninth edition of our annual festival celebrating the brewing world’s biggest and best will kick off from its customary March starting time.

Preliminary keg orders for Gravity Head 2007.

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August, 2007

Sandkerwa NA

Coming in August, 2007: Sandkerwa NA. Here's the scoop.

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Credits:

Thanks to Jim Bell for his photographic prowess, which we share with you from time to time.

Readers who aren’t as familiar with our business should go to http://www.newalbanian.com/ and http://www.richos.com/ for more information.

NABC is a member of the Brewers Association and Brewers of Indiana Guild.

Questions or comments about editorial content should be directed to Roger A. Baylor, who also writes The Potable Curmudgeon and NA Confidential blogs.

THE END.

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