I. PUBLICAN'S CHOICE: MICHAEL JACKSON, R.I.P.
II. "SANDKERWA NA," AN EXAMINATION OF NORTHERN BAVARIAN BREWING, CONTINUES.
III. NABC AT THE GRASSROOTS FESTIVAL AT STRATTO'S ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12.
IV. NABC BREWERY NEWS: HAPPY HELMUT RAUCH & RYE DEBUTS.
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. BOTTLE NEWS: GETTING MORE THAN WE BARGAINED FOR, IN A "NICE" WAY.
VIII. CALENDAR OF EVENTS, HOURS AND RELATED FACTS.
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I. PUBLICAN'S CHOICE: MICHAEL JACKSON, R.I.P.
Last week’s biggest story came across the Internet wires just as the NABC newsletter went to press. We learned that Michael Jackson, the fabled beer hunter and chronicler, died of a heart attack after a decade-long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.
Eric Asimov of the New York Times collected several worthwhile obituary links in his column yesterday, The Prophet of Good Beer:
His death did not go unnoticed in this country, though the attention seemed cursory, perhaps a measure of the battle for respect that beer still faces in the United States. The Washington Post ran a good obituary, and bloggers like Lew Bryson posted remembrances, but for a more detailed English look at his life, check out these obituaries in The Guardian and The Independent.
Two dozen pub veterans will never forget the November night in 1994 when Jackson visited Rich O’s Public House following receptions at BBC and the Silo. There’ll be no encore, and that’s sad, but his work lives on.
Grieving the Beer Hunter's passing: Michael Jackson, the Red Room and Louisville.
Beer hunter Michael Jackson has died; worldwide good beer community mourns.
II. "SANDKERWA NA," AN EXAMINATION OF NORTHERN BAVARIAN BREWING, CONTINUES.
Last Friday, fourteen beers from Bamberg and environs went on line at the same time, combining to represent as many traditional Franconian styles of beer as possible (with a few Greater Bavarian and non-regional ringers tapped to provide representative examples of unobtainable styles). As of today, all still are flowing.
For a half-century, SANDKERWA (SAND-kehr-wa) has been Bamberg’s end-of-summer street festival, one that originated as a church-related commemoration in the historic city’s oldest central district. For six days each year in late August, the Altstadt’s narrow lanes are filled with food, beer and people in a hearty celebration that brings Munich’s better known Oktoberfest to mind, but exists on a less crowded, decentralized and more enjoyable human scale.
As always is the case with our draft extravaganzas, the Sandkerwa NA beers will continue pouring until they are depleted. By mid-September, a new wave of Oktoberfest brands from Germany and American craft breweries will begin flowing, and after New Albany’s annual Harvest Homecoming has concluded, we’ll commence Lupulin Land, NABC’s annual hop festival, on October 19.
Sandkerwa NA at Indiana Beer.
Sandkerwa NA taps (except for two).
III. NABC AT THE GRASSROOTS FESTIVAL AT STRATTO'S ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12.
On Wednesday, September 12, from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., there'll be a special event called the Grassroots Festival on the patio of Clarksville’s Stratto’s Restaurant, which is housed in the historic, renovated McCullough House on the quiet end of Lewis and Clark Parkway. Featured will be gourmet brick oven pizza, craft beer and rockin’ bluegrass music.
Stratto’s Restaurant, 318 W. Lewis & Clark Parkway, Clarksville, IN 47129 (Ph: 812-945-3496). Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door, and include pizza and unlimited beer samples ($3 pints also will be sold).
Tickets are available at these locations:
Bluegrass Brewing Company/BBC Taproom (Clay and Main, downtown Louisville)
Keg Liquors (Lewis & Clark Parkway, Clarksville)
Cumberland Brews (Bardstown Road, Louisville)
New Albanian Brewing Company (Plaza Drive, New Albany)
Tickets may be purchased by phone only from Stratto’s Restaurant: 812-945-3496
Beer
Bluegrass Brewing Company (Clay & Main)
Browning's Restaurant & Brewery
Music
Special thanks to World Class Beverages
Questions? Call Stratto’s or e-mail Trevor Semones: StrattosRestaurant(at)yahoo.com (replace “at” with @)
IV. NABC BREWERY NEWS: HAPPY HELMUT RAUCH & RYE DEBUTS.
We released a special New Albanian Brewing Company beer in honor of Sandkerwa NA: Happy Helmut, named for a merry trinket salesman with whom I once drank numerous half-liters of Spezial in Bamberg. There's a percentage of smoked malt from Bamberg's Weyermann malting house, and some rye in the grist. California Common yeast is used. During tastings last week, Happy Helmut was (happily) revealed to be suitably Franconian, which is to say eclectic, with the smokiness and rye qualities both muted and a noble hop firmness. At less than 5% abv, it's a fine quaffer.
V. RECENT NEWS AND ARTICLES AT THE POTABLE CURMUDGEON’S BEER BLOG.
Bourbon-barrel stout for the world: Small scale brewing and beer exports.
Sandkerwa NA taps (except for two).
Is the planet ready for blueberry barley wine?
Tony Beard's NABC Happy Helmut label art.
Update: Beer hunting by motor coach in the Pacific Northwest.
VI. DRAFT BEERS: OUR LIQUID, DAILY BREAD, ON TAP AT RICH O’S AND SPORTSTIME.
Our NABC beers.
NABC began brewing in 2002, and we’re proud to be New Albany’s first active brewery since 1935. From very deep within the confines of NABC’s garage brewery, Jesse Williams and Jared Williamson conjure 8-barrel batches of regulars, old favorites and new formulations.
Always check the blackboards to see what’s on tap. For more information about NABC beers, go here.
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 dedicated to the workers at the Caesars Indiana riverboat casino in nearby Harrison County.
Elector ... Making Democracy pointless since 2002; English malt, American hops. 7.2% abv. Double Red?
Happy Helmut ... Homage to eclectic Franconian brewing traditions, light bodied and quaffable, with a hint of smoke and rye.
Hoptimus ... Massive and assertive. Stern. Double IPA. Silver medal winner at the 2007 St. Louis Microfest.
Mt. Lee ... California Common ("Steam"), named for the Hollywood mountainside with the famous sign. First brewed in 2006. It has been lightened in gravity and a.b.v. by roughly 10% for the current first summer of 2007 batch.
St. Radegund ... English-style ESB, brewed as Beak's Best in its original incarnation in 2002, then reformulated as St. Radegund in 2005.
Guests from near and far (market pricing).
ON TAP NOW: Everyday staples. Note that Alpha King will now often be rotating with Bell’s Two Hearted Ale . Why? Go here.
Alpha King (five kegs; Bell’s Two Hearted Ale will return the week of Sept. 10, or as soon as an available tap can be found)
Sprecher Root Beer (non-alcoholic)
ON TAP NOW: Rotating selections (limited engagement).
SANDKERWA NA (from Bamberg unless otherwise noted):
Bayerischer Bahnhof Gose (Leipzig)
Bayerischer Bahnhof Heizer Schwarzbier (Leipzig)
Kapuziner Weissbier (Kulmbach)
Klosterbrauerei Ettal Dunkel (Ettal)
Kulmbacher Eisbock (Kulmbach)
Schneider Wiesen Edel Weiss (Kelheim)
In the bullpen (ready for duty when called upon to serve).
Ommegang Hennepin
Rogue "John's Locker Stock" Anniversary Ale - Brewer 2007 (redux)
Rogue "John's Locker Stock" Glen Ale 2007 (redux)
Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine
Stone Imperial Russian Stout
Stone 07.07.07 Vertical Epic Ale.
VII. BOTTLE NEWS: GETTING MORE THAN WE BARGAINED FOR, IN A "NICE" WAY.
The cardboard boxes marked McChouffe were spiffy and labeled as always in English, for export to the United States, but upon opening one of them to stock the bottles, inside were bottles of N'Ice Chouffe, the Achouffe brewery's winter seasonal. Not only that, but the bottle labels were different. Upon closer examination, they were revealed to be written in Danish.
Danish-label N'Ice Chouffe in American export cases? Someone's mistake is our unexpected bounty. For a short time, we'll be completely out of McChouffe and completely in with N'Ice Chouffe in the 750 ml bottles for the same price as McChouffe. Got it? Enjoy.
The new, updated bottled beer list has been published and can be viewed here. Note the expanded Belgian and French sections.
VIII. CALENDAR OF 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.
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, August 31
Sandkerwa NA begins (ongoing)
Our first all-German draft festival, inspired by an annual street party in Bamberg, Germany. Read more here: Sandkerwa NA, an homage to Bamberg’s beers, begins Friday, August 31.
We'll be debuting a New Albanian Brewing Company beer in honor of the occasion: Happy Helmut, named for a merry trinket salesman with whom I once drank numerous half-liters of Spezial in Bamberg. There's a percentage of smoked malt from Bamberg's Weyermann malting house, and some rye in the grist. California Common yeast is used, and Tony's working on the artwork.
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Grassroots Festival on the patio at Stratto's in Clarksville.
Click here for details.
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Thursday, October 11 through Sunday, October 14
Harvest Homecoming
New Albany's annual celebration, now featuring three downtown restaurants/pubs serving NABC beer.
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Friday, October 19
Lupulin Land Harvest Hopcoming begins
Love and hoppiness, in all their myriad forms, as dispensed from all available taps.
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Friday, December 14
Saturnalia MMVII begins
Our fourth celebration of the winter solstice, with seasonal and holiday drafts.
Credits:
Thanks to Jim Bell for his photographic prowess, which we share with you from time to time, and which features prominently at the NABC web site.
Readers who aren’t as familiar with our business should go to http://www.newalbanian.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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