Busy, busy.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Indiana ATC made its final inspection of the Bank Street Brewhouse and signed off. Immediately afterwards, John Campbell and I drove to Indianapolis to snag the license and attend the annual meeting of the Brewers of Indiana Guild.

The guild meeting was followed by a legislative reception upstairs at Alcatraz Brewing Company. District 72 house member Ed Clere was there, and I also spoke with Charlotte Lemieux, one of State Senator Connie Sipes' staffers.

Currently there is a moratorium on legislation dealing with alcohol issues (with a minor exception), but there are rumblings that come April, all bets are off and there will be consideration of revenue enhancers, i.e., increased excise taxes on alcoholic beverages. The craft brewers of Indiana will wait and see on that prospect, retaining our ultimate legislative goal of parity with small wineries when it comes to regulatory matters like Sunday off-premise sales (small wineries are the sole Indiana entity permitted to vend their wares for carry-out on Sunday, while small brewers are prohibited from doing so).

Speaking of neighboring wineries, here's the link to a recent article on the River City Winery in downtown NA: New Albany’s River City Winery slated to open in April, by Sarah Jeffords Pister (Business First of Louisville).

On Wednesday night I was in the Prost room at NABC Grant Line, teaching BeerEd as a non-credit IUS course. The biweekly LEO column was given over to a preview: Beer class tonight.

On Thursday, BeerEd became a road show, as we moved the materials and teaching aides to the Bank Street Brewhouse and substituted the serving corps for Wednesday's adult students: Scenes from employee training at the Bank Street Brewhouse, March 5.

I realize that you're waiting on a Bank Street status report, so ...

The front of the house is 95% complete. Various inspections are taking place today, and I believe this means that we'll be ready to open the doors in a limited capacity some time next weekend, perhaps Thursday, March 12. Keep your eyes on the blog, and as soon as there is news to report, you'll know.

Right now, we don't even know.