LIBA's annual Brewfest shines a spotlight on independent local businesses.

Louisville Independent Business Alliance's 3rd annual Louisville Brewfest was held on Friday, July 1, at Mellwood Arts Center. NABC and the other Louisville-area breweries participated, as did Kentucky Ale (Lexington) and Upland (Bloomington). I've posted photos here.

It's a good thing so many breweries were there, and that LIBA purchased so much beer. NABC alone depleted eight full kegs in roughly five hours of serving, in pour sizes ranging from 3-oz to 12-oz to 16-oz. It was very, very crowded, but folks were patient and fun-loving throughout, and LIBA now has a very good problem: How to grow the Brewfest in coming years, and where to do it.

The exciting part to me is not so much the beer we poured. It's who the festival is designed to benefit: Independent small businesses who belong to LIBA. The energy at such an event derives more from an appreciation and understanding of buying and thinking locally than whatever beers happen to be pouring. It's a gratifyingly futurist vibe that simultaneously connects all of us, consumer or purveyor, with our collective pasts.

In an elemental way that McDonald's and Wal-Mart can never, ever achieve, it promotes individuality and possibility, and it makes us real. If I did not embrace this ethos, I wouldn't bother being in business.

NABC is happy to belong to both LIBA and NA First (see subsequent article), and the NA Confidential blog is equally delighted to espouse these genuine principles of sustainability and local action whenever it can.