THE BEER BEAT: The twentieth Gravity Head begets a Pints & Union update.

The beginnings of a bar. 

The siding begins.

It wasn't until a few days prior to our recent departure for Portugal that I remembered February 23 was the beginning of Gravity Head.

Ladies and gentlemen, the inimitable Tony Beard.

It's the 20th such celebration, and during the first 17 of them, I usually was busy tending to the birth, right up until the curtain parted.

There is background in this column from 2016.

ON THE AVENUES: Gravity Head again, because times change, and possessive pronouns change with them.

For so many years, I’d do the ordering and stashing; write, rewrite and publish the program; disseminate the propaganda; rig tap handles; produce signage; and count glassware … and by the time all of it was ready, it felt like I knew each one of those kegs personally. Farmers must feel that way when they take their piggies to market.

I am compelled to make this link because it turns out that the managing editor of Indiana on Tap didn't even know about Gravity Head until this year, and in three articles (1, 2, 3), my name doesn't come up even once.

That's just fine by me.

Mark Lasbury does an excellent job of describing what Gravity Head looks like to the uninitiated (bizarre insanity), so take it to the bank: what makes me mildly  churlish isn't the absence of personal recognition, but the fact that beer history is routinely neglected these days -- and there's a lot of history to Gravity Head.

In point of fact, while I may be a Session Head these days, I'm damned proud of it.

The verdict: maybe I've been away long enough, and it's time for a comeback. In this vein, here's an update about the emerging Pints & Union project.

First, a few links.

ON THE AVENUES: Golden oldie classic comfort beers at an old school pub? Sounds like Pints & Union to me.

SHANE'S EXCELLENT NEW WORDS: On taverns, pubs, Gaststätten and Bung -- with a Mencken chaser.

THE BEER BEAT: "Pints & Union to open in New Albany, will be inspired by classic European pubs."

The News and Tribune piece appeared as we arrived in Porto. I toasted it with an ice-cold Super Bock, about which there'll be more to say as the jet lag dissipates.

Future New Albany pub about the classics and conversation, by Danielle Grady (N & T)

NEW ALBANY — Joe Phillips and Roger Baylor both have experienced the thrill of being on the cutting edge.

Phillips, a 27-year veteran of the service industry, has helped set up trendy Louisville favorites, such as Copper & Kings and The Butchertown Social. Baylor was an original founder of the New Albanian Brewing Co., which effectively introduced craft beer to Southern Indiana.

The latest brew they’re whipping up for the Louisville area is about going back to the comfortable basics: a United Kingdom-inspired pub with classic drinks and no televisions, planned for the former Vickie’s Good Times Bar & Grill at 114 E. Market St. in downtown New Albany. The building's interior and exterior are being completely renovated.

Pints & Union will likely feature eight taps, curated by Baylor, with five that he plans to keep the same all the time. So far, he knows of three beers that the bar will definitely provide: a Guinness stout, a Pilsner Urquell and a Fuller’s London Pride — all fairly standard, historically speaking. The beers won’t possess crazy high alcohol contents, either, with most staying around 5 percent.

It’s a little different than the constantly rotating taps and beer choices embittered by hops that Baylor’s focused on in the past ...