New Albany Beer Week, Part Two: Celebrating all things beer, May 25 - June 1, 2019.

Part one here.

The word "iconic" tends to be overused, but there can be no doubt that our annual Keg Liquors Fest of Ale is iconic.

The festival relocated to New Albany’s Riverfront Amphitheater in 2016, which means that 2019 is the fourth iteration at our waterfront. It will be the 14th Fest of Ale overall.

Fest of Ale exists because of American craft and imported beer’s explosive growth in metropolitan Louisville, the state of Indiana and the nation as a whole.

The craft beer industry has grown by 21 percent in Indiana since 2015. C+R Research's "The State of Craft Beer" found the Hoosier state ranked 16th nationally in the number of craft breweries, and 21st nationwide per capita, with 2.8 breweries per 100,000 drinking-age adults ... more than 150 craft breweries employ nearly 8,000 full-time workers across the state of Indiana, creating an economic impact of more than $1 billion a year, according to the Brewers of Indiana Guild.

Fest of Ale’s relocation to New Albany has provided reinforcement for the daily presence of better beer options in our city. The day is long past since NABC's Pizzeria & Public House was the sole local choice for craft and world beers. Consider the dimensions of the historic downtown business district alone. Draw a line from Floyd County Brewing/Grain Haus to La CatrinaDragon King’s Daughter, then from DKD to Gospel Bird, and finally from Gospel Bird back to FCBC.

It's only a 20-minute walk.

There are two breweries (don't forget Donum Dei out Grant Line Road) and somewhere around 125 draft spouts inside this triangle -- to be sure, some of which pour mainstream beers, too -- but probably at any given time there are dozens of craft and imported beers available, not even considering bottles and cans.

As to why all this matters, consider these words from an instructive essay in All About Beer magazine about the way small, independently owned breweries embody hopeful and helpful trends.

Breweries aren’t like the average industrial plant. They are people magnets, bringing folks in who are curious to try a pint of locally made beer. In fairly short order, breweries can create little pockets of prosperity in cities that can (and often do) radiate out into the neighborhood. Pretty soon, other businesses see the bustle and consider moving in, too. It doesn’t hurt that breweries often find run-down parts of towns that have great buildings. Once a brewery moves in and refurbishes an old building, it reveals the innate promise of adjacent buildings to prospective renters.

In New Albany, we can extend this analogy past breweries to any number of eateries and bars that have opened during the past decade. They cannot achieve economic development miracles all by themselves, but when community pillars are unable to muster more compelling strategies, food and drink mark a good place to start.

As has been the case in downtown New Albany. In 2006 city council implemented Indiana's riverfront development area tool to enable reasonably priced three-way alcohol permits, which obviously jump-started a food and drink revolution. Lots of other good things have occurred in the wake of this action, but it should be obvious that beer did its part to help bring back downtown.

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Now to the central point: A firmly entrenched annual Keg Liquors Fest of Ale in New Albany provides the food and drink community with an intriguing opportunity to expand our daily municipal celebration of beer by incorporating a powerful promotional tool.

It’s called New Albany Beer Week.

Many such beer-themed weeks are held across America. They vary in size and scope, and range amid districts, cities and states, but conceptually, there is relative uniformity.

The idea is to educate and disseminate beer consciousness, with an ulterior motive of letting consumers know more about the establishments and people who make it all possible.

There was a previous effort in 2016 to inaugurate New Albany Beer Week; it worked out well enough, but for various reasons didn't survive in 2017.

In 2019 we're declaring New Albany Beer Week kickoff for Saturday, May 25 (Memorial Day weekend). Fest of Ale takes place on the following Saturday, June 1.

During the week of May 25 through June 1 there will be numerous opportunities for restaurants, breweries, bars and retailers to build events and promotions around beer -- tastings, special releases, beer dinners, food pairings, beer cocktails -- often involving wholesale and brewer representatives, who’ll be in town for Fest of Ale, anyway.

Most of these events will take place downtown because that's where the concentration of licensed establishments is. But there are no hard and fast rules.

Obviously Keg Liquors Fest of Ale is a stand-alone entity with its own playbook for participation. The Exchange and Hull & High Water are official Fest of Ale sponsors and thus are accorded pride of place in scheduling. The idea of New Albany Beer Week participation is to weave a calendar of complementary beer events as a prelude to the bigger ticket draw.

Owners and operators: Utilize your wholesaler representatives to plan a beer event to interest the regular clientele you already have.

Beer Week needn’t be nuclear physics, and just because you pull strings and go high to score a keg of something geekily unusual does not mean beer fans will show up to drink it. Please your regular crowd, and their friends and visitors will follow.

It's important to know that we've omitted the word "craft" from the banner. The word is increasingly hard to define, and it's more egalitarian to trade in beer without qualifying adjectives. If you're selling lots of Goose Island and want to center a promotion around it, then give Nadorff a call without worrying about today's "craft" definition.

Note that five breweries (Short's, Sun King, Terrapin, Sweetwater and North Coast) as well as New Day Meadery are Fest of Ale "beer sponsors." If one of them is involved with your event, there'll be "extra" touts from Keg and Fest of Ale in addition to the social media from the New Albany Beer Week page at Facebook.

All that's being asked of participating establishments is to purchase New Albany Beer Week logo glassware for use in their events (and as a way of promoting the collective). There's a bit of seed money for use to get the glasses printed, and consequently they probably can be paid at delivery. This is still being hashed out, but for the moment the one thing I can say for sure is that I need your logo to put on the glass. If you're participating, send your logo to me here.

That's the extent of it this year.

We want to keep New Albany Beer Week as simple as possible the first time out, then grow it as Fest of Ale grows during years to come. An informal group of organizers is working on this year's event. Using the Facebook page as our basic platform, we'll try to collect information, direct traffic, coordinate and do the best we can to spread the word.

I'm excited. We can expand New Albany’s footprint on the metropolitan beer map, spread the word about our incredible local food and drink community, and have some fun. Stay tuned for further details.

There'll be a third part to this digression, but not until I get the list of participants updated.

New Albany Beer Week, Part One: Long live Keg Liquors Fest of Ale, an indisputable annual beer institution.

Fest of Ale home page

Fest of Ale ticket information here.

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I celebrated my 14th birthday on August 3, 1974 -- in Wyoming, perhaps, or maybe Montana. We were on vacation, headed toward Washington state and a reunion with one of my dad's World War II buddies. On August 9 at the Mount Rainier National Park lodge we joined a crowd gathered downstairs in the lobby, standing around a lone radio atop a chair by the fireplace.

The occasion was Richard Nixon's resignation speech.

A couple months later my beloved Oakland A's won a third consecutive World Series against the Dodgers. Nixon quit, then the A's won. My favorite album was Deep Purple's Burn. I can remember little else about 1974, the year I celebrated my 14th birthday.

Returning to the here and now, the 14th edition of Keg Liquors Fest of Ale will take place at New Albany’s Riverfront Amphitheater on Saturday, June 1. It will be the fourth iteration of the festival in New Albany. Last year was a sellout, with somewhere around 2,000 area beer fans in attendance.

This might sound like a crush of humanity, but it isn’t. The major regional stops on the beer festival tour sometimes host as many as 8,000 guests, with Port-A-Lets extending around the entire perimeter like Donald Trump’s walled-in Marred-Ameri-Lago.

Festival founder and package store owner Todd Antz has grown Fest of Ale slowly and organically, from the parking lot adjacent to his original Clarksville store to St. Anthony’s lawn, and now along the banks of the Ohio. It’s an urban area, and yet still presents a pastoral scene of greenery, passing barges and the rising sun architectural imagery of the amphitheater itself.

We pause now for a misty-eyed flashback to the halcyon days of my youth in Southern Indiana -- say, during the James Earl Carter administration -- when men were men, beer was beer and craft was a mail order do-it-yourself birdhouse.

---

Summertime invariably inspired a profusion of outdoor beer festivals, as did fall, winter and spring.

At 17 years of age, looking more like 12, living at home, ducking prying eyes and requiring divine intervention to get served at rarely obliging package stores like the one Todd’s father ran (in fact we never went to Keg because they ALWAYS carded), natural settings constantly beckoned as an alternative.

Priority was placed on those patches of isolated farmland belonging to folks who didn’t know or care that we’d found someone older to procure the cheapest swill possible, borrow a steel tub otherwise used to hydrate future beefsteak, buy ice, and await the grapevine-laden onslaught of teenagers who’d learned without the benefit of social media that a field party was in progress.

When it rained, we got soaked; not the worst conceivable outcome in hot weather, especially if any girls bothered to come -- which was seldom.

Every now and then, a measure of transcendence was achieved, and an enterprising reader might insert one of Bob Seger’s nostalgic AM radio hits to accompany this narrative, although I never liked his music very much after “Katmandu,” which I heard for the first time – where else? – at a summertime outdoor beer festival in the Knobs, with any style of beer you wanted for thoughtful sampling so long as it was Sterling or Falls Shitty, and with tunes like Seger’s blaring from the crackly sub-par radio of a car stuck axle-deep in a muddy field littered with cigarette butts and spent plastic cups.

Decades have passed, and nowadays, lying about one’s age generally implies a downward revision of chronological information on Facebook. Falls City, our illicitly old-fashioned lunch pail lager, went away – and then reappeared with a craft nouveau makeover. It's not an expletive any longer, thank heavens.

Outdoor beer festivals have evolved considerably, too, bearing little resemblance to the midsummer’s night screams we staged during Carter's presidency. Billy's brother legalized homebrewing, but he probably never experienced the welcoming nuzzle of a well-turned beer bong in the steamy July drizzle.

---

As befits the era of “craft” beer’s ascendancy, today’s outdoor beer festivals are devoted to the exaltation of contemporary brewing, and follow a common template.

Ideally visiting breweries and wholesalers provide a diverse selection of beers, and when possible, brewers and beer sales representatives are on hand to answer questions and provide insights. A festival entry fee covers numerous, if not always truly unlimited, wee tastes of these many beers.

Local purveyors vend food, and musical entertainment typically deriving from the rock, pop, blues and bluegrass spectrum is offered, although just once I’d love to hear a string quartet performing modern chamber compositions, or a rollicking Klezmer band covering the Ramones.

As billed, “craft” beer festivals enhance the genre’s visibility through heightened consciousness and increased recognition. They also give back to the community by supporting chosen charities – and if they don’t, suspicion is fully warranted.

Reduced entry prices for designated drivers and the encouragement of moderation illustrate that beer consciousness and social conscience go together like espresso beans and imperial stout.

The template might be common, but the execution separates the pros from the amateurs. In Louisville, the collegiate scrum known as Brew at the Zoo probably remains the largest outdoor “craft” beer festival, although perhaps it has been eclipsed by Tailspin Ale Fest, held at Bowman Field.

In terms of organization, there is no comparison. Unlike the zoo free-for-all, Tailspin is a class act conceived and organized by Tisha Gainey, Todd’s cousin; as you can see, good taste and attention to detail runs in the family. Tailspin is tops in Louisville, and Fest of Ale has no competition in Southern Indiana.

(Speaking personally, my favorite festive rite of summertime beer held in an outdoor setting takes place each year on the second Saturday in August: It’s the Great Taste of the Midwest, in Madison, Wisconsin. If you’re a beer nut, you owe it to yourself to install the Great Taste in one of your bucket list slots.)

Let’s close with a flashback to Saturday, June 2, 2007. It was the second Fest of Ale, held behind the store on Highway 131 -- had it yet been renamed Lewis & Clark Parkway? – and what I’ll never forget is what happened when a brief thunderstorm slammed the fest site.

Instead of running for cover, everyone grabbed the tent framework’s steel rods with one arm to keep it from blowing to Oz.

The other arm?

Priorities, my friend, because there's no "here, hold my beer" for the truly pure of heart.

I reported on the 2007 event.

“Yesterday was the second annual Fest of Ales at Keg Liquors in Clarksville, and store owner and beer enthusiast Todd Antz surely must be happy with the results.

“After last year’s inaugural event, Todd did some necessary tweaking. He moved the date back six weeks, brought in even more breweries and wholesalers, and relentlessly advertised. I’d guess that attendance was triple that of 2006, and in spite of an hour of stormy gusts and hard rain (given the steaminess of the day, this may have helped entertain the crowd rather than hurt), those present seemed to be having a wonderful time throughout.

“The Curmudgeon’s picks of the litter?

“Upland Brewing’s Eileen Martin brought a 750 ml bottle of experimental strawberry lambic; sorry there wasn’t enough for everyone. I’m trying to score some for sampling at the annual Lambic by the Glass on June 30 at NABC.

“World Class Beverage had New Holland’s Existential on hand. It is another creative excursion into crossover territory, with the gravity and heft of a barley wine, but with an overt hoppiness that derives from ten hop additions. It has a clear, well defined balance between the malt and the hops. Who says one can’t enjoy gravity beers like this and Ol’ Shag, a barley wine from Browning’s Brewery, on a hot, sultry day? Not the Curmudgeon, for he did enjoy them.

“Another surprise for me was the complex and tasty Shmaltz He’Brew Origin Pomegranate Ale, brewed with (duh) pomegranate juice. It’s handled in Indiana by Cavalier.

“Louisville-area breweries were well represented, too, and all the styles I tasted were quite good, and to conclude, who doesn’t like fresh-fried, Elector-battered grouper from Bistro New Albany’s Dave Clancy?

“Fest of Ale is sure to grow next year. Try not to miss it.”

Mighty prescient of me, wasn’t it?

Fest of Ale has grown tremendously during the past decade, and one way to look at it is by calculating the number of beers available for sampling (an estimated 250 from 100 breweries in 2018), although an even better indication of the fest’s success is Todd’s justifiable pride at having topped the $100,000 mark in donations to the Crusade for Children ($16,000 in 2018 alone).

That’s doing it the right way.

In 2019, a committee of downtown food and drink purveyors is organizing a calendar of events during the week preceding Fest of Ale (beginning on May 25). This loosely structured celebration on all things beery is to be known as New Albany Beer Week, and in part two I'll be charting the dimensions.

Part two here.

New Albany Beer Week 2019 will begin on May 25 and conclude with the Fest of Ale on June 1.

I'm happy to say the ball's in the air: New Albany Beer Week 2019.

We're hoping to revive a New Albany Beer Week to precede the 2019 Keg Liquors Fest of Ale.

It's a week-long celebration of events and specials by the bars and restaurants of New Albany, Indiana as we recognize the beverage that saved the world: BEER.

New Albany Beer Week culminates with the Fest of Ale on June 1. There'll be more specific details to follow, but for now, know that the week of May 25 - June 1 is going to be an excellent time to enjoy beer in our fair city.

Here's the link to Keg Liquors Fest of Ale, and here's the skinny on two Fest of Ale pre-sale events events next week at The Exchange.

Keg Liquors Fest of Ale Pre-Sale on the Patio at The Exchange

Join us for a TWO night exclusive discounted ticket pre-sale event! On Wednesday, April 10th or Thursday, April 11th, you'll have the opportunity to save $10+ Fees on tickets for the 14th Annual Keg Liquors Fest of Ale.

When? April 10 & 11th
Time? 5-8 PM
Location? The Exchange pub + kitchen on the Patio, weather permitting.
Address? 118 W Main St, New Albany, IN 47150
How much are tickets? $35 pre-sale pricing. Save $10 + Fees

Save the Date for the 14th Annual Keg Liquors Fest of Ale happening Saturday, June 1 at the New Albany Amphitheater benefiting the WHAS Crusade for Children through the New Albany Fire Department. We greatly appreciate the continued support of local businesses like The Exchange Pub + Kitchen through events like the Pre-Sale on the Patio.

Tickets for the Keg Liquors Fest of Ale will go on sale to the public online, starting April 12th for $45 + fees. and at both Keg Liquors locations for $40.

We're hoping to revive a New Albany Beer Week to precede the 2019 Keg Liquors Fest of Ale.

Keg Liquors Fest of Ale will return to the New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater on Saturday, June 1.

Accordingly, there already seems to be sufficient interest in coming together to revive a New Albany Craft Beer Week (or just Beer Week) for the last week in May, with the Fest of Ale serving as a finale and exclamation point -- unless someone decides to sponsor a hangover brunch on Sunday, June 2.

A "beer week" is a locally-oriented tribute to, and celebration of, beer. The idea is that breweries, pubs, restaurants, beer bars and package stores hold events: beer tastings, beer dinners, brewery tours, beer and food pairings and tap takeovers (to name just a few common activities).

Individual establishments organize their own events, and collectively we try to spread the word. There's a discussion underway now, and obviously I'll return in a few weeks to provide more details. For now, mark your calendars. I'm really looking forward to helping establish a tradition with this.

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: A great idea, this "Old School Beer Tasting" at The Keg Liquors (Clarksville) on February 7.

Yes indeed, I'm delighted to see this trend broaden. It's the same point we're trying to make with the beer list at Pints&union, and so far it's working. Specialties are even more special when they're actually ... special, and not the norm.

I'm planning on attending this tasting. The Keg Liquors is located at 617 E Lewis and Clark Parkway in Clarksville, and big thanks to Todd Antz for staging this tasting.

Old School Beer Tasting

Back in the dark ages of beerdom, choices for good beer were few and far between. If you were looking for something other than a cheap pale lager, you typically had to look for an imported beer that hopefully did not come in a green bottle, or find the few American microbreweries that were still in existence. Names such as Samuel Smith, Rochefort, Orval, Rogue, Weihenstephaner, Anchor, Dogfish Head, Unibroue and more were all we had to choose from, but the choices were always good.

Join us as we go back in time to celebrate the forefathers of the craft beer movement. There won't be anything barrel aged, no haze, no fruit bombs. What there will be is some fantastic beers that are still available today that get glanced at and passed by.

We will publish the list of beers as we get closer to the event.

This is a free tasting and open to the public (21 and older)

One gorgeous afternoon at Fest of Ale.

Someone I know came up to me yesterday at Fest Of Ale, looked around, and smiled broadly.

"It's like going to a reunion each year."

This wasn't the beer speaking. I'm not the most demonstrative individual, and yet there were a goodly number of vigorous "damned glad to see you" handshakes, and more than the usual hugs.

For a very long time, I existed in the minds of many people according to a particular frame of reference, this being the milieu of beer and the NABC businesses. There may have been a element in this of being typecast, stuck in the role I created for myself, although in truth it never bothered me much.

After all, somehow managing to be remunerated for drinking beer is a damned fine gig.

I've been out of it for three years. In the beginning, it was awkward on occasion, like after a divorce. Perhaps this is why I couldn't bring myself to attend Fest Of Ale during this period. The last time before yesterday was 2014 at St. Anthony's in Clarksville, with the NABC delegation.

Consequently, it was good to see so many folks I haven't seen in a while. On the one hand, outdoor beer festivals in summer haven't entirely reclaimed their allure for me. However, it helps a lot to be within walking distance, and the heat wasn't bad yesterday.

As someone who has attended dozens of beer fests, take my word for it: Fest of Ale gets it done the right way. This really is a signature locale event, perhaps smallish by national standards, but plenty big enough to offer numerous beer sampling options without sacrificing the intimacy of an annual "reunion." The vibe was positive, and the crowd well-behaved.

That's all. Congrats for a job well done -- again -- to Todd Antz and everyone at Keg Liquors.

Remember, Fest of Ale is today at the Riverfront Amphitheater.

Todd Antz posted earlier:

There are still a few Fest of Ale tickets available today at both Keg Liquors locations and online.

We also have a handful of bus tickets available from Drake's St. Matthews and Pearl Street Tap House in Jeffersonville. Bus tickets will go off sale at noon.

The fest runs from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m., and the weather looks to be ideal. I'd act quickly if you're still in need of tickets.

ON THE AVENUES: Long live Keg Liquors Fest of Ale, an indisputable annual beer institution.

If you're going to Fest of Ale today, perhaps we'll see each other. I'll be representing Food & Dining Magazine, and Joe Phillips will be on hand to chat about Pints&union.

Don't forget the after party at Gospel Bird:

ON THE AVENUES: Long live Keg Liquors Fest of Ale, an indisputable annual beer institution.

ON THE AVENUES: Long live Keg Liquors Fest of Ale, an indisputable annual beer institution.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

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Fest of Ale home page

Fest of Ale ticket information here.

---

Lucky thirteen.

Superstition is bunk, and 13 was my varsity baseball uniform number, inherited from an upperclassman named Kevin who was one of my sporting idols of the time.

I asked for 13 in basketball, too, and was compelled to settle for 31. It was deemed impractical to reverse and reattach the digits, and this has annoyed me to the present day. My headband was banned, too, being deemed far too exhibitionistic and ABA-like to suit the Bob Knight fans in the Knobs.

My contrarianism has honest roots, and now to the point.

The 13th edition of Keg Liquors Fest of Ale will take place at New Albany’s Riverfront Amphitheater on Saturday, June 2. Up to 2,500 area beer fans will be in attendance, which might sound like a crush of humanity, but it isn’t. The major regional stops on the beer festival tour host as many as 8,000 guests, with Port-A-Lets extending around the entire perimeter like Donald Trump’s walled-in America.

However, festival founder and package store owner Todd Antz has grown Fest of Ale slowly and organically, from the parking lot adjacent to his original Clarksville store to St. Anthony’s lawn, and now the banks of the Ohio. It’s an urban area, and yet still presents a pastoral scene of greenery, passing barges and the rising sun architectural imagery of the amphitheater itself.

We pause now for a misty-eyed flashback.

---

During the halcyon days of my youth in Southern Indiana, when men were men, beer was beer and craft was a mail order do-it-yourself birdhouse, summer invariably inspired a profusion of outdoor beer festivals.

As did fall, winter and spring.

At 17 years of age, looking more like 12, living at home, ducking prying eyes and requiring divine intervention to get served at rarely obliging package stores like the one Todd’s father ran, natural settings constantly beckoned.

Priority was placed on those patches of isolated farmland belonging to folks who didn’t know or care that we’d found someone older to procure the cheapest swill possible, borrow a steel tub otherwise used to hydrate future beefsteak, buy ice, and await the grapevine-laden onslaught of teenagers who’d learned there was a field party abruptly in progress.

When it rained, we got soaked; not the worst conceivable outcome in hot weather, especially if any girls bothered to come -- which was seldom.

Every now and then, a measure of transcendence was achieved, and an enterprising reader might insert one of Bob Seger’s nostalgic AM radio hits to accompany this narrative, although I never liked his music very much after “Katmandu,” which I heard for the first time – where else? – at a summertime outdoor beer festival in the Knobs, with any style of beer you wanted for thoughtful sampling so long as it was Falls Sh(expletive)y, and with tunes like Seger’s blaring from the crackly sub-par radio of a car stuck axle-deep in a muddy field littered with cigarette butts and spent plastic cups.

Decades have passed, and nowadays, lying about one’s age generally implies a downward revision of chronological information on Facebook. Falls City, our illicitly old-fashioned lunch pail lager, went away – and then reappeared with a craft nouveau makeover.

It's not an expletive any longer, thank heavens.

Outdoor beer festivals have evolved considerably, too, bearing little resemblance to the midsummer’s night screams we staged during the presidency of Jimmy Carter – who, after all, legalized homebrewing, but probably never experienced the welcoming nuzzle of a well-turned beer bong in the steamy July drizzle.

---

As befits the era of “craft” beer’s ascendancy, today’s outdoor beer festivals take place in summer – and increasingly, also in fall, winter and spring. They’re devoted to the exaltation of contemporary brewing, and follow a common template.

Ideally, breweries and wholesalers provide a diverse selection of beers, and when possible, brewers and beer sales representatives will be on hand to answer questions and provide insights. A festival entry fee covers numerous, if not always truly unlimited, wee tastes of these many beers.

Local purveyors vend food, and musical entertainment typically deriving from the rock, pop, blues and bluegrass spectrum is offered, although just once I’d love to hear a string quartet performing modern chamber compositions, or a rollicking Klezmer band covering the Ramones.

As billed, “craft” beer festivals enhance the genre’s visibility through heightened consciousness and increased recognition. They also give back to the community by supporting chosen charities – and if they don’t, suspicion is fully warranted.

Reduced entry prices for designated drivers and the encouragement of moderation illustrate that beer consciousness and social conscience go together like espresso beans and imperial stout.

The template might be common, but the execution separates the pros from the amateurs. In Louisville, the collegiate scrum known as Brew at the Zoo probably remains the largest outdoor “craft” beer festival, although perhaps it has been eclipsed by Tailspin Ale Fest, held mostly indoors and partly outside in a Bowman Field aircraft hangar.

In terms of organization, there is no comparison. Unlike the zoo free-for-all, Tailspin is a class act conceived and organized by Tisha Gainey, Todd’s cousin; as you can see, good taste and attention to detail runs in the family. Tailspin is tops in Louisville, and Fest of Ale has no competition in Southern Indiana.

(Speaking personally, my favorite festive rite of summertime beer held in an outdoor setting takes place each year on the second Saturday in August: It’s the Great Taste of the Midwest, in Madison, Wisconsin. If you’re a beer nut, you owe it to yourself to install the Great Taste in one of your bucket list slots.)

Let’s close with a flashback to Saturday, June 2, 2007. It was the second Fest of Ale, held behind the store on Highway 131 -- had it yet been renamed Lewis & Clark Parkway? – and what I’ll never forget is what happened when a brief thunderstorm slammed the fest site.

Instead of running for cover, everyone grabbed the tent framework’s steel rods with one arm to keep it from blowing to Oz.

The other arm?

Priorities, my friend, because there's no "here, hold my beer" for the truly pure of heart.

---

“Yesterday was the second annual Fest of Ales at Keg Liquors in Clarksville, and store owner and beer enthusiast Todd Antz surely must be happy with the results.

“After last year’s inaugural event, Todd did some necessary tweaking. He moved the date back six weeks, brought in even more breweries and wholesalers, and relentlessly advertised. I’d guess that attendance was triple that of 2006, and in spite of an hour of stormy gusts and hard rain (given the steaminess of the day, this may have helped entertain the crowd rather than hurt), those present seemed to be having a wonderful time throughout.

“The Curmudgeon’s picks of the litter?

“Upland Brewing’s Eileen Martin brought a 750 ml bottle of experimental strawberry lambic; sorry there wasn’t enough for everyone. I’m trying to score some for sampling at the annual Lambic by the Glass on June 30 at NABC.

“World Class Beverage had New Holland’s Existential on hand. It is another creative excursion into crossover territory, with the gravity and heft of a barley wine, but with an overt hoppiness that derives from ten hop additions. It has a clear, well defined balance between the malt and the hops. Who says one can’t enjoy gravity beers like this and Ol’ Shag, a barley wine from Browning’s Brewery, on a hot, sultry day? Not the Curmudgeon, for he did enjoy them.

“Another surprise for me was the complex and tasty Shmaltz He’Brew Origin Pomegranate Ale, brewed with (duh) pomegranate juice. It’s handled in Indiana by Cavalier.

“Louisville-area breweries were well represented, too, and all the styles I tasted were quite good, and to conclude, who doesn’t like fresh-fried, Elector-battered grouper from Bistro New Albany’s Dave Clancy?

“Fest of Ale is sure to grow next year. Try not to miss it.”

Mighty prescient of me, wasn’t it?

Fest of Ale has grown tremendously during the past decade, and one way to look at it is by calculating the number of beers available for sampling (an estimated 250 from 100 breweries in 2018), although an even better indication of the fest’s success is Todd’s justifiable pride at having topped the $100,000 mark in donations to the Crusade for Children.

That’s doing it the right way.

---

Previously:

THE BEER BEAT: Fest of Ale returns on June 2, so please allow me to revive an idea for pre-fest fun next year.

---

Recent columns:

May 17: ON THE AVENUES: Ghosts within these stones, defiance in these bones.

May 10: ON THE AVENUES: Seeing is believing.

May 3: ON THE AVENUES: Sadly, the Kentucky Derby no longer is decadent and depraved. It’s just another vacuous capitalist bait ‘n’ switch.

April 26: ON THE AVENUES: The wonder years.

THE BEER BEAT: Sunday sales in Indiana: "Now that we have today out of the way it's just 7 days a week of normalcy."

Shane Pearson is one of the owners of Daredevil Brewing Company, and if you want to know why I think so highly of Daredevil, note this:

As the seminal British rock band The Faces once observed, "Ooh La La."

Meanwhile, Todd "Keg Liquors" Antz contributes this list of media coverage centering on Opening (Sun)Day, 2018.

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Think people were excited about Sunday sales yesterday? Check out all of the great media coverage:

WDRB
http://www.wdrb.com/story/37642348/march-4-marks-first-sunday-of-legal-alcohol-sales-in-indiana

WAVE
http://www.wave3.com/story/37643831/hoosiers-mark-first-day-of-sunday-alcohol-sales

WHAS
http://www.whas11.com/article/news/local/indiana/hoosiers-celebrate-first-sunday-open-to-liquor-sales/417-525627218

WLKY
http://www.wlky.com/article/hoosiers-able-to-buy-alcohol-on-sundays/19076436

News & Tribune
http://www.newsandtribune.com/news/sunday-alcohol-sales-off-to-brisk-start-in-southern-indiana/article_af49a546-1ffd-11e8-a9a8-2781bef24a8e.html

2017 Fest of Ale ticket presale at The Exchange on Thursday, April 13, 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Learn more about this year's Keg Liquors Fest of Ale, returning to New Albany's Riverfront Amphitheater on Saturday, June 3.

The ticket presale is this week on Thursday evening:

Here is your chance to get the first crack at tickets for the 2017 Keg Liquors Fest of Ale. General ticket sales will start on April 14th, but you can get them a day earlier and save some money as well.

Fest of Ale representatives will be at the Exchange Pub + Kitchen from 5:00 - 8:00 PM on April 13th selling discounted tickets for the Fest of Ale. Tickets will be on sale for $30.00, a $10 savings off of the regular price of $40.00.

We will be accepting credit cards, cash and checks for payment.

Stop in, get a drink or a meal and get the first crack at tickets for what will be a sold out event and save some money as well.

ON THE AVENUES: Introducing New Albany Craft Beer Week, May 27 – June 4, 2016.

ON THE AVENUES: Introducing New Albany Craft Beer Week, May 27 – June 4, 2016.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Earlier in 2016, it was revealed that the annual Keg Liquors Fest of Ale will relocate to New Albany’s Riverfront Amphitheater. For the past decade, Fest of Ale has been held in Clarksville.

The 2016 date for Keg Liquors Fest of Ale is Saturday, June 4, and the event is sure to attract around 1,500 craft beer devotees, with room for future growth. As in the past, proceeds are to be donated to the Crusade for Children, and if experience is any indication, there will be stellar selection of craft beer samples.

Another riverside festival dominated local headlines earlier this week, as the city of Jeffersonville announced it would be hosting Abbey Road on the River (an important Beatles-themed music festival) in 2017. Next year it will shift to Indiana from its current home on the Belvedere in downtown Louisville.

My guess is that many readers would rank Abbey Road on the River above Keg Liquors Fest of Ale in approximate order of importance. I don’t think so, and although I’m as much of a Beatles fan as anyone, it is my opinion that New Albany comes out ahead with craft beer.

That’s because there’s quite a lot of craft beer in New Albany these days, which in itself is a statement of fact once deemed unlikely, even by me.

Fest of Ale exists because of craft beer’s explosive growth. Ratings regularly confirm Keg Liquors as a major regional retail player when it comes to craft beer. Craft beer market penetration in Indiana is in the top twenty, nationwide, and there are 120 operational Hoosier breweries – three of them in New Albany.

Taken together, these factors combine to create considerable potential synergy for New Albany. Especially downtown, we’re already is a craft beer hotbed, far more so than Jeffersonville.

Fest of Ale’s presence in New Albany provides the reinforcement of an exclamation mark for what has become a formidable daily craft beer presence.

Just look at a map of downtown New Albany. Draw a line from Floyd County Brewing to Dragon King’s Daughter, then from DKD to Gospel Bird, and finally from Gospel Bird back to FCBC. There are somewhere between 75 and 100 draft spouts inside this triangle – to be sure, not all pouring craft beers, but perhaps as many as 80% are.

That’s big. If you were here ten years ago, you understand how big -- and I’m purposefully excluding the remainder of the city: NABC Pizzeria & Public House, Donum Dei Brewery, Bridge Liquors, Sunset Spirits … the list is large, indeed.

As to why this matters – why the existence of small, independently owned breweries constitutes hopeful and helpful tends – consider these words from an instructive essay in All About Beer magazine.

Breweries aren’t like the average industrial plant. They are people magnets, bringing folks in who are curious to try a pint of locally made IPA. In fairly short order, breweries can create little pockets of prosperity in cities that can (and often do) radiate out into the neighborhood. Pretty soon, other businesses see the bustle and consider moving in, too. It doesn’t hurt that breweries often find run-down parts of towns that have great buildings. Once a brewery moves in and refurbishes an old building, it reveals the innate promise of adjacent buildings to prospective renters.

In New Albany, we can extend this analogy to any number of eateries and bars that have opened during the past decade. They cannot achieve economic development miracles all by themselves, but when community pillars are unable to muster more compelling strategies, food and drink mark a good place to start.

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The advent of Keg Liquors Fest of Ale in New Albany provides an intriguing opportunity to expand our daily municipal celebration of craft beer by incorporating a powerful promotional tool.

It’s called New Albany Craft Beer Week.

Provisional graphic. Mr. Thrasher, we need you.

Many such weeks are honored across America. They vary in size and scope, and range across districts, cities and states, but conceptually, there is relative uniformity.

The idea is to educate and disseminate craft beer consciousness, with an ulterior motive of letting consumers know more about the establishments and people who make it all possible.

In 2016, the New Albany Restaurant & Bar Association (NARBA) already is planning a New Albany Restaurant & Bar Week to bridge the days between Indie Fest (Saturday, September 24) with the Harvest Homecoming Parade and NARBA’s pop-up food and beer garden (Biers on Parade) at the Farmers Market (Saturday, October 1).

New Albany Restaurant & Bar Week in autumn is intended to emphasize food, and now we have a natural linkage in springtime to do the same for craft beer, hence New Albany Craft Beer Week.

At some point down the road, perhaps Gary can organize a wine fest in summer, or Matt something to do with cider in winter. The pairing possibilities are endless.

Though as yet unconfirmed, the city of New Albany’s third annual Boomtown Ball should fall on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, which is May 29. As noted, Keg Liquors Fest of Ale will be on June 4. Consequently, we’ll aim for a New Albany Craft Beer Week kickoff on Friday, May 27.

From May 27 through June 4, there will be numerous opportunities for restaurants, breweries, bars and retailers to build events and promotions around craft beer -- tastings, special releases and beer dinners, perhaps involving wholesale and brewer representatives, who’ll be in town for Fest of Ale, anyway.

Obviously, both Boomtown Ball and Keg Liquors Fest of Ale are stand-alone entities, each with its own playbook for participation. I’m speaking here of weaving complementary craft beer showcases in and around these bigger ticket draws.

This entire idea has risen spontaneously, and NARBA doesn’t have a comprehensive plan for it. However, several of us have been involved with similar undertakings in the past, as I was with Louisville Craft Beer Week’s launch in 2010.

NARBA’s basic task for New Albany Craft Beer Week will be to collect information, direct traffic, coordinate and do the best we can to spread the word. In the coming days, we’ll get to work designing a poster (I’m looking at you, Dave Thrasher) and some rudimentary semblance of a web site or Facebook page.

Owners and operators: Merely plan your event to interest the clientele you already have. This needn’t be nuclear physics. If Bell’s is your big seller, mention New Albany Craft Beer Week to your Bell’s sales rep, and ask for suggestions. They’re eager to serve you.

Take them up on it.

A tremendous opportunity awaits. We can expand New Albany’s footprint on the metropolitan beer map, spread the word about our incredible local food and drink community, and have some fun.

Your ideas are critical, so let me have ‘em.

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March 17: ON THE AVENUES: Erin Go Blagh -- a timeless classic for a green-hued holiday.

March 10: ON THE AVENUES: A funny thing happened on the way to a city council nightcap.

March 3: ON THE AVENUES: Since 1960, outside looking in.

February 29: ON THE AVENUES REPRISE: Die hard the Hunter, or the political "impossibility" of rental property registration in New Albany (2015).

Keg Liquors Fest of Ale will move to New Albany's Riverfront Amphitheater in 2016; the 11th annual edition slated for June 4.

Saturday, June 4th remains the date for the 11th Annual Keg Liquors Fest of Ale, but the 2016 edition of the festival will be held at the Riverfront Amphitheater in New Albany.

Here's the press release from Todd Antz.

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Fest of Ale on the move.

New Albany, Ind. (February 2016) – After 10 successful years in Clarksville, the Keg Liquors Fest of Ale is changing venues. The 11th Annual Fest of Ale will be held on June 4th, 2016 at the New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater.

“Moving the event was a tough decision, but we felt that we had outgrown the space we were using at St. Anthony’s,” said Todd Antz, owner of Keg Liquors. “St. Anthony’s has been very generous with their facilities and support over the years, and we could not have grown the event to the size it is today without their help.

"We felt that the event was becoming a bit too taxing for their neighbors and parishioners, and that it was best for both parties if we moved on. We’ve always had a great relationship with St. Anthony’s and look forward to working with them in any future opportunities that may come up. I can’t thank everyone at St. Anthony’s enough for their support over the last 7 years of hosting our charity event. We could not have done this without them.”

The New Albany Riverfront Amphitheater, located below East Main Street at the foot of Pearl Street, is home each spring and summer to numerous free concerts, productions, festivals and other events.

The move to the Riverfront Amphitheater will allow the Fest of Ale to expand in size, provide more parking, as well as having access to all of the great restaurants and businesses in downtown New Albany.

“The Fest of Ale has always been a grassroots festival that promotes independent breweries and businesses, so moving the event to an area that has reinvigorated itself with all of the great shops and restaurants made perfect sense to us,” continued Antz. “The City of New Albany was very excited to help us with the event, and we look forward to working with them to make this the best Fest of Ale ever.”

Tickets for the 2016 Fest of Ale will go on sale at the beginning of April.

Keg Liquors
Keeping Kentuckiana Beer'd since 1976
http://www.kegliquors.com

617 E. Lewis and Clark Parkway
Clarksville, IN 47129
812-283-3988

4304 Charlestown Road
New Albany, IN 47150
812-948-0444

LIBA video: "Keg Liquors Reason 2 and 3."

Todd Antz of Keg Liquors is a video star, sharing some of his reasons for being a member of the Louisville Independent Business Alliance. NABC is, too. Maybe some day we ... nah, that's not possible. It would offend DNA.

NABC bottles spotted at Keg Liquors.

Stay tuned; more to come on the NABC bottling project. Thanks to Todd for the photo.

The 5th Annual Keg Liquors Fest of Ale is this Saturday, June 5.

Submitted ... NABC will be there with Rosa, our draft truck.

Beer-lovers can take a trip to the Fest of Ale; 5th annual event benefits Crusade for Children

CLARKSVILLE, INDIANA - Some folks enjoy their beer so much that they'd gladly take a trip around the world to sample the wares. But if time and money are a little tight right now, the Keg Liquors Fest of Ale will condense the experience into one spring afternoon - and for a good cause, to boot.

The 5th annual Fest rolls around on Saturday, June 5, from 3-7 p.m. For the second year, it's on tap for St. Anthony's Catholic Church, 320 N. Sherwood Ave., Clarksville, Ind.

More than 40 breweries and three craft brew distributors will serve samples of more than 150 craft and import beers, and four fine wine distributors will serve wine samples. The St. Anthony's Men's Club will cook up hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and the like, and there'll be live music and a silent auction.

The overall atmosphere is fun and relaxed - participants are invited to bring a lawn chair and kick back for a few hours.

And Fest of Ale is a fundraiser for the WHAS Crusade for Children. Last year the event raised more than $3,500. "We are looking to top that number this year," says Todd Antz, who owns Keg Liquors.

Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 on the day of the event. They're available now at Keg Liquors, 617 E. Lewis & Clark Pkwy., Clarksville; New Albanian Brewing Company; 3312 Plaza Drive, New Albany; BBC Taproom, 636 E. Main St., Louisville; or online.

The Fest is scheduled rain-or-shine. Current plans call for it to be held outdoors under a tent, as it was last year, but it can move inside in the event of inclement weather.

For a list of participating breweries, go here. This list is still growing as the festival approaches. For other information, go here.

After Fest of Ale on Saturday, a Left Hand meet 'n' greet at the Public House.

If you’re a beer aficionado residing in the Louisville metro area, you probably already know that this coming Saturday, June 6, is the occasion for Fest of Ale, which owner Todd Antz of Clarksville’s Keg Liquors seems willing and able to grow into a true signature event.

In three years, the event has grown from 75 paid attendees to 450 (in 2008), and for this year’s fourth edition, Todd has chosen a new venue: St. Anthony’s of Padua Catholic Church, located at 320 N. Sherwood Avenue in Clarksville.

It should come as no surprise that in previous years, selected beer personages in attendance have fanned out after the Fest of Ale’s conclusion and visited other notable on-premise beer spots in Louisville metro.

With this in mind, NABC Grant Line (Rich O’s and Sportstime) is teaming up with Cavalier Distributing (Indianapolis) and sales rep Mike Walters of Left Hand Brewing Company (Colorado) to stage a post-Fest meet ‘n’ greet in the Prost room at Rich O’s.

Two rare Left Hand specialties will be on tap, and specially priced by the half-pint for the occasion:

Left Hand Oak-Aged Imperial Stout
Left Hand St. Vrain Tripple

Plus, Mike will be bringing the remainder of his Fest of Ale bottle samples, so if you missed them at the event, free evening nips will be available.

We’ll be starting around 8:30 p.m. and continuing until 10:30 p.m.

And, don't forget the weekend's other event: Great Flanagan's Beer Fest is Sunday, June 7. NABC will be there, too.