PINTS & UNION PORTFOLIO: It’s still better dancing with the table beer than sleeping on the floor.

A long time ago when I first visited Belgium harboring the crazy idea that I'd drink the country dry of traditional ale, there'd be these bottles on the market shelf with replaceable plastic caps and a budget traveler's dream price tag.

Closer examination revealed why; they were "table beers" of very low alcohol content, suitable for thirst-quenching by those (I'm one) who find little value in sticky sweet soft drinks -- or, as was explained to me at the time, intended to take the place of those awful little cartons of milk at American school cafeterias, because Belgian schoolchildren drank table beer, not liquid bovine snot.

Verily, the stork dropped me on the wrong continent.

Like most other beer styles and traditions embraced by Americans during the years of the craft beer explosion, table beer has undergone a metamorphosis into something different than it ever was, explained here.

What Is Table Beer, the Beer We've Been Seeing Everywhere?, by Alex Delany (Bon Appetit)

No, table beer isn't just when you put a beer on your table.

 ... Historically, a table beer was a beer for everyone at the table, most prominent in Belgium and France. Your mom. Her friend Carol. Your great uncle Victor. And the kids. All of the kids. Like, six year-old kids, drinking beer with their 16th century meatloaf. In medieval Europe, table beers usually contained less than one percent ABV.

But, yeah, kids used to drink beer. At the table. Not behind the shed in their friend Chad’s backyard. Table beer (or biere de table) varied widely in color, but probably tasted something like soaking Wheaties in water and then squeezing out all of that absorbed liquid. Kinda bready. Kinda sweet. Gently carbonated (or maybe totally still).

These days, table beer is a bit different ... in Indianapolis, Central State Brewing is canning an easily crushable, pleasantly tart, 4% table beer that tastes something like lemon curd spread over a baguette. It’s the ideal “I am currently sitting in a chair on a porch/deck/balcony/patio and have no intention of moving,” beer.

We're carrying 16-ounce cans of Central State Table at Pints&union.

Table Beer

Rustic Blonde Ale

Table is a rustic blonde ale fermented with our unique yeast strains and brewed in the style of French and Belgian style table beers.

Malt Bill: Indiana-Grown 2-Row and Rye

Hops: Noble varieties, varies from batch to batch

Yeast: CSB House Yeast Blend

ABV: 4%

Got to Pints&union, get a burger and drink Central State Table with it. You won't be disappointed. In closing, allow me to point out that my personal interest in table beer didn't begin yesterday. During my former career at NABC, we formulated a session-strength table beer somewhere around the year 2009, and it was a great favorite of mine for volume consumption.

NABC Tafel Bier

Belgian-style “Table” Beer

ABV: 4%

IBU: 15

OG: 1.040, or 10 degrees Plato

It’s better dancing on the table than sleeping on the floor. Tafel Bier is the Flemish language term for “table beer,” denoting a flavorful session strength accompaniment to the wonders of Belgian cuisine … or burgers and wings, too. What do you think filled those earthenware jugs in the Brueghel painting? It wasn’t Bud Light Lime, was it?

Malts: Belgian Pale, Aromatic, Biscuit, CaraPils

Hops: German Tettnanger, Select

Yeast: House Ardennes

Tafel Bier changes wardrobe for Lanesville Heritage Weekend.

Lanesville Heritage Weekend opens at noon today, in the town Lanesville, as the fest has done for the past 36 years, providing a sense of community-centric rootedness often lost on itinerant carpetbaggers.

I'll be around for a bit during early afternoon to nip at a few Tafelbiers, as graciously being poured by the Jaycees at their beer garden. Then it's back to bustling New Albany to oversee the resumption of Live @ 5, and maybe some leisurely voter fraud before dinner.

NABC on the Road: Lanesville Heritage Weekend (Lanesville IN; 09/14-16/12).

Happiness is NABC Tafel Bier at the 37th Annual Lanesville Heritage Weekend.

Yesterday I learned that the Lanesville Jaycees will be serving NABC Tafel Bier at their Beer Garden during the 37th Annual Lanesville Heritage Weekend (September 14-16). I'm much obliged to Chuck Smith and his fellow Jaycees organizers for helping to get this done, and while this festival is not a staffing event for NABC (Jaycees do the pouring and devote the proceeds to their yearly good deeds), our crew undoubtedly will be making appearances.

I know I will, because having an NABC beer on tap during Heritage Weekend is a long-standing dream come true.

Growing up, it was closer to Lanesville than Floyd Central. In summer, we'd ride bikes across the gravel roads (now mostly paved) to Lanesville to play baseball and basketball. After high school, I gravitated toward the K & H Cafe, made numerous friends, played some softball, drank lots of bad beer, and took part in enough memories to last a lifetime.

My first Heritage Weekend came in 1979, occasioned by a relationship with a striking Lanesville blonde. The festival was so small that we drank cans of Red, White & Blue from a cooler in a friend's pickup truck, parked right next to the tennis court. These days, there'll be 80,000 visitors throughout the weekend. Obviously, my choice of beer has changed.

From 1987 forward, my life took successive turns. I was traveling to Europe whenever possible, moved residence to Floyds Knobs (and later, New Albany), and got involved with the pizza and beer business, leading to the brewery, and coming to rest now, in 2012. I lost track of people from those Lanesville days, but occasionally was reconnected with them, which always proved joyous.

Perhaps having Tafel on tap during Heritage Weekend will facilitate further renewed contacts. I hope so.