BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: Our Lady of Perpetual Hops foresees a mid-summer debut.

It isn't unusual for a year or more to elapse before a brewery comes to fruition. It's a great deal of work.

THE BEER BEAT: "Dives and hives" in Nawbany, a new brewery coming to Floyds Knobs, and other tales of the drinking life.

The idea for Our Lady of Perpetual Hops first came to light in early 2018, and I suppose the only change is the brewing equipment finding a home in the industrial park prior to the establishment of the Paoli Pike location in Floyds Knobs.

OLPH is hoping to be open in July, so we'll return to the topic then. Best of luck to them in the interim. Reporter Boyle does a solid job with this newspaper overview, although somehow the name of Rob Pappas is omitted. I'm told he's still involved, though.

New brewery to bring unique beer experience to New Albany, by John Boyle

Our Lady of Perpetual Hops to open this summer in Grant Line Industrial Park

This summer, a new hangout spot for beer lovers is coming to town.

Unlike other local breweries, however, Our Lady of Perpetual Hops is a bit off the beaten path, located in the Grant Line Industrial Park just past Indiana University Southeast.

Proprietors Tanner Wortham and Kyle Richmer said the idea to start the brewery and taphouse, which they hope to open in July, started as somewhat of a joke before blossoming into a full-blown business ...

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: How a bicycle ride and Lenin's Tribune connects Bank Street Brewhouse with Our Lady of Perpetual Hops.

OLPH. Photo credit.

Our Lady of Perpetual Hops, the new brewery planned for Floyds Knobs, has passed its initial regulatory hurdles. The article explaining this comes far below, but first you must abide my telling you why the preceding depiction of OLPH took me back a decade or so. 

The early 2000s were my peak in terms of bicycling. One of my regular loops included Utica Pike in Jeffersonville (opposite JeffBoat), where this architectural feature captured my attention. As far as I know, it remains there.

By the time 2008 rolled around, planning for Bank Street Brewhouse was under way. We were interrupted by the recession, but pressed on and decided on the former location of the "day-old bread store" in downtown New Albany.

I'm not sure exactly when I was shown this drawing by Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (El Lissitzky), or who brought it to me (Mose Putney, perhaps?), but my curiosity was aroused. Lissitsky's "Lenin Tribune," a Constructivist moving speaker's podium, immediately hijacked certain brain pathways and became connected with the Utica Pike architecture.

At the time, we were determined to buck the downtown trend, whereby most of the entrepreneurs wanted to be ensconced in "historic" buildings. Not us; we'd take the modern one. In my mind's eye, I could see a grafting of Utica Pike with Bank Street, with the vertical part looking more like Lissitzky's podium.

I'm hoping you can see how the OLPH sketch prompted these recollections. Just imagine the podium facing in the direction of New Albany's City County Building, not unlike a minaret. I'd have been the muezzin of sorts, and it would have been the finest bully pulpit ever.

Nothing came of all this, as our time was far better spent trying to keep the new company solvent. But it was a wonderful fantasy while it lasted, and when I wrote about Lissitzky at the Potable Curmudgeon blog in late 2008, it elicited one of my favorite comments ever.

Good beer and Russian avant garde art? This blog is better than any porn site I've ever found.

Speaking of art, a link:

Reds, whites and truths: A century after the Russian revolution, a showcase of its art (The Economist)

At the Royal Academy, a sinister history lurks beyond the frame

 ... “Revolution: 1917-1932” covers the same 15 years as Punin’s show. The period has suffered some neglect. The myth goes that in the years after the Bolshevik revolution, bland socialist realism stomped on the avant-garde. In fact, after the revolution but before Stalinism tightened its grip on culture, there was a frenzied gasp of creative brilliance. Artistic, technological and political innovations clashed and co-existed. Kazimir Malevich turned the geometry of suprematism to figurative portraits of peasant farmers. Pavel Filonov would use the kaleidoscope fragments of his “formula” paintings to depict tractor factories. Buildings designed by El Lissitzky riffed on the crooked perspectives of photo-montage, and on the uncompromising functionality of industrial machinery.

Okay, okay. Here's the OLPH article.

Floyds Knobs brewery receives initial county approval, by Danielle Grady (Encyclopedia of Tom May)

FLOYDS KNOBS — Owners of a planned brewery in Floyds Knobs that will meld beer and essential oils received preliminary approval after addressing resident concerns about traffic, noise, flooding and more at Monday night’s Floyd County Plan Commission meeting.

Our Lady of Perpetual Hops, somewhat controversially named after the New Albany church and school, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, is a brewery and restaurant planned for 3815 Paoli Pike.

The restaurant's team, Rob Pappas (who comes from a Catholic background), along with Mark Cox, Kyle Richmer and Greg and Tanner Wortham — all Southern Indiana natives — hope to open the brewery in spring of 2019 on a 10 acre lot that Pappas bought in 2009.

On the Floyds Knobs property, the owners are planning a two-and-a-half story restaurant/brewery building with a stage, a garage door that opens to an outdoor area and the ability to brew 210 gallons of beer at a time ...

THE BEER BEAT: "Dives and hives" in Nawbany, a new brewery coming to Floyds Knobs, and other tales of the drinking life.

It's late notice, but if you're out and about today between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., drop by Donum Dei Brewery (3211 Grant Line Road in New Albany) for Chili Cookoff to Benefit Apron, Inc.

Let's begin with a gratifying round of self-aggrandizement.

Thanks to Sara "Bar Belle" Havens for the name-drop in this survey of "New Albany’s smoky dives and trendy hives" at Insider Louisville.

In the early ’90s, Roger Baylor transformed (NABC Pizzeria Public House) into a craft-beer mecca, long before craft beer was a big thing around here. And since then, it’s been the spot to try all sorts of styles and brands.

Ironically, the release of Sara's article was concurrent with RateBeer's annual list of very best places in America to have a beer, in which the Pizzeria & Public House yet again was named as Indiana's best brewpub (with Keg Liquors Clarksville capturing another "best bottle shop" citation).

Sara's pub crawl also took her to Jack's, Brooklyn and The Butcher and Hugh E. Bir Cafe. Taken as a whole, her wanderings testify to a rich diversity of drinking options in New Albany, and in spite of my own personal trials and travails, I have to admit I'm proud to have played my role in it -- and look forward to doing so again.

THE BEER BEAT: Have a look at this Pints&Union pub buildout progress report.

Speaking of start-ups, I too was surprised to see a brewery coming soon to Floyds Knobs.

A craft beer boom is looming. Keep an eye out for these 7 new breweries opening this year, by Bailey Loosemore (Louisville Courier Journal)

Our Lady of Perpetual Hops

Location: 3815 Paoli Pike, Floyds Knobs

Anticipated opening: Late spring

Introduction: We first heard of this new Southern Indiana brewery earlier this month, and it's already well on its way to capturing our attention.

The brewery will be located on a 10-acre property near the Valley View Golf Club, where four co-owners plan to eventually build an entertainment campus complete with a taproom, restaurant, sand volleyball courts, outdoor deck and beer garden.

The entire campus isn't expected to be finished until spring 2019. But this year, the company plans to open a small taproom and brewery in an existing building at the site.

CEO Robert Pappas, a chemist who owns Essential Oil University, said Our Lady's beers will be unique for the area.

With help from an experienced brewer, the team has created beers that incorporate essential oils to act as a sort of aromatherapy, Pappas said.

Follow the brewery's process on Facebook.

Upon further reflection, I recall discussing a similar idea with Rob (a longtime pub customer) in 2012 or thereabouts; at the time, he was looking at a farm in Starlight near the Huber winery and distillery. The brewer at OLPH is Kyle Richmer, and I'm enthused that the Knobs will be getting in on the game.

For the record, here is the entire list.

1. Falls City Brewing Co., 901 E. Liberty St., NuLu
2. Bluegrass Brewing Co., South Fourth Street and Broadway
3. Wild Hops Brewery, 1001 Logan St.
4. Our Lady of Perpetual Hops, 3815 Paoli Pike, Floyds Knobs
5. False Idol Independent Brewers, 1025 Barret Ave.
6. Against the Grain, 719 Lynn St.
7. Goodwood Brewing Company, Vine Street

As a closer, ignore the author's lapse (these days my beloved Pilsner Urquell is owned by Asahi of Japan, not the MillerCoors leviathan) and feel good about how far beer has come in the States.

Now, all we need to do is make sense of where we've been. I have a feeling this is something that will be occupying much of my time in the near future.

Craft Beer Is the Strangest, Happiest Economic Story in America, by Derek Thompson (City Lab)

Corporate goliaths are taking over the U.S. economy, yet small breweries are thriving. Why?

But what explains the nature of the craft-beer boom? From several interviews with economists and beer-industry experts, I’ve gathered that there appear to be two big reasons—a straightforward cause and a more complex and interesting history.