From 2019: Here are all of Tony Beard's event posters for Fringe Fest at NABC Bank Street Brewhouse, 2008 – 2018.

This one's from last year, but it bears repeating. Monnik has soldiered through the pandemic period, gradually transforming my former workplace into the sort of joint where I'll be spending time at some point down the road. 

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2019 marks the first Harvest Homecoming since 2007 without a concurrent Fringe Fest at NABC's Bank Street Brewhouse, which closed in May and awaits a new owner.

The first Fringe Fest in 2008 actually took place in the gutted former day-old bread store building and adjacent, vacant parking lot, a full five months before the first day of business.

Those were the days, my friends. Take it away, Tony.

My business divorce became final in February, 2018, and losing Bank Street Brewhouse this spring was rough, but it was the right thing for the sisters to do. NABC's original Pizzeria & Public House is a genuine regional icon, and now they'll be able to upgrade it for what I hope is decades to come.

Long Live the Fringe: Here are all 11 (12) of Tony Beard's posters for Fringe Fest at NABC Bank Street Brewhouse, 2008 – 2018.

2019 marks the first Harvest Homecoming since 2007 without a concurrent Fringe Fest at NABC's Bank Street Brewhouse, which closed in May and awaits a new owner.

The first Fringe Fest in 2008 actually took place in the gutted former day-old bread store building and adjacent, vacant parking lot, a full five months before the first day of business.

Those were the days, my friends. Take it away, Tony.

My business divorce became final in February, 2018, and losing Bank Street Brewhouse this spring was rough, but it was the right thing for the sisters to do. NABC's original Pizzeria & Public House is a genuine regional icon, and now they'll be able to upgrade it for what I hope is decades to come.

The Suck Truck, two-way Safety Town, Showtime, and other highlights of a very wet parade day in New Albany.

New Albany's Suck Truck undoubtedly was the high point of yesterday's rain-soaked parade. It would have been better if the Suck Truck followed the Republican Party float, better to vacuum the policy turds ... but you can't have it all, and the tired white GOP grandees refused to take a bow, anyway.

We couldn't help notice that Safety Town has two-way streets. The only question is whether City Hall has yet spotted it.

Later in the day, it was Showtime at the Art Store, and we arrived just in time to hear Dream Eye Color Wheel open its set.

Tony Beard heroically manned the NABC taps ... and as I write at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday morning, it's still raining. You got the Arc? We got the beer.

From WCTU to Woody, some heroic murals.

Above is a template with information elements, which I've handed over to the NABC graphics wizard Tony Beard for incorporation into a banner or sign for a wall in the WCTU Reading Room at Bank Street Brewhouse. Since I'm no graphic designer, Tony is charged with making it into something clever and colorful. He excels at it. I really like what he did with the banner for the Culbertson Mansion Garden Party.

It is to be adapted for Reading Room use, too. Of course, if we can find a place for them, these following two images can be nicely combined into one expression of principle. There's a lot of outside wall space facing south, toward downtown.

Tony also will be painting the front of the building, in a variation of this mock-up.

I like images ... with beer. Yet to be determined is a marker for Lloyd's Landing, which I view as something to think about just a bit longer. It'll come.

Tricentennial Ale: The artwork, the recipe, the schedule and the future.

Ladies and gentlemen, Tony Beard ... NABC's graphics wunderkind in residence.

Here is the 60-word capsule for the Tricentennial label:

New Albany is a state of mind … but whose? Way back in 2013, as the city celebrated its 200th birthday with the usual backward-looking festivities, NABC elected to focus on the Tricentennial year of 2113, knowing that future New Albanians will echo the refrain heard across three centuries of civic history: What on earth were they thinking?

As formulated by David Pierce, the beer is being brewed to these specs:

Malt: Rahr Pale Malt, Castle Aromatic Malt, Weyermann Rauchmalt, Sorghum from Mast and Lykins Sorghum Farms

Hops: US Goldings

Yeast: SWV House Ale

OG: 17 degree Plato
ABV: 7.5%
IBUs: 33

Previously I've provided the release schedule for Tricentennial Ale. You can taste the beer on June 1 at the Culbertson Mansion's garden gala, and a very limited, hand-numbered bomber bottle run will follow in early June. Tricentennial will appear at intervals for the remainder of 2013.

I'll see your bicentennial, and raise you a Tricentennial. Whatcha got?

Tricentennially speaking, the Culbertson Mansion is "the jewel of New Albany."

NABC Eastern Front: The label art.

Tony Beard's artwork for NABC Eastern Front, as discussed previously here: Woody Guthrie and the Eastern Front: "Miss Pavlichenko."

The label description (draft only in 2013; bottling will resume in 2014):

Throughout history, the Eastern Front is where German and Slavic lands overlap, both geographically and culturally, and occasionally in olden times, even militarily. Hence NABC’s assertive, hoppy Eastern Front and its stylistic positioning as a “Russian” Imperial Pilsner. Pair Eastern Front’s German hoppiness with Russian zakuski: Funky cheeses, caviar, rye bread, smoked meats and pickled vegetables.

Let's do an Elector Day recap, with Electimus and a requisite graphic Elector retrospective.

Let's do an Elector Day recap.

Since 2010, Indiana no longer labors under the restrictive "blue laws" that formerly forbade alcohol sales until the closing of the polls at 6:00 p.m. Kentucky has no such luck, and life there will be painfully dry until early this evening.

Over here on the Sunny Side, some taverns will open at 7:00 a.m., and package stores will be doing business as usual.

Both NABC locations will be open at 11:00 a.m., serving beers of proven merit. Our time-tested Elector Ale (for over a decade, it has made democracy pointless) will be on special all day at $3 for an imperial pint.

Also, there's a rare beery surprise: Electimus, which comes out of hiding only during presidential election years. It's a blend of 70% Elector and 30% Hoptimus, and there's only one keg of Electimus at each NABC location. That's it.

In 2008, there was no Bank Street Brewhouse, and so the tradition begins there tonight. I'll be there. The Pizzeria & Public House will be rocking, too, as has been the case since Bill Clinton was elected in 1992.

Vote (and drink) early and often, people. Let's kill a few minutes with a visual history of Elector. First, the official Tony Beard "HOPS" poster for 2012.

The Elector Day 2008 poster was designed by John Campbell. The crazed John McCain image is a classic.

Just how far has Elector progressed since the first clip art cut 'n' paste from 2002? Here is what I cobbled together, pre-Tony.

By 2007, glimmers of a new Elector were to be seen. For a fairly succinct history of Elector, how it was first brewed and the way it came to be named, go here.

There was a retrofit in preparation for bottling, once Elector was being brewed downtown at Bank Street Brewhouse.

Which brings us to the present day -- Elector Day, 2012.

And a big round of applause for the inimitable Tony Beard. He thanks you, and we thank you.

Four views of Hoosier Daddy ... now street legal in Indiana.

According to the Terre Haute-born labor union leader and presidential candidate Eugene Debs, "The most heroic word in all languages is revolution." Indiana has had numerous revolutionaries in fields ranging from basketball to music. NABC honors them all with Hoosier Daddy.

Hoosier Daddy is not easily described in terms of conventional beer style terminology. It is possible to refer to Hoosier Daddy as a "cream" ale owing to the use of lactose sugar, but at 7% abv and a dark reddish-amber hue, traditional conceptions of cream ale are to be discarded. However, there is a certain medium-bodied creaminess, amplified amber/red maltiness, and enough hops for assertive balance.

Hoosier Daddy will be a six-month NABC seasonal, available on draft and in 22-oz bottles through March of 2013, and perhaps beyond that if the drinking public so desires.

Recognition for NABC's Tony Beard at The Pour Curator.

According to The Pour Curator, "There is art. There is beer. This is where they meet." In The Best Beer Label Art of 2011, our man Tony receives lengthy consideration, and I'm delighted for him.

Beard's artwork is consistently as rebellious and outsize as NABC, and consistently thoughtful and well-executed. He's also quite prolific, and updates designs often.

Tony's Wisconsin-Indiana solidarity poster for the Great Taste of the Midwest, 2011.

Previously, I showed you NABC's advertisement in the 2011 Great Taste of the Midwest program. The poster pictured here will be on sale at our booth during the GTMW. I may have mistakenly advised Tony to change "New Albaniana" to "New Albania." Either way, it's fine. I now understand that while New Albania is the home of New Albanians, New Albaniana is the state-wide, Indiana-inflected version.

But first, a word from our beer sponsor ...