THE BEER BEAT: Schansberg explains Sunday and Indiana's lingering sales restrictions: "Support for restrictions is driven by greenbacks more than blue laws."

I've decided to post this link on Saturday so you'll have time to read it before Sunday, when you can readily purchase cold beer to go at your local brewery, but not at a liquor store or a grocery.

We still refer to restrictive laws like these as "blue," but as Eric points out, the prime motivator usually is green.

SCHANSBERG: A history of Sunday and what it has to do with beer, by Eric Schansberg (Funding 'Bama on Bill Hanson's Knee)

In his new book, “A Brief History of Sunday,” Justo Gonzalez explains how we arrived at our sense of Sunday and “the Sabbath.” It is worthwhile to review this history and then consider how it relates to “blue laws” — legislative restrictions on economic activity on Sundays.

Before Christianity began to dominate world culture, civilizations used different ways to identify “weeks” and “months,” needing to observe lengths of time between days and years. Setting the table for Christianity, the Jewish calendar was built around a seven-day week, with its Creation-based Sabbath.

I'll cut directly to the part about "blue laws," because this is a beer column, after all.

Of course, legislation and political economy are always a matter of theory vs. practice. If one wants to legislate rest, the ideal may be prayer, study, acts of service and devotion. But those who don’t want to pray or pray so much will do other things with their “spare time.” So, the reality was often a desire to play instead of pray — something that legislation also sought to regulate.

This brings us to today’s “blue laws.” While fading in recent decades, such laws are still on the books in many states. In Indiana on Sundays, for example, dealers cannot sell cars. And as the recent case of Rickers Oil Co. reminded us, there are restrictions on alcohol sales (although fewer so for bars, restaurants and breweries and wineries that have been granted exceptions by the state).

An economist would expect “blue laws” to be driven by three motives ...

You'll have to go to the newspaper to read the rest, but it's worth the time. Will Indiana's legislature ever get its act together with regard to the crazy quilt of conflicting alcohol laws, exceptions and re-exceptions?

(breaths aren't being held on this end)

THE BEER BEAT: Odds and ends from the month of May. I can't remember anything before that.

Why on earth did I keep the empty bottle?

Roughly a year ago, 18th Street's Sex and Candy was a very big deal. First, the backdrop.

(1 of 4) 18th Street's Sex and Candy, but first, the story of 18th Street Brewery.

(2 of 4) 18th Street's Sex and Candy, and how the "Twitter Fight Over Racy Indiana Beer Label Highlights Industry Sexism Concerns."

(3 of 4) 18th Street's Sex and Candy, and wondering, "What ... the Brewers Association (Is) Doing to Address Gender and Race?"

(4 of 4) 18th Street's Sex and Candy: "Your Sexism is Predictable and Boring, 18th Street Brewery."

Fast forward to a resolution of sorts.

18th Street Brewery Redesigns Sex & Candy Label, Calls for Progressive Dialogue Going Forward, by Dave Eisenberg (Good Beer Hunting)

Company founder and head brewer Drew Fox says the new artwork is not open to misreading. “We want to be part of something positive and not part of something that people see as negative or derogatory,” Fox says. “We know that the [new] imagery would not lead to any interpretation of being a sexist label or objectifying women.”

It's good by me. Any effective strategy for dealing with sexism in "craft" beer is likely to be incremental. We're talking attitudes, and these take time. Speaking of time, I'm a history nut, and "extinct" styles fascinate me.

A few beers no longer lost nor forgotten, by Stan Hieronymus (Appellation Beer)

 ... “Why do I want to taste extinct styles? On one level it’s purely from curiosity: how did it taste, what did it look like, how did it drink? All the things you can only really learn about a beer by having one in a glass in front of you. That simple need to know could be satisfied by a pint or two,” he says.

“But then there’s the cultural aspect. Beer styles—and especially those associated with a specific place—have a wider significance than just being a drink. Because every beer style is a unique cultural item. When one disappears, the culture it came from is diminished.”

Heaven knows for a time, we tried. Back in 2012, NABC's Ben Minton did a damned fine Grätzer/Grodziskie.

Grätzer/Grodziskie ... oak-smoked wheat session ale, coming soon to NABC.

Ben Minton will be brewing another new historical re-creation session beer this week. We recently acquired a small quantity of oak (eiche) smoked wheat malt for this beer. The beer will be 100% wheat, something we've never done here, and it will be a very hard beer to brew. If you see Ben pulling out his hair, this is why.

Ben's task may have been extreme, but the ale he produced was delicious. These are the things I miss, as well as not-quite-extinct lagers like Zwickelbier.

BEER OF THE MOMENT: SCHLAFLY WHITE LAGER, by Ken Weaver (All about Beer)

The Saint Louis Brewery
Schlafly White Lager
St. Louis, Missouri
Style: German-Style Zwickelbier
ABV: 5.5%

As the weather warms up and we’re assessing our go-to summer options, it’s our latest Beer of the Moment: a deftly structured German-style lager with firm hops and a hint of mint.

But why "White Lager"? Modern marketing sets the teeth to grinding, but then again, I'm old. At this juncture, it's always worth a few minutes of refreshing as to the fermentation dichotomy.

LAGERS VERSUS ALES, by Randy Mosher (All About Beer Magazine)

It is common to slice the beer world into two irreconcilable sectors. Lagers are the yin: cooling, clean and constrained; ales are the bold, brash, ebullient yang. When it comes to pairing with food, some have even made an analogy between white or red wines and lagers or ales. The mind seeks simplicity, so a trope like this may be useful for getting a grip on the bewilderingly diverse world of beer, but is there any truth to it?

From the joys of stylistic awareness, I close this installment with the messiness of sausage-making.

Lawmakers to pore over Indiana's 'archaic' alcohol laws this summer, by Kaitlin L Lange (C-J, Indy Star)

Indiana lawmakers will spend their summer poring over the state's complicated mixture of alcohol laws, following a heated legislative session debate this spring over which retailers should be allowed to sell cold beer.

Let the record show this column complete, with time to walk down to Floyd County Brewing Company for a nice, civilized holiday weekend Sunday beer.

Welcome to the "we can't keep allowing Southern Indiana to kick our asses" drinkie law.

Southern Indiana routinely means quite little to Louisville, except (of course) when we have a three-hour head start on serving Bloody Marys and Mimosas on Sunday mornings. Then it becomes all political.

“With the passage of this legislation we have taken steps toward furthering economic growth in Louisville through our hospitality industry,” said Councilman David Tandy (D-4). “This helps our economy keep dollars circulating in our community by allowing Louisville restaurants to compete with their Southern Indiana counterparts.”

Honestly, I find this attention immensely flattering, and will reflect upon it with a smile each time Bank Street Brewhouse serves a carry-out growler at 10:15 a.m. on a Sunday morning -- until Louisville's carry-out laws finally are altered, too.

Seriously: Louisville's on-premise-only mimosa ordinance points to the hypocrisy of various unchanged blue laws remaining on the books, both there and everywhere else.

Meanwhile, in civilized portions of the world, if you need a drink at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, you go and have it. In America, you search through concordances and charts to learn how and where the drink can be taken, all the while thanking the knavery of organized religion for the trouble.

Read Thomas McAdams's amusing recap at Louisville.com