Highlands, Nano-Distilleries, Brew at BU, and other junk.

I have pretty awesome neighbors where I live in the Highlands.  To me, the Highlands are perfect and I couldn’t ask for any place better to live in our current life situation (see also: no kids, good/semi-flexible jobs, young).  To my right, is Patty.  A self-described old hippie who is eclectic as they come (as is her awesome back yard) and often has cocktail parties.    To our left is Tim and Roy, owners of the Comfy Cow ice cream shops (there is a plural form now since they are opening two new shops on Frankfurt Avenue and down on U of L’s campus, a block away from my office!).  Two great guys whose local business has taken off, yet remain humble and are some of the best neighbors we could ask for on the other side of the fence.

On Tim and Roy’s other side is Steve.  I didn’t know much about Steve until I spoke with him at one of Patty’s parties in April.  Steve enjoys his bourbon, has a garden and yard which makes mine look mediocre, and best of all…is starting his own artisan distillery in Lebanon, KY.  Limestone Branch Distillery.  One might ask how he got the love for bourbon, a simple look at his last name might do the trick: Beam.  Once they get all the paperwork figured out and the building finished, Limestone Branch plans to craft rum, vodka, white dog, and then put back some spirit for bourbon.   Their mission is to craft the finest spirit possible, using as much organic, locally produced grain as possible in traditional pot methods.

I asked Steve and at the start, he plans to age his first batch of bourbon for four years in the oak barrels to get some started.  Here’s the deal where my ears perked up, not only is he going to barrel in the traditional barrels, but also age some in 15 gallon barrels and sell those off. Hello, homebrewers!  No longer would we need to brew 70 gallons of beers with other people to put in one barrel, heck a single homebrewer could do it by themselves!  Since these barrels can only be used once, I figure they ought to sell like hotcakes.  The Distillery and it’s shop plan to be open in Fall 2011.  Hopefully, we can make a quick pit-stop there during the Bourbon Chase!

On Saturday, Ashley and I were invited/asked/wanted to go to the Brew at BU (Bellarmine University).  50% of my friends here in Louisville are Bellarmine alums and I’ve always considered myself an honorary alum, so I figured it was a can’t miss event (and my buddy Pete ran the show!).  Pete actually asked me to come and discuss beer with some of the people who had questions, so I had a good time filling them in on the current and upcoming local beer scene.  I was asked about Falls City and if it was made here in Louisville (it’s not) and much to most surprise, they didn’t know it wasn’t.  Also, most had yet to hear about Against the Grain Brewery as well as the fact that Brownings was no longer in operation.  The beers involved were New Albanian Elector and Hoptimus, Schlafly Kolsch and APA, Falls City, BBC American Wheat and Altbier.  I pretty much drank Hoptimus all night and helped in that being the first keg to blow.  Luckily, they had some bottles in reserve.  I still think no one had any idea where the hell my shirt was from or what it meant. Oh well. Fascists.

Louisvillebeer.com just recently went live as well this week and Derby City Brew was just featured on Consuming Louisville.  Forget those junky facebook sites, these websites are updated regularly.

I’m in the processing of remodeling my kitchen so my brewing may be at a standstill.  Currently I have a nice pumpkin ale sitting in the fermenter with hopes for it to be ready by October.  My next beer will hopefully be a wet hop ale since some of my hops are finally growing in the back yard.  FYI…remodeling a kitchen isn’t fun, especially when the assholes before you seemed to switch from square head to phillips every. other. screw!

I’m going to review it shortly, but we went to the Holy Grale on Sunday and I had a Brooklyn Concoction and a Southern Tier Mokah.  Honestly, I haven’t been impressed at all with Southern Tier thus far but this beer was pretty damn tasty.  Ashley said it reminded her of a Chocolate Tootsie Roll Pop.

In other news, the tapnrun, a 4K (with 4 beers during the run) is coming through Louisville.  I hope the lawyers have created a good waiver for this.  This is why I keep the beer mile stuff under the table. Damn you legalities.

I can’t get rid of this below…dang you copy/paste.