On Tuesday evening a Red Reunion took place at Hometown Brewing Company. It was a release party for the revival of Cumberland Red Ale, as appropriately described in a Louisville Ale Trail social media post as a “foundational Louisville beer.”
The brewing equipment used to brew Cumberland Red came to Hometown Brewing from Cumberland Brewery, the off-site production facility operated by Cumberland Brews on Bardstown Road. The latter closed in 2019 after just shy of two decades in operation, and as we know, the site was taken over by Against the Grain and is known these days as Against the Grain Brewery and Public House.
Consequently, kindly allow a brief flashback to the time of transition in 2019.
Raise a parting glass to Cumberland Brews, bowing out Saturday after 19 years
Therein, Sam Cruz related a story about his introduction to Louisville craft beer culture.
Today at lunch time, following a morning filled with social media buzz, Against the Grain Brewery revealed that it will be occupying the Cumberland space at 1576 Bardstown Road. Against the Grain’s co-owner Sam Cruz posted these words on Facebook:
“20 years ago I walked into Harry’s House of Brews on Bardstown Road (long gone now) and ordered my first local Louisville beer. It was Cumberland Brewery Matt’s Red and the bartender told me it was from a new brewery just up the road. It was fantastic and certainly piqued my interest in the fantastic local beer scene here in Louisville.”
Seems my friend Sam remembers Cumberland Red the same way that I do, as Matt’s Red. Matt Gould opened the brewhouse at Cumberland Brews in 2000, and worked there until 2008. Granted, the business existed for longer without Matt (11 years) than with him, and in making this point my sole aim is to remember Matt, who succumbed to cancer at 42 in 2012.
Matt was a talented defender of better beer, a die-hard Cubs fan, a curmudgeon after my own heart, but like all outward cynics, a thoughtful and gentle soul underneath.
Hard to believe it’s been ten years since we lost Matt. Then again, the modern era of brewing in Louisville is now more than three decades old, and generations have passed through the (r)evolution. Matt was part of the story almost from the beginning, first deputized at the Silo, then Bluegrass Brewing Company (St. Matthews) in the role of Brew Boy. After Cumberland Brews, he was a shift brewer at BBC (Clay & Main, now Goodwood).
For my money Matt Gould was and remains a Louisville brewing legend, and when you’re enjoying a Cumberland Red at Hometown, contemplate Matt’s contribution as well as that of the other local founders behind the foundation-ales. When Cumberland first opened, the chalkboard featured beers like Nitro Porter, Nut Brown, Cream Ale and Red. Our contemporary IPAs, sours and pastry stouts were nowhere to be seen, but let’s be clear: “nouveau” is a relative term, and edifices aren’t constructed atop quicksand.
Courtesy of longtime BBC brewer David Pierce, here’s the original recipe for Matt’s Amber at BBC in 1998, basis for what came later as Red at Cumberland. Matt was assisting David at the time, hence “Matt’s first formula.”
That’s Matt (middle) in today’s cover photo, with Phil Timperman (left) and Jake Newman (right) enjoying a Trappist cheese and ale pairing at ‘t Brugs Beertje in Brugge, Belgium in 1998.
Matt, you’re sorely missed, both as a brewer and a human being. If there’s ever a Louisville brewing hall of fame, you have my vote.
