Louisville Beer Week “Year 7” is about to…
(Editor’s note: It seems that the pioneering observance from days of yore known as Louisville Craft Beer Week has been somewhat unceremoniously consigned to the dustbin of history, along with the five existing SoIN breweries that never receive “metro” event invitations, so in lieu of indulging my bitterness any further, allow me to affix this link proving that my memories — they’re all I have left, after all — are intact: Louisville Craft Beer Week — Sept. 24 – Oct. 2, 2010, by Sara “The Bar Belle” Havens)
Just kidding. Me, bitter? I’m a maltier kind of guy.
Now, where was I?
Oh, right: Louisville Beer Week “Year 7” is October 18 – 27, with this year’s theme being “Everyone Fits in Louisville Beer” (except Hoosiers).
Whether its a pint on your local brewery’s patio or snagging a pack of cans to-go, everyone enjoys Louisville beer in their own unique way.
To celebrate all of the varied individuals who make, drink, and love Louisville beer, we are happy to present Louisville Beer Week 2024! From October 18-27 you will find an incredible array of events all over town designed to celebrate the craft beer lover in us all! The full schedule of events can be found HERE.
In addition to brewery events around town throughout the week, your Ale Trail is also excited to present two new, one-of-a-kind tasting experiences curated with our partners at Frazier History Museum, The Shop Louisville, and Angel’s Envy.
Learn more about Louisville Beer Week at the celebration’s website and Fb page, and the next time you see one of the Louisville Ale Trail operatives, buy him a beer. Herding cats like these isn’t easy; been there, done that — and you can guess the rest. I’d sooner drink purely wretched Miller High Life than serve on such a committee again.
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Following are links of a purely educational nature. Let’s begin in Europe (and if I’m lucky, remain there), seeking to answer the age-old question: Why can’t you people sit quietly and enjoy a half-liter of adorable lager amid a discussion of Habsburg history, without noise, antics and dumbassery?
Prague bans night-time pub crawls in bid to attract ‘more cultured, wealthier’ tourists (The Guardian)
Prague city councillors have banned night-time pub crawls organised by travel agencies because the city wanted to target “more cultured” tourists. The Czech capital of 1.3 million people has for a long time been a popular destination for noisy stag parties and pub crawlers, largely from Britain. Prague deputy mayor Zdenek Hrib told reporters on Monday that organised night-time pub crawls would now be banned.
At Slow Travel Berlin, Peter Sutcliffe profiles some of his favorite Berliner “kneipen”, including Dicke Wirtin, where I’m proud to have visited on several occasions and counted myself among the skurrilen.
Eight Great Berlin Pubs (Kneipen)
Dicke Wirtin: Just off the north-east corner of lively Savingnyplatz, visitors are greeted by images of the Dicke Wirtin (fat hostess) herself—think Roseanne Barr meets Nora Batty, with a cigarette dangling from her mouth. This was Anna Stanscheck, an imposing lady famous for her big heart, monstrous stews and love for the students of the nearby art college. The food menu remains hearty and classic Berlin.
To this day the pub claims proudly that it has always welcomed artists, authors, actors, and other skurrilen, a word that means exactly what you think it does.
Which is: “absurd patrons.”
As for Nora Batty, she was a formidable character on British television’s Last of the Summer Wine.
Meanwhile, as I write, there is a move afoot to replace the Imperial pint with a shorter measure. It is madness; then again, so was Brexit. If the sun is to set on Great Britain, let it be with a full measure.
Short Measure — Are Suggestions To Scrap The British Pint Rooted In Classism?, by Matthew Curtis (Pellicle)
Where I find that studies such as this fall down is their failure to understand the nature of why pubs exist, their importance to communities and, indeed, society as a whole. If you are going to use data to frame a pub as a place where people go exclusively to consume alcohol, then you are going to be able to build an argument that suggests reducing the amount of alcohol served will have positive health benefits. But if you don’t consider the balance, by looking at aspects such as the positive impact pubs have on wellbeing and mental health, then you are presenting an incomplete picture. One I consider is biased against certain aspects of society, working class people in particular.
Speaking of yeast-related culture, stop confusing the hired help with pretension. This story explains what happens when Jupiler (a perfectly ordinary Belgian golden lager) deigns to sit for an artist.
Beer can artwork accidentally thrown in bin by staff member at Dutch museum (The Guardian)
A Dutch museum has recovered an artwork that looks like two empty beer cans after a staff member accidentally threw it in the rubbish bin thinking it was trash. The work, entitled All The Good Times We Spent Together by French artist Alexandre Lavet, appears on first glance to be two discarded and dented beer tins.
There comes a time when one harbors a strong desire to adroitly expose the weaknesses and fallacies in a line of thinking or argumentation, except there are just too many solid points therein, as here. We’ve come full circle in a great many ways, haven’t we?
Craft Beer Can’t Afford to Be Local Anymore. Does It Need to Be?, by Dave Infante (VinePair)
Craft brewers are in a bit of a prison of their own making on matters of provenance. They have poured an enormous amount of time, energy, and Brewers Association dues into convincing the American drinking public that a brewery’s “craft” essence is tied to who owns it, and where. This has always been a bit of a double-edged sword: In the mid-’90s, Boston Beer Company was hoisted by its own petard when big, bad Anheuser-Busch convinced Chris Hansen, then the anchor of “Dateline,” to critically cover its practice of — gasp! — contract brewing. (Boston Lager, made in Cincinnati? Quelle horreur!)
Consider the case of the Great American Beer Festival’s conceptual reboot. The GABF, which ran last week, is now dedicated to the proposition that if Socrates were to be exhumed and reanimated, he’d proceed directly to TikTok.
Big Changes at Great American Beer Festival 2024: What Beer Lovers Need to Know
I scream, you scream, we all scream for Kraut Cosplay.
This week’s feature photo credit goes to Louisville Ale Trail. Enjoy Louisville Beer Week, folks.
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Previously at “Hip Hops”:
Roger Baylor is an entrepreneur, educator, and innovator with 
