Two items today in an abbreviated Hip Hops column. Vacation beckons, beer and herring await, and I’ll be relatively brief by my usual standards. However, if longevity-winded reading is what you crave, check out the latest installment in my series: 40 Years in Beer, Part Thirty Four: In 1991, a smoky Bamberg sojourn with Happy Helmut.
First up: Steins on Main, a new event. Don’t forget your traditional Bavarian Haferlschuhe, which can’t be found at Wal-Fart, and head over to RePurposed this Saturday (September 30).
Here’s the Steins on Main information release:
Louisville Downtown Partnership, Louisville Ale Trail, and Against the Grain Brewery are excited to announce an all-new Oktoberfest celebration, “Steins on Main,” hitting Downtown Louisville on Saturday, September 30, from 2 pm to 7 pm at RePurposed (615 W. Main Street). The outdoor celebration will include German-inspired cuisine, games and contests, music, and craft beer.
This new event will not only bring the traditional Bavarian festival to the heart of Louisville but will also aid a vital cause in the Louisville community – supporting the Coalition for the Homeless, a local nonprofit with a mission to prevent and end homelessness in Louisville.
Steins on Main will be free (admission) to the public and promises an afternoon filled with great cuisine, games, music, craft beer, and an abundance of festive cheer. Participating breweries include Against the Grain, Gallant Fox, Butchertown Brewing, Gravely, Monnik Beer Co., Hi-Wire, and the newly-opened Awry Brewing. These beers will provide a taste of both local craft mastery and the rich Oktoberfest tradition. Festivities kick off with a special happy hour from 2 pm to 3 pm, offering early attendees an exciting start to the day.
Steins on Main invites everyone in the community to join this Oktoberfest celebration, creating memories and supporting a critical cause while celebrating the city’s rich German heritage. Steins on Main is proudly sponsored by MAPS Security
- 2 PM: Welcome Address: Mayor Greenberg
- 2:10 PM – 3 PM: Happy Hour: Discounted prices on selected beers
- 3:30 PM – 4 PM: Yodeling Contest
- 4:30 PM – 5 PM: Best Dressed Contest: Participants strut their stuff, showcasing their Oktoberfest (cosplay costumes)
- 5:30 PM – 6 PM: Stein Hoisting Contest
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No. 2: Suddenly it seems that a new brewery/eatery/distillery (?) called Hop Atomica is coming from afar, straight to Germantown. While the opening seems assured, concrete details are scarce, so I’ll go with what we have in the bin today.
The introduction:
Hop Atomica opened (in Savannah, Georgia) in July 2020 and delivers the Baldwin Park Neighborhood area a combination of artfully crafted, small batch beer, spirits, seltzers, and wood fired fare. We are currently Savannah’s only brewery and distillery combination. This is a place for informal gathering, centered around the love of all things food and drink. Additionally, we feature an in house art gallery showcasing amazing works from local artists. Open daily, our beer, cocktail and food menus are constantly rotating.
According to social media posts, a Louisville location of Savannah’s Hop Atomica will open soon at 1318 McHenry St., formerly Germantown Social at Germantown Mill Lofts—and no, this establishment is no relation to the current Atomic Germantown salon (although stranger things have happened in the beer world recently).
I’m told by a reliable source that Hop Atomica’s branch in Louisville is a franchise, currently without a brewer, although presumably equipped with intellectual property rights, as with the Savannah beer recipes, which will be brewed in Germantown at some point. Exactly when isn’t known.
Oddly, there is no listing of beers at Hop Atomica’s main web site, so I went instead to the gnarly thicket known as Untapped, to find a great many buzz words like sour, fruit, smoothie, pastry and hazy as filed under the Hop Atomica banner, in addition to a Gose with pickle juice. A food menu is available here.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be curled into a fetal position in yonder corner, retaining proximity to a treasure trove of Two Women (the beer, silly) as holiday departure draws near.
Hip Hops: Only in Wisconsin — or an adulatory journey to New Glarus Brewing Company
Roger Baylor is an entrepreneur, educator, and innovator with 41 years of beer business experience in metropolitan Louisville as a bartender, package store clerk, brewery owner, restaurateur, writer, traveler, polemicist, homebrewing club founder, tour operator and all-purpose contrarian.
