Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/53439
DUELING BUZZES LOU BREW: A BRIEF HISTORY The city's first commercial brew- ers weren't German, according to local beer historians Peter Guetig and Conrad Selle; they were Brit- ons named Ainslie, Metcalfe and Nuttall, and their ale-making brew- eries — opened circa 1830 — were located between Sixth and Seventh streets north of Market. (East Coast breweries preceded them by two decades.) Failed social revolution in 1840s Germany brought thousands of refugees, most of them liberal- minded Catholics, to Louisville, including a healthy sprinkling of lager brewers, who turned the neighborhoods in which they found homes — particularly Phoe- nix Hill — into yeast-scented zones dotted with brewing activ- ity. Unfortunately, they and their Irish counterparts also sparked the formation of the immigrant-loath- ing, anti-Catholic Know-Nothing Party, which in August 1855 insti- gated a riot, known as "Bloody Monday," that resulted in more than 20 deaths and the burning of the German-immigrant-owned Washington Brewery near Baxter Avenue and Liberty Street. Several brewers went out of business in ensuing years, in part because of the forward momentum of the nation's temperance move- ment. Still, in an era with no public parks for folks to enjoy outdoor leisure and social gatherings, beer gardens set up near breweries were a recreational boon to the city. The largest, best-located was 1865-opened Phoenix Hill Park, whose cliff-top perch overlook- ing downtown (where present-day Rubel Avenue meets Hull Street off Baxter Avenue) offered picnic grounds, dance halls, a bowling alley, a skating rink and the Phoe- nix Hill Brewery supplying the beer. Alas, of the total of 66 local brewery locations listed in the Encyclopedia of Louisville (most trading ownership hands several times), only 10 were in operat- ing order when the Prohibition hammer came down in 1919, and only three of those — Frank Fehr, Oertel's and Falls City — resumed brewing after the repeal of the Volstead Act in 1933. Fehr, on Liberty Street between Preston and Jackson, gave up the ghost in 1964 as marketing giants such as Miller, Pabst and Anheuser-Busch trucked in their goods on the country's new interstate system. Story Avenue's Oertel's, after its ill-advised purchase by Brown- Forman that same year, followed suit in 1967. Diehard Falls City, the largest producer of the three and situated at 30th and Broadway, made a 1970s run with a weakened formula comparable to the St. Louis and Milwaukee big boys but was forced to shut down Louisville operations in 1978, selling its brand name to Heileman Brewing Co., although in 2009 ownership reverted to a Louisville owner, David Easterling, who plans to brew at least some Falls City beers here in the near future (see page 44). Subsequently, spurred by the national craft-beer movement that started with San Francisco's Anchor Brewing and Boston's Samuel Adams, small-batch breweries such as Bluegrass Brewing Co. have established a niche here. — JW 2.12 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE [49] Beer is the new bourbon? Well, yeah, everybody seems to be drinking it. And talking about it. And comparing pale ales and smoked porters as if they were sniffily discussing the pro- nounced green-pepper flavor of a California Cabernet. You know beer has gone uptown when Samuel Ad- ams spends several squillion dollars designing a glass that better tips the brew toward the back of one's pal- ate, not the front. It's almost enough to make a guy hit the Schlitz — if the hipsters haven't gotten there already. But is beer really the new bourbon? On the fad front, for sure. On the eco- nomic front, don't count out bourbon as the new bourbon just yet. Check out these numbers: s Since 1999, according to the Ken- tucky Distillers' Association, the num- ber of barrels of bourbon produced in Kentucky increased by 42 percent to almost 800,000 barrels in 2010. s Consumer-market researcher Eu- romonitor International forecast world- wide sales of bourbon and Tennessee whiskey at $3.8 billion last year — up from $3.7 billion the year before. s Sales of flavored bourbons were up almost 140 percent in 2011 over the previous year. Whisky puritans can scoff at the very idea of a Jack Dan- iel's Tennessee Honey or a Jim Beam Red Stag Black Cherry, but according to a story in the New York TImes, the flavored stuff is popular with folks who otherwise wouldn't drink bourbon. Namely, young people and women. s Distillers across the state are ex- panding to meet global demand. Bad economy? Not in the booze biz. Given all this, how can Louisville magazine dare declare beer the new bourbon? Alas, we come not to bury bourbon but to praise beer. And who's to say these two libations can't get along? Have you tried a Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale? — Kane Webb