Category: Beer Releases

California has Silicon Valley, and Nashville its Printers Alley, but here in the city of New Albany, we’ve got Falling Run Flats. It’s a district that combines high tech with low comedy, where rotary dial phones constantly interact with one too many half-pints of Kessler, and the dead get downright lively come election time.

One of the most locally famous denizens of Falling Run Flats was named Hacksaw Jim, founder of New Albany’s dynasty of rust repairers and mayoral fixers. For generations untold, the city’s political bosses relied on Hacksaw Jim and his numerous descendants to apply maximum value to that most simple of tools, the signature two-by-four: If you can’t use it to jury-rig a sewer connection, you can wield it to bust a dissident’s skull.

NABC’s seasonal Bavarian-style Dunkel now bears the moniker of Hacksaw Jim, not so much because he liked dark beer, but because of that crumpled note we received on funeral home stationary instructing us to make a beer as principled and honest as Hacksaw Jim himself.

This we have done, and we stand by it. We can only hope they do, too.

In more recent times, Hacksaw Jim became widely associated with a professional wrestler. But in New Albany, where political time can stand stock still for decades, memories of Hacksaw Jim, English Dug and Carlos “The Mackerel” are gifts that never stop giving — mainly to themselves.

Hacksaw Jim Dunkel will be available on draft ONLY at NABC’s two New Albany locations, and will not last long. Or so we’re told.

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Hacksaw Jim Dunkel

Bavarian Dunkel

ABV: 6%

IBU: 22

Color: Chestnut brown.

Flavor: Medium-bodied, with rich, malty Bavarian character.

Compare to: Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel, Weltenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel

Description: There are so many ways to say yes, and so few to say no.

Recipe Suggestion: Think about brats and kraut, dumplings and red cabbage. Think about the way that a dark lager’s elegant maltiness renders “liquid bread” into pure truthfulness. Think about Hacksaw Jim’s dining room table. Whether we speak of the NABC beer or the hooligan, the man obviously knew how to eat.

In my memory I will always see
the town that I have loved so well
Where our school played ball by the gas yard wall
and we laughed through the smoke and the smell
Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane
past the jail and down behind the fountain
Those were happy days in so many, many ways
in the town I loved so well
— “The Town I Loved So Well,” by Phil Coulter

We at NABC love, and seemingly just as often loathe, our own town of New Albany. It’s a topic requiring more thought than time permits, not to mention occasional bouts of psychotherapy.

Beer helps, too.

Long ago, Celtic (KELL-tic, not SELL-tic) cultures expanded into many European territories. The advent of the Roman Empire gradually pushed them toward the continent’s western periphery, to remote green islands and misty, isolated coasts. In modern times, we think of the Celts as comprising Gaels (Irish, Scottish and Manx peoples), Welsh and Bretons.

It’s far more complicated than all that, but for our purposes today, it’s enough to know that a few central elements of convivial living, including music, beer, conversation and food, are stocks-in-trade of the Celts, and that among Celts, the Irish stand out as the most visible and enthusiastic proponents of these timeless virtues. While Irish origins are quite common in New Albany, descendants of all the Celts are here, drinking beer. Haggis Laddie is the one for them.

This anecdote, as relayed by Sean Cannon of the band known as the Dubliners, aptly explains it.

“In the Irish love triangle there are three parties involved: A man, and a woman – and drink.

“And so the girl gives an ultimatum to her boyfriend: It’s either the drink, or me.

“And he chooses the drink.

“But afterwards, he relents. They get married and live happily ever after … the three of them.”

Haggis Laddie is released annually on St. Patrick’s Day, and is available ONLY on draft at NABC’s two New Albany locations. Drink some before it’s gone.

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Haggis Laddie

Irish Red Ale

ABV: 5%

IBU: 17

Color: Amber/red.

Flavor: Light- to medium-bodied, malt-accented.

Compare to: Smithwick’s, Kilkenny.

Description: From the Liffey to the Ohio, in ¾ time.

Recipe Suggestion: Add equal literary elements of James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, John Synge and W.B. Yeats to gifted instrumental musicianship, complete with fiddles, tin whistles, guitars and banjos, which on occasion can lead to jigs and reels. Spice the emerging concoction with everyday speaking voices that transform common English into lilting melodies, even when reading the Dublin phone book, and listen as golden-throated singers render these tunes into the realm of the ethereal and sublime. Enjoy the results as often as possible, with pints of Haggis Laddie at the ready. If necessary, munch on some crisps.

Each year NABC celebrates the life of the late Jason Gore — a colleague, friend and co-conspirator – by brewing an ale named in his honor. It’s called Hard Core Gore, and it’s a unique beer for a unique man, who would have been 31 years old on March 21, 2014.

Jason’s motto was “Live life to the fullest and learn as much as you can,” and these words are forever worth remembering. When he died after a courageous fight with cancer, there was grieving and sadness, but the NABC family refused to lose sight of the joy Jason’s life brought to all of us for so long. We never will.

At the time of Jason’s death, a Bruce Springsteen song came to mind, and it still aptly conveys what we’ll always feel about Jason. Here are a few chosen stanzas.

They built the Titanic to be one of a kind,
but many ships have ruled the seas
They built the Eiffel tower to stand alone,
but they could build another, if they pleased
The Taj Mahal, the pyramids of Egypt are unique, I suppose,
but when the built you brother, they broke the mold

When they built you brother
they turned this dust to gold
When they built you brother
they broke the mold

They say you can’t take it with you
but I think that they’re wrong
All I know’s I woke up this morning
and something big was gone
Gone in to that dark ether
Where you’re still young n’ hard and cold
Just like when they built you brother
and broke the mold

When Jason left us, they broke the mold, but he left a beery legacy in Hard Core Gore. It has slightly differed in composition over the years, but remains at heart a rambunctious Belgo-American IPA, as crafted by Ben Minton at NABC’s Research & Development brewery. For 2014, Ben has referred back to the original Jared Williamson formulation for inspiration.

2011: 9.5% ABV, 120 IBUs
2012: 8.1% ABV, 156 IBUs
2013: 11% ABV, 135 IBUs
2014: 9.5% ABV, 195 IBUs

Hard Core Gore is a very limited, draft-only release, and can be enjoyed at NABC’s two New Albany locations beginning on Friday, March 21.

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Hard Core Gore 2014

Belgo-American India Pale Ale

ABV: 9.5%

IBU: 195

Color: Golden-hued amber.

Flavor: Highly hopped in all known ways, and full-bodied with a fruity Belgian character.

Compare to: Stone Cali-Belgique, Houblon Chouffe.

Description: A unique beer for a unique man.

Recipe Suggestion: Trevor Gore reveals his brother’s favorite tricks while working in the pizzeria kitchen:

“He would take the buffalo sauce and barbecue sauce and mix them together to make a hot ham and cheese sandwich covered with this combined sauce, or use the sauce to make a buffalo chicken pizza topped with ranch dressing.”

Hard Core Gore’s hybrid Belgo-American international character paired alongside spicy Buffa-BBQ sauciness; we’ll say only that it’s fully appropriate. Concoct with creativity, and eat as much as you can.