In 1934, just after the repeal of prohibition, a Louisville-based company opened Ackerman’s, a brewery located off Market Street in downtown New Albany.
Within two years, the company went under, financially and physically, as the Great Flood of 1927 washed away the remaining building.
A few blocks away, the New Albanian Brewing Company plans to open the first craft brewery in downtown New Albany in more than 60 years.
There stands a large double-door garage at 415 Bank St., which is tentatively set to open as the Bank Street Brew House in late 2008.
“The taproom will open first, hopefully in November and we will install the brewery shortly after,” Roger Baylor, beer director of the new Bank Street Brew House and the original New Albanian Brewing Company, said.
The taproom will offer a Belgium style café with food prepared by a professional chef as well as assorted
merchandise.
Baylor said the brewery will have the capacity to create four times as much beer as the original location, enabling NABC to distribute their brands locally and regionally in cans and kegs, starting with cities like Louisville, Indianapolis and Bloomington.
NABC has already begun promoting their brews in Louisville, through what Baylor has dubbed “guerilla marketing.”
“We are taking the beer to Louisville bars and making an event out of it,” Baylor said.
Saturday, Sept. 5, NABC invaded Germantown’s neighborhood Nachbar, selling several different brews, while local artists performed.
“It went well and the music was great,” Jared Williamson, NABC brewer, said. “I was only there during the afternoon and it was packed.”
Within the next three months, NABC will expand their guerilla marketing to three other Louisville bars in the highlands.
With his guerilla marketing and the Bank Street Brew House, Baylor said he hopes to attract and promote the creative class and new urbanism to New Albany.
“Years ago, people began to move further and further away into the suburbs. We want to give people a reason to move back to the city,” Baylor said.
“We want to return it to what it was, when it was — A place where people live downtown and have local businesses within walking distance.”
Baylor said he feels this expansion is no easy task.
“I knew it was going to be a bitch. And it has been a bitch. The recession, which some people seem to think isn’t really happening, is making money tight,” Baylor said.
“This type of major expansion makes things more difficult, but I actually believe in this.”
Baylor said the NABC also firmly believes in progressivism for New Albany, Floyd County, Metro Louisville and the surrounding areas, but as NABC progresses, he assures that the existing brewery will continue to function as it always has.
“We will have several house brews made for distribution at Bank Street, while Jared [Williamson] will continue to work on new brews at the original location,” Baylor said.
By HUNTER EMBRY
Staff Writer
ahembry@ius.edu
