Here's my rant that I want to address to distributors because restaurant owners likely don't read Beer Advocate forums: Have you ever been to Asheville, North Carolina? I have. I've been going since I was about 12. Over the last few years, I've noticed something. You go into a restaurant: there's local beer on tap. Bbq place. Sandwich place. Fancy dining place. Pizza place. There is local beer on tap. In Lexington, you go into a restaurant, there's In-Bev or other macros (not counting Pazzos and a few exceptions). Lexington reminds me a little bit of Asheville. Both are in beautiful locations. Both have outdoor activities. Both have young urban professionals in significant numbers. Both are college towns - though, of course Lexington has more college students. Both have money. Asheville has more hippies. This is not a call for more hippies. But Lexington is no Asheville. You seldom find local beer on tap here. By local, I don't just mean Country Boy and West Sixth - though that is, of course, local. I also mean "localish." Kentucky is no North Carolina for local beer, of course. But we do have (in addition to Country Boy and West Sixth) Against the Grain, Lore, Cumberland, Apocalypse and the almost Kentucky beer of New Albanian. Throw in Three Floyds, Hoppin Frog and Rivertown (almost local...hell, Whole Foods calls food made in Ohio "local") and we're starting to see potential. Why put local beer on tap? Raise awareness. Lexington, for its size of almost 250,000, really doesn't have good craft awareness yet. I know a very nice restaurant not too far from where I live. They used to have taps - though only Alltech (yes, that's local, I suppose). Then they pulled out all their taps and now offer a few non-local bottles (Bells, Founders). Ok. But why not devote the four or five taps that were there to local beer? Why not contribute to raising awareness? This is where distributors come in. Raise awareness of craft by getting localish beer on the handles in our eating establishments. People try this beer when they are having a meal, they like it, they buy it and they buy other craft beer. In a town of our size, it's surprising to see some beers sit on the shelf forever. They should move. But people here don't know yet. Restaurants are where you get exposure that you won't otherwise get. Someone has an Against the Grain with a meal, that person might reach for a craft beer six pack next time he/she is in a store, and not a six pack of Landshark. And yet...anybody in the craft beer industry must know this final point...when you sit in a bar like Beerworks or stand in the aisle at Liquor Barn, and you watch someone new to craft beer taste a local beer or consider buying a local beer....they do. They are curious. But they have such limited exposure. They are interested. But they don't know what it is....if only more places followed the Asheville route (or Portland, for that matter) and devoted more space to local, they'd keep more money here in Kentucky (rather than sending money to In-Bev headquarters), they'd raise awareness of craft here in Lexington (and thus help push sales of other craft beers), and they'd contribute to the Kentucky Proud movement that we know better by bumper stickers than by beer availability. Thanks for reading. Now back to recent beer sightings and when is beer x going to hit Lexington threads.
As an alum of several of Lexington's better establishments (Dudley's, Holly Hill, Boone Center, others) and and a BA, I think a lot of it comes down to managers not knowing or caring about craft beer. Corporate types and horse industry people spend the money, and they just aren't that curious about beer, which runs show behind bourbon and wine/bmc. It's a shame, because Louisville has shown that small dives and white-tablecloth establishments can run interesting beer lists and make money from them. Having said that: central KY has made great leaps in beer culture from 15 years ago, when there was Marrikkas, and...well, Marrikkas. And Pazzo's, I know. I lived in Lex Vegas from '96 to '09, and as far as I can tell, things are better than ever there, having nowhere to go but up. Replacing locals with Bells and Founders is tough to condemn, since managers are under enormous pressure to drive sales, and those brands sell. Period. If it were me, I would try to have a good mix of both local (CB, W6th) and high-demand regional (FFF, Founders). The Beer Trappe, while not a restaurant, seems to have figured this out... Change comes slowly, when it comes at all. But I think the region has already made great strides in improving craft offerings and promoting awareness. Cheers!
