New Albanian Brewing Company
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38°19′41″N 85°49′02″W / 38.328064°N 85.817107°W
 Brewing Ahead of the Curve | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Location | 3312 Plaza Dr, New Albany, Indiana | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opened | 1987 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Annual production volume | 1,571 US beer barrels (1,844 hL)(2011) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Owned by | Roger Baylor, Kate Lewison and Amy Baylor | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The New Albanian Brewing Company, located in the Metropolitan Louisville area in New Albany, Indiana, is a regional craft brewer with distribution throughout the states of Indiana and Kentucky. It has been rated as high as sixth among the world's craft breweries according to Ratebeer.com.[2][3] It is the first commercial brewery to operate in New Albany since 1935.[4]
New Albanian operates two breweries in New Albany, a production brewery in their downtown facility shared with their Bank Street Brewhouse taproom and gastropub[5] and their original brewery, which now serves for research and development brewing and shares a suburban building with the company's New Albanian Pizzeria & Public House.[6]
The business dates to 1987 as a family-owned pizzeria, then known as Sportstime Pizza, and became one of the Louisville area's most popular venues for craft and imported beers with the opening of its public house, originally Rich O's Public House, in 1992.[7][8] Planning for the business' expansion into Craft Brewing began with its incorporation as the New Albanian Brewing Company in 1994 and brewing commenced in October 2002.
New Albanian began brewing in October 2002 in an annex to the company's suburban Pizzeria.[7] The brewery was established by Roger Baylor, his former wife Amy (O'Connell) Baylor and her sister Kate (O'Connell) Lewison.[9] The first brewmaster was Michael Borchers[10] who brought experience and a 4-barrel brewing system from the former Silver Creek Brewing Corporation of Sellersburg, Indiana.[7] Jesse Williams assumed brewing responsibilities when Borchers left in 2005 and was joined by Jared Williamson in 2008.[10] Brewing is currently done by veteran Louisville Craft Brewer David R. Pierce, Director of Brewing Operations since 2009, at the Bank Street production brewery[11] and Ben Minton at the R&D brewery.[12]
NABC's original 4 barrel system produced 14,000 gallons of beer in 2005.[13] With the addition of the 15 barrel DME production brewery on Bank Street in 2009 production has more than doubled, increasing to 1,571 US barrels in 2011 and permitting broader regional distribution.[7] Bottling of select NABC beers in 22 oz. 'Bombers' began in March, 2011, with Elector, the NABC's Imperial Red Ale.[14]
