Breweries and Taverns

BRIEF HISTORY of TAVERNS AND BREWING (site placement is The New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse)

The Taverns

New Albany taverns emerged as a stopping place for travelers crossing the Ohio River on their way west or further north. An important part of the early community, they offered a gathering place for sharing political ideas and socializing,in addition to refreshment.

In 1891, Dr. Hale constructed Hale’s Tavern or the High Street House, a well-known tavern. The stage line between Louisville, KY and Vincennes, IN always stopped there. Later it became known as “The Old Commercial House.” It had “dormer” windows and five front doors.

The Old Scribner Parlor, a tavern house, was the center of local political news. Many prominent visitors to New Albany, on their way to Corydon, IN - the early Indiana state capitol, were entertained there. Daniel Webster, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zackary Taylor and Oliver P. Morton were all guests.

The Breweries

The history of brewing beer in New Albany is rich. It continues today with the resurrection of the downtown brewing tradition by the New Albanian Brewing Company on Bank Street.

In the nineteenth century, beer was produced locally and limited in distribution to how far horse-drawn wagons would go.

The immigrations, in 1830 and 1850, of many Germans to the area directly contributed to the emergence of brewing in New Albany. Many neighborhood breweries operated throughout the city. Of record was the John Bottomly and Hew Ainslie brewery on Fourth and Spring Street, the famous Reising Brewery, Old National Brewery (started in 1856), Nadorff brewery in 1866, the Indiana Brewing Company in 1881 and Niemaier brewing begun in 1898. Many of the men involved in New Albany brewing were connected to Louisville brewers.

The Old National Brewery/Market Street Brewery offers an example of a small, local operation. It was established in 1856, by Peter Buchheit who immigrated to New Albany in 1852 from Alsace, Germany, and his wife, Barbara, who was born in Bavaria, Germany. The brewery was three buildings on East Tenth Street, between Market and Spring Streets (of which some of the original brick buildings still stand). The family home was located at the corner of Market and Tenth and also served as a boarding house for brewery staff. It was surrounded by homes and businesses.

A typical day included hard work and long hours. There were extremes of heat for drying malt and cold for laagering beer in ice-cold beer cellars. There was much social activity as raw materials arrived and deliveries departed daily. The public even stopped in for refreshment and neighborhood children came regularly to fill up the family “growler” (a covered tin pail), then rushed it home to their parents for lunch or dinner. Beer was an important beverage in early days when water was not often consistently and safely available.

Brewing Ends and Begins Again

Early brewery tradition ceased with the passing of the Volstead Act of 1919. While home brewing may have continued during the Prohibition Era, most breweries shut down or converted to producing soda pop and “near beer”.

With the repeal of prohibition in 1933, the Ackerman Brewery (Southern Indiana Brewing Company) began operation and produced several beers including, Ackerman Old Rip, Vienna Select, Daniel Boone and Royal Munich. Bankruptcy struck in 1935, marking the beginning of a decades-long drought of brewing in New Albany.

Increasing demand for locally crafted beer has resulted in the New Albanian Brewing Company expanding its operations from their original facility and brew pub on Grantline Road to a new brewing facility and pub on Bank Street. The Bank Street Brew House opened in the spring of 2009, and thus continues the tradition of beer brewing in New Albany.

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