New Albanian Brewing Company

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. It is the first commercial brewery to operate in New Albany since 1935.New Albanian operates two breweries in New Albany, a production brewery in their downtown facility shared with their Bank Street Brewhouse taproom and gastropub 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.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. 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.BrewingNew Albanian began brewing in October 2002 in an annex to the company's suburban Pizzeria. The brewery was established by Roger Baylor, his former wife Amy (O'Connell) Baylor and her sister Kate (O'Connell) Lewison. The first brewmaster was Michael Borchers who brought experience and a 4-barrel brewing system from the former Silver Creek Brewing Corporation of Sellersburg, Indiana. Jesse Williams assumed brewing responsibilities when Borchers left in 2005 and was joined by Jared Williamson in 2008. Brewing is currently done by veteran Louisville Craft Brewer David R. Pierce, Director of Brewing Operations since 2009, at the Bank Street production brewery and Ben Minton at the R&D brewery.