Bluegrass Brewing Company is a brewery and a chain of brewpubs based in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

History (Production)

The company was founded as a brewpub in Louisville, Kentucky in 1993 by chief brewer David Pierce and a small group of beer investors. In the late 1990s Pipkin Brewing Co began contract brewing and bottling BBC beers. In 2001 the BBC purchased the Pipkin Brewing Company located at 636 East Main St Louisville, KY while the brewpub continued to operate at 3929 Shelbyville Rd, both are still operating in those locations today. In 2001 the brewpub and brewery split into two separate companies with a mutual name due to irreconcilable differences between owners. The Main St brewery now packages and distributes regionally, and the brewpub packages 750ml bottles for distribution, but for the most part produces beer for the pub and a non-brewing satellite location located at 660 4th st in Louisville. The Main St location is the home of the Louisville Beer Museum and Taproom which does not offer food. Award winning brewer Jerry Gnagy is the head brewer for the brewpub. Joel Halbleib is the Master Brewer at the production facility on Main Street. David Pierce departed the BBC in April of 09' to brew for the New Albanian Brewing Co.

A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of beer has taken place since at least 2500 BC; in ancient Mesopotamia, brewers derived social sanction and divine protection from the goddess Ninkasi. Brewing was initially a cottage industry, with production taking place at home; by the ninth century monasteries and farms would produce beer on a larger scale, selling the excess; and by the eleventh and twelfth centuries larger, dedicated breweries with eight to ten workers were being built.

The diversity of size in breweries is matched by the diversity of processes, degrees of automation, and kinds of beer produced in breweries. A brewery is typically divided into distinct sections, with each section reserved for one part of the brewing process.

History

Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. In some form, it can be traced back almost 5000 years to Mesopotamian writings describing daily rations of beer and bread to workers. Before the rise of production breweries, the production of beer took place at home and was the domain of women, as baking and brewing were seen as "women's work".