USA, KY: Louisville's newest brewery Atrium Brewing about to open

Louisville's newest brewery is about to open in Shelby Park, the Courier Journal reported on September 10.

After three years in the works, Atrium Brewing is set to open Sept. 25 at 1154 Logan St. in a renovated building dating back to the 1890s. The team, led by owners Mark Rubenstein and Princeton Hurst, brought the building "down to the brick in some places" and built it into a comfortable, casual neighborhood brewery.

Now, the 4,000-square-foot building has booths lining the edges of the taproom, with tall beer hall-style tables in the center and a poured concrete bar top. Eventually, a stage will be set up for live performances, when the pandemic allows.

Rubenstein spent 23 years working at the University of Louisville as an assistant to the Dean of Arts and Sciences and has been a homebrewer since 1988. After a while, friends kept asking if they could buy beer and suggested he should open a brewery. After he retired from the University of Louisville a few years ago, a friend connected him to Hurst, and the brewery process began.

He said he's always liked the Shelby Park area.

"It was super important to me to have a great outdoor area," he said. "I'm known for having big backyard parties, I like to cook for 50 people and have friends over. I wanted this brewery to feel inviting, like you're coming to my house and we're hanging out in the backyard having beers that I made."

Vice President and Creative Director Donald Mahoney said the brewery had about 200 seats before COVID-19 social distancing guidelines were enacted. Now, it has about 84 seats, the majority of which are on its back patio.

The patio also has four 76-inch TVs set up for patrons to watch sports. The brewery won't serve food, but will often have food trucks stationed nearby, Mahoney said.

"The original targeted opening was in March," Mahoney said. "One of the first things COVID-19 messed up was our equipment being made and sent out of New Orleans. We didn't get it until May."

The brewery operates on a 10-barrel system and will have 20 taps, Mahoney said, serving mostly Atrium Brewing beer with a few other beers from area breweries.

Mahoney said Atrium will be brewing a little bit of everything: sour beers, a kölsh, hazy IPAs, New England IPAs, stouts and porters. Instead of a flagship beer, though, Atrium will run different series of beers, each one different than the last.

"We'll have a series of sours we're opening with, a beer called Raspberry Boy, which is a raspberry sour," Mahoney said. "The next one in the series could be key lime pie. Those will all be pastry sours. So at Atrium, it's less about saying 'this one IPA or blonde ale defines us' and more about a series of beers we're trying to do."

Rubenstein will lead the brewing side with Spencer Guy, formerly of Akasha Brewing.

"Spencer is known for his sours and I'm known for my New England IPAs," Rubenstein said. "We plan to expand on those as we dial in."

Atrium will be open with at least five beers ready to serve, including a kölsh called "Neuer Köln," a double New England IPA called "Two Nights Only," and a porter called "Lord, Yes!"

Two series will launch at the opening: the "Boy" series of sours, starting with the pastry sour "Raspberry Boy," and the "Shakes" series of milkshake IPAs, starting with "Peach Shakes."

Atrium will be canning its beers and selling them in pre-orders online and in four-packs from the taproom.

Mahoney said he hopes Atrium can bring something new to the Louisville brewing scene.

"There's so many places opening and so many established breweries that are expanding," he said. "Louisville is a city we can all keep brewing. This is a city of neighborhoods, and I think it can be a city of neighborhood breweries."

Atrium Brewing is set to open on Sept. 25 and wth hours from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (with last pour at 10 p.m.) seven days a week.

11 September, 2020