The official beer of The Big Read is ready at the Hopkinsville Brewery. The H5, an IPA, is a nod to veterans and The Big Read selection, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien.
HBC’s Koozie Club members got the first taste of H5 on Thursday. Starting today, the tap is available to everyone.
The H5 follows a tradition at HBC, which started with an H3 IPA called Hype Hop Hooray. Next came the H4 for Hazy Hype Hop Hooray. The fifth H in this succession of hoppy beers is for “Homecoming” in honor of military service members returning from deployments.
HBC co-owners Kate Russell and Joey Medeiros are both U.S. Army veterans. They made the H5 with Veterans Blend hops from Washington state-based Yakima Chief Hops. The brewery, on Fifth Street between Main and Virginia, will donate a portion of the H5 sales to the Pennyroyal Veterans Center and the local public library. In addition, Yakima donates a portion of the hops profits to the Semper Fi Fund.
Sponsored by the Pennyroyal Arts Council and organized by a slew of local volunteers, The Big Read kicks off tonight with a USO-style stage show at the Alhambra Theatre. A Bob Hope “act-alike” will entertain the audience.
The show begins at 7 p.m. Admission is free, which makes the event a great opportunity for anyone who hasn’t seen the downtown theater since its major renovation.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
