Remembering Monnik’s Scott Hand - Scruffy Outlier Pale Ales Start Releasing Across Kentucky

Scott Hand at Monnik in 2018. Photo by Kevin Gibson

Everyone in the Kentucky brewing scene has a Scott Hand story or two. Let’s face it, he was an iconic personality in a circle teeming with interesting personalities. And his passing on Sept. 1 left a giant hole in the brewing community, one that can’t be filled.

As with many, I enjoyed a number of afternoons sitting at the bar at Monnik, sometimes talking to him about a new beer or a story I was writing, but often just talking to him about music, food and life in general.

He would monitor his watch for when he had to go check on whatever brew he was into that day. He would tell me, “I’ll be back in 15 minutes.” And so I would wait. When he returned, we’d jump right back into the topic we had been discussing.

I remember during one conversation about music, the topic of modern country came up. He called it “soulless garbage” and was not wrong. He also referred to new country as “the true industrial music.” Scott never held back, and that’s why we loved him.

He also told me a story about when, before he was a brewer, he was working as a cook in a Chinese restaurant in Lexington. Every so often, his boss would “trade him out” to another Chinese place, and he didn’t question it. He just worked, wherever he was sent.

“I ended up in almost every Chinese kitchen in town at some point,” he told me. Well, he came to learn that all the owners of these restaurants would get together for a weekly poker game. His boss was losing at poker, and when he did, Scott would get traded for a day to one of the winners. Scott finally noticed that it was always the day after the game that he was sent elsewhere to work his shift.

He literally was a human poker chip.

The last time I saw Scott was at the return of the Kentucky Craft Bash back in the summer. He was deep in conversation inside the Monnik tent with someone I didn’t recognize. I tried to gain eye contact to say hello, but he never looked up. I walked on, figuring I would make another lap and catch up to him then. I never did, and I will never stop wishing I had.

Before I move on to talking about Scruffy Outlier Pale Ale, here’s one more of my favorite Scott memories, which came when I interviewed him over the phone. I was on a car trip north, somewhere in northern Illinois, I believe, and I pulled over at a rest stop to open my laptop and take notes as we spoke. The topic was one we had discussed once at the bar: hazy IPAs.

Sadly, I don’t have all the notes from that conversation, but one thing he said, I’ll never forget: “Some of them, you’re probably best off giving it a few good whiffs and dumping it down the drain.”

He also referred to the haze being “basically a fuck-up that people have accepted” along with the flavor of the beers. I sat in my car, belly-laughing at how he disregarded this beer style so sarcastically and emphatically. I’m sure people walking past my car in the parking lot thought I was insane, sitting there laughing by myself while staring into a laptop screen.

But this is why, when Scruffy Outlier Pale Ales start being released at breweries across the state over the next two weeks, none of them will be hazy. They’ll be single-hop ales, with breweries choosing a hop of their preference.

Assistant Brewer Laura Wallace pitches malt for the brewery’s version of Scruffy Outlier Pale Ale. Photo by Kevin Gibson

Ethereal Brewing in Lexington chose Mosaic, for instance. For Dreaming Creek Brewery in Richmond it was Strata, and for Apocalypse Brew Works here in Louisville it was Hallertau. (See below for a list of participating breweries where you can find a pint.)

Per The Courier-Journal, the Kentucky Guild of Brewers' nonprofit entity the Helping Our People (HOP) Foundation worked with two dozen breweries to create a single-hop pale ale similar to the ones Monnik often would rotate and Scott would sometimes sip at the bar. The “Scruffy Outlier” name came from Hand’s description of his job title.

But the breweries had much kinder words for Scott than “Scruffy Outlier.”

“Scott was a pioneer for the Louisville beer community and more importantly just a really great guy and will be greatly missed by us all,” wrote Gallant Fox Brewing on its Facebook account when announcing its collaboration on a version of Scruffy Outlier with Ten20 Brewing.

Ethereal wrote, “Scott was a great mentor, friend, and a major influence to everyone in the Kentucky craft beer community. There is a huge hole left in our hearts by the loss of Scott Hand.”

“In the event of Scott’s tragic and very untimely death, we are excited as a brewing community to come together to raise funds for his family, his partner Melinda and the larger brewing community,” Derek Selznick, president of the Kentucky Guild of Brewers, said.

Selznick told me that the HOP Foundation board will wait to see how much money is raised before deciding how proceeds from Scruffy Outlier sales will be allocated. The plan is to have the board meet with Scott’s family to decide, with the goal being to help Scott’s family, raise seed money for the foundation and, if possible, set up a technical brewing scholarship in Scott’s name.

In other words, drink up.

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To donate directly to Scott’s family to help pay for medical and funeral expenses, go here: https://bit.ly/3kV48lz

Participating breweries:

Against the Grain

Akasha

Apocolpyse

Atrium Brewing

Blue Stallion

Dreaming Creek

Chimera

Gallant Fox

Butchertown

Shipping Port

Ten20

Ethereal

Falls City

Flywheel

Goodwood

Gravely

Henderson

Hopkinsville

Mile Wide

Monnik

Old Louisville

Rock House

Scout and Scholar

Wise Bird

West Sixth

Dry Ground

Holsopple

Paducah Beer Werks