If you go to Bicentennial Park in New Albany tonight and have a New Albanian Brewing Company beer, be sure to tip a little extra. Remember, NABC is paying an extra $20 in permit fees to pour that beer, as “PourGate” continues. Baylor says he and his staff will pour beer “under protest.”

A hearing date for NABC’s appeal of the Floyd County Health Department’s insistence that local vendors need a temporary food permit to sling suds has yet to be scheduled, according to NABC owner Roger Baylor, but he said the department is so far complying with his request for five years’ worth of temporary food service permit citations.

As annoying as bureaucrats can be, it could be semi-humorous to watch the health department squirm in the next few weeks, possibly in hopes this issue will simply go away. Baylor noted on his blog the other day that while day to day business has to continue at NABC, those interested in seeing how this dispute plays out should never fear that he’s going to let the issue fizzle out. I don’t doubt that for a minute.

Based on comments posted on this blog and Baylor’s, as well as what Baylor himself has said regarding the public’s response, the health department is alone in believing it is in the right by forcing vendors like NABC to pay for a temporary food permit just to sell beer at events.

“No other health department in the state is laying claim to what Dr. [Tom] Harris sees as is his department’s sudden obligation to control temporary draft beer pours,” Baylor wrote in his blog this morning. “It seems that the opinion of his fellow bureaucrats is against the FCHD, too. Shouldn’t that tell you something?”

The fun starts tonight at 6 p.m., with Nick Dittmeier, followed by Quiet Hollers. Hopefully, the health department won’t force the bands to buy temporary oxygen permits to dispense their vocals.