Drinksgiving 2019: Part III - Louisville and a dip into Indiana

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I felt like a bag of assholes. In addition to exceeding my typical daily alcohol intake by about 40%, I also forgot to pack our white noise fan. This combination led to a night of tossing and turning and, as a result, little sleep. I had the proverbial "gut rot," something no good professional drinker wants on the most important day of just about any beer trip we take - Saturday. So, unfortunately, I got off to a slow, rocky start. However, I managed to pull it together and recover pretty quickly. After all, this may well be the only time I get to visit Louisville.

I was in a pretty bad mood when we arrived at our first stop, Goodwood, which was one of the places I was most looking forward to on this particular day. One of our beer geek friends, Kramer, said Goodwood was his favorite place he visited on a recent trip to Louisville. However, when we arrived, the televisions were blasting - what else? - SPORTS! Actually, it wasn't even sports; it was pre-game sports commentary. There were a few cantankerous patrons sitting at the bar as well, gearing up for the big sporting event (likely college football... 'tis the season, I suppose). I would have liked to enjoy the scenery at the bar area, but between feeling like said bag of assholes and the noise factor, I suggested we sit in the quieter albeit aesthetically challenged adjacent room.

"Wood is good." - Jerry Seinfeld

Despite my gurgling stomach and queasy uneasiness, I managed to force one beer down my gullet while we were at Goodwood. The beer, Spruce Tip IPA, is obviously a spruce-tip infused IPA packed with plenty of piney hops. In addition to spruce tips sourced from the Great Pacific Northwest, the hop bill features a combination of Zeus, Centennial, El Dorado, Comet, and Simcoe hops. I wish I had felt better during our visit because this beer offered a lot of things I love about the style. I even remarked that it was similar to Selin's Grove's Olde Frosty IPA, one of my favorite beers ever. Also, it was a welcome diversion from the barrage of NEIPAs with which I'm constantly bludgeoned when we visit breweries, so much so that I've pretty much decided to boycott the style. It's amazing... I used to really enjoy NEIPAs, but after some contemplation, I equate it to something I'll call the "How I Met Your Mother Theorem." When that show first debuted, I loved it. I mean, really LOVED it! It was probably my favorite sit-com on Network TV at the time. However, over the years, it trudged on... and on... and on... until I eventually became so sick and disgusted with it that I didn't even watch the last few episodes out of spite. I couldn't care less with who ended up with Ted. He started to grate on me from season to season until I just couldn't take it anymore. That's how I view NEIPA's these days. All of these tiny breweries too busy chasing the dragon and trying to be the next Trillium or Tree House. Honestly, you probably have a better chance of being struck by lightning while evading a T-Rex after winning Power Ball. Seriously, with the exception of a few stellar beers, THIS STYLE NEEDS TO GO THE FUCK AWAY!!!

My apologies for that little rant. It comes with age, I suppose. GET OFF MY LAWN! Sometimes I wish I was more like Pleeps... right, buddy?

Pleeps. Chillin'.

OK... back to our regularly scheduled program.

After getting our Goodwood on, it was time to head over to Against the Grain for lunch and a bit of pre-gaming before our Angel's Envy experience (more on that in a few shakes). Against the Grain was the only Louisville-based brewery I'd been familiar with prior to the trip. I'd had a few of the brewery's beers at Imminent Liquidation and various Team D(r)INK bottle shares over the years, and had always enjoyed what I sampled.

Inside Against the Grain.

After a quick perusal of the colorful beer chalkboard, I settled on Fairy Nuff a dark, luscious Imperial Stout brewed in collaboration with Trilha Cervejaria from Sao Paolo, Brazil. The beer features Ambruana seeds, an adjunct ingredient with which I was unfamiliar. Turns out Amburana is a deciduous tree that is indigenous to the forests of South America. So I suppose it makes sense that a Brazilian brewery brought this ingredient to the table. The seeds themselves lend a unique woody aroma and spicy kick to this dark chocolatey, boozy brew. While this beer wasn't quite up to the beers I'd experienced at Ethereal and West Sixth, this was still way above average.

Things are looking up for Pleeps!

We also had some lunch, which included some bangin' black bean chili and a "dirty" vegan burger. I'm glad to see more and more veggie and vegan options at breweries these days. The food was quite good and gave us ample filling in our bellies for what awaited us across the street. By this time, I was starting to feel better and was ready to shift into at least second gear. We settled up and headed across the street for arguably the highlight of the day.

Yes indeed, it's time for some bourbon. I mean, we're in Louisville, right? How could we not experience bourbon at some point? That's like being in Dublin and not drinking a Guinness, or even visiting NEPA and not drinking biolo. So, let's go on a quick bourbon tangent, shall we?

Deuane made prior arrangements to schedule a tour at Angel's Envy distillery, one of the premier spirits-makers in the country. It is also a third generation family owned and operated business, which is a huge plus in my eyes. I've had its flagship spirit, a port cask-aged bourbon, which of course is delicious, so I was familiar with the brand. But this was no ordinary tour; this was the Mac Daddy deep dive tour. Dubbed "Inside the Barrel," this hour-long adventure taught us about the science of barrel-aging and blending, the "finishing process," and how their master distillers utilize secondary barrels to create a unique finished product. We got to sample the aforementioned bourbon finished in port casks and the excellent rye finished in rum barrels at the "tasting log" following the tour, and we even had the rare opportunity to taste unfinished rye straight from the barrel. This is a nice little touch that reminded me of our own tour at Tröegs, where we allow tourists to sample unfinished "green beer" straight from the fermentation tank. The tour ended with a visit to the exclusive VIP cocktail bar, where we each purchased a signature drink from a menu featuring about 15 signature cocktails featuring a variety of Angel's Envy spirits. Since this is a beer blog, I won't go into all of the specifics of the tour. This time, I'll just let the pictures do all of the talking. Enjoy some photos of our visit below!

It was decidedly convenient that Against the Grain was catty-corner from Angel's Envy, so we stopped back in for another beer. Our previous waitress was still on the clock, so I hooked her up with a pair of beers. We also returned to the same table we'd occupied a few hours earlier. This time, I was craving something a little smokey. Best known perhaps for its Imperial Smoked Porter called Bo & Luke - a nod to one of my all-time favorite childhood TV series, The Dukes of Hazzard - someone at Against the Grain must also be a big fan of the show, because they brew a beer named Rosco & Enos. Like its bigger brother carrying the Duke boys' namesakes, this lighter smoked porter gets its flavor from house-smoked malt using oak staves from the barrels that once had aged Bo & Luke. Boasting hints of chocolate, smoke, caramel and roast, Rosco & Enos has a much lighter body and loses the boozy bourbon tang of its big brother. It's a bona fide beer for dipsticks everywhere.

How beer is made... graffiti style!

Deuane noticed that Against the Grain had a small bottle shop and merch store next door to the brewery and tasting room, so we decided to check it out. This turned into a pretty lengthy visit once we got talking to the two guys manning the counter. In addition to a well-stocked bottle and can collection for take-out, they also had four experimental taps for sampling and (presumably) growler and crowler fills. These four beers were not on tap next door in the tasting room, so needless to say I felt obliged to try them all. Two of them were variations of Against the Grain's smoked imperial stout, Bo and Luke. Here's the skinny:

• 11 Minutes of Jazz - oak-aged Biere de Garde with rich notes of baked bread and caramel and hints of vanilla and light spice. Sadly, I didn't  pick up on the Tenacious D reference of the beer's name, which is a nod to an 11+ minute track on a limited edition EP titled "Simply Jazz." Shame on me.  
• Cellabrations Baldivis - "Soup of the day" bourbon barrel-aged Baltic Porter with maple and coffee
• Bo and Luke Pumpkin Spice - pumpkin spiced variant of Bo & Luke
• Bo and Luke Orange Marmalade - orange marmalade variant of Bo & Luke

This was one of those visits when it's great to be a part of the craft beer industry. Sometimes just conversing and sharing beers with people from another brewery is the highlight of the day. It's also one of the reasons why I like to travel with an assortment of beer indigenous to PA, because you never know who you're gonna meet. Of all the samples, I have to give the nod to Cellabrations Baldivis with its blend of maple and coffee flavors, which seems have become the leitmotif of the trip for me.

After an enjoyable visit to Against the Grain, it was time to head to our next destination, Bluegrass Brewing. I was hoping there would be food, because I was starting to get a bit peckish. Turns out they do, in fact, serve food, as Bluegrass follows the brewpub model. One of Louisville's "old guard," Bluegrass opened its doors in late 1993, which makes it the oldest brewery in the city.

The Dank, a classic West Coast-style IPA weighing in at 6.5% ABV. While I'm not a pot smoker, I do love a good dank, weed-like IPA with a strong ganga aroma. With that said, I'd be more inclined to call this beer "The Somewhat Dank." It was drinkable, but not as crunchy as I was hoping. Still, it definitely beat Brewslut's beer, which was undrinkable. It was a straight-up "butter bomb" with a prominent diacetyl character.

Food-wise, I was happy with my tofu stir-fry. It was pretty cheap and did what it was required to do - fill my gut. But the beers left a bit to be desired, so we decided not to stick around for the second set. Instead, we closed our tabs and moved on.

After a pretty disappointing visit to Bluegrass, it was time to hit one of Deuane's recommended stops, Michter's Distillery. OK, we didn't actually visit the distillery. This was The Bar at Fort Nelson, a high-end whiskey and bourbon bar operated by Michter's. I had never heard of Michter's before, but I suppose I should have because its history is steeped in the Lebanon Valley. I'll give you the brief Wiki version:

Michter's Distillery (more recently Bomberger's Distillery) is a non-operating distillery facility that was, at the end of the twentieth century, believed to be the oldest remaining such building in the United States. The distillery closed in 1989. Although there are whiskey products currently on the market using the Michter's brand name, they are more recently introduced products that have no direct connection to the old distillery. The original distillery, located near Schaefferstown, PA, represented the transformation of whiskey distilling from an agricultural enterprise into a large-scale industry. The surviving still house, warehouse, and jug house date from about 1840, but the site has a documented history of spirit production since 1753. In 1975, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1980. The facility was America's smallest commercial distiller at the time of its 1989 closure.

Michter's Distillery. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Deuane and I shared pours of the standard bourbon and rye. Both were of superior quality and enjoyable to swish around. It was a relaxing visit to a more upscale establishment to which we're not typically accustom. We just sat back and enjoyed the moment.

After our quick bourbon detour, it was back to beer. We decided to dip up into Indiana for a quick stop at Flat 12 Bierwerks. The place was pretty beat when we arrived, save for two couples who looked like they were visiting from Jersey and were ready to get on with an evening of drunken love-making in a cheap hotel. Sadly, there were only two house beers on tap; everything else was a guest tap, which was disappointing. Of course, this was only a satellite pub and not the actual brewing facility (which is situated in Indianapolis). As it turns out, Flat 12 isn't even called Flat 12 anymore. Recently, it changed its name to Rad Brewing Company. Rad... really? Perhaps they're going to cater to the tiny cross-section of craft beer drinkers who are into 80's BMX bike-racing.

That sign is pretty rad, isn't it?

Anyway, onto the beer. Sour Raspberry Blonde ended up being my 7000th unique beer on Untappd. If my math is correct, I've been hitting about 1000 beers each year. I quickly recalled my 5000th check-in occurred during Drinksgiving 2017 in Virginia Beach. The other beer I shared with Brewslut, Psycho Gose Beast, was a straight-up unfruited Gose with a distinct tangy character and a hint of sweaty feet. This may have been the only dud brewery of the trip. The beers weren't undrinkable, but they were forgettable, and so was the taproom. We finished up our short pours and exited nonchalantly. Off to the next place!

Flat 12 was a bit, well, flat.

Our situation dramatically improved at Akasha. Upon entering, I noticed a good dozen or so beers on the chalkboard. I was intrigued by many of the beers, which included everything from classic and mundane (brown ale, Marzen) to hip and trendy (NEIPA, sour IPA) to experimental (English mild with Brett, sour "smoothie" ale).

Eventually, I settled on a beer called Whip It!, a sour IPA with vanilla and pineapple. I love me some Devo, and I love this beer equally as much. Crack that whip! Mosaic and Idaho 7 hops lay down a sticky tropical and citrus canvas, but the icing on the cake is the fact that they condition the beer atop pineapple puree and vanilla bean. This beer was pretty friggin' awesome, and it piqued my interest and enticed us to stay for seconds.

Meanwhile, Brewslut was working on a thick, decadent sour called Black Razz Delight, a German sour ale loaded with massive amounts of black currant and raspberry. Described as a "smoothie style Gose," this heavily fruited beer was reminiscent of the frozen smoothie-style beers we experienced at The Answer a while back when we visited Richmond, VA. The beer is heavy on tangy berry character, let me tell you.

I liked Whip It! so much that I decided to order a small pour of Tea Time, another sour IPA with the same hop bill of Mosaic and Idaho 7. However, instead of pineapple and vanilla, this beer is steeped with black currant tea leaves. This one definitely had more of an earthy berry character compared to the juicy, tropical-forward Whip It! Still, it was nice to try and overall this place was high on my list of places we hit during the trip.

Inside Akasha Brewing Company.

I stumbled onto a cool little fact about Akasha while researching the brewery post-trip. Turns out Akasha unearthed an original recipe from a Louisville brewery known as Fehr's City, which was founded in 1872. From its modest beginnings of producing just 593 barrels its first year, the brewery expanded 120,000 barrels by 1903. It's award-winning lager, Fehr's XL, was said to be the most widely consumed beer throughout Louisville. Unfortunately, like so many other small, independent breweries in the mid-Twentieth Century, Fehr's folded in 1964. Akasha decided to resuscitate the crisp, clean flavor of this simple beer by using Fehr's XL (a simple pre-prohibition lager) recipe for Louisville beer drinkers to enjoy once again. Now that's a pretty cool story, eh? Sadly, I didn't know about this while we visited the brewery, so I was unable to try the beer. But at least now I know for the next time we visit.

And now for the descent of Pleepleus...

Whoa, little buddy! Are you OK? 

Easy little fella! 

...aaaaaand, he's out. This might have been the first time Pleeps was out of commission before the final brewery. Tea Time turned out to be "Sleepy Tea Time" I suppose. See ya in the morning, little buddy!

Falls City, our final stop of the day, was a fun time. Despite it being a fairly big place and also a Saturday, the room was sparsely occupied save for a few twenty-somethings at the bar and the equally young bartender. Turns out one of the guys at the bar also works there, and sure enough, we all got to talking. We got sucked into playing a card game with the handful of kids at the bar. It was a pun-based game whereby someone read a phrase and you had to respond with the appropriate word. It may have been called Punderdome, but I can't recall. At any rate, hilarity ensued, and the game definitely helped pass the time in an enjoyable way.

Falls City's old school beer logo.

It was the end of a very long day of drinking, so I may be as verbose in describing these next few beers or elaborating on their characteristics. That's the price you pay when it's an all-day drink-a-thon. With that said, I opted to kick off with Eleven's Waffle Stout, an imperial stout with maple syrup and vanilla. (See, it's become a trend!) I had to think about the name for a minute, and then it hit me: it's a reference to the Netflix original series, Stranger Things. The character Eleven loves Eggo waffles. Well played, Falls City. Well played.

Stouts seemed to reign supreme at Falls City, so up next I dove right into the whimsically named Fluffy, a bourbon barrel-aged stout with peanut butter and marshmallow. Fluffernutter, anyone? I'm more of a PB&J guy personally, but I'm not opposed to a big of Fluff either.

Inside Falls City Brewing Company.

I needed a snack, and luckily for me there was a bangin' taco joint right across the street. Conveniently, Falls City had a menu, so I placed an order for some chicken and black bean tacos, which hit the spot.

The stouts seems to be up to snuff, so I carried on with the aptly named Coffee Stout, a bold and dark vanilla coffee stout brewed with local 78 Coffee Co. coffee from Louisville. Everyone seemed to like it. I was honestly too caught up in conversation and the pun game to really recall details about the beers. They must have been good, though, because we stayed for a while. So it was a nice cap on a well-spent day of traipsing around Louisville.

We ended the night at Falls City.

Before we left, we exchanged beers (more people who hadn't heard of Tröegs) and retired for the evening. Stay tuned for more hijinx including the return home with a layover in Cincinnati and Columbus. Until next time...