Read about our visit to Louisville here!

BLUEGRASS BREWING COMPANY

The first impression of Bluegrass Brewing leaves one full of hope. It’s in a cool old building with steps down from street level into an exposed-brick tasting room that resembles a cellar. Alas, the happy feelings start to dissipate as one takes in the sterile decor and – for some reason – the HGTV channel playing behind the bar. And, as if to mess with your groove a bit more, they’ve adopted a moronic beer flight policy whereby the bartender chooses 5 of the 7 beers in the flight, because, you know, why let the customers pick what they would like to drink.

Unfortunately, the beers weren’t enough to make up for the scene. The one that I settled on – needless to say, we didn’t do a tasting – was a citra-hops based IPA (“Citra Beech Ass Down”). It had a dark, smokey flavor that I’m sure many would enjoy – if they like smoky beers – but in my view was not appropriately called an IPA.

On the plus side, we arrived looking for a healthy dinner and the food hit the spot.

GOODWOOD BREWING COMPANY

Goodwood Brewing Company has carved out a unique niche that is well captured by its name: all of its beers are either barrel aged or infused with wood chips during the brewing process. They serve up more traditional varieties such as a bourbon barrel stout, but also oddities like a Walnut Brown Ale and, one of the more interesting (in a good way) beers we have tasted, a saison aged in red wine barrels. In addition to the wood, Goodwood attributes its unique beer flavors to the limestone-heavy water found in the Louisville area. Started in just 2015, Goodwood is the already the city’s largest microbrewery in terms of barrels produced.

Goodwood is located just east of downtown in an area of Louisville that is still in the midst of gentrifying, albeit at what seems like a frenzied pace. It is a pure brewery with a great neighborhood feel and good scene. It’s well worth a visit.