Cruising through the Bluegrass State

This weekend was our first (and perhaps last, but that's a later blog) time attending Fandom Fest in Kentucky, and when driving to Louisville I can't resist making stops along the way. This adventure was no different, but instead of distilleries we visited mostly breweries.

We left out of Knoxville on a Thursday after dropping our girls off at the vet's office for puppy camp. Lexington lies 2.5 hours north and is home to another of my many favored breweries, West Sixth Brewing, as well as one of my favorite liquor stores, Liquor Barn.

Mrs. Traveler: It comes in pints? Me: Yep. Diet Coke is now available in a tallboy. It's a sign of the apocalypse, I'm sure.

Over the past few years I've finally started relinquishing control of the wheel. I've grown to enjoy the scenery from the passenger seat instead of watching the world fly by while having to keep my eye on the road.

I first became aware of West Sixth Brewing from Lexington last year when I was in Louisville visiting a friend. I'm a big fan of their IPA, so I begged and cajoled Mrs. Traveler to take me there on our way.

The new West Sixth logo.

West Sixth is located in an old Rainbo Bread slicing and cooling building nicknamed The Bread Box. It's home to not only West Sixth, but also a bicycle coop, a local printing press and a flat-track roller derby team, as well as other development.

Lots o' space

Cool sculpture on the side of the Bread Box. Death Star motif FTW.

Their tap room is an extremely comfortable setup. It really is one of the nicest tap rooms I've seen in a long time. With a bar that seats about 15 people, several tables with very cool rocking chairs and a few couches, there's plenty of room for people inside. Outside there are tables, and there's even an area with picnic tables in an adjacent room that has a great view of the brewhouse. This last room, judging by pictures on the wall, has even been used for yoga classes and other events, so it's a great example of a multi-use space.

Pretty menu board

Mrs. Traveler being a goof. Dig the growler lampshades.

The couch area, with a cooler and TShirt/glassware/etc. sales area.

Brewhouse

The room I dubbed The Yoga Room

Thursday was Firkin Thursday, so I couldn't resist grabbing a glass of their Cocoa Porter. I'll apologize ahead of time for not having the copious notes that I usually take, but I was on a road trip and the last thing I wanted to do was grab a pencil or pen and start acting like a beer douche.

The firkin wasn't cold, so I got a nice room temperature pour. There was a very light, medium tan head and a big malt nose with a slight spiciness to it. Rolling it across my tongue there was a really nice cacao bitterness. Not as sweet as most cocoa porters, and I was happy with that. The carbonation was very fine and gave a tremendously satisfying mouthfeel. The hop backing lingered quite pleasantly.

Mrs. Traveler's notes: Good. Mild.

She's verbose like that.

Next up was their Smithtown Brown. Mrs. Traveler took the first sip.

"I like that. It has a tingy zing to it. A ting is a mild zing. Doesn't taste mass produced."

For me, I detected a mild, malty nose with a bit of brown sugar. The taste was of very light hops, malt and a bitterness at the back of the tongue. Just like the Cocoa Porter, this brown was not as sweet as many of the same style, which definitely moved it up the list on my chart.

After we left Lexington I programmed the ever-faithful TomTom to take us to Against the Grain Brewing, We made the drive in great time and pulled off of the exit to make our way to Slugger Field.

"Wait! Wait!" I yelled, scaring the living crap out of Mrs. Traveler.

"What?" she blurted, slamming on the brakes.

"There's Apocalypse Brew Works! Right there! Turn in!"

We pulled into the little bitty space, The Fallout Shelter, that houses Apocalypse. I'd heard good things about them, and had their RIP Rye IPA back in December, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

We got out of the van and wandered into the tiny, tiny, tiny little hole in the wall. One of the owners, Paul, was moving some kegs around and I smelled beer brewing.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"We were on our way to Against The Grain and saw you here."

"We're actually just stocking and brewing today. We're not open."

"Your website said you were," I said, pulling out my phone.

"Oh no. It does?" he asked, looking at my phone. "Oh. Wow. I'm glad that's not our website. I was about to freak out. That's Apocalypse out west."

"Aw man. I'm sorry," I said.

"No biggie. Where'd y'all come from?" he asked.

"Knoxville. We're headed to Fandom Fest."

"Well, if you don't mind us working around you I can serve you a beer."

"I don't mind at all. I like the smell of a brewery and I'm good about picking up my feet when I need to get out of the way."

He poured me a glass of their Smokin' Pyres, a smoked porter. Pitch black in the glass, it had a nice tan head. Heavy smoke and malt aromas wafted from the glass.

Taking a tug from the glass I was hit by a nicely balanced hop bitterness and sweet malt.

Mrs. Traveler, seeing my happy look, grabbed the glass from my greedy little mitts.

"Ohhh... That's good. More complex than the last couple. I like the bitterness."

While we were drinking the Brewmaster, Leah, came in with her two sweet dogs. It was nice to get a little puppy therapy and meet the other part of the brewery. We talked for a while about beer as I admired their unique brewing setup, then left them to their devices so as to not get in their way anymore.

Interesting brewing rig

Louisville can be a bit confusing if you don't have a GPS. It's easy to get turned around, and there always seems to be construction going on. After a couple of perplexing moments we managed to wend our way to Against The Grain (ATG).

ATG is attached to Slugger Field, a beautiful AAA baseball park that I became aware of through Zane Lamprey's Drinking Made Easy: Louisville episode. On a trip to visit JD last year he told me about the brewery and I had to check it out. This time I had to make sure Mrs. Traveler got to check it out too. I love the place. It's a gorgeous joint and you rarely get the same beer twice, since they don't usually repeat their recipes at ATG.

This picture doesn't do this beautiful field justice

Hint: If the Bats are not playing that day and there are no other events at the field, you can park in the field parking lot for free. JD and I didn't know this last time and wound up paying for a meter. This time we parked where we should.

Inside Slugger Field

Inside entrance to ATG

Neat drawing about how the brewhouse works

Three-story brewhouse

I ordered vegan wings and a flight of their beers, as well as a bowl of their vegetarian chili. I don't remember what Mrs. Traveler had. The vegan wings, which were made of seitan, were pretty good. I loved the texture, but they were far too spicy for me in general. The vegetarian chili was just too damned hot for normal human beings. I like Thai hot food and this was a whole other level of insanity.

This is how ATG denotes each of their brews. The chalkboard is where you find out each beer that goes with these names.

The chalkboard

Flight o' fabulousness

Satan's seitan. I didn't get a picture of the puddle of lava they called chili.

I hate to admit it, but the seven beers I had weren't even reviewed other than my Untappd notes, since I couldn't really taste as much as I would have liked. Top that off with the fact that my nose was running like somebody had turned on a spigot, so I couldn't smell most of the aromas of what has proved to be great beers before.

I've yet to figure out why people think that Vegetarian = Needs To Be Spicy Enough To Remove Rust From The Bumper Of A '47 Buick. It's a common problem and drives me nuts. They're not the only ones that I've experienced. I probably got an anomaly at ATG, because everything else I've eaten there is amazing.

The list is as follows:

Ionic Blonde. I couldn't taste this one. Very mild and just couldn't cut through the inferno in my face.

Citra Ass Down. All I could taste was hops and brimstone.


Dork Lard. A big ol' Barleywine. My notes consist of "Full bodied. Cuts the vegan chili heat quite well." Can you tell my tongue felt like I'd been licking Satan's sphincter?

Boob's Old 3600. I didn't make any notes on this one at all in Untappd, but I gave it 4 caps, so it must have been pretty good to my swollen tongue.

Sicherheit Wort. I recall liking this one pretty well too. The smokiness wasn't there for me, but that's probably because my whole head felt like it was smoking.

Oats and Hose. The lactose in this actually started cooling my tongue off. I saved it for right before the An Ale Stimulation when I realized it would probably help my cauterized taste buds.

An Ale Stimulation. Say that one fast. This was the last beer I had. By then I could actually taste it since the heat had started to subside after pushed the chili aside. It was an awesome Imperial Rye Stout. I still don't have any major tasting notes, but I liked the way the rye complimented the chocolate notes of the malt. It was also 11% ABV, so was quite the finisher.

Mrs. Traveler and An Ale Stimulation

After boxing up what was left of my beans, tomatoes and napalm we made a beeline for The Galt House.

The Galt House is a huge hotel that sits right across I-65 from the Ohio River. It consists of rooms, suites and apartments. We were lucky enough to score a cheap suite, so we were able to stretch out a while before JD got there.

Once JD arrived it was time to try and find something to drink again, as my buzz was starting to go away. What better place to go than Bluegrass Brewing Company? We wandered out onto the street, turned left and walked the block to BBC.

A lot of people knock BBC, but I actually really like a lot of what they do. Some of it is pretty middle-of-the-road, but a lot of it is pretty damned tasty. In fact, my notes on the Homewrecker Double IPA I had consisted of, "Damn that's tasty." Nothing like being succinct in your evaluations.

Half a glass of IPA left

I washed the bitterness down with a Raspberry Mead, a nice cap to my evening's beer experience. I didn't take any notes, but that's because I was enjoying the mead too much. I remember it being not-too-sweet. Sweetness, to me, is the problem with a lot of meads, and this one wasn't like that.

We closed our tab, but I wasn't done yet. It was time to stumble on over to Jockey Silks Tavern, one of my all-time favorite bourbon bars. With leather seats, a sunken bar (so you don't have to sit on a stool), a well-stocked jukebox and dark wood surroundings, it feels like a bourbon bar should.

Jockey Silks has about 150 bourbons in stock at any one time, so you're likely to find something that makes you happy. For me it's bourbon flights. We bellied up to the bar and I ordered 5 different whiskeys I hadn't had before.

WL Weller Special Reserve was delicious. I didn't do any fancy notes, since I forgot my notebook and my phone was about to die, so forgive me for these being a bit boring.

Old Granddad 114 - Powerful

Old Bardstown 90 Proof - Sweet. Mellow.

Big Ass Bourbon - That's damn good

Bulleit Rye - Mmmmm...

As you can see I was past the point of effusiveness, but was having a good time nevertheless.

We wrapped up the night by sitting in the hotel's Conservatory having water and a salad and watching the stars walk by who were in town for the convention. We were even seated a few seats over from Joey Lauren Adams (Chasing Amy) and Lew Temple(The Walking Dead), which made me happy, since I've liked Joey ever since seeing her in Dazed and Confused.

The first day of Con was unfortunately over, but it had been an epic trip for me so far. The rest of the week wouldn't prove be as eventful alcoholically, but it was eventful in other ways. I'll post pictures and a description of Friday, Saturday and Sunday shortly.

A Road Trip and a Porter

Those of you who know me outside of the socioblogofaceosphere know I'm very fond of Asheville. More specifically, I'm very fond of downtown Asheville. It's a glorious place for those of us who love beer. Top it off with great food, one of the greatest independent bookstores I've ever visited and a dearth of bitchy people and it becomes a happy place for me.

Mrs. Traveler and I considered moving to Asheville when we left that failed experiment known as Florida, but we chose to move back to familiar stomping grounds. The great thing about that is that Asheville is still only 2 hours away, give or take a few minutes depending on tourist traffic.

I needed to pick up a box of beer from Bruisin' Ales, so Ratchet, Animal and I piled into the trusty Boozemobile and motored out. Traffic was heavier than I'm used to (I tend to go on weekdays and get to Asheville fairly early so that I can go to Malaprops - the bookstore I mentioned - first), but we still managed to get there just before Bruisin' opened.

While we were all surfing our phones a couple from Louisville, KY, showed up to wait for opening time too.

"We just need another couple of people and then everybody will think there's some kind of rare bottle release going on," Ratchet mused.

We picked up a few beers, loaded up the Boozemobile and set out in search of Appalachian Vintner. I'd never been and Ratchet swore by their selection and taps. I've still not been there. Well, technically I've *been* there, but I've still not perused their shelves. They're closed on Sundays.

By now Animal and I were a mite peckish, so the three of us headed to Wicked Weed Brewing, one of my favorite stops in Asheville. The food is always awesome and the beer is always amazing.

I was a smidge nonplussed, as it turned out there was very little vegetarian fare available, but the cheese platter sounded good. It was good. It was very good. Animal said his bison burger was good too. 

"It's what I always get when I'm here, and it's always perfect," he said between bites.

I ponied up for a snifter of their Black Angel Cherry Sour. Y'all know me and sours. How could I resist?

Dark colored with the taste of chocolate, plums, sour cherries and oak, this beer was damned good. I regret that I hadn't had it sooner, but one of the downfalls of getting to Asheville early is that most of the tasting rooms aren't open. Wicked Weed's upstairs opens during the daytime, but you have to wait until early afternoon for the basement, which is where their barrel aged and sour beers are located.

I decided to try an experiment. I snagged a chunk of the amazing blue cheese on my stave and chucked it into my gob to let it melt. Then I took another tug on the sour. It was like an epiphany. The sourness was tamed and the oak, plums and chocolate came bursting through.

"Hey Ratchet. Here's a chunk of that blue cheese. Coat your mouth with it and then pull on that sour in your flight." I moaned ecstatically.

He picked up the little piece of phenomenal cheese I grudgingly gave up in the interest of science, smeared it on his tongue and took a big ol' shot of the sour.

"Holy shit. Dude! Holy shit!" was about all I got.

"I know, right?" I said.

Well, I didn't actually say that, because I hate that phrase with the fires of a thousand suns, but you get my drift. I was too deeply in awe of the great combo to say anything much more intelligent.

That brings me to the next beer. Their bourbon barrel aged Infidel Porter. I'd had their regular Infidel on my last visit. I was very interested in seeing what the difference was, and I was not disappointed.

Pitch black on the pour, this baby tasted like the barrel. Bourbon, bourbon, bourbon. Sweet corniness, some chocolate and a mild booziness. It smelled like vanilla, chocolate and malt. A great example of a barrel aged beer, it satisfied my needs.

The day was over far too soon. We poured Ratchet back in the Boozemobile and headed into the afternoon thundershowers.

A day later I started digging around in the cooler and found a beer I had picked up at Bruisin' Ales on my first trip there. Cisco Brewers' Moor Porter. The label is pretty cool. Simple and direct, I dig it.

This beer poured a dark brown. Big bubbles formed the thick, luxurious head, hopefully indicative of a great drink. The lacing started up as the head subsided. It would prove to be one of the only impressive parts of this bottle.

Raising the glass to my nose I was immediately aware of the aroma of burnt chocolate, toffee and a hint of hops. It seemed promising at that point. Then I poured it on my tongue.

Disappointment. That's about the best word to describe it. I know porters don't tend to be all that complex, but this was beyond not complex. It tasted mildly like the burnt chocolate I smelled and it had a nondescript bitterness to it. That's all.

Mrs. Traveler's thoughts? "Bland. No aroma. Tastes kind of like something mass produced, like Lowenbrau Dark."

I agree. I'm not all that impressed. Either that or Wicked Weed spoiled me. I'm willing to bet it's a combo of the two.