Day 2 of Halfway to Louisville Craft Beer Week has come and gone for this old man, so let’s rehash the events I hit-up before my bedtime comes.
Stop 1 of Day 2 (try and keep up) was Liquor Barn Springhurst’s (of this story’s fame) West Sixth event. Liquor Barn had 5 West Sixth beers on draft. Three were the ones you can currently find in cans (IPA, Amber, and Lemongrass American Wheat), but the other two were true rarities no matter what part of the state you live in. Heller Heaven Double IPA and Snakes in a Barrel Pappy Barrel Aged Imperial Stout both made an appearance, and I’ll challenge anyone to come up with a better 1-2 punch than that. Heller Heaven is as good an IIPA as I’ve had from a local brewery and Snakes in a Barrel ranks up there with any barrel-aged stout you will find. The fact that you could try both so easily made this a true gem of an event. Oh, you got a koozie as well, and you can never have too many koozies.
Stop #2 was to the St Matthews Mellow Mushroom. Mellow Mushroom decided to offer pints of all 40 beers on draft for $3. That’s an incredible value no matter where you are. $3 pints of things like Victory Hop Devil, Dogfish Head 90 Minute IIPA, and West Sixth IPA? YES PLEASE. On top of the cheap pints, Mellow Mushroom was hosting a pint-glass trading night. What’s that you say? That’s where you bring in beer glasses and trade them with other folks. Yep, this was a facilitated beer-glass trading event. That may not sound too exciting, but as someone who collects glassware this is a damn cool idea and something I hope had a great turn-out for (I wouldn’t know as I left around 6:15 or so. Regardless, $3 pints and some beer cheese and pretzels is a fantastic way to spend a Thursday evening. No questions asked.
My final stop was at Louisville’s newest brewery, Great Flood Brewing Company. They were debuting the Kentucky Common, a very old-school brew they made with BBC St Matthew’s own resident giant, Andrew Dimery. Oh, local celebrities such as Andrew himself and our very own John King were in attendance. The place was near or at capacity the entire time I was there (not surprising based on 
last weekend) and the Kentucky Common was a solid addition to their line-up. Great Flood had four of their own beers and four brews from local breweries on draft. The Kentucky Common was what I ventured there for, but the Half Double IIPA and the Oatmeal Stout continued to impress.
It was an early night for me, but all three events impressed. The LB event had two of the better beers you’ll see at any point during HLCBW, the Mellow Mushroom event had as good a deal on beer as you can hope for (an the beer cheese…. definitely the beer cheese), and the Great Flood event had a new collaborative beer plus the same favorites that are driving the new guys to their brewing limits. Overall a damn solid Day 2 and that makes me look even more forward to Days 3 and beyond. Here’s my tentative schedule for tomorrow:
- Garage Bar for the West Sixth Event
- Four Pegs for the Sour Craft Kids event
- BoomBazz for the AtG event
Everyone be sure to take part in any and all events they can. This is a celebration of the beer scene we all enjoy so lets support it as much as we can.
Cheers!
