Against the Grain Brewery and Smokehouse is this pretty cool brewery at Louisville Slugger Field, the minor league baseball stadium, which is apparently head and shoulders above the old place that used to be there. A fairly standard menu with a unique smoke twist on just about everything made the food a pleasant surprise to go along with this smokebeer tasting; a relief for me because I drug a party of six a bit out of the way just so I could try and review this beer. We came at an off hour on a nasty, dreary December afternoon to find the place seemingly fully staffed and yet there was a bit of confusion on how they were going to seat us with a mere 90% seat availability. Regardless of that hiccup, I quickly ordered the Smoke Macfannybaw Rauchbier listed as barrel aged and salted, 8.5%, IBU-25.

I’ve never heard of salted before but I have heard of barrel aging and I don’t like it. I look forward to the day when this barrel aging beer fad ends, or at least until someone makes one that I actually like, but anyway, there I was with this beer and five people looking at me wondering how it stacks up. I took in a smell and gave the smoke power 1 out of 7 smokestacks. One is a bad sign, it shows that smoke is detectable, but in this case, masked by other whiskey smells and is not particularly pleasant. As far as barrel power is concerned, I gave it a 6 out of 7. It’s too bad that I hate barrel power when it is done improperly, because that means that these points are fighting for evil. Furthermore, the barrels come from Angel’s Envy “bourbon” one of my least favorite liquors.

I’m glad Kentucky has bourbon to be proud of, but I don’t know why so many KY brewers are jumping on this barrel aging beer trend; it reminds me of a Simpsons episode. Wouldn’t it be great if they just focused on making bourbon taste like bourbon. Well anyway, the photo of the bourbon flight is my proof that I am a bourbon expert, and the smoke photo proves that I was at Against the Grain. And one last thing, why the crude peepee weewee jokes on the website description? It’s not kinda funny. Better luck next time AGT.

http://www.atgbrewery.com/#beer

401 East Main Street  Louisville, KY 40202
(502) 515-0174