Louisville in September

Personally I’d hit: Mile Wide, Akasha, and ATG. I’d also recommend Monnik.

 

If you distillery tours take you to Buffalo Trace/Woodford Reserve/Castle & Key, make a trip to Lexington for Ethereal Brewing and West Sixth Brewing -- those are the 2 best breweries in the state.

 

Holsopple is on the East end and very good. If you go to Mile Wide, you should hit up Gravely as well. Very close to each other and both have excellent beers.

 

If I had those restrictions, I'd do Mile Wide, Monnik, Against the Grain, and then hit up Holy Grale, which isn't a brewery, but is probably the best beer bar in KY. They're all within around 10 minutes of each other, so won't be a huge burden from a traveling perspective.

 

Hopcat which is around the corner from Holy Grale isn't a bad bar/restaurant either. They usually have West Sixth and Holsopple brews.

 

i'd recommend mile wide, gravely and holy grale. i'd skip the rest.

3rd turn is solid, as is Holsopple, but neither is anywhere near the rest of your list.

 

Exclude goodwood, terrible terrible beers.

 

As a regular visitor I would say that the best breweries are Monnik and Mile Wide. Against the grain is worth it for the brisket and if you like odd and interesting beers. Akasha and Holsopple are both super tasty. I was personally deeply unimpressed with Gravely and they are pricier than average. Holy Grail is great but definitely has a pretentious vibe which is otherwise largely absent in louisville. The hop cat always has a good selection.

My recommendation, and what I usually shoot for, would be a meal at AtG and a meal at Monnik. Mile Wide for drinks and pinball (especially if you like NEIPA stuff, they are the only I've really seen out there) and then Akasha or Holsopple depending on where you are staying and which is convenient.

GoodWood, BBC, and Apocolypse are a waste of your precious time

 

I just remembered that I would highly recommend a trip to Sergio World Beer, in my opinion it is a better tap list than Holy Grail and just a real site to behold. The owner is some kind of beer hoarder and there are literally thousands of varieties of beers from probably close to 100 countries (obviously be aware that some of these obscure beers are probably waaay past their best by date). The place is somewhere between a bottle shop and a beers of the world museum and the staff are pretty cool. the two times I stopped in people were doing bottle shares and everyone told me it's even better when the eponymous owner is in the house.

 

FWIW, I was at Akasha on Saturday, and they had a really nice NEIPA on, NE Time, that really impressed me and I think is worth checking out. I hadn't ever pinned them for being able to produce that style well, and I really enjoyed it.

The Falls City taproom is cool and worth a visit after hitting some of the higher priority stuff if you have extra time downtown, although the beer is still underwhelming (although improving, IMO). I'd also echo the Sergio's visit, although he's still cash-only, which always frustrates me, and I'd agree that checking those bottle dates is an absolute must. That said, there's beer there that you cannot get anywhere else in the area, and there's always a great taplist.

If you happen to be out in the suburbs for any reason, Holsopple and 3rd Turn are doing really great stuff, but they're both probably 15-20 mins out of downtown on a low traffic day, so might be a stretch.