The Ott's NASCAR & Brewery Tour
Tim and Johnna Ott's tour across America
Captains Log Day 54: everything is still on lock-down and this is our 1st brewery in over six weeks. It’s been a long drought! During our last stop in this border town, we were on our way to LaPorte but this time we are on our way back to Somerset to revisit family for Mothers Day. We decided to come back to check out more of the many breweries here in Louisville. This one didn’t disappoint – we picked up a 6-pack of Louisville Lager which was cold and refreshing.
Our last stop in this border town before continuing on to LaPorte, this brewery was a little more reasonable offering window service for not only tasty beers but also delicious pizza. We first ordered a six-pack of Brabble American Blonde ale then the Spicy pizza. While we waited in our Jeep for our pizza, we couldn’t resist the temptation of cold beer in the back seat so we broke off 2 beers from the six pack and quenched our thirsts.
So we thought the last brewery we went to was a little extreme with outdoor ordering and serving but this place takes it to a whole new level. They weren’t even allowing beer-tenders to take face-to-face orders; we had to call inside on our phone to place an order and credit cards only! So we played along and ordered a growler of Cowboy Dan lager which provided us with 4 pints of deliciousness.
Our 2nd stop of the day was very interestingly to say the least. The paranoia of the coronavirus has reached an all-time high and we were met outside the tasting room by a beer-tender taking orders behind a picnic table. We ordered up a NuLu Honey Pils which we drank later and was delicious!
Captains log day 10: the state is still on lockdown but that doesn’t deter us from pushing on with the tour. We decided to visit each brewery and at least come away with a to-go beer to blog about. We ordered up a crowler of Classic Pils to split later when we got back to the bus.
So this is what it has come to. Since all races have tentative been cancelled up thru May 9th, NASCAR has given it their best shot by running a virtual race to keep fans engaged and fulfilling their needs for speed. Needless to say, it was pretty cool. The TV broadcast was just like a real race and the simulation was very realistic. We participated just like a real race with snacks and plenty of beer!
The 2nd of only two breweries in this one-horse town, it too was closed except for the purchase of carry-out goods. We picked up 2 crowlers to-go; one filled with 76 pale ale and the other with Red Ale. This was also a small batch brewery serving up only a handful of great beers in the heart of the historic downtown one block from the town square. UPDATE 7/24/20: we came back to this brewery after the lockdown was lifted and was able to hang out in the tap room. This time we tried the Goldenberg rye ale and Perfidious Albion Irish red ale – delicious!
Captains Log Day 4: one of the unique benefits of living full-time in a motorhome is you can change plans on-the-fly. One of our family members fell ill and we detoured from our planned trip to Texas and headed north to Kentucky a couple of days ago. Now landed at a small, remote RV park in the hills of southern KY, we ventured out to our 1st brewery in 4 days. Just 15 minutes from camp, this small-batch brewery is one-of-a-kind making batches in what looked like chrome 55-gallon drums. Connected to a gas station/convenience store, the tasting room was formally Billy Bubbles car wash. Yes, an automatic drive through car wash! Even though the town was on lockdown due to Covid 19, we took our chances and were lucky to stop by when the owner was there “kegging” his latest batch of beer. Bill welcomed us in as “beer consultants” and served up his Honey Cream pale ale and Hazy Brown IPA over stories of how this brewery came to be and a tour of his operations. The beer was one of the best we’ve had in a long time.
Well, the world has finally come to an end. By the time we arrived at this brewery, the mayor had already declared a state of emergency causing the closure of the tap room. Now this coronavirus thing has gone too far! Luckily, we told the beer-tender we were traveling & blogging and he snuck us a couple of beers before closing the doors. We had the David City Berliner and the Pale Ale which were awesome. Shout out to the head brewmaster for bending the rules and hooking us up!
One of two breweries in historic downtown, this tasting room is one of the good ones. Brewing beer within arms reach of the bar and that beautiful smell of hops and barley cooking, we really liked the Crimson Ale and El Guerrero Mexican lager.
