By: KEVIN GIBSON
This article was originally published in "Insider Louisville" on November 21, 2017.
For the first time since the repeal of Prohibition — or longer, if the owners are correct — a brewery opens its doors to the public this week in Elizabethtown, Ky.
Flywheel Brewing, owned by partners Ashley Willoughby, Josh Durham and Aaron Hawkins, first formed in early 2016, becoming a reality slowly as the trio built out a somewhat hidden-away space in a downtown that has seen growth recently, with a bourbon tavern, local coffee shop, boutique shops, new housing and more.
With a four-barrel brewhouse and 16 taps, roughly half of which will pour guest beers, there will be plenty of styles to choose from, and based on attendance during a weekend soft-opening, the people of Elizabethtown are all in.
The space has the kind of modern-yet-rustic, spacious feel one expects from craft brewery taprooms, with cinder block walls, plenty of reclaimed wood, concrete floors and a loose automotive theme.
A flywheel helps propel momentum in a machine, including an internal combustion engine, so to that end, the tap handles are mounted into old truck tailgates, and the brewery’s logo is that of a flywheel.
For the owners, the flywheel symbolizes powering the progress of mankind.
(Also, if you go, be sure to check out the mural of “The Dude” from “The Big Lebowski” in the unisex bathroom. It might seem out of place, but it’s worth the drive south just for this alone.)
Six Flywheel beers were on tap over the weekend, including an APA plus a pawpaw-infused variant, an ESB, a porter and others. Decapitated Monkey is a Belgian cream ale, Nameless ESB is a pretty basic, stick-to-the-style beer, and the U No Want Smoky Breakfast is a porter brewed with oats and “real bacon juices,” according to the description.
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