Chicagoist's Beer of the Week: Against the Grain's Two Wheel Death Machine

By Jason Baldacci in Food on Mar 8, 2013 8:00PM

We usually try to keep our Beer of the Week posts focused on the Midwest, but this week we turned our attention to Louisville, Kentucky. While it may not really be a part of the Midwest, Louisville is very accessible to Chicagoans, as it's only about 5 hours away by car, give or take. It's almost exactly the same distance from us as St. Louis, and even closer than the Twin Cities. We also have to admit that when a brewery from Louisville made a beer called Two Wheel Death Machine, we fell right into their marketing gimmick like dutiful consumers eager to talk about drinking a beer called Two Wheel Death Machine.

The aforementioned beer is an American Pale Ale from Against the Grain Brewery, with a heavy emphasis on the American part. Big, acidic hops are all over this beer. We get a lot of citrus on the nose, with a very intensely herbal and earthy hop profile on the palate. It's quite stringent, with notes of grapefruit rind, fresh cut grass (in a good way), and toasted pine. There's a bready malt backbone to balance out the hops and turn the beer a nice, light amber in color, but those bitter hops linger long on the finish. At 5.5 percent alcohol content, 'Two Wheel Death Machine' is full flavored, but very session-oriented.

In addition to being a brewery, Against the Grain is also a smokehouse, and they serve up a bunch of house specialties on a daily basis. Personally, we see a road trip in the works. Louisville is home to a vibrant restaurant scene, some really great bars, and it's as good a place to start as any if you find yourself venturing the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Yes, such a thing does exist. We're not sure about you, but a bourbon trail sounds like a lot more fun to us than anything St. Louis has to offer. No offense to St. Louis, of course.

Try Two Wheel Death Machine on tap this weekend at The Green Lady.