Over Memorial Day weekend, I was lucky enough to stop in Lexington and grab a beer at Mirror Twin Brewing Co. It gets its name from the fact they have two separate facilities with a patio in between them. One side is their taproom and the other is their cocktail lounge. We sauntered into the taproom around lunch to grab a bite and some beers. I was navigating and I was looking for a brewery that had food. It was a good choice.
First, to their food. They have a relationship with a local restaurant named Rolling Oven Pizzeria that specializes in wood fired pizza, but has sandwiches, wings, apps and salads. We tried their Supreme, which was excellent. From the sauce, to the toppings and the crust it was delicious. Pizza can be hit or miss depending on the quality of the ingredients, sauce and crust, but this pie was great and I'd give it two thumbs up. We also had the jalapeno Popper Cheese Sticks, which might be the best I've had anywhere. Finally, a Cuban was consumed also with good reviews. All in all, their teaming up with Rolling Oven was a good choice. The name connotes food trucks, which they also have.
To the beer, huzzah! Of course, I had the Red Blooded American, which is a red ale. Like one would expect, it had a malty goodness and though it was 32 IBU's, I tasted slightly more bitterness than other reds I've had. It was fairly smooth and easy to drink. It was one of their flagship beers. The others had a porter, called Kitten Mitton and a Czech Mate. Both received good reviews and the Czech Mate looked so good that I had one next. A cousin to a Czech pilsner, but darker and quite flavorful. This is a lager with a solid malty background, but is very drinkable. The Czechs have the highest beer consumption per capita in the world and typically they are higher on the bitterness scale, but are easy drinking and you are not left with bitter at the end. They are best known for their frothy pilsners, in fact they coined the name Budweiser, Budejovice, in Czech. Since Bavarians couldn't pronounce Bohemian names very well, Budejovice became Budweis. In 1876, a German named Adolphus Busch, took the recipe from a Czech brew haus that exported beer to Bavaria, to the US and started Budweiser. This started a beer naming war. Anheuser-Busch can only sell Budweiser in EU countries as a result. Typically, their beers are named from the town they were brewed in, thus Plzen, became pilsner. Anyway, don't want to bore you with Czech beer history. It was good. We rounded out with an India Pale Ale, called The Oregon Pale, which also got good reviews.
As I was sitting there, a patron recognized my Karben 4 Brewing t-shirt. He just happened to be from Madison, WI and we had a brief chat. Now you know why I buy t-shirts from most places I visit. It's a conversation starter. Since one of my brothers was buying, I didn't want to put a t-shirt on his tab, so I deferred this time. Mirror Twin was a good choice, and they ship their beers out in the area as I saw some of their choices at another establishment in Kentucky the day before. As I mentioned earlier, they have branched out to offer distilled spirits as well, but we did not partake in any that day. I did check out their cocktail lounge, which has two wood fired ovens in it with a bar and seating area. It looks like they don't have any of their own distilled spirits, but have embraced the movement. With distilleries all over Kentucky, it's better to join the party rather than compete directly. So, if you find yourself in Lexington, Mirror Twin would be a solid choice. It looks like they have a presence in the community and are a popular spot for beer drinkers as it was busy. They even allow pets inside. The only problem was not trying more of their beers. Cheers to Mirror Twin.
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