Lexington is a fun city to explore with numerous breweries and plenty of bourbon!
Lex Tips:
Lexington is pretty small but I would definitely recommend having a car as it is a little bit spread out.
Be aware of events at the University of Kentucky—it is right in the heart of Lexington so basketball/football games and graduation can lead to a packed city and lots of traffic.
Red River Gorge is just over an hour away from Lexington and a great place for outdoor adventuring—check out my RRG guide here!
Louisville is also just about an hour from Lex, check out my guide here!
Adventures & Ales Top Recommendations:
Mirror Twin Brewing: A great brewery with a large tap list and Rolling Oven Pizza in-house. Their Hazy IPAs, Fruited Sours and Pastry Stouts are delicious and they also offer cocktails if that is more your style. They are dog-friendly inside and out.
The Manchester: A fantastic hotel with two restaurants and bars onsite. The entire hotel is insanely gorgeous with keen attention to design details. Their rooftop bar and restaurant Lost Palm is a tropical tiki paradise. Their lobby bar and restaurant Granddam exudes Kentucky charm. They are located in the Distillery District so they are nice and close to everything along with being dog-friendly.
Ethereal Brewing: A popular brewery with tasty beers and 3 locations in town. Their Manchester location has a large patio and is located directly next to James E. Pepper Distilling Company so I’d recommend setting up a distillery tour and then checking out the brewery after! The Slice House is on the UK campus in a shared space with tasty pizza. The Public House has a full food menu downtown.
Country Boy Brewing: A great brewery near downtown with a smaller taproom but it still boasts a large tap list with a wide variety of beers. They also have a small patio. They are the oldest brewery in Lexington and are putting out beers that can please everyone no matter your palate. They also do their part to connect back to the community and partner with Earthly Labs to reduce their CO2 impact on the environment.
West Sixth Brewing: The second oldest brewery in Lexington and the first brewery to can beer in Kentucky! They are now KY’s best selling craft beer, but they intentionally keep their distribution small. Their number one seller is West Sixth IPA and their Oktoberfest is super popular as well. I recommend the different variants of the Snake Eyes Stout. They have four taprooms—Lexington, Louisville, Newport Kentucky near Cincinnati, and the farm near Frankfort.
Their Lexington taproom and brewery is an old Rainbow Bread factory with a massive 90,000 square feet footprint. They have several tenants in their space that focus on nonprofits and giving back to the community. One of their tenants is Smithtown Seafood which has plenty of food options to enjoy with your brews, including non-seafood options if that’s more your style!
Goodwood Brewing and Spirits: A solid brewery with incredibly delicious food, a covered patio, and Happy Hour specials. Their Lexington location is just south of downtown.
Blue Stallion Brewing Co.: A large German-focused brewery with a massive tap list that has a variety of styles of beer. The taproom has fun games such as darts and pool as well as frequent live music and events. They also do liter specials on beers on different days of the week.
Country Boy Brewing
Other lexington things to do:
Lussi Brown Coffee Bar: An eclectic coffee and cocktail bar downtown with great coffee.
Rock House Brewing: This brewery has very interesting vibes in an old warehouse with rustic and homey furniture. The beers were solid!
Whiskey Bear: A super fun bourbon bar with delicious drinks.
Pivot Brewing: A brewery and cidery that mostly focuses on their ciders which are quite tasty.
The Beer Trappe: A beer bar and bottle shop with taps and to-go beers. The selection was a little underwhelming but I am also quite a beer snob, overall it was solid.
DV8 Kitchen: A breakfast and lunch spot doing good for the community.
