Did you know the BBC brewed beer? No, I’m not referring to the British Broadcasting Company. They’re too busy covering the news. Boston Beer Company is a BBC that brews beer, and they brew a lot of it, but I’m not talking about them either. Nope. And if you guessed Baltimore Brewing Company, makers of the wonderful DeGroens beers, you’re wrong again. No, the brewery I’m referring to is the Bluegrass Brewing Company from Louisville, Kentucky. Their logo, sported boldly on the labels of their brews, is BBC, which got me started on all this in the first place.

Bluegrass is a combination brewpub and bottling microbrewery, and if you visit you’re likely to find several brews on tap, including their famous Dark Star Porter, a German-style Altbier, a nut brown, and their unique Luna de Miel Raspberry Meade. If you live close by, you might want to consider their Wort Hog Club, which for $30 a year will get you a free T-shirt, an engraved mug, and 20-ounce servings for the 16-ounce price every time you visit. There are other benefits too, like members-only tastings of beers brewed on premises and brought in in bottles.

The concept of some type of a mug club is common at many brewpubs these days, and if you’re a regular they can really work to your advantage. It’s a way for you to save money, and a method by which the brewery can reward you for your regular patronage.

BBC American Pale Ale pours to a cloudy orange-amber color with a thick and rocky head formation and a big citric hop nose. The palate is firm and malty with a wonderful citric hop character and a huge hop buzz in the finish. This is not pale ale; it’s American Pale Ale, almost IPA and an awesome one. American pale Ale is generally considered to be somewhere in between pale ale and IPA in body and bitterness.

Centennials are used as a finishing hop and impart a German-like grassy, sharp and lingering, bitter hop finish that seems a tad out of place in a pale ale, but it does work to produce a wonderful brew. I really enjoyed this beer, the brewery claims they brew “to local taste”; perhaps that’s why the grassy hops are included for the Bluegrass state? In any event, this is a solid beer and one I highly recommend. I enjoyed a bottle with a dinner of mesquite-smoked barbecued boneless pork chops, corn on the cob grilled in the husk with butter and sprinkled with Cajun spice, and a baked potato.

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