Flywheel Brewing and the Spring Thaw Music Fest

We got to talk with one of the owners Flywheel Brewing, Aaron Hawkins, here in Elizabethtown. He gave us the low down on all things Flywheel, including the Spring Thaw Music Festival they are hosting this Saturday. Having a brewry, and let alone a music festival here in town is one of the things that makes this town special, and these young entrpenuers are simply doing that by following their passion and bringing their passion to this town. Thank goodness for the love for local! Espeically local beer.

How long has Flywheel been around?

We opened in November of 2017.  However we were in planning since 2015.

What got you started? Who started it? What inspired or motivated you to do this?

We were just three guys who enjoyed homebrewing together. After noticing a glaring hole in the craft beer market between Louisville and bowling green, we decided to jump at the opportunity.  Myself, Josh Durham and Ashley Willoughby are the three owners and founders.

What is happening at Fly Wheel right now? What beer do you have brewing?

We always try to be the community gathering spot where you can socialize and fellowship over a beer.  We believe most issues and divides can be worked out over a beer and an open mind.  Other than that, we try to have events every now and then to give people in this area and option to stay here, rather than go to Louisville. We just recently brewed our summer ale.  A lemon basil ale with fresh lemon peel and basil.

What's your favorite beer at Flywheel right now?

Right now my personal favorite is the red wine barrel aged wheat that was randalized through blueberries and blackberries (just means filtering the beer through the fruit to pick up their flavors and scents).  

What do you love about having your own brewery?

Meeting people.  I've met way more people than I knew existed in our community.  Flywheel is just one component to giving etown a sense of place and we're proud of that.

What is this we hear about a Spring Thaw Music Festival? 

So last fall we got the idea to do a music festival in our back parking lot.  It was very quickly put together and we didnt really expect much but we had over 500 people come and that was just with a couple weeks of marketing.  So we quickly decided etown needs these types of events so we're going to do 2 a year (one spring and one fall).  This one is bigger and we only hope to continue to grow this thing.  We'll have 12 bands and itll start around 1 PM and run till about 11:30 PM.  Its more than music though.  We'll have newton's farm to table food truck on site, raiment and boon will have a pop up shop in the taproom, and clippin ain't easy will have a booth set up doing haircuts and beard trimming.  At this point, knowing us, anything can happen (so it's far from a finalized agenda).  Let's just hope for good weather.

What are the details of this evenning? What do people need to know?

It's all FREE.  That's the most important thing.  We'll have a jar at the door where people can put money in if they think this festival is worth paying for, but you dont have to pay.  We're basically testing the market to see if people are willing to pay so we can potentially truly grow this thing to where we want it.  The music is a wide variety of music ranging from Americana to metal with most points in between. 

Why should people come out?

Did we mention its FREE? but seriously we feel the quality of music we have is something you cant get anywhere else without paying decent money.  We just want to contribute to etowns social life and provide a vast array of things to do and this we feel is one of the crown jewels. 

Find them:

218 S. Mulberry St. Suite 103

Elizabethtown, KY

Facebook: @flywheelbrewing

Twitter: @FlywheelBrewing

Instagram: @flywheelbeer