Central Nashville Brewery Roundup
By Owen Ogletree
The
Brewers Association's decision to hold its 2018 Craft Brewers Conference,
America's largest craft brewing industry gathering, in Nashville confirms that
"Music City" has evolved into a southeastern craft beer hub. Want a
world-class beer to go with hot chicken, barbecue and country tunes? Nashville
is the spot. Following is a run-down of a few central Nashville
breweries worthy of a visit.
Bearded Iris Brewing
Inspired
by the Tennessee state flower that exhibits a expansive range of attractive
colors and patterns, Bearded Iris takes pride in providing Nashville with a
range of creative brews. "Ultimately, we recognize that each beer drinker
is unique," remarks Bearded Iris' Chandra Grubbs. "We hope that our
beers meet our drinkers where they are and deliver the experience they seek.
'Cultivate variety,' is our driving philosophy behind not only the beers we
produce but in regard to our interaction with the Nashville community. It can
sometimes appear that we don't offer much variety when our draft list skews
almost exclusively toward fruit-and-juice-forward IPAs and double IPAs, but what
we're chasing is subtle and nuanced hop layering. That being said, we also like
to introduce new styles to our repertoire, and we've been having fun with
oatmeal stouts and barrel offerings lately."
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| Photo by Anna Togrye |
Black Abbey Brewing
Named
after the monastery where Martin Luther wrote his 95 Theses, Black Abbey Brewing houses a "Fellowship Hall"
taproom designed to feel like part of a monastery. In today's creative and
somewhat outrageous craft beer culture, Black Abbey takes pride in producing
mostly Belgian-influenced beers that are flavorful, yet balanced and
approachable. Taproom visitors can choose from a range of brews such as The Rose Blonde Ale, The Special Dubbel, The
Champion American Pale Ale, The Five Points IPA, Chronicles Oktoberfest and
Krampus Nacht Bock.
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The Black Abbey brew crew.
Photo by Carl E. Meier |
Corsair Distillery & Beer Lab
The foundation
of Corsair's creative and diverse beer range focuses primarily on barrel-aging,
ancient beer recipes, high gravity brewing, and the exploration of alternative
grains. "Our goal has always been to do what others are not doing or
haven't done, so fitting in has never really been our style," explains
Corsair's Chris Thomas. "We've been brewing high gravity beers since our
inception, due to our distilling license that allows this practice. Considering
high gravity laws have just recently changed for breweries here in Nashville,
we are a few years ahead of the trend. An interesting fact is that we brew on a
one-barrel system. What most larger breweries use for research and development,
we use for all of our production. This means that our beer is only available in
our taproom."
Czann's Brewing
Ken
Rebman, founder and brewer of Czann's, started homebrewing in 1997, got
involved with the local Music City Homebrewers club and worked diligently at
creating and refining beer recipes. When his day job got in the way of
homebrewing, Rebman decided to follow the advice of thirsty friends and opened
a commercial brewery. Rebman explains, "We place an emphasis on brewing
flavorful beers for the brewery's taproom and local wholesale accounts. Czann's
was founded with support and encouragement from local homebrewers, friends and
businesses. We like to say that Czann's is a Nashville brewery, not just a
brewery that got started in Nashville."
East Nashville Beer Works
Opened
in 2016 by Anthony Davis and Sean Jewett, the focus of East Nashville Beer
Works revolves around its community taproom located in the thriving
neighborhood of East Nashville. Our goals were to create a unique space with
great beer in a multitude of styles and serve as welcoming hosts," notes
Anthony Davis. "Our taproom became the community gathering space we
dreamed of, with a full food menu and inviting outdoor space with a beautiful
beer garden and family-friendly vibe. Our motto is 'Beer is Community.' We make
a fantastic blonde ale, American wheat, killer IPA and a big range of other
interesting ales, and we are doing our first true barrel-aging this year."
Jackalope Brewing
Jackalope's
popular craft beers create connections with the local Nashville community to
bring a diverse group of people together in its taproom for conversation and
camaraderie. Jackalope's Bailey Spaulding notes, "Folks have come to know
us as a brewery with balanced, year-round brews as well as creative seasonals,
and our local consumers know us as a brewery that likes to have fun and be
involved in the community. Walker Hayes, a Nashville musician, even wrote a
song about Jackalope."
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The jolly staff of Jackalope Brewing.
Photo by Bailey Spaulding |
Southern Grist Brewing Company
Kevin
Antoon and his two brewery co-founders met years ago at a tech company where
their boss taught them how to brew. In two years time, the guys resigned to
open Southern Grist, and their former boss ranks as one of the brewery's best
friends and biggest supporters. "Southern Grist is all about creativity
with our recipes and branding," Antoon points out. "Our daily focus
is on experimentation - what's working and what's not working, based on
feedback, and what our next creative brew will be. This helps us appeal to all
palates. Everyone has their own niche in the Nashville craft beer market, and
by no means do we think it's overcrowded. Our goal is to simply put out the
best products possible and have constant tap rotation in our East Nashville
location and our new Nations spot. We don't distribute, because we don't want
our beer everywhere. We want people to come to a great environment and learn
about the beers from our founders and staff."
TailGate Beer
TailGate
brewed 174 different beer brands last year, with the entire brewery team coming
up with quirky recipes and names that pay homage to Nashville culture and
landmarks such as Woo Girl, Pedal Tavern,
That Roller Coaster Thing, Naked Statue and Look at These Sticks. Brewmaster/owner Wesley Keegan believes in
adding to the Nashville community by doing his own thing. "Variety is
exactly what craft beer is all about," he says. "When we started 11
years ago, taprooms weren't common, but now they're critical. We developed our
taproom to connect with our guests, and made a point to open seven days a week.
We also incorporated a restaurant with pizzas, sandwiches, salads and
appetizers. Our taprooms are family-friendly, and our events are always
free."
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Wesley Keegan, owner & brewmaster of TailGate Brewery.
Photo by Ryan Bruchey |
Tennessee Brew Works
By incorporating Tennessee agricultural products whenever
possible and minimizing waste, Tennessee Brew Works makes environmental
responsibility a major priority. Another goal is to create impressive
craft beers that are truly a part of Tennessee through ingredients, branding
and even the taproom décor and music, which comes together as a celebration of
Tennessee culture.
Tennessee Brew Works' Christian Spears states, "We were the first
brewery in North America to utilize the Meura Micro Mash Filter to
create our brews and foster a greener brewing process. We extract
almost 100% of the sugars from our malt and utilize a centrifuge which
dramatically improves recovery of beer from the fermenter, increasing overall
batch yields."
Yazoo Brewing Company
Nashville
locals consider Yazoo's Linus Hall as one of the pioneering godfathers of the
city's rapidly expanding craft beer scene. Hall also acts as an activist within
the Tennessee Craft Brewers Guild, making positive legal changes that benefit
the state's craft breweries.
Hall
adds, "Back in 2003 in Nashville, local beer was a novelty, something you
got if you went to a brewpub. Nowadays, it's still our goal to make accessible,
sessionable beers and get them into as many hands as possible. While our
mainstay beers have served us well for fifteen years, we are also pushing
boundaries with our seasonals and our Embrace
the Funk series. Yazoo even brewed the first legal high-alcohol beer in
Tennessee since Prohibition - our SUE
Imperial Smoked Porter. We had to get a Tennessee distillery license to do
it!"
But Wait, There's More
Time
permitting, also check out the long-running Rock Bottom brewpub in the heart of touristy downtown. The perennial
Blackstone Brewing closed its iconic
brewpub but now brews at a production facility on Clifton Avenue. Honky Tonk Brewing offers an
entertaining taproom on Cumberland Bend north of downtown, and Smith & Lentz Brewing's tasting
room is open seven days a week in East Nashville. Fat Bottom Brewery's new location in The Nations area offers an
extensive range of beer styles, while New
Heights is open less than a mile from downtown and pours beers and
specialty ciders. Finally, head just north of downtown to Little Harpeth Brewing for a taste of corny Chicken Scratch Lager and other eclectic house brews.
