Craft Beer booms in Nashville

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cover story
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SUNDAY, JULY 14, 2013
THE TENNESSEAN
CRAFT
BEER
BOOMS IN NASHVILLE
local
breweries
BLACKSTONE BREWPUB &
BREWERY
1918 West End Ave., Nashville
615-327-9969, www.blackstone
brewery.com
BOSCOS
1805 21st Ave. S., Nashville
615-385-0050, www.boscosbeer.com
New breweries, festivals
proliferate while existing
operations enjoy
opportunity to branch out
COVER PHOTO BY
SANFORD MYERS /
THE TENNESSEAN
“
We will tell
anybody
anything
if it helps
them make
better
beer.”
KENT TAYLOR
Blackstone
Brewery
a
Kent Taylor
began
brewing
craft beer at
Blackstone 17
years ago, long
before the trend
took off in this
region. JAE S. LEE /
THE TENNESSEAN
CZANN’S BREWING COMPANY
505 Lea Ave., Nashville
http://czanns.com
FAT BOTTOM BREWERY
900 Main St., Nashville
www.fatbottombrewing.com
GRANITE CITY BREWERY
1864 W. McEwen Drive, Franklin
615-435-1949, www.gcfb.net
Beer goes through the bottling line at
Blackstone Brewing Company. JAE S. LEE /
THE TENNESSEAN
Jackalope Brewing Company reached 100 percent capacity in October and can barely keep up with
demand. “We’d literally be kegging a beer and sending it right to our distributors,” said co-owner
Steve Wright. SANFORD MYERS / THE TENNESSEAN
canned beer doesn’t allow light to enter and
“It’s exciting. There are tons of new brewhas less oxygen than bottles. And it’s easier
eries coming in … it’s booming,” said Virball.
to recycle, has less overall packaging and
Matt Leff, who organizes beer festivals
costs less to ship, just to name a few beneand events in town through Rhizome Producfits. Buying a canning line can be a big captions, said having breweries significantly
ital expense, but contracting with mobile
adds to the culture. Picking up a six-pack
canning companies helps offset that cost.
doesn’t make the same impact as visiting the
“But if (you) had done it three or four
place where beers are made and speaking
years ago, you would have been too soon.
with the people who make them.
Nashville wasn’t ready for it,” said JackaPlus, the collaborative spirit of Nashville
lope co-owner Robyn Virball.
and the craft beer culture as a whole help
After 17 years in business, Blackstone
keep the competition healthy.
opened a new brewing facility and bottling
“I think there’s room for everybody,”
operation two years ago. “We’re just doing
Wingo said.
what’s been done 100 years ago,” Taylor said.
Taylor noted that craft beer drinkers are
“If it makes better beer, we’ll do it,” he said.
not brand-loyal, after all. They’re categoryOtherwise, the company keeps
loyal.
the bells and whistles at its
“They’ll try everything on the
facility at a minimum.
market,” said Blackstone coFour main
Meanwhile, Neil McCormick
founder Stephanie Weins.
ingredients
in
said Yazoo has kept its focus
Taylor said he considers their
beer brewing
local rather than expanding,
job to mean getting people into
even regionally.
the craft beer bucket — more so
“We want to make everybody
than the Blackstone brand’s
here as proud as possible to
bucket.
work with us,” he said.
The information between
brewers also flows freely.
A creative explosion
“We will tell anybody anyBeyond the growth at current
thing if it helps them make betbreweries and new ones on the
ter beer,” Taylor said.
horizon, David Wingo, a craft
Other brewery operators say
beer aficionado (who calls himthe same. In 2011, a group of
self “just a lowly beer drinklocal breweries created the Tener”), adds that breweries are
nessee Craft Brewers Guild.
bringing interesting beer opTheir first meeting took place at
tions to the table.
Blackstone with Jackalope’s
“There’s gonna be a lot of
Spaulding (who has a law dediversity in the Nashville beer
gree) writing bylaws and Yazoo’s
scene that we didn’t have befounder, Linus Hall, as president.
fore,” he said.
They work together on legislaLittle Harpeth Brewing, for
tive issues such as coming to a
example, plans to specialize in
recent compromise for a flat
German-style lagers.
tax on beer rather than one
“I’ve been (home) brewing
tied to the cost of the beer.
German lager pretty much
“This past year … one of
exclusively for about 12 years now,” said
the main things other than the tax was
Steve Scoville, head brewer at Little Harlaying down guidelines for festivals,”
peth. Along with founder Michael Kwas,
McCormick added.
he’ll also offer options such as Chicken
The guidelines help protect brewers
Scratch, an American Pilsner made from
from feeling pressured to participate
malted barley, locally grown corn and Amer- in every one of the growing number of
ica’s only native hop variety. “That’s another
festivals and to focus instead on the
way we try to tie our brand and deliver prod- ones that help sustain the industry.
ucts that are really related to the history of
Leff, who says he focuses on qualMiddle Tennessee,” Scoville said.
ity, not quantity, at his festival, startMeanwhile, Black Abbey will focus on
ed the East Nashville Beer Festival
Belgian-style beers, and Tennessee Brew
three years ago. He caps attendance
Works will offer a variety.
at 2,000, but has sold out the festival
And even though Yazoo isn’t new, the
every year. In March, for instance,
brewery continues to challenge beer drinkthe festival sold out in 15 minutes.
ers by bringing in new programs such as its
Leff leads brewery and beer bar
“Embrace the Funk” series, a collaboration
tours through Gray Line, and he
with local home-brewing expert Brandon
added the 12 South Winter Warmer,
Jones. The crew has been developing sours,
a December festival coming up on
wild ales and lambics with yeasts that could
its third year, as well as the Brew
“shut down (a) brewery,” McCormick said, if at the Zoo, which just completed its
they aren’t contained and isolated properly.
second year. Leff heads up Nashville Craft
Some of these “funky” beers also sit in
Beer Week, too, which offers a variety of
white wine, red wine, whiskey barrels and
events such as dinners culminating with the
30-year-old estate rum barrels from Jamaica East Nashville Beer Festival.
that the brewery has acquired, adding tart
“Part of my mission is to build Nashville
complexity that you wouldn’t get from tradi- Craft Beer Week to reach all demographics,”
tional beers.
he said. “When there’s visibility of craft beer
“Very few breweries in the United States
and local breweries, people are at least goare approaching sours and wild ales like we
ing to give it a try.”
are, because the program takes a year or
The interest in all things local also has
three or four years to get running at any size played a natural role in the popularity of
volume,” McCormick said. “People that encraft beer.
joy these types of beers understand that
“More and more people are coming into
there’s only going to be so much of it. It’s
the bars and asking for what’s local,” Spauldsmall-batch.”
ing said. “That used to never really be a
thing.”
A collaborative community
And as the local restaurant scene grows,
When it comes to the interest in craft brewso does the local craft beer scene.
ing, operating brewers look to the new brew“The three years that I’ve been here, this
eries and beer bars as examples of the grow- city has drastically moved forward,” Leff
ing popularity.
said, “and it’s not stopping.”
WATER
Reach Jennifer
Justus at 615259-8072
or jjustus@
tennessean.com.
COOL SPRINGS BREWERY
600A Frazier Drive, Franklin
615-503-9626, www.coolsprings
brewery.com
MAYDAY BREWERY
521 Old Salem Highway,
Murfreesboro
http://maydaybrewery.com
JACKALOPE BREWING
COMPANY
701 Eighth Ave. S., Nashville
615-873-4313, www.jackalope
brew.com
WATCH THE PROCESS
To see a video of the
beer-making and bottling
process at Blackstone
Brewery, scan the code or
visit Tennessean.com/Taste.
ROCK BOTTOM RESTAURANT &
BREWERY
111 Broadway, Nashville
615-251-4677, www.rockbottom.com
TURTLE ANARCHY BREWING
COMPANY
216 Noah Drive, Franklin
615-595-8855, www.turtleanarchy.
com
YAZOO BREWING COMPANY
910 Division St., Nashville
615-891-4649, www.yazoobrew.com
Beer barrels lined up
at Yazoo, which had
its highest volume
in sales last month.
JUBILEE CRAFT BEER COMPANY
615-686-9397
www.jubileebeer.com
JAE S. LEE / THE
TENNESSEAN
coming up
The following breweries are in
various stages of development:
YEAST
CONTACT
sk Kent Taylor about
changes in the craft beer
scene in Nashville, and
he’ll take you back to 1994,
when he co-founded Blackstone Brewing Company.
“It was Bud country,” he
said. And even when he
would serve guests his
lightest beer, they would sometimes ask for
a “real” beer instead. “We might have been
ahead of our time.”
Cut to 2013 and you’ll find Blackstone
joined by thriving craft breweries like the
10-year-old Yazoo Brewing Company, which
had its highest volume in sales last month,
and the 2-year-old Jackalope Brewing Company, which reached 100 percent production
in October of last year and will add canned
beer to its repertoire thanks to a mobile
canning unit rolling into town this fall.
New breweries have popped up, with
several more in the works, including HonkyTonk Brewing Co., Tennessee Brew Works,
Black Abbey Brewing Company and Little
Harpeth Brewing. Beer bars have opened,
too (Craft Brewed and The Filling Station),
with others set to open (Hops + Crafts and
The Hop Stop).
The Tennessee Craft Brewers Guild
formed in 2011 and led the charge to update
beer tax laws that took effect this month
(though we still have the highest beer tax in
the country). And it seems anyone wanting
to learn more about craft beer won’t have to
look far for an opportunity to sip.
“We have a beer festival or an event (to
take part in) every weekend from midAugust through October,” said Jackalope
co-founder Bailey Spaulding. “That’s a lot.”
The craft beer movement has been booming across the country, especially in cities
like Portland, Ore., and Denver. (Tennessee
has about 30 breweries in the state, for example, while Portland has more than 50 in
the city alone).
But despite a recent Beer Institute study
ranking Tennessee low in beer consumption,
Blackstone recently topped the list as fastest-growing craft brewery in the country in
an interactive map prepared by The New
Yorker.
Taylor, who also bottles beer for other
companies on a contract basis, shrugs it off
as just “math” and “a fluke,” preferring
instead to keep his head down and moving
forward with his goals. It’s a sentiment that
seems to be echoed in town as beer makers
work hard just to keep up.
The folks at Jackalope, for instance, said
they’ve spent a solid six months making as
much beer as possible to keep up with demand in Nashville.
“We’d literally be kegging a beer and
sending it right to our distributors,” said
co-owner Steve Wright. “Well, this is the
freshest beer in Nashville. I feel pretty sure
of that,” he remembers saying.
“Thankfully, Nashville is still pretty thirsty.”
Jackalope installed bigger fermenters
this spring to double production over the
course of the summer, and plans to add
another fermenter in late fall. They’ll
also begin to can beer through a
mobile canning operation that will
start up in Middle Tennessee later
this year, following a trend that
has taken off in Colorado and
Oregon.
Popular among craft brewers,
BLACK ABBEY BREWING
COMPANY
GRAINS
The Tennessean
Nashville
www.blackabbeybrewing.com
BRIARSCRATCH BREWING
Cottontown, Tenn.
http://briarscratchbrewing.com
HOPS
Jennifer Justus
CALFKILLER
1839 Blue Springs Road, Sparta, Tenn.
www.facebook.com/calfkiller
brewingcompany
HONKYTONK BREWING CO.
240 Cumberland Bend, Nashville
615-556-8976, www.facebook.
com/pages/HonkyTonk-BrewingCo
LITTLE HARPETH BREWING
30 Oldham St., Nashville
http://littleharpethbrewing.com
Jackalope Brewery
assistant brewer
Will Hadley wheels
a freshly filled keg
past the company’s
new fermentors at
the brewery.
TENNESSEE BREW WORKS
809 Ewing Ave., Nashville
www.tnbrew.com/brewery
SANFORD MYERS /
THE TENNESSEAN
IF YOU GO
Nashville supports several beer
festivals each year, including the
Music City Brewer’s Festival, which
hosts breweries from out of town,
such as Mississippi’s Lazy Magnolia, as well as a few breweries with
locations here, such as Boscos.
GETTY AND FILE IMAGES
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JAE S. LEE /
THE TENNESSEAN
Special barrels are
being used to make
sour beers at Yazoo.
JAE S. LEE / THE TENNESSEAN
What: The 12th annual Music City
Brewer’s Festival
When: Saturday, July 27
Session A is from noon to 4 p.m.
Session B is from 6 to 10 p.m.
Cost: Tickets begin at
$35 per person
Details: http://music
citybrewersfest.com