Hey everyone! My wife and I will be staying in downtown Nashville this weekend and I was curious if anyone could offer up some good brewery, beer bar, and bottle shop recommendations. Anything would be appreciated. We will be coming from Columbus, OH. If anyone would also like to discuss any IP trades too, shoot me a message to discuss what I have!
The two best beer bars in Nashville are The Hop Stop and Craft Brewed. At the Hop Stop you can drink beers both above and below 6.2% so that's the better place to sit and drink some beers. Craft Brewed, on the other hand, has the best bottle shop in Nashville and a solid beer bar, but no beers above 6.2% per stupid TN laws. As far as breweries I would visit: 1. Yazoo - simply for their sour/wild ale series call embrace the funk if nothing else. 2. Blackstone (the brewery not restaurant) 3. Smith and Lentz (new one with great promise) 4. Black Abbey In that order. Cheers!
I'm a big fan of jackalope brewing, frugal mcdougal is also just up the road from there and has a pretty decent bottle selection
Completely agree with this. Smith and Lentz has only been open for a month or two, but they have some great stuff and it's in a very cool East Nashville neighborhood. It's right across from Fat Bottom, which I don't think is as good. If you're there, hit up Pharmacy for the best burger in the city and they also have a great tap list - local and German.
Tennessee classifies all beer above that as liquor, I think. Bottle shops can't even sell both in the same store, so you'll see stores that are actually split into two different neighboring stores, one below and one above that abv. If you're in a bar or restaurant with a liquor license you won't notice any difference. Last time I was up there I really enjoyed Corsair Distillery. They actually started out as homebrewers so they also brew beer there, but only above 6.2% because I guess they don't want to bother with the different license. They also had a good guest tap list (both above and below 6.2). I second the Yazoo Embrace the Funk stuff.
That is an old law. You no longer have to split it up. Best bottle shops in the downtown area for craft beer selection is going to be Midtown and Craft Brewed. Midtown will have the largest selection. Frugal is just ok in my opinion. I second the vote on Black Abbey, but they do not have any high gravity stuff if that is what you are primarily looking for. Still really good beer and unique taproom.
Since you're staying downtown the Flying Saucer needs to be mentioned. Both the Saucer and Hurryback had Goose Island/BCBS events last night and the Hop Stop is having one tonight. So, if you're in to that sort of thing, BCBS should still be around town at least on Friday if not all weekend.
There is a christmas festival that is popular that is being held in Franklin this weekend called "Dickens of a Christmas". Afterwards you can go to what is probably one of the "hottest" new breweries that has opened up called Mantra Artisan Ales. Great stuff.
I heard the Hop Stop BCBS event required a ticket. Is that correct? Do you know if anybody has had any of the BCBS variants on tap yet or just the regular? I know the coffee showed up on tap a few places last year.
The Hop Stop event requires a ticket to get bottle pours of the variants. But there will be kegs of BCBS and Lolita on that do not require a ticket. Haven't heard anything else about variants, but the Saucer did tap a keg of 2014 barleywine last night.
I'm at the flying saucer right now enjoying a BCBS before class starts. They currently have 2015 BCBS, 2014 BCBBW, and Lolita on tap.
