Old Beer in Nashville

Welcome to Tennessee. Coming from Michigan, this is NOT a craft beer state by any means. That's slowly changing, but because of the rule regarding separation of beer above 6.2% having to be sold in liquor stores only, basically they just sit there because there's not much of a market for it. Even the best bottle shops (Midtown, Frugal Mcdougals, Stones River Total Beverage in Murfreesboro) have expired beer. There's no way around it, just not a huge market. And if you go to anything less than a "good" bottle shop here in mid tennessee, literally everything is expired, not uncommon to find Ruination from 2011. I'll tell shop owners politely, but they don't care, if they order more it will just sit and expire as well. Excuse my language but Tennessee is a complete shithole when it comes to craftbeer, but that's slowly changing.

 

Lived here for 1.5 years as well, and yes by far the best 2 beers you can get locally are Adam Bomb and Sue. Adam Bomb is still hard to find fresh though, which is crazy... Yea I see 2012 Celebrations everywhere still, basic rule of thumb, don't buy any IPA or DIPA in Tennessee that does not have a date, unless you can verify when they got it in. Usually the several coats of dust is a giveaway, but i guess they probably dust em off and keep selling them. Most store owners here in Murfreesboro don't do anything when you tell them politely that ALL there beer is expired, they're usually Indian and don't give two shits they just smile and say "Yes we have plenty of beer. It doesn't expire". I've reported 10+ stores to Stones website, hoping to end their distribution to them so first time Stone drinkers don't buy an IPA and think it tastes like horseshit.

I just drive to Bowling Green, KY, to buy all my Bells, Founders, and Dogfish Head. In most regards, sorry if I offend anyone, Tennessee is a shitty place to live and is backwards as hell, and about 10 years behind the rest of the country in terms of pretty much everything.

 

If you havent, drive down to Beverage World in Fort Olgethorpe, GA just outside Chattanooga. Great selection of everything that's available in GA. TN is a joke right now in craft beer, sorry but just the facts. Outside of Stone there is nothing around anywhere.

 

On behalf of all Tennesseans I want to thank y'all for blessing our backwards state with your enlightened views on beer. Do us all a favor and bash this great state that for some reason you moved yourself to on another site. Also, try some Calfkiller and appreciate the abundance of other great southern beers that you would not have had access to in Michigan or wherever you're from. Thanks.

 

Good People, Yellowhammer, Terrapin, Sweetwater, Westbrook.

You can find good beer in Tennessee. Not having Founders and Bell's is hardly a reason to start self-immolating. Alabama was a beer wasteland not too long ago; rather than sitting on the internets bitching about how backwards the state is and how they'd rather be in Michigan or California, people did something about it.

 

Hey man no offense, but Tennessee has some of the worst beer laws and taxes i've ever seen (highest in the country actually). That and the damn 9% sales tax make it pretty damn hard to live here, and no bottle return? What's up with that?

 

Sweetwater has a special release called the Dank Tank series, the last few were amazing, try checking for those releases they're pretty limited and stores sell out quick. The last one was a 10% double black IPA that was absolutely amazing. I bought 7 of them haha. Basically the best beer in my opinion you can get in Tennessee is Stone, Lagunitas, Southern Tier, Oskar Blues, and some of the Terrapin and Sweetwater. Also you can find most trappist beer and a lot of good imported Belgians, then again you can find those almost everywhere. It's just a shame that because of their backward laws, Dogfish Head pulled out two years ago, and Bells and Founders (my two favorite breweries) have said they won't distribute to TN because it would just not be economical for them.

 

Didn't Tennessee just change their beer laws? Can you buy all beers in one spot now? Also is there and abv limit? Is there a limit for keg beer? Aren't there plenty of bars in Nashville that serve great craft brews? What about Jackalope Brewing are they still going? If anyone wants to make the trip down Straight to Ale has a tap room and Yellowhammer which is awesome just opened a taproom this past weekend. You are up close and personal to all the tanks. Both of those places are in Huntsville. I know there was a lot of questions in this and sorry but if we all knew maybe we could help.

 

Tennessee changed their beer tax which now taxes breweries by volume rather than by alcohol content, which in theory evens the playing field for craft breweries who often brew at a higher ABV than the big guys. Our beer laws have not changed, however.

 

Hey OP, I feel as though most of our breweries in Nashville are still so young that they are operating on a trial and error basis, and therefor you should be mindful of that when trying their beers. Some will be great while others may be awful, however no single beer is a representation of a brewery as a whole (ie; The Beacon). Additionally, some breweries are still learning to brew on their large scale systems or are still getting their recipes just right. Therfor, it's important to understand that the same beer that isn't very good today might be quite good in a year (I feel this way about many of Jackalope's beers which were not so great when they started, but are now quite good now). All that to say, keep in mind that Founders has been around for 25 years and Bell's has been around for 30, and it takes time to establish consistent quality.

 

Completely agree with your description of Nashville beers. And yes, the Beacon was god awful (and I love smoked beers and wheat beers, combined not so much apparently). The Hop project series by Yazoo is really hit or miss. One of the last ones, #71 or #72, can't remember, was amazing, but the one before I had to drain pour. For $5 or less at most places, you can't go wrong with a bomber of good ol SUE.

 

I heard Dogfish Head was talking about coming back, and Founders was supposedly considering distributing here in the near future but this could just be all talk. Haven't heard about that, I see Old Rasputin everywhere still. And I was pleasantly surprised to see the Dogfish Head "My Antonia" collab beer on the shelf the other day, had to do a double take.

 

If you see this, buy it.



Apparently some problems with distribution, I saw a case show up at Stones River Total Beverages last Saturday, about a month late. Bought all of them except one, couldn't resist. I'm not even kidding, this is one of the best beers i've ever had.