Nashville’s best craft breweries and tap rooms
Nashville is experiencing an explosion of growth and the city is changing fast. New condos and office buildings go up every few months and a wave of fine dining restaurants are gaining attention from national critics. While locals debate the pros and cons of these changes, one pro seems to outweigh many of the cons: Nashville’s beer scene is thriving as it never has before. The city now has more than 25 craft breweries dotting the map, and more are coming onto the scene every year.
The beer scene in Nashville came to light in 1994 when Blackstone Brewing Co., opened to offer craft beer brewed on-site — a relatively new concept in Music City at the time. Nearly a decade later, Yazoo Brewing Company came onto the scene and quickly became the city’s largest and most popular brewery.
Yazoo opened in 2003, selling kegs to local bars and restaurants. The brewery had just four signature beers at the time. Today, Yazoo offers eight flagship beers, four seasonal flavors and a rotating selection of limited-release beers. Within six years, Yazoo grew so much that the owners purchased a larger space to increase the brewing operation and add an adjoining tap room.
In the past five years, several new breweries have opened and gained favorable reviews for their creations, including Jackalope Brewing Company, Fat Bottom Brewery, Black Abbey Brewing Company and more.
Linus Hall, owner and operator of Yazoo Brewery, is excited to see growth in his industry.
“The last four or five years have brought a big change,” he says. “For a long time it seemed like we were the only local bastion brewery fighting against the big guys. Then a slew of local breweries popped up in the last year and we went from four to more than 25.”
Hall believes the shift in Nashville’s dining scene has helped the beer scene flourish. In the past five years, the growth of locally-owned casual and upscale restaurants has skyrocketed, with new restaurants opening all the time.
“When I moved here 20 years ago, Nashville’s food scene was chain-driven. Now there’s an explosion of locally owned, chef-driven restaurants and locally owned breweries have taken off, too.”
True to the Nashville way of kindness and hospitality, Hall isn’t threatened by the competition raised by a spate of new breweries. “Everybody’s kind of doing their own thing and trying to find their own niche, so it’s interesting to see the flavors and varieties coming up,” he says.
Browse the gallery above to explore more than a dozen breweries worth visiting.
Megan Pacella has lived in Nashville for 13 years, where she covers travel, food and drink, wellness, and healthcare for a variety of outlets. You can learn more about her at meganpacella.com.