Author: timandjohnna

The rains finally stopped and the sun came out to warm us up at our final stop of the day. We should have stopped here 1st during the rain since they have indoor seating! We ordered up a Dreamsicle cream ale and UpCo Mountain Ale which was a great pairing to our Mixed Mushroom pizza. Yum!

Things got soggy at our 2nd stop of the day as rains continued and the was only outside seating at this small tap room. Seated at a 2-top table under an umbrella, we tried the Ashe-Vegas pale ale and the Small Mercies blonde ale while dodging the raindrops.

We’re off to a rainy start on this Friday afternoon but that doesn’t dampen our spirits. We eagerly kicked off our 1st weekend in Asheville with a stop at one of at least 20 breweries in this hippy town. We quenched our long work-week thirst with a Scheissengiggles dark lager and a Blue Collar Wizard Irish Irish Stout on nitro. Strangely enough, they tasted nearly identical except for the nitro head. Things that make you go hummm….

This tasting room rocks! It’s actually just a space cleared after-hours when the brewing operations shut down. Filled with small batch tanks, we went with the LAGA golden lager and the Pale Ale. Awesome beers with friendly servers – our kinda place!

So we finally did it. After 280 breweries and people telling us we HAVE TO make a trip to Asheville, here we are. Our 1st stop on what we will call our Asheville Mini Tour (and race to 300) has brought us to a “multi-function” tap room that is inter connected to a bar called Westville Pub as well as a pool hall and restaurant. Sticking with the namesake, they only offered 7 of their own brews on tap as well as a host of guest beers. Even though this place is definitely more like a bar/restaurant than a brewery, we went ahead and ordered Amber and a Brown ales to get this mini-tour started. Even though the ambiance disappointed, the beers did not.

We decided to go on a roadtrip this 4th of July and head north about 40 minutes from downtown Nashville to check out this small town brewery since most all holiday events were canceled. We were surprised to find this awesome small batch tasting room was serving up almost everything we liked – nothing exotic, just simply great beer. We even stuck around to drink 4 of the 9 beers instead od just 2 on their menu: Point Nine pils, Bobcat Blonde ale, Barren Plains amber ale and the Midsummer’s Night brown ale. Oh, and a shout out to the rockin’ Pimento Cheese plate!

Our last stop in the Nashville area, this dowtown brewery is located right on Broadway a.k.a Music Row and claims to have opened back in 1991. We were a little reluctant to try this place concerned it was nothing more than a tourist trap but we were pleasantly surprised with the Kolsch and Buzzer Beater blonde ale. Both beers were refreshing and smooth which was a needed relief on this 95 degree afternoon.

This good ol’ tasting room located in a strip mall is serving up a dozen different beers and a steady stream of country music. We drank the Downpatrick Irish Red ale & the Blue Foot cream ale w/ blueberries and they were phenomenal.

We are kicking off our 4th of July weekend with this brewery which is about 10 minutes from our new campsite north of Nashville in a town called Goodlettsville. We eagerly ordered up their Cream Ale & Gerst amber ale and were relieved to find a seat inside to escape the brutal heat and humidity. While the beers were refreshing, believe it or not, they almost tasted the same except for a subtle difference in maltyness. Weird….

How cool is this place! Located in an old factory with a big smoke stack and all, vintage guns and American military history is the theme of this old west tap room. Serving up a nice variety of beers for us wearying travelers, we said “give us a round of the Francis Nash pils and the Tun Tavern brown ale bartender”! He obliged our request and slide down two cold pints of wild west goodness. Thanks partner!