Author: timandjohnna

OK, so we are into the 3rd brewery on our day-drinking tour of Nashville but we have been around the block enough to know our beers. After driving by this place and having to turn around because of lack of signage, we suffered from “night blindness” upon enter due to low light levels and no windows. What kind of tasting room has ball-room chandliers and not lights over the pool table (not to mention the nude artwork)? With again a heavy influence leaning toward IPA’s, we tried the Noisemaker pale ale and the Bottle Rocket Kolsch. After looking at and tasting both, the server tried to convince us (with the attitude of “I don’t make a mistake”) that he got our order right even though they looked and tasted the  EXACTLY the same which leads us back to the fact that this is not our first brewery experience (over 125 in fact).  Someone needs to tell the brewmaster that there is indeed a distinct difference between pale ale & Kolsch and saying the Kolsch is “heavy on the hops” does not fly!

This brewery was having a 5 year anniversary party/fund raiser so we didn’t go in. It was $15/person for all you can drink bit we are glad we didn’t stay becausw there was sewer water standing in the storm water ditch out front and it STANK! We felt bad for those poor folks that were eating from the food trucks in the parking lot.

Cool brewery with an awesome view of the brewing operations with a full-height glass wall where you cam see the bottling machines. Leaning toward a heavy influence of IPA’s, we drank the Chaser Pale Kolsch and the Hangtime pale ale – both of which were very good with low IBU’s.

A small tasting room located in the repurposed Marthon Motor Work building that has mostly “high gravity” beers. We drank the German Kolsch and the Hickory Smoked Alt – both were very good even thought they were 6.8 ABV and 6.3 ABV respectively.

Located just south of downtown, this brewery and tap room reminds us of something that would be located on Music Row with live music and unusual food. We tried the Nashville Hot Frog Legs, State Park blonde and the Country Roots Sweet Potato stout. The legs were interestings, the blonde was smooth and the stout kicked like a mule! Oh, and the live music was from what we think was a typical struggling artist trying to break into the Nashvle music scene.

Even though we only tried the Nothing Fancy cream ale, this brewery serves up over a dozen different beers ranging from an American wheat to an Imperial stout. Peering out a large window from the tasting room into the brew operations, we thoroughly enjoyed our ales and pretzels while watching the start of the NFL preseason.

Probably the best smelling tasting room we have ever been in, the owner is a history buff and got the name Black Abbey from Martin Luther.  Martin’s wife earned her brewering license before fleeing her convent.  She became famous for belgian style ales.

We drank the Rakau pale ale and the Luke of Pearl a Dunkel Munich

 

 

OK, so this place was cool and all but what was more interesting was the Vinyl Tap across the street. Even though we thoroughly enjoyed the Underbite Imperial Cream ale (with peanut butter & rasberry jelly) and the Untaimed “wild” double IPA, what was more fun was drinking a “banquet beer” and Schlafly Kolsch while listen to some old vinyl at a craft brew pub/record shop. (this post gives you a bonus pic – first one being Southern Grist and second was is the Vinyl Tap record collection)

Neat brewery with friendly staff and helpful patrons. We learned a lot about what other breweries to visit (and not visit!) on our tour here. We drank the German Cologne Kolsch and the German Pils. Both were very good and we learned this brewery specializes in German-style beers. Definitely a must visit in Nashville!

Today is the day of firsts! 1st stop on our Nashville brewery tour, 1st time we ordered a porter, bad 1st impression and the 1st brewery we have visited on over 120 that would not let us sample the beers before we ordered. How is one to decide on what beer they want to “commit” to with first tasting it? Well, they do offer “tasters” for $2.00 – since when do you have to pay to decide what beer you want to drink? It appears that ugly thing call greed has crept its way into this brewery! All in all, the beer was decent and the tasting room was much like so many others we have visited before.