Nashville’s craft beer scene doesn’t get the credit it deserves, mostly because the city sells itself on whiskey and honky-tonks and tourists assume that’s where the story ends. It’s not. Nashville has been building a serious brewing culture since 1994, and the range now runs from obsessive IPA programs to Belgian abbey ales to rotating small-batch experiments that change faster than you can track them.
The Foundational Two
Blackstone Brewing (2312 Clifton Ave, West End) opened in 1994 and remains Nashville’s oldest craft brewery. It has medals from both the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. The taproom, called The Taphouse, runs 16 beers on tap with the B-Stone Bus food truck outside. The St. Charles Porter is the flagship worth trying first. Blackstone also does brewery tours – guided facility tours, historical tours covering Nashville’s beer history from the 1800s through the 1950s, and private sessions with co-founder Kent Taylor.
Yazoo Brewing technically sits in Madison rather than Nashville proper, but it occupies a historic building on the Cumberland River and helped establish that craft brewing could work in this market before the current wave arrived. Founder Linus Hall opened it in 2003 in the old Marathon Motor Works building.
The Current Leaders
Bearded Iris Brewing has two locations: the original at 101 Van Buren St in Germantown and Sylvan Supply at 4101 Charlotte Ave in West Nashville. Named after Tennessee’s state flower, the brewery runs one of Nashville’s most serious hop programs. The menu heavily favors IPAs, DIPAs, and pale ales – that’s intentional, not a limitation. Homestyle, the oated IPA brewed with only mosaic hops, is arguably the best draft IPA in the city. The Sylvan Supply location doubles as a research and development facility with a rotating small-batch program where experimental limited brews change every couple of weeks, poured directly from the tanks behind the bar. Black Dynasty Secret Ramen House operates inside Sylvan Supply, which makes the combination of a wet-hopped DIPA and a bowl of ramen excellent.
Southern Grist Brewing has two locations: East Nashville taproom (1201 Porter Rd) and a larger production facility in The Nations (5012 Centennial Blvd). The brewery launched in 2016 from three friends who had been homebrewing together. Southern Grist has released more than 600 different small-batch recipes – there is no flagship, deliberately. The entire model is experimentation: fruited sours, barrel-aged stouts, New England IPAs, beers inspired by cocktails and candy bars and cakes. The East Nashville location added a full restaurant called Lauter, which serves an oversized BLT with burrata option and a burger worth ordering.
Tennessee Brew Works (809 Ewing Ave) sits close to the convention center with a two-story taproom that lets you watch the brewing operation through glass walls. The State Park Blonde Ale is an all-Tennessee grain beer. The food program is full-service: sandwiches, salads, burgers. Live music regularly. Worth visiting if you want the most complete taproom experience.
Worth Knowing
Black Abbey Brewing (2952 Sidco Dr) does Belgian-style ales in a taproom designed to look like a monastery chapter house. That commitment to the genre is complete – this is where you go if you want a proper witbier or dubbel rather than another hazy IPA.
Smith & Lentz rebuilt after the 2020 tornado and has developed a reputation for lagers and clean IPAs. It’s a go-to for people who want technically precise craft beer without the novelty factor.
Jackalope Brewing (701 8th Ave S, Wedgewood-Houston) is female-founded, dog-friendly, operates from The Ranch campus, and has a devoted local following that predates the current craft boom.
Fat Bottom Brewing (800 44th Ave N) has a full outdoor beer garden with bocce court and is family-friendly. Good for groups.
TailGate Brewery runs four locations across Nashville including Germantown, East Nashville, Charlotte Pike, and Music Row. More bar-facing than production-focused, but the consistency and coverage make it a useful option.
The Practical Part
Nashville’s brewery scene concentrates in Germantown, East Nashville, West Nashville/Nations, and Wedgewood-Houston. A reasonable brewery crawl hits Bearded Iris Germantown, Von Elrod’s Beer Hall around the corner, and Tennessee Brew Works before heading to East Nashville for Southern Grist. The Nashville BrewPass app tracks current taproom hours and events across all these locations in one place.
Most Nashville breweries are family-friendly during the day. Kids are allowed at Bearded Iris, Southern Grist, East Nashville Beer Works, and Fat Bottom. The evening scene skews 21+ but not aggressively so.
Sources
- nashvilleguru.com – Nashville Breweries Guide (October 2025)
- theinfatuation.com – The 10 Best Breweries In Nashville (December 2024)
- nashvillebrewpass.com – Guide to Nashville Breweries (2025)
- matadornetwork.com – Top 7 Nashville Breweries to Visit in 2025
- nashvillebarbike.com – Brewery Guide to Nashville (April 2025)
- afar.com – 7 Best Nashville Breweries (2023)