Yazoo Brewing got its start in the Marathon Motor Works building in 2003, but outgrew that space and moved to the Gulch in 2010. As Nashville exploded and the Gulch became one of the hottest commodities in Nashville, Yazoo cashed out and moved their larger-than-average brewery to a very polished, behemoth of a space in Madison. The latest brewery iteration has both a very large taproom and outdoor patio where you can find Yazoo’s year-round and limited edition beer selections. The diamond in the Yazoo rough is their wild ale and barrel-aging program, Embrace the Funk. Getting your hands on these beers makes the trek out to Madison absolutely worthwhile.

East Nashville Beer Works is a neighborhood gem; it boasts a spacious beer garden where it can host pop-up yoga classes or classic movie screenings. This impressively sized patio is dog- and kid-friendly, too — so much so, in fact, that its jungle gym rivals most local parks (and is probably sanitized more consistently). Inside, the taproom hosts live music night and you can find a variety of great beers: from traditional Belgian and German beers to creative IPAs and stouts. If you get hungry, it has pizza, appetizers, and salads on their menu.

Living Waters is Nashville’s little engine that could. Along with its well-crafted beers, it also features an impressive coffee program. And while it may not be remotely close to being the largest brewery in East Nashville, that hasn’t hindered its ability to make great beer. Brewer-owners Ryan McCay and Thomas Becker create some wonderfully crafted beers that beer geeks across the country dream about getting their hands on. Their taproom is a warm, welcoming space with a small outdoor patio. They always strive to support local businesses, offering Crieve Hall Bagels daily, Brightside Bakeshop pastries on the weekdays, and Conny & Jonny donuts on weekends. 

Smack in the heart of East Nashville sits Southern Grist’s original taproom that opened its doors in 2016. Southern Grist is known for its ambitiously creative beer selection; one glance at its menu and you realize that it doesn’t put any traditional beer constraints on its creations, adding personality through ingredients to every style of beer it produces. From exotic fruits to marshmallows, Southern Grist fearlessly brews with anything you can think of. If you’re on the move, Southern Grist sells to-go beers in cans and crowlers, but it also has a super comfy, family-friendly lounge and a pet-friendly porch if you’d rather sit and taste through their beer list. Nashville pop-up favorites Mijo Gordito are set to be coalescing with the team at Southern Grist with full-time food offerings soon.

East Nashville is as thirsty as any other part of town and two other brewery locations are apparently not enough. Tailgate Brewing opened its East Nashville taproom in 2018. It uses this location as its wild ale and barrel-aging facility and drops new releases on a quarterly basis. If you’re hungry, this location also has pizza and apps.

Crazy Gnome could have been another victim of last year’s tornado and the pandemic but it, along with Smith & Lentz, reemerged as a story of resilience. Situated in East Nashville, Crazy Gnome is a modest, working-class brewery with a taproom offering six beers on tap and an outdoor patio. While Crazy Gnome encourages its patrons to bring in food from any of its neighboring restaurants, the brewery does have a variety of chips available for purchase. Crazy Gnome also offers crowlers to-go.

Nashville’s favorite comeback kids, Smith & Lentz, didn’t let a global pandemic or a tornado keep it down. After almost an entire year of picking up the pieces and rebuilding, the East Nashville brewery opened stronger than ever. Already making some of the best lagers in town, it added a handcrafted, wood-fired pizza program run by chef Chris DeJonge (formerly of Rolf & Daughters), which is at the same level as their excellent beer program. The Smith & Lentz patio is an excellent spot for an evening of cold beer and fresh pizza.

Barrique is the new kid on the block while also being the most niche kid on the block. Specializing in wild ales fermented in oak barrels, brewer-owner Joel Stickrod started in 2018 with his first beer ready for release in 2019. Barrique moved into the space that was formerly home to Little Harpeth Brewing; its taproom is lined with barrels and wooden accents. Although it specializes in wild ales, Barrique also puts out ales and lagers for beer palates that prefer simpler brews. It hosts a rotating cast of pop-ups, so your food is guaranteed to be as satisfying as the beer.

In need of more space for its production facility, Southern Grist opened its second location in the Nations in 2018. This venue offers plenty more seating plus a larger bar and patio with some modern touches like outdoor couches and barrel-topped tables. You will find the same packaged beer at this location as the original East Nashville location, but the draft list varies slightly with additional offerings. While the pop-up team, Mijo Gordito, works on its kitchen at the East Nashville taproom, it will be testing menu items at this location until it opens in fall.

Located in the heart of Nashville, this brewpub chain offers live music daily and a rooftop deck with panoramic city views — and also claims the title of Broadway’s only brewery (the busiest, most sought-after street Nashville has to offer). In addition to offering a handful of housemade beers, Rock Bottom has a robust pub fare menu that highlights its house-made flatbreads and a seemingly endless amount of shareable items — from deviled eggs and shrimp cocktail to vegan roasted tika cauliflower and nachos dripping with beer cheese queso.

Blackstone Brewing launched in 1994, making it one of Nashville’s first and oldest craft breweries. The West End taproom sits within the Blackstone Brewing production facility, which is the same facility that also brews for Nashville Brewing Company. This state-of-the-art brewery offers tours and has a converted bus that serves as a permanent food truck. The B Stone bus has a solid brewery bites menu that includes a selection of charcuterie boards, artichoke dip, and fish and chips.

Veteran brewers Fat Bottom Brewery traveled east to west, leaving a small production space and taproom in East Nashville for a substantially larger one in The Nations. Fat Bottom essentially swapped a small, 5000-square-foot facility for a state-of-the-art 33,000-square-foot facility. The new facility sits on an acre and a half plot of land which afforded Fat Bottom space to not only expand the production floor and taproom but also build a giant event space and The Hop Yard, their outdoor beer garden. The brewery’s kitchen has plans to re-open in the near future for in-house food offerings.

Formerly a SoBro staple, Czann’s up and moved its operation to The Nations where it’s taken over a space that once accommodated a church. Just a hop, skip, and jump away from a handful of other breweries, Czann’s is another addition to what seems to be becoming Nashville’s brewing district. Unlike his younger peers, founder Ken Rebman is not chasing the latest beer trend or looking to pump his beer full of fruit puree. Ken is focused on making solid, clean beer and marching to the beat of his own drum. The Czann’s taproom is a tall, open space with ample TVs, but if you want to take in the fresh Nashville air, its patio is also open for seating.

Originally from Norco, CA, Bold Patriot opened its doors in Nashville in 2019. The brewery offers a wide selection of year-round and seasonal beers named after figures in American history and the country’s founders. The taproom hosts live music and complimentary pocket constitutions for its patrons.

Tailgate Brewing’s location in Music Row opened in 2016; this location serves as its cider production facility, although you can still get your fair share of its countless beers and scratch-made pizza. The patio is expansive and dog-friendly, just don’t expect to have a quiet time as this location has some heavy tourism foot traffic.

Located in the Sylvan Supply development in The Nations neighborhood, this is the second Bearded Iris location. This space houses a much smaller brew system that serves as an R&D system. Although you can still get some of the popular offerings found at the Germantown location, you’ll also find different, small-batch experimental brews here.

Named after the San Diego neighborhood that the owners hail from, New Heights Brewing Company puts out some mighty hoppy IPAs to go with its clean ales and bold barrel-aged stouts. It also offers curbside pick-up and has growlers to-go. If you get hungry, get yourself a pie, too: New Heights proudly carries one of Nashville’s favorites: 312 Pizza Co.

When an arborist and award-winning homebrewer open a brewery with a former pop star videographer, you get Various Artists Brewing. Brewing on a system not much bigger than a large homebrew system, brewer-owner Jeff Bergman is quietly pumping out some of the most solid beers in Nashville. The taproom is modestly welcoming (think of your cool uncle’s basement bar), but its patio is a wonderfully large space. The patio hosts live music, a burger residency by Nashville’s own Cabin Attic Burgers, and a rotating cast of food trucks and pop-ups.

Jackalope Brewing opened this space, affectionately known as The Ranch, as a production facility with a taproom in 2018. (Its original location, The Den, closed in early 2021.) Aside from offering consistently solid year-round beers, it supplements its lineup with tasty seasonal selections and fun, creative beers with its Shapeshifter Series. Throughout the week, various food trucks rotate in and out of the venue, and you bet your ass you can take a cold pack of beer to-go. Its staff is some of the friendliest and most knowledgeable, making it a no-brainer as to why Jackalope is one of Nashville’s darling breweries.

Although it’s located in a strip of corporate businesses in Berry Hill, Black Abbey Brewing Company’s tasting room, known as Fellowship Hall, has a vibe that leaves you feeling as if you’ve walked into a monastery attached to a brewery. Handmade wooden tables fill the space, which is open seven days a week. Their beer list is made up of year-round selections, as well as seasonal and limited-edition brews and a variety of packaged beers. Black Abbey has bar snacks, giant soft pretzels, and cheese boards available, but the tasting room is BYOB and houses food trucks on occasion. It also has Monday night pitcher deals, as well as trivia nights that are quite popular with its regulars.