Posted by (Part of the “Is Nashville, TN A Craft Beer Destination City?” Series)
East Nashville is one of my favorite parts of town and has some of the best breweries and beer in Nashville, not to mention the food. East Nashville is not far from downtown Nashville so you can get to this part of the city pretty quickly, if you’re coming from that area. Just don’t show up on a pedal tavern or I will seriously judge you 
. Crazy Gnome Brewery, HoneyTree Meadery and Smith & Lentz Brewing & Pizza are the closest ones to each other and are actually walkable between them. I have spent a lot of time at these places and would recommend them all to anyone. I’ve listed a map of all of the Nashville breweries that we’ve documented, at the bottom of this post, so that you can see where they are located and the proximity they are to each other. This is the first post of several that I’ll have in breaking down the breweries in different parts of Nashville. Be on the lookout for future posts. These are in alphabetical order (with the exception of Music City Brew Hop).
Music City Brew Hop – I’ve revised this post to add Music City Brew Hop because I thought it made a lot sense. The reason I put this before the list of breweries is to have you consider them as an option for your transportation when planning a brewery adventure. Adam reached out to me in a DM about a lot of these breweries being on their routes and I’m glad he did. I thought it was a responsible thing for us at STBA to promote since we’re talking about hopping from brewery to brewery. Also, I’ve mentioned parking situations at every brewery I’ve written about, and traveling on one of their trollies completely avoids having to park anywhere at all.
Music City Brew Hop is a trolley that you can hop on and off at different breweries throughout the day from Friday through Sunday starting at 12PM until 7PM. You can buy a full day pass for $39.00 and a 2-day pass for $65.00. They have 2 different routes – an East Route and a West Route. This post will only focus on the East Route (I will have some of the West Route breweries listed in my next post “Midtown Nashville, TN Breweries”, and the rest throughout other posts that feature these breweries).
The East Route’s starting point is at the Omni Hotel / Downtown 5th Ave that leaves at noon and their first stop is Crazy Gnome Brewery, then Tailgate Brewery East Nashville, Southern Grist Brewing Company – East Nashville Taproom, East Nashville Beer Works, Bearded Iris Brewing Company – Germantown, Monday Night Brewery – Preservation Company, and the 7th stop is Barrique Brewing Brewing and Blending. One of the great things about using Music City Brew Hop is you can choose your “hop on and hop off” locations. You can pick whatever brewery stop on the route that you want to start with and pick the same brewery or any other brewery that you want to stop with – you literally just hop on or off the trolley with your day pass. They run a continuous loop and stop off at the 7 breweries listed above and come back around about once an hour. If you do the 2-day pass you can hit up to 15 brewery locations in 2 days.
What I like about Music City Brew Hop too, is if you want to stay longer at one of the breweries (sometimes an hour just isn’t enough to drink all of their beer) you can, you just hop on the next trolley coming through and hop off at the next brewery you want to visit (until 7PM).
If you want to purchase tickets you can book through their website here: https://www.musiccitybrewhop.com/full-day-tour. Also, check out their website at https://www.musiccitybrewhop.com/ for other things like renting a private trolley, purchasing gift cards and to see maps of their brewery routes.
Crazy Gnome Brewery – 948 Main St, Nashville, TN 37206. One of my absolute favorite spots in Nashville because the taproom is cool, and the beer is even better. They have 12 varying beer taps with something for everyone – including IPA’s, Saisons, Sours, Ciders and Seltzers and they are all excellent. They even do flights of (4) also, so you can try multiple styles at once. Click the link above to their website, to see their current (and always updated) beers on tap.
They don’t have food, but they do often have food trucks (scheduled on their website event calendar) and there are several really good food options nearby like, Five Points Pizza, Boombozz Craft Pizza & Taphouse and Edley’s Bar-B-Que – all of these places are within walking distance.
For parking they do have some between the gym and the brewery and most times I have found a spot there. Their website says you can park in the Gym 5 parking lot on the weekends, at Main Street Liquor, street parking on McFerrin or across the street on Main St. Crazy Gnome is on the East Route for Music City Brew Hop.
Crazy Gnome Brewery will always be a favorite of mine because Head Brewer and Owner, Grayson Miller, joined us on our podcast and we’ll be forever grateful. You can listen to that podcast here: Brewery Underground Podcast – Sullivan & Touron Brewery Adventures . If you’ve listened to any of our interviews with brewers on our podcast, you’ll know that we love people’s stories and Crazy Gnome has a great story in getting their brewery opened through the tornado of 2020 and Covid right after that. This brewery will always get our support. If you see Grayson or Kramer in the taproom, tell them we sent you, they are good people.
Check out Crazy Gnome’s Brewery calendar on their website with any of the previous links, also for events in the taproom like swing dancing, comedy shows, meetups, and trivia nights.
East Nashville Beer Works – 320 East Trinity Lane, Nashville, TN 37207. This is another brewery that I’m a big fan of. They have 24 taps with multiple styles of beers including IPA’s, Blonde Ales, Pilsners, Stouts, local guest Meads, Ciders and even a non-alcoholic beer. One of the words they use to describe their beer is “approachable” and I think it’s a good description. They do flights which I think is a great way to try multiple beers and not have to have too much of something you don’t like. It’s also my favorite way to drink beer.
They’ve got a really good food menu as well, that’s from their own kitchen, including 5 different appetizers, 3 salads and over a dozen different pizzas. Their pizzas come in one size, that I would consider a small, but I can attest that it’s very good and worth getting. They have a large taproom with a lot of seating and multiple TV’s, a dock area for playing darts and hanging out, as well as an extremely large Beer Garden with a playground for the kids and dogs.
This brewery has a great vibe and a lot of space. I’ve seen many families spending time here with their dogs and would recommend it to anyone. Parking is pretty good here right on the property, so you shouldn’t have any issues finding any. East Nashville Beer Works is on the East Route for Music City Brew Hops.
Click the link above or here to their website out for a complete list of what is on draft, their food menu and pictures of the brewery.
HoneyTree Meadery – 918 Woodland St, Nashville, TN 37206. OK, Technically not a brewery but it’s my post and I’ll do what I want. I feel like anyone producing something along the lines of beer, (and a lot of breweries have meads and ciders as guest taps) deserve to be on this list, as they are a local business serving Nashville and they should be supported. I can say that I’ve not had very many meads and have never been to a meadery before writing this post.
I made it a point to visit HoneyTree Meadery before I published this post to give you an accurate and firsthand description of the taproom and the mead. This place is great! I really liked the mead and I wish I had visited them sooner. They have 7 different core meads and 3 seasonal ones on tap, plus you can buy 375ml bottles to go. They do flights of (3) or (9) – 2oz pours, which is perfect for getting to try several different ones. They have one called Mulled Mead and it’s served hot and it’s fantastic. It was like a Christmastime drink, and I’d definitely have that one again. Some of the others they have are Basic Batch, Sweet Baby Ginger and Signature Series. Not only do they have mead, but they also have mead cocktails on draft as well as mead seltzers and an impressive guest list of local beers.
Their taproom is spacious, cool and inviting with plenty of seating at tables and at the bar. They don’t have TVs, but they did have an overhead projector that was playing a movie while I was there. They have several board games available for customers, music playing overhead (at the perfect volume) and a merchandise area that sells several different kinds of local honey. They have a small front patio next to a food truck, but the real gem is the huge outdoor area out back. It’s a fenced in area with picnic tables, patio tables with some overhead coverings from the sun. They even had a fire pit burning when I was there. They are definitely dog (and bee) friendly. They also have weekly events like trivia and Jazz night – you can check out their event calendar here: Honeytree Meadery – Nashville, TN | Tock (exploretock.com)
They don’t have their own parking but there is a pay lot to the left of their building, a bank parking lot to the right – that does allow you to park there after they are closed and street parking. I actually found a spot on the street and parked for free. If you’re in doubt when you get there – just ask them – which is what I did.
You can sign up for their quarterly bottle club that gives you access to exclusive meads that the public can’t get. You can choose from 2, 6 or 12 bottles per quarter. In addition to that they have a quarterly honey club that gets you a variety of local honey and other specialty items. Their website page will give you all of the details and costs. Bottle and Honey Clubs! – Honeytree Meadery
I would recommend HoneyTree Meadery to anyone. Not only do they make a good product, but they are environmentally responsible as they have their own growing Apiary that supplies them with honey from 30+ colonies of bees in East Nashville at 2 locations. Go visit them and help support this business, I think you’ll be surprised at how cool the place is and how good the mead is. I’m definitely going back to hang out some more and bring some friends. Click on any of the previous links to learn more about them.
Living Waters Brewing – 1056 East Trinity Lane, Nashville, TN 37216. Living Waters might define East Nashville due to them brewing beer AND coffee. I can’t speak to the coffee, but I will about the beer.
Their website says they regularly have New England IPA’s, Fruited Sours and Stouts on tap, but they also have styles like Lagers, Pilsners, Belgian Tripples and Quads, other types of IPA’s, and even a Barleywine. I’ve had 66 unique beers from Living Waters and can attest to how good they are. One of the things I like best about Living Waters is the diversity in styles. If you’ve read anything I’ve written about beer, you know that’s important to me and Living Waters excels at this. Whether I drink their beer at their taproom or in a can at home – I already know it’s going to be good. They don’t do flights in the taproom, but they do have 5oz pours, which is basically the same thing just without a flight board, and you can order as many as you want.
The only food they have are breakfast burritos, pop tarts, and rotating food trucks on Saturdays. I only see a few other food options nearby like Checkers, Cook Out, Taco Bell, Popeyes and McDonald’s.
The taproom is pretty spacious and deep with plenty of seating at the bar. When I mentioned Living Waters might define East Nashville – it’s the environment in the taproom. Many people have their laptops open with headphones in and just laying low drinking coffee or a beer. The vibe is nice and quiet and if you just want to find a quiet place to hang out and drink good beer, this a great place to go to. Also being right next to a record store additionally gives me that “East Nashville” vibe. I mentioned in my original post “Is Nashville, TN a Craft Beer Destination City?” that every brewery in Nashville has their own uniqueness and Living Waters Brewing fits that bill.
The parking situation is pretty good, they share a parking lot with Grimey’s Record Store and there always seems to be plenty of room.
Click on the link above for their website, but it sounds like social media will give you the most current information on them, including their most current beer releases and food truck information. Find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Smith & Lentz Brewing & Pizza – 903 Main St, Nashville, TN 37206. I think Smith & Lentz is one of the most underrated breweries in Nashville. I love their beer and the number of selections they have as well as their selection of styles. Currently on tap they have 7 Pilsners, 3 Lagers, 7 Ales (including IPA’s and Kolsch’s), not to mention some guest Ciders, Kombuchas, and non-alcoholic beer. Everything I’ve ever had from them is crisp, clean, and delicious. They even have wine by the glass and bottle, for those who don’t want beer. The taproom is extremely large with a lot of table and bar seating. They’ve even got a great outside area in the back with covered tables to protect you from the sun.
This building was struck by the tornado in 2020 and when they reopened, they had added a pizza kitchen that offers 9 different pizzas as well as shared plates like warm olives, marinated anchovies, salads and more. When you walk into the place the smell of pizza overtakes you and you immediately want one. All of their pizzas are 16″ sourdough and have awesome selections like Spinach and Bacon, Spicy Marg, Pepperoni, Supreme and others. They even make their own ice cream.
For parking, their website says the best parking is directly in front of their building, as well as marked parallel and diagonal spots on their property adjacent to 9th Ave.
Click on the link above or here for a complete list of their current beers on tap and their food menu.
Southern Grist Brewing Company East Nashville Taproom – 754 Douglas Ave, Nashville, TN 37207. Where do we start? The beer. Definitely the beer. I have had more unique beers from this brewery than any other. If I had to recommend 1 brewery to visit in Nashville it would be Southern Grist. Creative, experimental, small batch is how I would describe Southern Grist’s beer. With their many unique styes this is the perfect place to get multiple flights in order to try them all – and when you do – be prepared to be in awe of some of the colors of the beers. Their awesome styles include the lactose sour ale series called “Hill” (my favorite), Double Dry Hopped series called “Mixed Greens”, The “Cobbler” series of lactose fruited cobblers, the “Pity” series of candy bar Stouts, the “Crispy Bois” series of Lagers and several more. With 40 tap handles they can pour up to 25 different beers at any one time.
This location has a large taproom with tons of seating all of the way around the bar and a lot of bar area high top tables. They have 2 different outside patios that open up into the taproom and they also have a full-service restaurant with plenty of seating as well. Their Lauter restaurant serves lunch and dinner 7 days a week. This is not your typical bar food; this is high quality food with an executive chef on staff and offer things like fried olives with chili crisp Dijonnaise as an appetizer and a dry aged burger as an entree, among many other items. This is one of their 2 locations (the other one is in West Nashville).
In addition to everything I mentioned above, they also have a full bar with wine, liquor and cocktails with multiple TV’s, a merchandise area and a self-serve cooler that you can buy 4-pack cans, single cans and even larger 750ml bottles.
Parking here is very good with spots right up next to the building and a large parking lot right behind it, so finding a spot should be pretty easy. Southern Grist is on the East Route for Music City Brew Hops.
Click on any of the links above or here for their website to see the latest beers on tap and their current food menu.
Tailgate Brewery East Nashville – 811 Gallatin Ave, Nashville, TN 37206. Probably originally known for their pizza, Tailgate Brewery now has 7 Nashville area locations and another one in Chattanooga, TN. No matter what part of town you’re in, there will be a Tailgate near you (even in the airport). What I love about this brewery is the endless selection of new beers they come out with and the multiple styles they continue to brew. They’ve got some pretty awesome series too that you should try like: the “Trees” series which are their Hazy IPA’s, and the “Schnack” series which is their fruited small batch line, also their “Lager Projekt”, “Barrel Project”, “Dough Project” and “OFBFB Project” (Old Fashioned Beer Flavored Beer) – which are classic beers. They do flights and half pours, and they are very generous. This is another perfect place to get a flight or 3 because they have so many beers that you just have to try. This location is home to their wild and spontaneous fermentation project. There are also exclusive beers served only at this location.
The way I like to drink beer, is to have a new one every time, and Tailgate might be the best at that. I can go into any location and find new beers every day of the week. In 2023 they brewed 265 total beers – that’s amazing to me and it tells me they will always have new beers every time I visit them. I literally was just at the South Nashville location today, before I started writing this, and had 5 new ones (and a $5 Buffalo Trace pour). You can see all of their locations in the Nashville area on our Nashville Area Breweries List & Map page on this website. They also have a great docuseries about owning and growing a brewery that you can watch here: Docu-Series — TailGate Brewery.
I referenced pizza to start with and Tailgate has some of the best pizza in the city – and not JUST for a brewery. They have craft pizza, Detroit style pizza, salads, sandwiches, a kid’s menu, desserts, etc. This particular taproom is the smallest of all of their taprooms, but not tiny at all and I love it. We pregame here for the Preds games a lot and the people are friendly, there’s plenty of seating at the bar, around the taproom – and it’s just a real cool low-key vibe with trivia every Tuesday night. They do have a dog friendly patio area, few TV’s for just hanging out, watching games, hiding from crazy ex-girlfriends, and as an added bonus – I don’t think you can hear the “WOOO” girls from here. I mentioned having a Buffalo Trace pour earlier and they do have several liquors and wine at each location.
For parking I usually park on Petway Ave, which is the street to the left of the brewery and also there is a paid parking lot right off of Petway. Do not park at the Nashville Biscuit House, as they will tow you, even though it’s tempting and the place looks deserted. Tailgate is on the East Route for Music City Brew Hops.
Click on any of the links above or here to check out their website to get more information about them, including their food menu, taproom events and their other locations.
Summary
East Nashville is my default part of town when I first think of going to a brewery in Nashville. We’ve got an excellent beer scene here and it’s only going to get better. I hope this post helps someone plan their own brewery adventure in Nashville. Please leave a comment if you’ve read this. We’d love to interact with you.
Cheers!
Scott
