Yazoo Brewing Company

Microbrewery in Madison, Tennessee, United States 🇺🇸
Associated with 2 Venues

Established in 2003

Contact
900 River Bluff Dr, Madison, TN, 37115, United States
Description
Yazoo Brewing Company started from a homebrewer’s dream – Linus Hall’s love for making (and drinking) craft beer soon led him to open Nashville’s first production brewery since Prohibition. We opened our doors in October 2003 in the historic Marathon Motor Works building, and started by self-distributing kegs of Pale Ale, Dos Perros, Spring Wheat, and Onward Stout to local bars and restaurants, and we fortunately gained an enthusiastic local following. We quickly replaced the Spring Wheat with the now popular and award-winning Hefeweizen, and we started bottling our beer in 2005. Other local favorites like the Sly Rye Porter and our Hop Project IPA rounded out the line-up of beers. In 2009, Yazoo managed to brew Tennessee’s first ever legal high-gravity ale, SUE, our smoked porter and homage to the South’s proclivity to smoke all kinds of foods. In 2010, Yazoo moved to The Gulch, now one of Nashville’s most active neighborhoods. This allowed us to add a new 40-barrel brewhouse and room to produce more beer, which helped build our year-round lineup to 10!

In the summer of 2012 Yazoo began a series of sour and wild beers with local brewer/writer Brandon Jones called the Embrace The Funk series. Titled with Brandon’s popular sour beer website, this line of Yazoo beers explores the many wonderful beers that can be produced with wild yeasts, souring microbes and different wooden casks.

In December 2012 our Brewmaster Linus and “Wrangler of Funk” Brandon released the first beer in the series named “Wild Child”. Since then the “Embrace The Funk” series has been a staple in the Yazoo Taproom with special rotating offerings. Our ETF beers have been served at SAVOR in New York, “What The Funk” in Denver and on January 26th, 2014 the first bottles of ETF “Deux Rouges” were released (and sold out in 2 hours). Linus and Brandon are constantly creating new beers and different barrel variations for the Embrace The Funk series. The beers are mostly taproom exclusives so your best bet to enjoy their creations is to stop by soon!

We continued to grow enough that in early 2018, Linus Hall announced plans to move the Taproom and Brewery to a brand new 6.5 acre campus north of downtown – but not until Summer/Fall 2019!

Yazoo continues to be an independently owned and operated brewery – Linus and Lila Hall maintain 100% ownership and direction of the brewery, and you can frequently find Linus tinkering with something in the production facility 5-7 days a week!

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9/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 9 Flavor 10 Texture 10 Overall 9
S: tart - funky - flowers A: nice clear bright ruby body - thinnish tan head T: soured - pure cherries - spontaneous fermentation  P: dry end - good sweetness - complex woodsie notes O: amazing - super complex - I should have saved this for a MORE special occasion  37,5 wax sealed\capped bottle - Beer Baron: Livonia, Michigan - 10-November-2024 - US$5,49 (half price!!!) - Batch #5 - sampled: 25-January-2025
Tried from Bottle on 26 Jan 2025 at 09:03

6.4/10 Appearance 4 Aroma 6 Flavor 6.5 Texture 7 Overall 7.5
Unusual fruit beer in a series of 'funky' ales created by Yazoo in Nashville, Tennessee; apparently fermented with Belgian and Norwegian yeast (the latter is kveik, I suppose), aged on oak and macerated with both blackberries and raspberries. Thin and open, off-white, tiny-bubbled 'ring' for a head, completely vanishing on an initally clear, deep burgundy-bronze beer with vermillion red glow and dark, tiny bits of fruit floating around here and there, with eventually large and unappetizing flakes of protein obscuring them, heaping up into a pile of 'slurry' on the bottom of the glass (as if some animal crapped in it, sorry to say). Aroma initially marred by something bacterial (manure, sewer) but when this retreats a bit - it never fully does - more charming elements appear: blackberry wine sauce on venison, vanillin and actual oak wood, stewed plum tomatoes which clearly represent the raspberries (always a bit tomato-like to me when used fresh in beer), red wine vinegar, some balsamico even, dry leather, plum wine, soggy brown bread, red cabbage kimchi. Sharply acidic onset, sour raspberries and blackberries for sure but pierced by an acetic, red wine vinegar-like sourness hindering drinkability a bit (but admittedly not that unusual for an American sour); sour fruitiness continues over a finely but very actively carbonated, smoothly edged but in all rather thin maltiness, thinned by the acetic effect. A certain nuttiness from the malts is there but somewhat meagerly so, with this vinegary sourness dominating too much from beginning to end; acquires a certain vinosity and more complexity in the finish, though, where the aromas of both fruit species unfold a bit more colourfully, evoking red plum and even a bit of apple too, pairing up with the warm oakiness of the 'foudre' - even exuding a brief whiff of vanillin. The alcohol, and this is definitely a plus for me, remains remarkably well hidden at this ABV. Ends as vinegary as it began, but in an admittedly lively fruity, red-sour-berry-like way. I know that the Americans like their sours a bit more edgy and this one certainly matches that trend, set out by the likes of Cascade, Logsdon and others, but coming from a bottle of Cantillon lambic, this really feels a bit harsh even for a sourhead like me; the acetic effect probably comes from Acetobacter or something alike and should have been avoided, or at least restrained, as it is of course hugely amplified by the natural acids in the berries. On top of that, the bacteria also added a 'fertilizer'-like odour which I cannot honestly call appealing. I am surprised at the high scores this creation seems to get here, but I possibly did not get to taste it in the best conditions - Nashville is a long way from Ghent, after all, and I can certainly imagine this being a lot more palatable when young and fresh close to its source. I can, however, only judge what I taste, and this one, though coming from an interesting idea, is just too 'bacterial' and acetic to be enjoyable. Too bad, but I will definitely give this interesting brewery another chance one day.
Tried on 25 Jan 2025 at 00:50

5.2/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 5 Flavor 5 Texture 6 Overall 5
Deep gold with a slight orange hue. It has a a two finger head. Aroma is citrus and resin. Taste also citrus and resin. Just an average IPA.
Tried on 21 Jan 2025 at 05:39

7.4/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 8.5
Can. Hazy orange in color with a three finger head. Aroma is sweet citrus. Taste is like the label says. Grapefruit and orange Creamsicle with a bitter finish
Tried from Can on 21 Jan 2025 at 05:38

7.8/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 8
Amber red in color with a three finger head. Aroma is malty and slight molasses. Taste was very well balanced and tasty.
Tried on 21 Jan 2025 at 05:38

9.1/10 Appearance 9 Aroma 10 Flavor 9 Texture 8 Overall 9
Bottle, 0.375l. Aroma of wine, barnyard, cereals, wood and a bit of sweat. Pours cloudy golden color with medium sized soapy white head and average sparkling appearance. Taste starts tart citrusy and vinous, following is grainy, mild funky and woody with dry mouthfeel. Medium body, oily texture and average carbonation in palate. What the funk…
Tried from Bottle from Beergium on 01 Jan 2025 at 17:08

6.6/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 6.5
12 ounce can from Niemuth's, 11/6/23. Interesting to see Yazoo in WI. Hazy orange, medium off-white head, average retention. Aroma of tangerine, melon. Taste is melon, pale malt. Juicy, kinda bland. Decent.
Tried from Can on 21 Dec 2024 at 07:51

6.1/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 5 Flavor 6 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
From a can, I thought this was ok. tropical fruit, sweet malt and citrus. hops are light.
Tried from Can on 21 Dec 2024 at 04:18

8/10
Good for being 18 thousand years old.
Tried on 13 Dec 2024 at 18:43

8/10
Tried on 13 Dec 2024 at 18:43