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!
From a growler shared by Butters at the Fish Fry. Clear, dark yellow pour, white head. Floral hop aroma. The flavor is bitter and earthy with a dry finish.
on tap-pours a white ring for a head and hazy straw yellow color. Aroma is nice sweet banana, light malt/wheat. Taste is slightly banana, light malt/wheat, some clove-yeast, spice/herbal hops. Dry finish.
on tap-pours a white ring for a head and dark brown color with red tint. Aroma is medium/dark malt-roasty/chocolate. Taste is medium/dark malt-roasty/chocolate, secondary (sour?) fruit, grainy/earthy hops. Dry finish.
on nitro-pours a rich retaining tan head and black color. Aroma is dark malt-molasses/chocolate, roasty, secondary acidic/earthy hops. Taste is dark malt-molasses/chocolate, ashy/roasty, secondary acidic/earthy hops. Finishes with coffee after taste.
on tap-pours a thin white head and hazy gold color. Aroma is great lemon zest/peach/pine hops (simcoe and glacier). Taste is great lemon zest/peach/pine hops-dry bitterness, (simcoe and glacier), some light medium malt. Nice West coast.
on tap-pours a thin white head and copper color. Aroma is medium/dark malt-chocolate/licorice, hint of spice hops. Taste is medium malt-chocolate/licorice, nutty, secondary copper/spice hops. Light/medium body.
on tap-pours a rich thin white head with lots of lace and yellow/gold color. Aroma is mild citrus-lemon hops. Taste is mild citrus-lemon hops/slight bitter, balanced medium malt-sweet. Smooth, easy.
Sample at the Hopsnobbery Collective Porter tasting on 12/4/08: This brew is a clear orange color that has a rosy hue. Thin and fizzy white head that burns away quickly. Spotty lacing on the glass. The aroma is hoppy with a touch of citrus. Medium-bodied with a flavor that is a case study in Amarillo hops, as that is more or less the only flavor aside from a bit of malt. The finish is clean and hoppy with a short hops and fruit aftertaste. Just average overall.
I had quite a few of these in bottle and on tap at various establishments in Nashville. Deep brown body, thin cream head. Toasty nose with notes of chocolate and caramel. Bitter, toasty body, leathery, with leafy hops and caramely malts. Enjoyable everyday drinking beer.
Draft. The hops in this APA are overshadowed by sweet malts. Copper/amber color with short, white head. The aroma is grainy with a hint of grass and lemon. The flavor is lightly to moderately sweet. The finish is lightly bitter. Medium body and watery to sticky texture. Lively carbonation. Off-balance throughout.