Yazoo Brewery Tour

Back in October, Yazoo Brewery turned 11. It just so happened that we were in Nashville to see Walk the Moon, when lo and behold, what did I see when I looked out our hotel window? Yazoo Brewery. Take a tour? Why yes, we will.

Yazoo is Tennessee’s first craft brewery, and it opened in 2003. They primarily distribute throughout Tennessee and Mississippi, though have recently expanded to northern Alabama. This is their second building, and has a pretty awesome taproom too.

The brewery tour was $8, and we got a 5 ounce glass to take home. It looks like a brandy snifter, which is a little odd, but it was nice that we got to keep it. I wish I could remember our tour guide’s name, because he was fantastic….sadly, I didn’t catch it.

The tour was really interesting, because we got to see the entire operation. It’s a whole lot smaller than I thought it would be, especially for how much they do each day. An average day is 10-12 hours, and they’ll bottle about 500 cases. CASES. Not individual beers, cases. Oh, and they have 24 staff, 10 of whom do tours and run the taproom and things like that. Crazy.

Yazoo’s Bottling Line

 

I know this is hard to see, but I thought it was pretty neat. This is their Wall of Fame – it’s bottles from other craft breweries they’ve found and enjoyed. Wish I knew what they were, but it was about 20 feet off the ground.

 

Another thing that’s super cool about Yazoo? They give their spent grain to local farmers. Turns out, the cows love it. You can even buy “Yazoo grain-fed beef” in a few local restaurants. (Apparently a lot of breweries do this, but I wasn’t aware of it.)

We got to sample three of Yazoo’s beers:

Dos Perros is their flagship beer, and one I’d had before. It’s kind of similar to Dos Equis, but with much better flavor. (Yazoo, I apologize for comparing you to Dos Equis.) It’s that sort of dark Mexican beer style. This was Jimmie’s favorite of the three.

Pale Ale: I like my beers hoppy, and this one definitely fit the bill. It’s a little darker and heavier than a lot of pale ales I’ve tried. Very, very delicious. If you’re a beer snob and pay attention to IBUs, the Yazoo Pale Ale is a respectable 47. It’s also got a higher alcohol content than the other two.

Hefeweizen: This one is a Bavarian-style Hefeweizen. It’s made from wheat, and has a banana undertone. I could smell the banana, but not taste it. To me, the beer tasted like Juicy Fruit gum. Not unpleasant, and I could definitely see drinking this in the summer. Jimmie wasn’t a fan.

If you’re local, or if you visit the Nashville area, definitely take a tour of the Yazoo Brewery. It takes less than an hour, lets you try some yummy beers, and is super informative. It made for a fun date, and we both agreed we’d love to go back and sample more of their beers! Jimmie was pretty disappointed they didn’t have Sue, the smoked porter, when we were there. We’d just missed it, apparently.

I learned a lot about the beer making process, and got to smell hops. I didn’t take very good notes, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. This sparked my interest in brewery tours, though….so after Yazoo, we walked down the street to another Nashville brewery, Jackalope. The two were totally different, so stay tuned for that one!