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Tennessee

Nashville

YAZOO BREWING CO.

910 Division St. • Nashville, TN 37203 • (615) 891-4649 yazoobrew.com • Established: 2003

SCENE & STORY

With founders named Linus and Lila and a beer named Sue, Johnny Cash fans and craft beer lovers alike will want to seek out this craft brewery a short drive from the center of Music City. Brewery tours in the warehouse-like space run on Saturdays only, starting at 2:30 p.m. and continuing every hour until 6:30; $6 with complimentary Yazoo pint glass and beer samples. There’s also a cozy taproom open for growler fills only, Wednesdays from 4 to 8 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 2 to 8 p.m.

PHILOSOPHY

Linus apprenticed with Garrett Oliver in Brooklyn, and loves to experiment with single-hop varieties and more recently, barrel aging.

KEY BEER

Mexican lagers like Bohemia (the best available) are often descendants of the Vienna-style lager, tending toward a reddish hue, light to medium body, and crackling dry finish. Yazoo’s Dos Perros, a superlight American Brown Ale (at just 3.5% ABV) is a great example of the style. And the aforementioned Sue? It’s a smoked Imperial Porter on the other end of the intensity spectrum at 9% ABV, a bomber of roasted malt flavor with flavors of nutty caramel and charred bacon fat. In other words, it’s a beer that hollers, “My name is Sue! How do you do?”

Kentucky

Louisville

SERGIO’S WORLD BEERS

1605 Story Ave • Louisville, KY 40206 • (502) 618-BEER sergiosworldbeers.com • Established: 2006

SCENE & STORY

Sergio Ribemboim is a globetrotting Brazilian with an obsessive love for beer, and his man-cave-like shop and taproom in Louisville is a cluttered shrine to beer in every imaginable form from every corner of the planet. With 43 taps and over 1,300 bottles on offer, the correct phrase to describe this cash-only beer-geek destination is “mind-numbing”—there are more than 500 from the United States and 600 from Europe, for starters. Along with the L-shaped bar lined floor to ceiling with coolers, cases, empties, and other ephemera, there’s a small seating area and kitchen serving an eclectic menu (fajitas, cheeses-teak, spaghetti). The food is often very good, but you’re really here to wander among the country’s oddest, biggest, and best selections of craft beer from around the globe.

PHILOSOPHY

Ribemboim keeps the outside low profile and the website a bit cryptic; he’s not aiming to convert skeptics or please the general consumer, but to delight and awe the aficionado, and he’s eager to help when approached.

KEY BEER

There’s no itch that cannot be scratched at Sergio’s, so take a half hour to peruse the insanity and, if still stumped, ask Sergio for some recommendations.

Best of the Rest: Kentucky

THE BEER TRAPPE

811 Euclid Ave. • Lexington, KY 40502 (859) 309–0911 • thebeertrappe.com

Only recently opened (2010), Lexington’s top craft beer destination has eight quickly rotating taps, over four hundred bottle selections, leather couches, and walls decked out with brewery signage. The bar also graciously provides tastings, flights, growler fills, and classes, making it a hub for Lexington’s growing craft beer community.

Mississippi

THE MAGNOLIA STATE HAS THE LOWEST LEGAL BEER ALCOHOL TOLERANCE in the country at 5 percent (alcohol by volume) and, insanely, still outlaws home brewing. Fully half of the counties are still dry. Until the political community sees craft beer for what it is—an enlightened movement toward moderate drinking habits that can bring a state billions in tax dollars when breweries are promoted—craft beer will languish. But for locals, there are a couple of places to gather, sip craft brews, and plot the campaign to get Mississippi at least in line with neighboring states. Recently, a series of beer festivals (Top of the Hops) have been gathering sellout crowds, which sends a strong message. It’s only a matter of time. Mississippi, Craft Beer Nation is 100 percent behind you.

Kiln

LAZY MAGNOLIA