3 Breweries We Love

From micro-breweries to beer halls, here are three places to toast with your friends this holiday season.

Beer. While there is never a bad time to enjoy what many of us consider the greatest beverage ever concocted on earth, the holidays are a particularly good time to quaff some cold ones with family and friends -- the season simply adds festive froth to the foamy fun of it all. Here are three beer-centric outings we recommend. Each is a completely different venue with its own unique vibe and selection of brews, but each is also locally owned and a great place to keep the muscles of your toasting arm nicely taut and toned.

Little Harpeth Brewing

It began some four years ago with Chicken Scratch, an American pilsner made from malted barley, locally grown corn, and the only hop variety native to the U.S. Since then, Little Harpeth Brewing’s founder Michael Kwas and his team of expert braumeisters have kept good things flowing, adding other styles and flavors to savor such as Upstream, an India pale Kölsch (a San Francisco Lager?), and Double Paddle, a heartwarming doppelbock for cold winter nights.

But while Little Harpeth’s beers are truly outstanding – their Deer Crossing garnered gold out of 101 entries at the 2018 Great American Beer Festival in Denver – so too is their venue, a full scale production brewery meets taproom meets concert hall complete with a sound system that can definitely take it to eleven. Add to that a panoramic view of downtown Nashville rising above the brickyard – Little Harpeth’s neighbors -- and you have the ideal industrial-chic setting sure to please even the most bohemian of beer-loving urban hipsters.

The taproom is open Wednesday through Sunday and hosts Pumphrey & Beard Coffee Company, a locally owned roastery that produces small batch coffees and serves local baked goods. However, the taproom hours in the evenings are subject to change based on an eclectic calendar of events, everything from live bands to disc golf putting to BBQ cook offs to USA Championship Wrestling. (Yes, they actually set up a professional wrestling ring inside the brewery every Thursday night through December.)

Harding House Brewing Co.

Located on 51st Ave. N. in The Nations, Harding House is a labor of love flowing from friendship. College buddies Nate Underwood, Matthew Fung-A-Fat, and Tyler Pate shared a vision for a hyper-local nano-brewery and taproom and not only made it happen, but made it happen well, creating an intimate yet light-filled, relaxing taproom.

Their outstanding beers use local ingredients--think “farm-to-tap. ”Almost 99% of the brews we craft are sourced from our area,” brewmaster Nate Underwood says. “The farmers we work with come into the taproom and see folks enjoying the barley that they grew.”

As a true nano, Harding House enjoys great flexibility, allowing Nate and his friends to experiment and give guests something new to try each time. One such offer this holiday season is the Heirloom Squash Pumpkin Ale, a brew crafted with locally grown Georgia Candy Roasters, an heirloom variety of squash that is both flavorful and well-adapted to thrive in our region.

“By providing demand for these heirloom varieties,” Matthew points out, “we’re helping to reestablish the Southern food base. It goes to what we’re all about – building community.”

To join these brewing buddies in the building of community, check out Harding House’s taproom this holiday season and enjoy their many selections such as their Apple Ale with local raw apple cider from Morning Glory Orchards or their One Year Anniversary Beer, a double wild Belgian IPA with local honey.

Bavarian Bierhaus

As if by magic, an enchanting, Munich-style beer hall has manifested in Music City. The Bavarian Bierhaus, a 15,000 square-foot beer hall, is the brainchild of Bob Krumm, a Nashville native and an active duty colonel in the US Army. Stationed in Germany for years, Bob’s friends from Nashville would visit and ask, “why don’t we have beer halls like this at home?” It was an excellent question to which Bob has provided an outstanding answer: the Bavarian Bierhaus, a beer hall four years in the making with a German-trained chef, family-style tables, a stage for live music, and room for 500 simultaneously raised steins and thunderous shouts of “Prost!”

Can anyone say “Gemütlichkeit?” (If so, then there’s no better place in all of Nashville to blurt out that wonderful German loanword than here; many of the staff speak German and will actually understand you.) “We get a lot of Germans in here,” Bob says, “and they are astounded by our authenticity.”

They are also astounded by the selection of the best German beers and the attention to detail for their full enjoyment. Unsure what beer to pair with that Schnitzel or perhaps intimidated by the number of choices (12 on tap and two dozen more in bottles and cans)? Alex Heichel, Bavarian Bierhaus’ certified cicerone, can expertly guide you to “das beste Bier für dich,” the best beer for you.

While the Bavarian Bierhaus is a great place to visit all year round, the holidays are a particularly good time to stop in. “We do husband-sitting services,” Bob jokes, referring to the dads who sit and enjoy a German beer while moms shop for presents in Opry Mills or in Bavarian Bierhaus’ own gift shop, which currently features seasonal nutcrackers, ornaments, and wreaths. The Bavarian Bierhaus is also home to its own Jäegerstube, a traditional hunters’ dining room that allows for the German-trained chef to really shine with fixed-course meals featuring game. In fact, if you’re reading these words before November 14th, consider checking out the Bavarian Bierhaus for an evening of Hasenpfeffer and traditional German Bier. Tell them Edible sent you. Zum wohl!