Future Hop Projects?

We have had a lot of questions lately about the future of Hop Project. We plan to get it out in its own six pack next year, and increase our production of this beer once we get in the new brewery. But one thing will not change - we plan to continue to change the hops used in each new batch. Why not settle on one killer recipe and stick with that? Well, for a variety of reasons. One, it keeps our brewers happy and creative. Having the abilty to experiment makes us better brewers. Two, we think people enjoy checking out each new batch to see how it stacks up with their favorite batch from before. Three, we're having fun doing it, so why stop now?

New Year's Holiday Hours

These "growler nights" are turning out to be a big hit! People are telling us they love a night when they won't have to wait in a long line just to get their growlers filled. So we decided to have another one this week.

THUR DEC 31st - the taproom will be open for growler fills, keg sales, and merchandise sales ONLY from 4-7 PM. We won't be serving pints, but you can come in and get stocked up for the party that night!

FRI JAN 1st - the taproom will be open our regular hours from 4-8 PM. Come by and enjoy the first pint of the new year!

SAT JAN 2nd - the taproom will be open from 2-8 PM and we will have our regular tour schedule, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 for tours.

Holiday Hours

The taproom will be open Wed Dec 23rd from 5-7 for take-home sales only (growlers, kegs, etc)

We will be closed Dec 24th and 25th, and will be open for regular business including tours on Sat Dec 26th.

GROWLER NIGHT THIS WED DEC 23RD

We will be open and filling growlers, selling t-shirts, etc, this coming Wednesday, Dec 23rd from 5-7 PM. Not a regular taproom night - but you can stop by and get a growler for Christmas morning, plus finish up any last minute Yazoo shopping you might need.

And as always, if you need a keg, stop by the back loading dock doors when we are brewing (just about any time M-F 8-5). It might take a minute for someone to be able to stop and help you, but we are always happy to sell you a keg to go!

Yazoo's "Pleasure Chest" variety pack on its way...

Our "Pleasure Chest" variety packs are being printed today, and we hope to be able to get some out in time for New Years and the playoff season. The first variety packs will contain three bottles each of Pale Ale, Dos Perros, Hefeweizen, and... Sly Rye Porter! As we go forward, we plan to rotate the selection, to include our seasonals. We're planning on bottling Summer, Fall, and Wassail next year in the variety packs.

What's the story on the name, "Pleasure Chest"? Well, if you have ever dropped by the Yazoo tent at a beer festival, we usually have something "extra special" in the back, being poured through our converted Pleasure Chest jockey box. Savvy beer drinkers know that when they see the Pleasure Chest, they are in for a treat!

Yazoo SUE out in bottles!

We bottled about 100 cases of SUE on Monday, and it has made it out into the Nashville market! Our distributor dropped cases off at Midtown Beverages, Frugal Macdoogals, Grace's, and with more to come. It's packaged in our "Brewmaster's Reserve" four packs, with black labels and black bottle caps.

You may notice that we changed the recipe slightly (good catch Nathan!). We increased the body and the amount of cherry-wood-smoked malts we used, and increased the bittering hops. We wanted to give it slightly more mouthfeel and smoke aroma than the first batch we got out on draft. It now weighs in around 9% abv, but you can't tell that until you have had a couple. I had a four pack myself last night, with some dark Belgian chocolates, and I have to tell you, that's a little slice of heaven right there!

Check out "Tough Trade" on Epix

As part of the casting call for a drama to be aired on the new upcoming Epix channel, the producers, which include T. Bone Burnett, asked for local talent. Well, we were happy to oblige. Look for Yazoo bottles during the scenes set in the old Bourbon Street Boogie Bar, where the crew filmed this week. Neil, our sales manager, said hanging around for the filming after delivering the beer was one of the best job perks he has had the past two years. And he works for a brewery, so that must have been something!

http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/2009/12/cast_announced_for_t_bone_burn.php

Online Store up and running!

Just in time for Christmas! Now you can get your Yazoo gear through our new online store. Just go to our website www.yazoobrew.com and click on the "Store" button.

And yes, we are expecting our cool old-school wool biking jerseys to arrive any day now!

Interesting List

I ran across this list of brands owned or distributed by the big three - oops, sorry, the big two brewers, ABInBev and SABMillerCoors. It's pretty interesting to see how many brands they control. There were even a few on there that I didn't realize had ties back to the big brewers.

http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/the-big-brewers-brands/

Hop Project #24 out in bottles and on tap at Yazoo Taproom

Hop Project #24 was bottled first week of December, and it says so on the label. We used Columbus, Tomahawk, and Zeus for first wort; Amarillo, Cascade, and Perle with 15 minutes left in the boil, and again at 5 min left; and then dry-hopped with Amarillo and Cascade after four days in the fermenter.

It will be on tap at the taproom, and the bottles will be available in our local market only. We're brewing #25 as we speak, and should be able to get some more Hop Project down to Alabama before Christmas.

Yazoo Taproom Holiday Hours

Yazoo Taproom Holiday Hours

We will be open on this Wednesday, Nov 25th, from 6-8 PM for growler sales ONLY. Come by and get your growlers filled for the turkeyday, and try out the Wassail!

We will be CLOSED for Thanksgiving Day, but will be open our regular hours Friday 4-8 PM and Sat 2-8 PM. Tours will be given Saturday at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30.

We will have a special promotion this Friday at the taproom. Growlers of Wassail can be paired with a package of special cookies created just for us by Nashville's newest baking sensation, "Dozen", which is located in the Farmer's Market. Come by the Yazoo Taproom this Friday and meet the owner, Claire Meneely, and try out some of her most excellent creations.

Nashville icon is gone...

Have you noticed that a Nashville icon, the "Build with Brick" water tower, which stood across the tracks from Marathon, is no longer there? It fell down a couple of weeks ago.

First ever Yazoo Tweetup Wednesday Nov 18 from 6-8 PM at ...!

To commemorate reaching 2000 followers on our twitter feed www.twitter.com/yazoobrew we're throwing a party! But how will you find out the details if you don't follow us? I'll give you a hint - it's happening Wednesday night, but NOT at our taproom. And there will be specials on Yazoo beer, including Hop Project #23 (the MJ of IPAs) and Yazoo Sue. Are you in? RSVP at www.twitter.com/yazoobrew and we'll see you there!

Hop Project #23 out in bottles!

Hop Project #23 was bottled Nov 2nd week. It was first wort hopped with CTZ, Galena at beginning of boil, Goldings and Amarillo at 30 min, Amarillo, Cascade, and Goldings at 5 min, and dry-hopped with Amarillo, Goldings, and Cascade after five days. This was a small batch (~125 cases) and will only be available in Nashville.

It's got a very pleasant aroma of citrus and ripe melon. The flavor is a great mix of grapefruit and melon from the Amarillo and Cascade, and a lemoney, dry finish from the Goldings. Get some while it lasts - it will be on tap at the Yazoo taproom, as well as a few good beer bars around Nashville, and in bottles.

Sneak Peak at our new labels

Woohoo! We finally got our label approval for Sly Rye Porter and Sue. Here's a sneak peak. It will take a month or so to get them printed, and then we'll be releasing them both in time for the holidays!

New dock door at the new brewery!

We had to knock out a section of the wall at the new brewery to get the tanks inside, so that meant we deserved a new dock door! Deserved? Weird choice of words? Well, if you had struggled with the doors we have here at Marathon for the past six years, you'd say the same thing! First, there is a dock door that took two people to winch closed, plus a sledgehammer. Then, a set of doors so low that a normal forklift won't go through it (luckily, the tires on our forklift are so worn out that it will clear the doors by 1/4 inch.) And to get to the dock, you have to run a gamut of metal plates covering collapsed concrete and mud holes. So needless to say, we're excited about a brand new dock door!

Mark Moynihan fund

Thank you to everyone who helped us raise some money to help Kim Moynihan, Mark's wife. Mark was a brewer in east Tennessee that was critically burned in a welding accident. While he was fighting, with burns over 90% of his body, we teamed up with the Nashville homebrewers club to try to raise money. We auctioned off an opportunity to brew a batch on our commercial system to the homebrew club, with the proceeds from sales of that batch also going to the Mark Moynihan Burn Fund. Sadly, just before we brewed the beer, Mark passed away. We decided to go ahead with the benefit and donate the money to Mark's wife, Kim.

Thank you to Brandon, for his wonderful Hop Blaster, and to everyone who came in and enjoyed a pint or growler of it. Thanks to you, we were able to donate a little over $6,000 to Kim to help with her bills. Thanks again!

On tap this weekend:

Pale Ale
Dos Perros
Hefeweizen
Brandon's Hop Blaster (last keg, come help us finish it off!)
Sly Rye Porter
and...drum roll please...
Hop Project #22!

Hop Project #22 bottled today, 3rd week of October

You can't muzzle the Hops!

Hop Project #22 was bottled 3rd week of October. We first-wort-hopped it with Ahtanum, then Galena at 30 minutes, Amarillo at 5 minutes, and dry-hopped with Zeus and Amarillo.

Even though it is promoted as a bittering hop because of its high alpha-acids, I'm loving Zeus as a late or dry hop. It's pungent, bright, and earthy. The bitterness on this one is just right - not harsh up front but long and lingering. This isn't the hop bomb that the last batch was, but we don't get our hands on 200#s of fresh Amarillo but once a year.

We only brewed 20 barrels of this one, and about half of that is heading to Alabama (there are some serious hopheads down there, man!) If you are in the B'ham area, look for it on tap, hopefully at the J. Clyde again, and in bottles at Whole Foods.

Yazoo Brewing in this month's Southern Living

I haven't seen it yet, but lots of people have emailed us about an article about Yazoo in this month's Southern Living. It's funny how it happened. Their deadlines are set so far in advance, that the writer interviewed us about a year and a half ago. I had honestly forgotten all about it until a photographer called and wanted some updated shots about three months ago.

More Sue Locations

Yazoo Sue, our cherry-wood-smoked imperial porter, is now on tap at:

Three Crow Bar
Beyond the Edge
Broadway Brewhouse - Midtown
12th South Taproom
Beer Sellar

This is a small batch beer right now, as we wait on label approval to bottle it, and we have been in and out of stock with Sue at our distributor. So even these limited locations may be periodically out of Sue. We hope to be bottling it later this year.

And the reason why we can't serve it at our own taproom? We would have to get a liquor license, and then we would not be able to sell growlers. I could go into all the legal BS behind that but I don't feel like getting riled up right now.

On Tap This Weekend

For those of you who plan your life around beer (like me):

We will have on tap this weekend:

Pale Ale
Dos Perros
Hefeweizen
Brandon's Hop Blaster
Fall
Sly Rye Porter

Cheers!

Scene's Best of Nashville goes to...

Thank you to all our fans who voted us "Best Brewhouse" in this year's Nashville Scene's Best of Nashville reader's poll!

Getting that award is more of an honor to us than any beerfest medal could ever be. We really strive to be a part of our local community, and to have y'all recognize us as the best brewery in Nashville means a lot to everyone here at Yazoo. Thanks!

We also were voted the 2nd "Best Place to Buy a Keg"! Not everyone knows this, but we sell kegs directly from the brewery. Big kegs are $125, and the popular 5 gallon kegs are $55. They are cold, and usually don't have to be ordered ahead of time, so come on down to the brewery and pick up a keg for your next party!

Finally, the writers at the Scene mentioned our upcoming move to 910 Division in their "Best Industrial Relocation" blurb. It's not a done deal yet, but the plan is to sell our current brewery tanks to Corsair Artisan Distillery once we move out of Marathon. They will set up their stills next to the brewing tanks and use the brewery to feed their distilling equipment. If all goes well, that transition should happen around the first of the year.

Tanks in and hooked up...

Well, it has been an exciting past few days. Our new 40 bbl brewhouse arrived bright and early Monday morning, and we spent the next few days getting the big tanks inside the building and stood up. I knew that they would be bigger than anyhing else we have tried to move, and that we would need more than a little forklift to get them inside and stood up, so I rented a small crane, the Brody IC80 (with the advice of my friends at Terrapin Brewing - thanks Mark!). It did great, and most of the tanks were unloaded with no problems.

I had never operated one before, so I felt a little like Trinity from "The Matrix", trying to absorb the instruction manual while climbing into the seat to unload the first truck. The Lauter Tun, at 6000 lbs and 10 feet in diameter, was the biggest challenge, but with the help of another crane from McCord Crane Service, we got it in the building. Quinn and I spent the next few days standing the tanks up and getting them in postition. Then came the challenge of assembling all of the process piping, which had been disassembled for the trip from Vancouver at Newland Systems.

Now we will be working on finishing out the taproom, while engineers from Advanced Engineering in Franklin, and Prism Systems in Mobile, AL, finish the automation system for the new brewhouse. Stay tuned for more pictures of the brewery and the new taproom!

More progress at the new location...

Things are moving right along... the sprinkler system is up and operational, concrete's been poured, and the electricians and plumbers are working on the taproom area. We bought a good used cooler at an auction today (RIP Rosario's, sorry to see you go), that will go behind the bar to hold kegs for serving the taproom. This week we will knock out an opening in the back wall of the brewery to get ready for the new brewhouse, which will arrive next week! If you happen to drive by the new location on next Tues or Wed, you may see a crane and several trucks, delivering our new 40 bbl brewhouse! Just don't try to talk to me, because I will be sweating bullets and biting fingernails, hoping we get them unloaded and inside the building with no problems. It's going to take two cranes and a lot of rigging, but it's not going to be as hard as getting tanks into our Marathon location has been!

Yazoo Fall Fest beer debut at the Flying Saucer

We've never done an octoberfest-style beer before. Come out to the Flying Saucer in Nashville, and the two in Memphis (Cordova and downtown) tomorrow night, Wednesday Sept 30th, for a special tapping of our newest beer, Yazoo Fall Fest. The Saucers will be running a special package deal all night on this new Yazoo creation - buy the special ONE LITER mug and you'll get to take it home, along with a special Yazoo Octoberfest t-shirt for the first 100 people. If you aren't lucky enough to be in Germany right now, strap up the lederhosen anyway and come on down to your local Flying Saucer tomorrow night!

www.beerknurd.com

Award for the best t-shirt at the Asheville Brewers Fest

As always, it was a blast to see all our brewer friends at the Asheville Brewer's Fest this past weekend. Our Hop Project continues its march across the southeast, drawing converts all along the way. A lot of people came by telling us it was the best beer they had at the fest. And as always, the t-shirts at Asheville always are the most creative. See how long it takes you to get it - it took me a minute.

Hop Project #21, Return of Fresh Hop, out in bottles

Identified by the notches on the label, bottled 3rd week of Sept.

It's pretty easy to describe the hops in this beer. Bittered to about 100+ IBUs with Amarillo from the 2008 harvest, and dosed with 200 lbs of fresh, wet hops from the 2009 harvest. This is an Amarillo bomb!

Scroll down to the last few posts about this beer to see how we made it and the story behind it!

Yazoo Hop Project #21, Return of Fresh Hop, on tap this Thursday Sept 16 at Yazoo Taproom

Become One with the Hop at the Yazoo Taproom this weekend as we unwrap the freshest, most incredible hop experience ever. This is probably the best Hop Project we have ever made. It's not the most aggressive, not the most in-your-face beer. It's kind of like the pretty girl next door, friends, nothing more - until you realize you are madly in love and can't stop thinking about her. This beer starts with a juicy-fruit aroma, nicely balanced with some sweet toasty malt notes. The first sip is deceiving, as you think, "This is not overly hoppy, nicely balanced..." Then, as you swirl it around in your mouth and swallow, the waves of bitterness hit, and hit, and hit, pitching you like a surfer who didn't quite make the 'pipe...

If you ever wondered what exactly Amarillo hops do for a beer, this is your one-stop shop for Amarillo flavor. We bittered it with Amarillo hops from last year's harvest, and then started adding over 200 lbs of fresh-off-the-vine, airlifted from Yakima valley the night before, wet Amarillo hops from my the best hop-growing connection , Darren Gamache. As anyone who follows Yazoo knows, I love Amarillo hops. I would shoot Amarillo hops straight into my veins if that was practical.

Luckily for me and you, this latest Hop Project is a much better way to become one with the Amarillo Hop. This absolutely will not last long, because we only made one batch and we are bottling half of it. The bottles will be out in store soon... but honestly, something this good needs to be experienced on tap fresh at the source. Please come out to the Yazoo taproom this weekend, and save me from drinking it all myself!

Oh, they're real, and they are spectacular...

The freshly picked Amarillo hops arrived via Fed Ex yesterday morning, and we had a brew in the kettle waiting for them. We decided to make our next Hop Project, #21, using only Amarillo hops. It made for a very long day and night but it will be worth it! Look for this batch to be out in both kegs and bottles by mid October!

Brandon's Beer for Mark

Brewers are a tight-knit community. One of the things that convinced me to become one was how open and supportive most brewers were that I met along my path to opening Yazoo. So when the comunity of brewers in Nashville, homebrewers and professionals alike, heard what had happened to a fellow brewer in Knoxville, we knew we had to do something to help him and his family.

Mark Moynihan, an assistant brewer at Calhoun's Brewery in Knoxville, was critically burned in a welding accident inside a tank at the brewery. He was taken to Vanderbilt Hospital's Burn Unit with third-degree burns over 98% of his body. His doctor gave him a 2-3% chance of surviving. During a monthly brewer's meeting, we decided to auction off the right to brew a homebrew recipe on Yazoo's system, and to put the beer on tap in our taproom, with all the proceeds going to Mark for his medical bills. Brandon Jones, a top-notch local homebrewer and the news director at Channel 5 news, bid the most for the chance to brew his award-winning "Hop Blaster" ale at Yazoo. Unfortunately, Mark passed away on June 23rd after 74 days of fighting. We went ahead with the brew with the hopes that the money raised would help support Mark's wife, Kim.

Please join us this Friday Sept 4th as we tap Brandon's Hop Blaster, with all the proceeds going to the fund for Mark. For more info see http://markmarathon.blogspot.com/

Hop Project #20 out in bottles, and on tap this Thursday

Bottles marked as "Bottled on week 1 in September": For #20, we used Zeus as mash hops, then First Gold and Galena at the beginning of the boil; Ahtanum and First Gold at 30 minutes; and Cascade and Ahtanum with five minutes left. We then dry-hopped with Ahtanum.

It's not as dank as #19 was, and the bitterness is very Cascade-like. Ahtanum is sometimes recommended as a substitute for Cascade so we tried it as a dry-hop to get a full sense of its flavor. As far as the Zeus - I'm still not sold on using hops in the mash. Sometimes when we try it, we get a mellower, fuller hop flavor, but I'm not picking up that in this Project. But hey, that's why we keep experimenting, and thanks for coming along for the ride. Maybe one day we will hit upon THE ABSOLUTE KILLER IPA recipe and stop experimenting with our Hop Project series, but we are having too much fun with it to stop now.

#21 is going to be the Return of the Fresh Hop. My hop grower friend in Yakima is sending us 200 lbs of fresh wet Amarilllo hops this week. We should be brewing it on Thursday, and it will be bottled the last week of September. If you come by the taproom this Thursday afternoon, your clothes will probably never get the hop smell out of them again. Hop Project #20 in your glass, and #21 in the air. Like that's a bad thing?!

More Sue locations...

Beyond the Edge in east Nashville has "Sue" on tap. That makes three including 12th South Taproom and Broadway Brewhouse in midtown.

Pics from the Last Party of the Summer

What a great night! The weather cooperated, the bands were great, and the beer flowed like a river. Thanks to all the folks who came out to enjoy the night and the great bands. And thanks especially to Space Capone! Just like back on our 5th Anniversary party in November, they rocked the place. Celebrate good time, Yazoo!

Hop Project #21 : Return of the Fresh Hop!

SCORE! My friend Darren Gamache, the ONLY grower who has Amarillo hops, just called me from Yakima in Washington state - the hop harvest is well underway, earlier than last year, and they are about to start harvesting Amarillo hops this weekend. "Would you be interested in about 200 lbs of fresh wet hops this year, Linus?" he asked. "HELL YEAH!" I said. So the next Hop Project we brew, sometime early next week, will be hopped with 200 lbs of fresh, wet Amarillo hops!

Last year we only made 600 gallons and didn't bottle any. We'll be brewing 1200 gallons this year and bottling about 250 cases of it. I can't wait! I still have vivid dreams about that beer from last year. OK, they might be more like drug-induced flashbacks from all the hops, but I'm still looking forward to brewing it next week. Look for the Fresh Hop tour hitting your local taproom soon!

Alphabeticall

Just got a list of all the breweries at the Great American Beer Festival this year. There used to be a brewery called "Zuma" down in Atlanta, but they are no more. So that makes us the last brewery in the list again! (Alphabetically...)

Amazing stat...

The Brewer's Association just released mid-year numbers, and the results are encouraging for the over 1500 small brewers in the country. Dollar sales of the craft beer segment were up 9%, and volume was up 5%. All this in a difficult economy and with the big three - oops, sorry, it's the big two now - suffering declining market share. I think it is a testament to how beer drinker's tastes are changing.

But one graph they included in their press release really caught my eye. It is a graph of the number of breweries operating in the U.S. over the past 100 years. In the early 1900's, before prohibition, there were over 1500 breweries operating. Most of these were small regional breweries - in fact, there were no national breweries, and most of the beer people drank came from their local breweries.

Now, after close to 100 years, and the great experiments of Prohibition, and even worse, Light Beer, the U.S. is host to over 1500 breweries once again.

"Sue" Release Party and Pint Night

Join brewmaster Linus Hall at 12th South Taproom on Wednesday, August 19th, starting at 6:30 PM, for the release party for Yazoo Brewing's first high-alc beer, "Sue", a deliciously smoked porter brewed with cherry-wood smoked malts.
For every pint of Sue you purchase, you'll get to keep the nifty Yazoo pub glass the beer came in. If you missed this beer at the Music City Brewers Fest, you'll want to catch this event. "Sue" was one of the most requested beers at our tent that night, surprising even us! And since we can't legally serve it at our own Taproom (got to love Tennesse laws), you'll want to try this one while you can.

Progress on the new brewery

We're making progress at the new place. The new trench drains are set, and we'll soon be pouring a new concrete slab in the brewery to handle the load of all the tanks. After that, we'll be installing the new sprinkler system (yay! more money!) and then we can start moving tanks inside. Meanwhile, we'll be fixing the old storefront windows and working on the new taproom.

Yazoo Cash for Clunkers

Meet the newest addition to the Yazoo fleet - a pretty much stock 1956 Ford F100. I had a 1954 F100 when I was in high school, and have always regretted selling it when I went to college. If you look at our Pale Ale label, you can see Lila's rendition of that old truck. We had a lot of fun in that old truck, and I have been on the look out for one for years. I saw it on the side of the road in Ardmore, Alabama, and after a little cash for a clunker changed hands, I drove it back to Nashville. We're going to get it fixed up into a daily driver, paint it and christen it with some Yazoo signage and some old kegs in the back, and then take it around to different events in Nashville.

Yazoo Sue tap locations...

Check back to this post often if you want to see where you can try our Yazoo Sue, a cherry-wood smoked porter weighing in at about 7.5% abv:

8/13 going on tap at Broadway Brewhouse, in midtown near Vanderbilt
8/14 should be going on tap at 12th South Taproom soon, hopefully today

Hop Project #19 out in bottles!

Hop Project #19 was bottled the 2nd week of August, look for the notches on the left side of the label. For this batch, we decided to use a lot more late-addition hops to mellow out the bitterness while getting a lot of flavor and aroma. We used Columbus for first wort, Cascade and Amarillo at 30 minutes left in the boil, and Zeus and Galena at 5 minutes left. We then dry-hopped it at day 4 in the fermenter with Cascade and Zeus.

The aroma from this one just won't sit still. It erupts out of the bottle and glass as you pour it in. You should have smelled the brewery as we bottled this batch, just simply amazing. The bitterness is clean, juicy, and leaves a nice lingering citrus zing across your teeth. A nice toasted caramel body tries to maintain balance, but hey, it's an IPA and the hops won't be denied.

Good news for hopheads in Alabam - we got label approval finally and will be shipping some kegs and bottles down in the next few weeks. If you loved the beer in the mysterious red Pleasure Chest at the last two Magic City Brewfests, you'll be happy to see Hop Project #19!

And finally, some Hop Project FAQ, answered:

1. What the heck is Hop Project?

- back before the Great Hop Crisis of 2007, we had a killer IPA recipe that we were ready to launch. Then we couldn't get the hops we needed to brew it. So we shelved that idea, but kept experimenting with the small quanitities of different hops that we could get our hands on, and putting the beer on tap in our Yazoo Taproom to get feedback from our regulars there. We noticed that the idea of changing up the hops was a big hit, and that people never got bored with the beer. Even if they had a favorite batch, they loved trying the newest one and seeing how the different hops played out across their enamel. So we decided to go ahead and launch our continuously-changing IPA, and call it "Hop Project". We change up the hop recipe for every batch, but keep the grain bill the same.

2. How can I tell which batch I'm drinking?

- Check the side of the label on the bottle. It will have the month and week the beer was bottled. Then just check back here to our blog, and scroll down to the posting for the Hop Project for that month.

3. Why couldn't you just mark the label with what batch number it is?

- Very good question! As usual, if there is a simple way to do it, the ATF will prohibit it. We initially submitted a label that told the story of Hop Project and stated that every batch was different. The ATF would not allow that, saying that we were misleading the consumer, and that if every batch was indeed different, we would have to submit a new label for approval for EVERY BATCH. That's right, by telling the customer that every batch was different, we were misleading the customer into thinking that every batch was the same. So we couldn't do anything on the label to indicate a certain batch number or anything. I know, it doesn't make sense. But those be the hoops, and we jumped through them.

4. Is Hop Project going to be a year-round beer?

- We probably will run out of hops this year. But we're working on securing enough next year to offer it year-round.

5. Where can I get a four-pack of Hop Project?

It's now carried in many mid-Tenn Krogers, and in Harris-Teeters, as well as many of your usual suspects for craft beer, like Midtown Beverage, Frugal Macdoogals, Woody's in Cool Springs, etc. Once great place to go is Whole Foods in Green Hills. Not only do they support the heck out of us with our bottles, but they also will fill you up a growler of Yazoo from the draft tower in the deli. Call ahead to Whole Foods to see which of our beers they have on tap, or just go and be pleasantly suprised. Believe me, it's a fun experience to see a growler of Yazoo being scanned at the checkout counter!

Congrats to our Great American Beer Fest winners!

We drew the lucky name this weekend, and we'd like to say Congratulations to Laura Brandon of Murfreesboro! She and her husband won a trip for two to Denver, including airfare and hotel, plus passes to all four sessions of the Great American Beer Fest! She was one of the thousands who registered the past month at Nashville Sounds games at Greer Stadium. Congrats Laura! You're going to have a great time!

HOP PROJECT #18 kegged this week

Hop Project #18, on draft only, used Zeus and Galena for first wort, Cascade at 60 minutes left in the boil; Ahtanum, Cascade, and Amarillo at 30 minutes left; Cascade at 20 minutes left; Amarillo at 10 minutes left; Ahtanum at 5 minutes left; and Ahtanum, Amarillo, and Cascade for dry hopping.

We are going back down the direction of some of the batches around #9-#11, with a lot more late hops and not as much initial bitterness, trying to get a lot of juicy, citrusy hop flavor but not as much harsh bitternesss.

This was a small batch, and will not last long. We're trying to keep the taps we have around town supplied, until all of #16 in bottles sells out. We will be brewing a big batch of Hop Project #19 this week that will be bottled in about two weeks.

And hey, please keep giving us feedback, here and at sites like www.beeradvocate.com or www.ratebeer.com. We don't always know exactly how these projects will turn out, and while we know which ones were our favorite, we need to hear from you! About the only thing we won't do is exactly repeat a recipe again!

Yazoo Beer Dinner at Findley's Pub in the Opryland Hotel this Saturday, August 1st

We will be teaming up with Brian Owensby, Executive Chef at the Opryland Hotel, to host a Yazoo beer dinner at Findley's Pub this Saturday, August 1st, from 1-3 PM. It's part of the Food Network's Southern Food and Wine (and Beer!) Festival this weekend at Opryland Hotel. This looks like a great event for the weekend - Alton Brown, the Neelys, Bobby and Jamie Deen, among other authors and TV stars, will be on hand to give special seminars and sign their books. For more info and to get tickets, go to:

http://www.gaylordhotels.com/gaylord-opryland/specials-packages/food-network-package.html?intcmp=go-tsr-foodnetwork

Busy as heck weekend!

OK, we are still getting a ton of calls about tickets for tomorrow's Music City Brewers Fest. WE ARE NOT SELLING ANY TICKETS THIS YEAR. If there are any tickets left they will be at Jim-n-Nicks.

We are getting pretty excited about the fest tomorrow. We will have SIX beers on tap this year! In the tried and true corner, we will have our staples - Pale Ale, Dos Perros, and Hefeweizen.

And in the up-and-coming contender corner, we will be pouring the following:

Summer Ale - a new crisp and refreshing beer brewed with 100% organic malts and US Saaz hops
Hop Projects #10, 11, 12, 13, and #17- we will be tapping small kegs of these at both sessions, in a sort of vertical tasting. You can hang out at our tent all day, or follow us on www.twitter.com/yazoobrewmaster to find out when we tap each one.
SUE - this is our first high-alc beer we have legally brewed, a smoked porter. Come by and give us some feedback!

Introducing our first High-Alc Brew - "SUE"

We will be tapping our first high-alcohol brew this weekend, at the Music City Brewers Festival in downtown Nashville!

The beer named SUE is best described as an big Smoked Porter. We tossed in loads of pale, chocolate, caramel, and black malts, along with a brand new malt on the market - cherry-wood smoked malt! I had some of this malt this year at the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston, and knew right away what beer I wanted to try it in. The sweet smoky caramelly aroma and body of this beer reminds me of a great wood-fired pizza, balanced out with some earthy acidity from plenty of Galena and Perle hops. It's got a great clean finish, and you have no idea that it weighs in at just over 7.5% abv (until you have had a few!).

Future batches will probably come in higher in alcohol - I just didn't want to overwhelm the great flavors from the smoke. But now having tasted it, I think we could get it up to 9% or so without taking anything away from the smoke at all.

OK, that's the good news! Here's the bad news: we can't serve this at our Taproom. Sorry, once again, blame stupid Tennessee laws. To serve anything above 6%, we would have to get a liquor license. When you have a liquor-by-the-drink license, you can't sell ANYTHING to go, and that would mean an end to our growler business. So, for the meantime, look for this beer at the Music City Brewers Festival this weekend, and after that, at your favorite local pub that has a liquor license. We plan of hosting a series of tasting nights around Nashville and possibly in Alabama in the coming months.

YAZOO TAPROOM WILL BE OPEN THIS SATURDAY

Usually we close down the taproom for the Music City Brewers Festival, but this year we will be open our regular hours, Saturday 2-8 PM. We will be giving guided brewery tours at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 PM. So if you didn't get a ticket to MCBF, or want to visit the brewery before the night session of MCBF or after the afternoon session, come on down!

P.S. Hop Project #17 was a big hit this weekend, and it may not last through next weekend, so if you want to try it, this may be your last chance!

Five days to the Music City Brewers Fest!

Only five days to go! We are getting a lot of calls this week asking if we have tickets for sale for the festival this weekend. We did not get any to sell this year, they are only for sale online at www.musiccitybrewersfest.com, or at area Jim-n-Nicks restaurants. The second night session is completely sold out, but there are still some tickets left for the afternoon session. I imagine that they will sell out early this week.

Again, if you want to follow us on twitter at the festival, and see when we tap some special brews, follow us at www.twitter.com/yazoobrew or www.twitter.com/yazoobrewmaster.

please let up on Cantina Laredo in the Gulch

Hey all you Yazooligans,

Thanks for all the emails you sent to the managers at Cantina Laredo in the Gulch, asking them to put Yazoo on tap. If you remember, their beverage manager said he would consider putting our beer on tap if he had enough people email in and request it. They have asked us to please cease and desist, so I guess it must have been quite a few emails that you sent! I don't know if it did any good yet, but you made an impression. Thank you!

Cheers,

Linus

Yazoo Hop Project #17 on tap Thursday July 16

Kegged July 16, all on draft. For this hop bomb we used Columbus at the beginning of boil, Amarillo at 30 minutes, and Zeus and Galena at 5 minutes left in the boil. Then we dry-hopped it with Cascade and Zeus. Galena and Zeus are typically used mainly for bittering at the beginning of the boil, due to their extremely high alpha acid levels. But Ivan, who came up with this recipe, wanted to see how they behaved when used for more for aroma, towards the end of the boil and as dry-hops.

I'm picking up a pleasant, piney aroma, followed by a mellow, rounded bitterness in the body, and finally a clean, bright finish. This is not as heavy and chewy in the bitterness as #16 was - I think this is one of the top ones we have done over the last 17 batches. Come by the taproom and give us your opinion - but make it soon, because we only brewed about 15 kegs of this batch!

Cheers,

Linus

P.S. to get quick updates of when we tap special beers, and to find out where we have specials or promotions going on in your area, follow us on twitter, www.twitter.com/yazoobrew or www.twitter.com/yazoobrewmaster

follow us on Twitter to know what beers we're tapping at the Music City Brewers Fest!

We have kept back one keg each of several Hop Projects past, to tap them at this year's Music City Brewers Fest. We have kegs from what we thought were the best batches, including kegs from Hop Projects #10, 11, 12, 13, and the upcoming #17. We will also have a test batch of our first high-gravity brew that we will tap at the festival, a smoked porter using cherry-smoked malt.

To receive an alert at the festival of when we tap particular special brews, sign up to follow us at www.twitter.com. Linus' tweets are under "yazoobrewmaster" and Neil's tweets are under "yazoobrew". We'll be using twitter to tell you when each keg is tapped. Or, you could just hang out around our booth all day long!

Yazoo on Channel 2 news last Friday

In case you missed it - here is the link to the video.

http://www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=10708684

Music City Brewers Fest tickets

First off, we won't have ANY this year. NONE. The only way to get tickets is online, or at the three Jim-n-Nicks restaurants in Nashville, Smyrna, and Murfreesboro.

The second night session is sold out, I hear. And there are only about 500 or so tickets left for the first day session. Don't say we didn't warn you, get your tickets now!

Yazoo in the Gulch

If you have ever taken a tour of the brewery, you know how tight it is back there. We've crammed tanks and equipment in every conceivable corner, and for the past year it's been like brewing in a submarine. And we hate seeing people having to wait so long for a beer or a growler now, due to our cramped quaters. So late last year we took the plunge and started planning a much bigger brewery.

We bought a building at 910 Division, right behind all the condos going up there. It has a wide-open floor plan that will allow us to brew about four times as much beer as we can here at Marathon. We're also planning a bigger taproom with an outdoor beer garden, with the same concept of local cheeses and bread to accompany the beer.

Construction will start soon, with our contractor ripping out some of the old interior walls and beginning on some concrete work to install new drains in the brewery. Luckily, we won't have do as much to get the building up to codes as we had to do here at Marathon. The new brewery should be arriving in October, and we already have three 80 bbl fermenters and an 80 bbl brite tank sitting in the yard under tarps. If everything goes well, we hope to be brewing there in early 2010. Check back here for pictures as we progress. It's going to be a long process, with lots of regulatory permits to get that may delay us, but we've done it once before so we won't be surprised!

What will happen with our space at Marathon? We would love to continue to have a presence there, after all the work we put into it and the goodwill we generated for the cool old building. It's a great space, and we have a great relationship with the owner, but we had to make a move to continue to grow. We have some interesting irons in the fire for ideas for this space, but right now are focussed on getting the new brewery up and running.

And to all our fans - don't worry, we aren't going to change anything! Still going to be making the best best beer we can, by people who love what they are doing!

YAZOO WILL BE CLOSED FOR THE 4TH OF JULY

... so come on down and see us at the Hot Chicken Festival, in East Park over in east Nashville. It runs from 11-3 PM, with hot chicken from Nashville's best hot chicken joints and a cold Yazoo beer. We're going to have a bigger beer garden tent this year, and hopefully the beer lines will move faster with a year under our belt.

Cheers,

Linus

Hop Project #16 out in bottles and draft!

Our third bottled version of Hop Project should be out in stores in the next few weeks. You can identify this one as being bottled on the 4th week in June (it also has the date marked on the outside of the case boxes if you see a display).

You might think, man, it must be getting hard for the Yazoo brewers to come up with new recipes and hops to try, after 16 versions. Not so! There's always a new hop or a new way of using it that we have been wanting to try.

Hop Project #16 is hopped with Galena, Zeus, and Columbus at first wort, Goldings and Ahtanum at 30 minutes left for flavor, and with Perle and Ahtanum at 5 minutes left for aroma. We use Perle a good bit in our beers, but always as a bittering hop, never as an aroma or flavor hop. So for this one, we also dry-hopped it with a combination of Perle and Ahtanum. Finally, we wanted to experiment with the mineral profile of the beer, which changes how the bitterness is perceived on your tongue. We ususally use add gypsum to the water for hoppy beers, which tends to sharpen the hop bitterness. But this time we switched to calcium chloride, which rounds out the malt flavors a little more.

I like it. It has the juicy citrusy bitterness you would expect from Galena, Zeus, and Columbus, but the Perle on the finish seems to give it a little minty edge. The bitterness doesn't hit you over the head at first, but lingers like a good friend who doesn't want to go home yet.

Cheers,

Linus

Cantina Laredo is asking for your input on their beer selection

The Gulch's newest restaurant, Cantina Laredo, has a fairly standard array of draft beers, set by the corporate office. Neil, our sales manager, has been trying to get a Yazoo handle in there since they opened. When he met with Mike, the manager there, Mike suggested that if his customers would email him asking for Yazoo there, he would have some ammunition to take to corporate. So how about it? If you want Yazoo and other craft beers on tap there (they have excellent food, by the way), email Mike at nashville@cantinalaredo.com.

Come out to the Taste of Music City this Saturday, Gateway Bridge 5-9 PM

Explore the foods from 50 local restuarants as you watch the sunset from the Gateway Vietnam Veterans Bridge in downtown Nashville this Saturday from 5-9 PM. The organizers are doing a lot of things differently this year. There will be one beer garden, hosted by Yazoo, pouring all your favorites, plus our new Summer Ale. The wine garden will be hosted by Arrington Vineyards, and Jack Daniels will wet your whistle with their Velvet Elvis.

http://www.tasteofmusiccity.com/home.html

Recap: Another one in the books! Thanks to Candace Price for putting on a great party!

Make Plans - Hot Chicken Festival July 4th (because the Taproom will be closed!)

Top Ten Reasons you need to attend this year's Hot Chicken Festival, July 4th, East Park

1. It's quickly becoming a Nashville tradition

2. The first 500 people will be treated to free samples

3. A bigger Yazoo beer garden

4. A new Yazoo beer - Summer Ale - sure to quench the fire

5. The festival will go one hour longer this year

6. Get to try hot chicken from Nashville's famous and Nashville's up-and-coming

7. Very kid friendly - just don't let them rub their eyes

8. Fireworks inside, then later fireworks outside!

9. Proceeds go to Friends of Shelby Park

10. and last, but not least, the Yazoo taproom will be closed for the 4th of July

So come on down and see us at the Hot Chicken Festival, July 4th at East Park, on Woodland Street in east Nashville.

http://www.nashvillehotchickenfestival.com/

Busy Weekend #3

2nd Annual Go Green Night at Greer Stadium

Join Mayor Karl Dean, NES, and TVA as the Sounds take on our rivals from down the road, the Memphis Redbirds, for the 2nd Annual Go Green Night. For our part of this event, we decided to sign up for the Green Power Switch. As part of this program, you agree to purchase blocks of power from your local electic utility that were produced from "green" sources, like wind, solar, or methane generated from landfills. To promote the Green Power Switch plan, we've taken two steps:

One, we will be debuting our new Summer Ale at the Sounds stadium this Saturday night. It's brewed with 100% organic malts, and now that we are members of the Green Power Switch, it's the first true "GREEN" beer brewed in Tennessee! No fake green dye, this beer is light and clean, with a nice crisp finish from the Saaz hops used. Look for it at the Yazoo booth in the breezeway behind 1st base.

Two, as an incentive for other people to make the Green Power Switch, we're giving away a pint to the first 50 people who sign up for Green Power Switch at the Sounds game this Saturday. Find the NES Green Power Switch in the breezeway behind 1st base, be one of the first 50 people to sign up for the Green Power Switch (you can sign up for as little as $4 per month), and your first pint of Yazoo is on us!

Gates open at 4:30 PM, first pitch at 5:45 PM. See you there!

Busy Weekend #2

YAZOO AT THE MUSIC CITY ZONE, CMA FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND

Looking to escape the crowds down on Broadway, but want something fun to do this weekend? Come by the new Music City Zone during the CMA Festival this weekend! You'll be able to catch local acts like the Gabe Dixon Band and Jeremy Lister, have a cold Yazoo at our tent, grab a burger at the Backyard Burger tent, let the kids play in the fountains, etc. It's all taking place on the Public Plaza in front of the newly renovated Courthouse, at the top of 2nd Avenue. Best of all, the music and fun is totally free. Just bring some cash for the beer and food! It's happening Thur-Sat from noon - 6 PM. See you there! For more info and the full music lineup, visit:

http://www.visitmusiccity.com/visitors/cmafest

Busy Weekend #1

BONNAROO!

For the first time Yazoo will be served at Bonnaroo in the Broo'ers Tent. I think this will be the first Tennessee-brewed beer ever poured at Bonnaroo! Come by and say hi to Neil, who will be pouring three beers all weekend. Any requests? Email neil@yazoobrew.com. Stay hydrated! (Beer is 90% water after all).

6-pack Recycling Program

Hey guys and gals,

We're always trying to figure out ways to lower our impact on our environment at Yazoo. We capture all of our cooling water for hot water for the next batch; our spent grain goes to a local cattle farmer, and to Provence for their Yazoo bread; we recycle our cardboard down at Smurfitt-Stone (even though they quit paying anything for scrap cardboard!); and so on. One of the things that has always bugged me was the fact that after they are purchased, our six-pack carriers go straight into either the trash or recycling, when they could be used again.

So we're starting a 6-pack recycling program at Yazoo. Bring in your Yazoo 6-pack carriers during normal taprooom hours, Thur-Fri 4-8 PM and Sat 2-8 PM.

Ten Yazoo 6-pack carriers will get you a pint on the house. Thirty Yazoo 6-pack carriers will get you a free t-shirt.

The carriers need to be in good shape, and ready to be reused again. That is, no tears, no water damage, no cigarette butts, etc.

Hey, free beer and swag, just for doing something you hopefully do already (drink Yazoo)! And you'll feel so much better knowing that you're helping the environment. Save your 6-pack carriers, bring them down to the taproom during normal taproom hours, and enjoy a pint or a t-shirt on us!

Firefly Fine Arts Festival June 26-28

Yazoo is teaming up with the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Renaissance Center, and the Community Arts Development of Dickson County as the beer sponsor of the inaugural Firefly Fine Arts Festival, on the grounds of the Renaissance Center in Dickson. The three day art and music festival will feature over 80 artists selling their wares, and two outdoor music stages with music from the San Rafael Band, Farmer Jason (of Jason and the Scorchers), the Gypsy Hombres, and the Time Jumpers. Admission is FREE!

To commemorate the first year of the festival, we will be brewing another batch of our organic summer ale for the event. If you got a chance to try this beer last year, when we made one batch of it, you'll remember the clean, crisp taste from 100% organic malt and imported Saaz hops. It's sure to be a hit again this year as the summer heats up!

For more info on the Firefly Fine Arts Festival, go to their website http://www.fireflyartsfestival.com/, or look for a four-page insert in the Nashville Scene the week before the event.

Cheers,

Linus

P.S. HELP US NAME THE BEER! As one commentor noted, we have already made a Firefly Amber ale. What do you think would be a great name for a summer ale?

Yazoo Beer Dinner this Tuesday at Finezza's in Belle Meade

Join me, Linus Hall, for a special beer dinner at Finezza's, 5604 Harding Pike, starting at 6 PM. For just $25 a person, enjoy a four-course meal of a sampling of goat and mozzarella cheese fritters and bruschetta, paired with our Dos Perros; a salad of Venetian-baby arrugula, dried cranberries, sliced almonds and raspberry vinaigrette, paired with our Hefeweizen; your choice of Chicken Caprese-sauteed chicken breast topped with fresh mozzarella, roma tomatoes, basil, olive oil and balsamic reduction and served over angel hair marinara or a 4 oz choice cut filet topped with a mushroom marsala wine sauce and served with a side of pepper and onion polenta, paired with our Hop Project #15; and for dessert, hand-made Tiramisu paired with our Sly Rye Porter.

Tickets are $25 per person, and reservations can be made by calling the restaurant at 356-9398. It's a great deal for an early dinner and plenty of great craft beer! See you there,

Linus

Yazoo Beer Dinner this Tuesday at Finezza

Growler sale at Whole Foods for Memorial Day

Another note from our friend Bryan Bergman, the beer buyer at Whole Foods:

Just in time for Memorial Day weekend, Whole Foods is having a special sale on Yazoo growlers. Starting Wednesday May 20th and running until Tuesday May 26th, new growler fills are $2 off and refills are $1 off! Whole Foods in Green Hills currently has Hop Project on tap, #15 I believe, so if you can't make it to our taproom this weekend, head down to Green Hills and tell Bryan thanks!

Cheers,

Linus

P.S. Due to their getting their high-alc license, 12th South Taproom can't fill our growlers any longer. Darn.

HOP PROJECT #15

For this draft-only version, we hopped our Hop Project #15 with Ahtanum and Columbus as mash hops, First Gold and Galena at the beginning of boil, Ahtanum and Cascade at the end of boil, and then Galena as the dry hop. It's a bit of a departure from the last three or four Hop Projects - Quinn, our head brewer, developed this recipe and was looking for a more mellow, longer-lasting bitterness. So this one doesn't hit you over the head with bitterness at first, but the fruity, mellow hop flavor gives way to hoppy prickliness in the long aftertaste. I like it and I hope you will too! We're waiting on the bottles of Hop Projects #13 and 14 to sell through before we bottle another batch, so this one is available on draft only.

ON TAP this busy weekend...

We will have on tap this weekend:

Pale Ale
Dos Perros
Hefeweizen
Sly Rye Porter
Nitro Stout
and... the brand new, Hop Project #15!

New Yazoo 12-packs

Our new Yazoo 12-packs of Pale Ale and Dos Perros will be out this week. It's a more convenient and economical party-pack, and will be available starting at the brewery taproom and select good beer stores, and then in area grocery stores as our distributor resets the shelves starting this month. I don't know exactly what the retail pricing will be in your local store - but the 12-packs will be on special this month in Krogers for $14.99 each.

There has been a lot of interest in a Yazoo variety pack, and we've got one in the works for a little later this year. It will be a 12-pack of Pale Ale, Dos Perros, Hefeweizen, and Sly Rye Porter.

Yazoo Marathon pics- send us yours!

From Sarah: "This is my dad, Joe Tiso from Myrtle Beach enjoying a post 1/2 Marathon Yazoo Dos Perros. His only wishes for the day of the Nashville Country Music Marathon were to finish it in less than 2 hours, which he did and to have three cold Dos Perros waiting for him when he did it!" Now that's motivation!

And here's Rae - "Linus, This is a photo of me around Mile 11 of the 1/2 marathon enjoying a Hop Project. It is the only thing that got me through miles 7-10 -knowing this beer was waiting for me at that corner!! As you might notice, I hula-hooped the half marathon. There were 47 of us, hulahooping for hope. More information about our cause is available at HoopForHope.org. On Saturday, I was Hooping for Hope and Hop(Project)! Thanks for your delicious brews! Rae Moore

Great video - "I am a craft brewer"

Greg Koch, the co-owner of Stone Brewing, known for their Arrogant Bastard ale among others, gave the keynote address at the Craft Brewers Conference this past week in Boston. He started it off with a video he put together with the help of many other craft brewers across the country. I laughed, and was inspired, and left proud to be a part of the movement. Here's a link, send it to everyone you know. Great stuff!

http://vimeo.com/4298464

HOP PROJECT #14 bottled!

Check the "Bottled on date" on the side of the label. Hop Project #14 was bottled on the 3rd week of April, and should be getting out into stores this week. It's available at most specialty beers stores in Nashville, Franklin, and Murfreesboro, and in Whole Foods in Green Hills. It should become available in area Krogers soon.

For this baby, we used Zeus and Galena for first wort bittering, Goldings, Galena, and Columbus at 30 minutes left in the boil, Simcoe and Cascade at the end of the boil, and dry-hopped with Cascade and Simcoe after four days in the fermenter. The bitterness is a little more up-front in this one, compared to others before it.

Hop Project #15 is in the tanks fermenting happily away. We used some Ahtanum hops that we just got in, and I'm looking forward to tasting it in a few weeks.

Hop Project tasting at the J. Clyde in Birmingham, Thursday, April 16

Join Linus Hall, owner and brewmaster of Yazoo Brewing, for a special tasting of two different batches of Yazoo's popular Hop Project series, starting at 5:30 PM at the J. Clyde in Birmingham.

some growing pains at Greer...

All in all, it was a great night! The weather was great, a ton of people turned out... I wish that the Sounds had won, and that my kids hadn't slept through the fireworks that they wanted to stay to see..

But there were some problems, and we'll get them straightened out today. One, not enough beer. I don't know where the ball was dropped, and if someone didn't believe we would go through as much beer as we did. The main Yazoo location was out of beer by the third inning. We're getting a lot more beer out there today, and that shouldn't be a problem again.

Also, I was informed that our "Two Dog Night" promotion deal, of two tickets, two hotdogs, two bags of peanuts, and two beers was not honored at some concession stands. After making some calls to the Sounds this morning, I found that the vouchers for this deal were still at the printers, and in the confusion and excitement of Opening Night, they were missed. This deal should be on starting Saturday. I apologize if anyone tried to use this promotion, please let me know at linus@yazoobrew.com if you tried and were turned away. We'll make it up to you.

Again, all in all it was a great night! There were some opening night snafus but we'll get them ironed out. GO SOUNDS!

Yazoo at Greer Stadium, Opening Day Thursday April 9

Opening Day at Greer Stadium is just two days away! And for the first time, you'll be able to enjoy a cold Yazoo in the stands. We've partnered up with the new owners of the Sounds to bring a more family-friendly, local feel to our local ballpark. So bring your significant other out to the game for a "Two Dog Night": two tickets to the game, two hot dogs, two bags of popcorn, and (best of all), two cold Yazoo beers! All for only $40!

If you haven't been out to the stadium since the new owners pumped $2.5 million in renovations into it, you're in for a treat. All new paint, new seats, a new scoreboard (that works!), and best of all, completely renovated bathrooms! The new owners are committed to making Greer a great home for Nashville baseball, and we're excited to be a part of the rejuvenation of Greer Stadium. I encourage all of our Yazooligans who were looking for something fun to do with the family, to come out for this eight-day home stand and see the great things that have been done at Greer. I know I'll be there with my family for Opening Night this Thursday, April 9th at 7 PM. I hope the kids can stay awake for the fireworks at the end of the game!

Hop Project #13 now in bottles!

We bottled Hop Project #13 yesterday, the first batch out in bottles! It will be the next beer in our four-pack Brewmaster's Reserve packaging, and should be hitting the shelves next week. Look for it first in the usual suspects, like Midtown Beverage, Frugal Macdoogals, and other fine beer stores in Nashville. It has also gotten approval for Whole Foods and Krogers, so later on you should see in your local grocery stores.

You can identify Hop Project #13 by the "Bottled on" date marks on the side. There will be a notch for April, and "1" for the week bottled.

As with the first twelve Hop Projects, we used a different blend of hops for this one. For all you hop enthusiasts out there, the hops we used were: Galena and First Gold for first wort bittering; Cascade, Apollo, and First Gold at thirty minutes for flavor; Simcoe and Amarillo at five minutes left for aroma; and finally, we dry hopped the beer at day four of fermentation with Galena and Cascade.

To check out some reviews of other Hop Projects, visit http://www.beeradvocate.com/ or http://www.ratebeer.com/, and type in "Yazoo" in the search engine.

Cheers,

the Yazoo crew

Neil, Quinn, Ken, Ivan, Colin, Chris, Linus, Brian, Brandi, Beth, Dave, and Kelly

WOW! Probably the best lineup ever at Grimeys Record Store Day, Saturday April 18th

From Grimey's website, http://www.grimeys.com/:

"RECORD STORE DAY!!! - Saturday, April 18th, 10AM-8PM Our next all-day outdoor back parking lot party is coming up! And it's Record Store Day. Remember how off the chain last year was??? This year will be even bigger and better. We have the Avett Brothers, Mute Math and Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears already lined up with many more acts in the works to be announced. Fresh exclusive releases, most of them vinyl, from Radiohead, Wilco, Sonic Youth, Jesus Lizard, Tom Waits, Flight Of The Conchords, Pavement, Iron & Wine and literally tons more to be announced in the coming weeks. The only place you'll be able to pick all of these releases up and see a free Avett Brothers show will be HERE! And of course we'll have our usual back lot sale with cr8zy bargains on cheap vinyl and CDs, plus the Yazoo beer truck, food, community partners, and all the goodness you've come to expect from a Grimey's outdoor event. Mark that calendar now, dood."

Holy crap, a free Avett Brothers show in the back parking lot??!! There will be people camping out for a spot! We'd better set the Yazoo van up the night before...

On tap this weekend

We'll have the following six beers on tap this weekend:

Pale Ale
Dos Perros
Hefeweizen
Nitro Stout
Hop Project #12
Firefly Amber - brewer Ivan's creation, it's toasty, hoppy, and faintly smokey

Tours will be given at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30 on Saturday.

Yazoo High-Alc Beer: What would you like to see?

We think that we will soon be able to brew and sell beers above the 6% abv level for the first time in Tennessee, and we'd like to throw the question out to all of our loyal Yazooligans:

If it were your choice, what style of "high-alc" beer would you like to see us brew? Some ideas - a double IPA; a barleywine; a Trappist-style Belgian ale; an imperial oatmeal stout; a weizenbock; and the list could go on.

Leave us a comment below on what you would love to see, once we branch out into the higher-alcohol territory. Of course, we have our own ideas and recipes we've had waiting in the wings, but we would love your feedback. And no, the laws are not about to change - high alcohol beers will still be sold as liquor in TN.

Special on Yazoo beers all month at Whole Foods in Green Hills

Hey all you Yazooligans,

Bryan Bergmann, the man responsible for the great beer selection at Whole Foods in Green Hills, asked me to pass along the following:

"Hey Linus!

I’m going to put your core 3 beers, dollar off starting Wed. – can you still shoot out a blog post about it like we had talked about? And if you want to mention us tapping Hop Project - it will be back on Tap This Friday! We Went through 2 kegs in 10 days. We had 1 guy show up and get 5 growlers full! I’m ordering 2 more kegs today. "

So there you have it - $1 off all Yazoo six-packs for a month, plus Hop Project growler fills! All thanks to Bryan! If you run into him in Whole Foods one day, shake his hand!

Cheers,

Linus

Ivan's Firefly Ale on tap Friday March 20

The latest in our Brewmaster's Reserve seriers will go on tap this evening at the Taproom only. You might recall that we let each one of our brewers come up with a recipe and brew a small batch of it for sale at our taproom only. This batch is the first one we've let Ivan, our newest and youngest brewer, loose in the brewhouse. Here, in his own words, is what transpired:

"Ivan's Firefly Ale - the name goes back to a recipe of amber ale that I brewed one spring evening. When I finished bottling the beer, I found a firefly left over, that must have flown into the kettle while I was boiling the wort. I thought the beer would be ruined, but it turned out to be one of the most delicious ales I had made! Firefly Amber ale is toasty in flavor with hints of dried fruit and generous amounts of US Golding hops. It's brewed in time to welcome the fireflies back in season in your backyard. Oh yeah, can you pick out the taste of the secret ingredient? Don't worry, no fireflies were harmed in the making of THIS beer."

It's quite tasty and makes us glad to have Ivan on the brewing team. Cheers, Linus

Hop Project #12 kegged today, March 18

And the hops keep coming... for this rendition of our soon-to-be-world-famous Hop Project Ale, which will be number 12 in the series, we featured two relatively new varieties called Apollo and Bravo. Apollo, which we used in #3 (if I remember right), has a really pungent nose. almost garlicy. Bravo is much more mellow, kind of lemony. They are both bred from a Galena variety to be high-alpha (around 16%) but much more stable in storage. We bittered the beer with Apollo and Zeus in the first wort, then added some Galena, Goldings, and Bravo at 30 minutes, and Simcoe, Goldings, and Bravo at 5 minutes for aroma. Then we dryhopped it with some Goldings and Amarillo. The old calculations say it's over 100 IBUs, which makes us happy.

This batch was the one we planned on bottling, but the labels are taking their sweet time getting printed, and the kegs are zipping out of here at such a rate, now that we have it on tap at a few places other than the taproom, that we decided to keg out all of this batch. It's looking like the batch we first bottle will be lucky #13, which is fermenting away as we speak.

Come on by the taproom this weekend and give it a taste!

Yazoo Get Lucky East pub crawl on Saint Patrick's Day

Where is the one place in Nashville on Saint Patrick's Day where your beer consumption will not make your pee turn green the next day? We're proud to be bringing you NO GREEN BEER at the 4th annual east Nashville pub crawl at Five Points. Our friends at Three Crow Bar, Beyond the Edge, Batter'd and Fried, and Red Door East will have specials all night on cold Yazoo brews, and there will be prizes and giveaways for all of you who remember to make the rounds to each location. Or you could be like me, and find a cozy corner to sit and watch the madness enfold around you. See you there!

http://www.eastnashvillepubcrawls.com/

Yazoo at PodCamp Nashville

We sponsored the Yazoo beer garden this weekend at PodCamp Nashville, which was held at the Owen School of Management at Vanderbilt. Hopefully the good cold beer inspired the next wave of tech media entrepeneurs out there. Good to see our friend Justin Davis of Davis on Draft giving a talk on how to put together a podcast! www.davisondraft.com

Yazoo Brewing and Lightning 100 team up for Music City Mayhem!

Lightning 100 presents Music City Mayhem, featuring 32 local bands competing for the chance to perform for the Fantastic Four Showdown at Yazoo Brewing Company. Each day, there will be a new match up with Lightning listeners and artist's fans voting to decide who moves on. Voting will begin March 9th through April 1st . Each day we will play the two competing bands song on air. You can also hear clips on the Music City Madness page, where you can also vote, at Lightning100.com. On April 1st, listeners and fans will have determined The Fantastic Four.

Those four acts will play The Music City Madness Showdown at Yazoo Brewing Company on Friday, April 3rd where the attendants of this free show will vote on their favorite band via text. That's right, four bands out back behind the brewery! And rest assured, we've learned from the unexpectedly huge crowds at our last party, and we will have plenty of beer lines this time, so no one will have to wait long for a beer. And, we can almost guarantee that it will be warmer than in November!

Music City Mayhem results will be determined completely by fans and Lightning 100 listeners. Be sure to log on and vote each day beginning March 9th!You can find our more at Lightning 100's website,

http://www.lightning100.com/contests.php

vote for us...

There is a fun online poll at the Full Pint Dot Com website, to decide the people's choice of Best Down South Craft Brewery. Vote for us! It's also a pretty cool website, lots of content. Check it out,

http://thefullpint.com/2009/02/27/best-down-south-craft-brewery

Cheers,

Linus

Is there such a thing as too much hops?

That's a good question. I think, the only way to find out is to give it a try. On tap this weekend at the Yazoo Taproom (voted Best Brewhouse, Best Underground Happy Hour by the Nashville Scene, by the way):

in order of hoppiness:

Hefeweizen
Dos Perros
Sly Rye Porter
Pale Ale
Hop Project #10
Hop Project #11

Two Hop Projects on at the same time? Is that even legal? HA! Sleep well, my friends.

Hop Project will be bottled soon!

Good news! We finally got ATF approval of our Hop Project label, and as soon as the labels get printed, you'll start seeing bottles of Hop Project in your favorite beer stores! At first we're going to concentrate on getting it out in good beer stores in Nashville, but we will probably be able to get some out to Huntsville, Birmingham, Knoxville, and Memphis after that.

The hops used in each batch will be different, to a degree. To get enough hops to ensure a long run of Hop Project, we had to commit to buying a significant amount of Galena and Zeus for bittering. But each batch will feature a new blend and a mystery hop addition. Whenever we bottle a batch, I'll post on our blog what hops we used, and where in the process we added them. You'll be able to look on the side of the label, see the bottled-on date, and find the post on our blog about the hops used.

To begin, we'll be releasing the Hop Project as the next beer in our Brewmaster's Reserve 4-pack. We plan to move Hop Project into six-packs in time to make way for our next Brewmaster's Reserve beer in the summer, which will be the organic summer ale we made for the Americana Folk Festival last year.

Anyway, for all of you who have been waiting for the Hop Project in bottles, the wait will soon be over! And a little teaser... I think the Hop Project from test bottles we made, tastes even better than on draft! I'm just say'n, maybe we do a little something extra for the bottled version? You'll have to find out!

Melissa's Second Line at the Family Wash

Beer Soup featured on Channel 4 Wednesday

To promote Our Kid's 16th Annual Soup Sunday, Garrett Pittler, the head chef at Lowe's Vanderbilt Hotel, will be featured on Channel 4 between 12:00 and 12:30 PM on Wednesday. Tune in and see how he uses Nashville's very own Dos Perros and local cheeses to create his masterpiece.

And if you are interested in trying his soup in person, as well as the other ladle-to-lip worthy concoctions from Nashville's finest chefs, you can buy tickets to the event, held 11-2 PM at LP Field on Sunday, Feb 22nd, at Our Kid's website:

http://www.ourkidscenter.com/events/soup-sunday-2009.php

HOP PROJECT #10

...is on tap! We kind of snuck it on last weekend without much fanfare. This is the latest in our Hop Project series of IPAs, where we change up the hops we use on every batch. This particular incarnation used Cascade and Amarillo in the mash, Columbus for first wort, Galena at the beginning of boil, Simcoe, Amarillo, and Cascade the last five minutes, and Galena, Cascade, and Amarillo for dry hopping. If you didn't understand a word I just wrote... relax, all it really means is that it's good and hoppy! And don't worry about it running out... when it does, we already have Hop Project #11 in the tanks.