Vote for us!

The Nashville Business Journal is running a fun March Madness style competition between some of Nashville's favorite local brands. We're still in the hunt! It's been a pretty unfair run for us, up against two of our friends in Hatch Show Print and Griffin Technologies. But we have made it this far! So if you are bored at work, click over to http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/feature/music-city-brand-madness.html and vote for Yazoo. We are up against Old Time Pottery this time, and as of now we are lagging behind!

Live from the Gerst Haus, from Friday March 25th tapping

Here is a link to the video from Fox 17:

http://www.fox17.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wztv_vid_6827.shtml

It was a great time, and thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate!

What timing!

So when the Tennessean's story on us bringing Gerst back to being brewed in Nashville hit:

(http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110324/DAVIDSON09/303240008/1969/NEWS/Yazoo-Gerst-Haus-bring-back-locally-brewed-Gerst-Amber-beer?odyssey=nav|head)

I got an email from my friend Scott Mertie, who was the author of "Nashville Brewing",

http://www.brewedindixie.com/Ordering-Nashville_Brewing.html

Scott has taken it upon himself to get a historical marker made commemorating the exact spot where the old William Gerst Brewing Company was located. Stay tuned - I smell another party coming up when the marker is unveiled!

The skinny on our version of Gerst Amber

We've had a lot of questions about our version of Gerst Amber - what is it, what ingredients did we use, is it a lager or an ale (lots of questions on that one), etc. Here are the specs:

Yazoo Gerst Amber

50% Pale malt
31% Vienna malt
12% Cara 20 malt
7% Flaked maize

Bittered with Perle, flavor and aroma with Tettnanger

OG: 11 Plato
FG: 2.5 Plato
IBUs: 11
SRM: 5.0

Fermented on the cool side with our house ale yeast, around 62 F for primary fermentation. The cool temperature restrains our house ale yeast, so that the beer is very clean, with a slight ester that we think pairs up well with the caramel flavors from the Cara 20 malt. So it's an ALE, but with the clean character of a typical lager, and without the slight sulfury notes some lager yeasts give.

So where did we come up with the recipe? The Chandlers did not have any original recipe information, so we relied on descriptions from the time, plus some information on the recipe that Evansville Brewing used when the Chandlers introduced Gerst Amber back into Nashville in the 1990's. Most of the beers that the William Gerst Brewing Company would have made would have been lagers, likely in the German style, but they did produce some ales. As far as ingredients, we used mostly German malts, but with a small portion of flaked maize (corn). I can't be sure, but I would guess that some of these adjunct malts would have been used.

So is it an exact replica? I'm not sure! I never tasted the original. But our MAIN intent was to make a beer to the satisfaction of the Chandler family, who have done the most the past twenty years to keep the Gerst brand alive in Nashville. It was actually a pleasure to go back and forth on the recipe with them over multiple batches, and I realized how much it means to them to get it just right, from the color to the finish to how tight the head on the beer is. So if they are happy, we're happy! And after a couple of fishbowls of Gerst Amber tomorrow at the Gerst Haus, I predict that there will be a lot of happy people!

Cheers,

Linus

Party at the Gerst Haus this Friday! Specials from 6-9 PM on Gerst!

Hey, you're invited! Come on down to the Gerst Haus this Friday March 25th as we tap a commemorative cask of Gerst, brewed once again in Nashville! I just got word that there will be great specials on fishbowls of Gerst, our favorite oompah band Die Musik Meisters will be leading a rowdy Chicken Dance, and the Mayor will be on hand to raise a toast to bringing Gerst back to Nashville. Come on down! 6-9 PM at the Gerst Haus on Woodland Street in east Nashville!

Hop Project #47

Bottled fourth week of March. Citra and Columbus and Nugget for bittering; Citra and Columbus at 30 min; Columbus and Magnum for aroma.

Heading for middle TN and central MS.

Cheers,

Linus Hall
Yazoo Brewing

Bringing back an icon...join us Fri 3/25 at the Gerst Haus!

A Local Icon, Brewed Once Again in Nashville!

Gerst Amber is being brewed once again in Nashville! This venerable brand, created by William Gerst in 1893, was once one of the most popular beers in the South. The massive old William Gerst Brewery occupied several city blocks in the area near 6^th Ave South and Lafayette Street, and at the time of Tennessee’s Centennial was one of the largest brewers in the South. The brewery never fully recovered from the blows of Prohibition, and the last keg of locally-brewed Gerst beer was tapped in 1954.

To keep the Gerst name alive in Nashville, Gerst’s grandson William opened the Gerst Haus Restaurant at 315 2^nd Avenue North in 1955. It became a popular watering hole for attorneys and politicians throughout the 1960’s, due no doubt to its proximity to the Courthouse, as well as its massive fishbowls of beer. The namesake Gerst Amber beer, however, was missing until Jim and Jerry Chandler bought the Gerst Haus in 1988. The Chandlers searched to find a brewery to recreate the old Gerst Amber recipe, and found a willing partner in Evansville Brewing in Indiana. Despite the beer being a hit back in Nashville, the brewery went bankrupt in 1997, and the Chandlers moved production to Pittsburgh Brewing in Pittsburgh, PA.

That’s where Yazoo Brewing entered the picture. While researching the local brewing scene while planning the opening of Yazoo Brewing, Linus Hall became fascinated by the wonderful history behind Nashville’s original brewery. When he met Jerry Chandler one day in 2005, he broached the idea of bringing Gerst back to Nashville, and brewing it at the Yazoo Brewery.

With Yazoo’s move to bigger digs in the Gulch in 2010, the brewery finally had enough space to add the Gerst beer to Yazoo’s current lineup of craft beers. After several test batches, the Chandlers and Linus have brewed a true replica of the original Gerst Amber.

We invite all of Nashville to join us for a celebration of the return of locally-brewed Gerst Amber, at the Gerst Haus Restaurant, 301 Woodland Street, on Friday, March 25^th, from 6 to 9 PM. Mayor Karl Dean will be on hand to offer a toast, to both the long history of brewing in Nashville and to its bright future!

Hop Project #46 bottled third week March

Phoenix hops for first wort and at 75; Columbus, Brambling Cross, ans Phoenix at 45; Brambling Cross at 5; dryhopped with Brambling Cross, Phoenix, and Citra.

This will be heading for middle TN and MS. Thanks for playing!