America’s
craft-brew proliferation has hit Nashville, and every few months a new contender
enters the market. Nashville has capacity to spare. But finding the brewery that fits one's sensibilities is the tougher task and I might have finally found just that.
Fat Bottom Brewing Co., East Nashville’s first craft brewery, shares a former mattress warehouse with its second, the yet-to-open Broadcast Brewing. Their sign already spruced up a somewhat dilapidated stretch of Main Street.
Fat Bottom Brewing Co., East Nashville’s first craft brewery, shares a former mattress warehouse with its second, the yet-to-open Broadcast Brewing. Their sign already spruced up a somewhat dilapidated stretch of Main Street.
Fat Bottom started
with an immediate advantage over most Nashville crafter brewers – they boast
ample on-street parking, extended hours (4-10 p.m. during the week, 2-10
Saturdays), and (wait for it) a small yet excellent menu.
A taproom should be a place for popping in, but it can be a local hangout. It cannot be the latter without food. The bartender told me they did not aspire to become a restaurant. Nancy ordered an excellent chicken schnitzel and I had a blue cheese burger, both better than most pub grub.
Fat Bottom's Ginger Wheat was out till next year, which was a disappointment (ginger wheat ales are
among my favorites). Nancy and I went with into flight mode, sampling all six
ales for a reasonable $10.
A taproom should be a place for popping in, but it can be a local hangout. It cannot be the latter without food. The bartender told me they did not aspire to become a restaurant. Nancy ordered an excellent chicken schnitzel and I had a blue cheese burger, both better than most pub grub.
 |
| Cheers to many happy refills. |
Ida Belgian
Golden has hints of Duvel-esque herbal notes, plus fingers of lemon zest,
bubblegum and coriander.
Rhonda Rye Pale Ale pushes ahead with a stiff mix of rye and hops. The malt and hops compete well and neither gains an advantage. It was easily Fat Bottom’s most balanced ale. Ruby American Red comes off sweet with some forceful blasts of hops on the finish.
Rhonda Rye Pale Ale pushes ahead with a stiff mix of rye and hops. The malt and hops compete well and neither gains an advantage. It was easily Fat Bottom’s most balanced ale. Ruby American Red comes off sweet with some forceful blasts of hops on the finish.
Tired as I
have grown of black IPA, Black Betty tastes more like a hoppy brown ale than
any of those monstrosities parading around as black IPA out there. Black Betty
has a hop aftertaste, not an afterburn. Some excellent notes of sassafras run
into the spruce and leafy hop textures.Java Jane, a
coffee porter, tasted much better than a pint sampled from a Nashville bar.
The gem of the bunch was Bertha, Fat Bottom’s oatmeal stout. Oily but spicy thanks an
unexpected hop display, the assertive roast coffee and chocolate shined through the opaque stout.
On a second
visit, Ginger Wheat had been replenished. A filtered wheat ale, Ginger Wheat
runs full with mild citrus until the finish, where the ginger goes wild. There
are a handful of tasty filtered wheat ales (Weihenstephan Kristall Weissbier
being the grand statement), but the style usually needs an additional
ingredient to round it out.
Fat Bottom's version lets the ginger run wild from mid palate to finish. Hops with heavy citrus and floral tones work well, but ginger is hard to beat. Subtle at first, the shaved root heaps complexity on this ale. I left with a growler of Ginger Wheat, as good a vote of confidence as I can give my new neighborhood brewery- aside from refilling it multiple times, of course.
Fat Bottom's version lets the ginger run wild from mid palate to finish. Hops with heavy citrus and floral tones work well, but ginger is hard to beat. Subtle at first, the shaved root heaps complexity on this ale. I left with a growler of Ginger Wheat, as good a vote of confidence as I can give my new neighborhood brewery- aside from refilling it multiple times, of course.
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