Look out Nashville...

[LouieMacGoo]

... 'cause here I come! The question is will I get swen'd! LOL

Me and the whole fam damily will be there July 18th thru 21st.

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[Beer-lord]

You can't be in better hands than Swen's if you need to know where to go. But if you need back up.........a few of us here can give you some ideas.
Looking forward to hearing how things go.

[Kealia]

I'll just miss you, Leigh. I'm there from the 10th - 13th. I'm hoping to sneak out away from my work functions long enough to:
1) See some fire flies
2) Grab some hot chicken

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[LouieMacGoo]

I'll just miss you, Leigh. I'm there from the 10th - 13th. I'm hoping to sneak out away from my work functions long enough to:
1) See some fire flies
2) Grab some hot chicken

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Dang it! We should have coordinated better!

[Inkleg]

Dang it! We should have coordinated better!

Don't worry it's not you. Ron seems to miss a lot of meet ups.

[Kealia]

Dang it! We should have coordinated better!

Don't worry it's not you. Ron seems to miss manages to avoid a lot of meet ups.

There, fixed it.

[Beer-lord]

Word!

[John Sand]

[LouieMacGoo]

Before heading to Nashville we will be spending a few days in Gatlinburg, TN. Are there any good breweries that I should hit up?

[swenocha]

Smoky Mountain Brewery is the only brewery option actually in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. It's not bad, pretty good beers and food, but it's not really anything blow-you-away special.

As for places to get craft beer, I personally like the Fox and Parrot... it's a nice little British pub tucked away off the main path. Some local taps and a good British beer selection. I haven't been to the Casual Pint in Sevierville, but I go to the one here in Franklin quite a lot. A small but good food menu, 200+ bottle selection (for in-store or to-go) and 24ish taps of local/regional beers at our location, so I assume the same type of setup there. I would think that's the best draft and bottle shop in the area. Also, Mellow Mushroom in Gatlinburg or Sevierville likely has one of the better tap selections on the strip (which isn't saying a lot). Hofbrauhaus has a decent German beer selection (and good sandwiches and cheese).

The special brewery in the area however is Blackberry Farm. They are in Walland, about 30 miles west. The brewery is part of the Blackberry Farm resort and used to just brew exclusively for the hotel/resort, but it got wildly popular to the point that they now distro in 38 states. They do not currently have a taproom, so a visit won't help you unless you are staying there, but you should be able to find bottles and cans in Gatlinburg area restaurants and shops.

[swenocha]

As for Nashville, just let me know... I can recommend any number of things both beer and non-beer related...

[swenocha]

Hey, Ron... where did you end up?

[Kealia]

Hey there. Tuesday I had a small window free so I went to Rippys for dinner and music. Had a bottled Yazoo Pale that was terrible. I've had this before and something was just off. Skunked, oxidized, old...just not good.

Last night our outing was at Famous Saloon on 2nd. Music was bad, food was decent (large group buffet-style). Tried a bottled Yazoo IPA and a bottled.....um, crap....another local IPA. Both were bad.

This was after trying a bottled Lagunitas IPA at our hotel during the last hour of our meetings. It was the same so I know it wasn't my taste buds since I drink that at home.

Not sure what these folks are doing to their beers (warm storage for ages while they move tons of Coors Light?) but they aren't doing the breweries any favors at all unfortunately.

Tomorrow I am stopping by Hattie B's for some hot chicken on my way back to the airport. I'm hoping I can find a beer on tap at the airport to cleanse myself of these recent issues.

Sorry I had no time......hopefully next time we can hook up again.

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[Beer-lord]

Well, that's nothing but a huge ass bummer!

[swenocha]

Yazoo Taproom is on the Southwest corridor of the airport.... That's unfortunate about the beers sampled. I hope you don't mind that I passed your experience on to Neil so he can address it. My favorite "old Yazoo in the wild" story is when I found Fall Ale on the shelves late summer... only Fall Ale had been discontinued (in favor of Fall Lager) two years prior, and the current Fall Lager wasn't due out for a few months. The stores/bars/distros need to get their stuff in order. I also saw someone post a pick of Hop Project currently at a retailer... the only problem is that Hop Project got phased out maybe 3 years ago in favor of Hop Perfect (formerly 10 Year).