When you are in Tennessee you have to do like the natives do and drink some Tennessee Moonshine. My friend was looking to try some of the local craft beers as well, so we asked around to find our best options. A local suggested we check out the the Ole Smoky Distillery and it was a great recommendation!
The Ole Smoky Distillery in Nashville has partnered with Yee Haw Brewing Company (one of Tennessee's top craft beer breweries) to occupy a great space on 6th and Peabody, just a short walk from lower Broadway. This fortunate partnership allowed us to taste moonshine and get craft beer at the same place! And there is so much more to do at this location. It has a huge beer garden area with rows of corn hole games and lots of seating. There are several large screen TV's for sports viewing and stages for live music.
When you first walk into the Ole Smoky Distillery you are struck by the ceiling to wall display of all of the variety of flavors of Ole Smoky Moonshine and Whiskey. It is quite the sight! In addition to the traditional Moonshine made from a centuries old recipe developed when Moonshine was illegal, they have many other creative Moonshine flavors to tickle your taste buds...including Strawberry, Butter Pecan, Mountain Java, Apple Pie and White Chocolate Strawberry Cream. They also have Moonshine soaked Pickles, Cherries and Pineapples to add to your drink or food recipes to give them that extra kick! Flavored Whiskeys include Salted Carmel, Peanut Butter and Strawberry Lemonade.
Ole Smoky Distillery offers a behind the scenes guided tour of the distillery and brewery operations. Tours are offered Monday through Thursday at 2:00, 3:00 and 4:00 (excluding holidays and weekends). You must book a reservation on-line for the guided tours and you have to be 21+ with a valid ID to participate in the included tastings. Find out more information and book your tour here. The cost is currently $44.95 for adults and $10 for children (must be at least 13 years old). The guided tour includes the following:
Approximately one hour tour of on-side distillery and brewery along with a private 13 sample tasting of moonshine, whiskey and craft beer;
Exclusive Tour T-Shirt (not available any where else!);
$10 off Behind the Scenes Coupon to use on site in the store;
10% off coupon to use for on-site retail and merchandise (cannot be used for on-site food, cocktails or beer).
If you aren't interested in the history of moonshine or how they make it and just want to get to the drinking part, you can do a walk in tasting. Tastings are available daily and no reservation is required. Just sidle up to the big bar in the middle of the room and start sipping! The cost for this "short tour" is $10. For that price you get a drink (either a Yee Haw craft beer or a seltzer) and several tastings of the flavored Ole Smoky Moonshine (flavors available for tasting may vary from day to day). After you complete the tasting you get a $10 coupon that you can use in the bar area for another drink or you can put it towards a purchase in the gift store (maybe some moonshine to take home?). So basically the tasting ends up being free...not to mention fun! We chose the "short tour" and sampled Blue Flame Moonshine (128 proof and basically tasted like Everclear-yuck!), Sour Cherry, Butter Pecan, Peanut Butter, and pickles and pineapples soaked in moonshine.
After we did our tasting, we made our way over to the bar so my friend Christina could sample the Yee Haw craft beer. She bought a flight of brews to try and enjoyed trying the various styles of beer.
After all this drinking you will want to grab something to eat. You are in luck as the Ole Smoky Distillery offers several different types of tacos from White Duck Taco that are reasonably priced. The location also provides other snacks and Nashville's famous Daddy's Dogs for purchase. One note, I told my daughters they should grab a quick bite here before heading to the honky tonks but when they got there a little later in the day there were limited taco selections available. It appears that there is a limited quantity and once it is gone, it will be unavailable. Based on this, if you want to plan to grab something to eat at Ole Smoky you should go earlier in the day.
I would definitely recommend carving out some time when you are in Nashville to check this place out. It was fun trying different flavors of moonshine/whiskey and my friend got her craft beer experience at the same time. The tacos were delicious and the vibe was fun. Maybe next time I will do the full tour for a more in depth experience! If you have done the tour, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it.