Boscos brewpub in Nashville: some good beers… and some bad beers
Nashville doesn’t have many options when it comes to finding a fresh beer brewed on-premises. Of course, neither does Atlanta. I’ve been to Boscos in Hillsboro Village before, but last night was the first time I ordered their beer sampler – 8 draft brews, including 4 seasonals. Last time I was at Boscos, I was a bit harsh on them.
Having tasted their full lineup in one sitting, I may have jumped the gun. Granted, they brew a few unexceptional beers:
- Their hefeweizen (which was interestingly one of their seasonal selections) had an acidic aftertaste
- Their Scottish Ale was simply atrocious. Git yoself a Drafty Kilt, fool.
- Their German Alt beer was a bit one-dimensional
However, Boscos also boasted some very good brews:
- A strong IPA brewed with Cascade and Centennial hops
- A seasonal pale ale – both hoppy and biscuity
- A passable milk stout (though not up to Duck-Rabbit standards)
- A dern good doppelbock
Will I go back to Boscos? Obviously. With one micro and three or so brewpubs, Nashville makes my local beer choices easy. Will I look forward to it? This time, yes. Their food has always been good, and now I’m looking forward to a full glass of that IPA paired with… something… good.
Jonathan, Joel & Jeff
December 31st, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Wow. And yet only yesterday I was seated before a sampler of 11 beers at Russian River brewing co. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about living in Georgia, but being in a beer desert wasn’t one of them.
December 31st, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Brad, is it okay for me to hate you?
January 1st, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Jonathan, when you want to hate me, just remember one thing.
I sold my 4-bedroom enormous house on a nice piece of land in Marietta in May 2007. The price I got for it will barely buy me a nice 1-bedroom or crappy 2-bedroom condo here in SoCal. Where the monthly association dues are likely to be similar to a year’s dues at my HOA in Georgia.
You can always have beer shipped to Georgia to make up for what you can’t get. I’m stuck brewing in my brother-in-law’s garage because I have no garage of my own.
So there’s no need to hate me :-)
July 24th, 2008 at 7:25 am
I also share your passion for craft beer and do lots of beer traveling. Your statement “Nashville doesn’t have many options when it comes to finding a fresh beer brewed on-premises” is not true. Boscos, Blackstone, and Yazoo all have fresh locally brewed beer on premises. Blackstone’s brewer is well-known homebrewing author Dave Miller. If you want to count Big River Grille (part of the Gordon Biersch chain), that leaves you with 4 brewpubs in Nashville to choose from, all within 10 minutes of each other. With a population of 700,000- that’s a very good ratio. Throw in the beer bars like Flying Saucer and Beer Sellar, Nashville has a very good beer scene for a city of it’s size, and I am on a mission to get Nashville the respect it deserves.
Smitty
http://nashvillebeergeek@blogspot.com
July 24th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Smitty, point taken. Nashville has probably one of the best beer scenes in the South (though it’s no Asheville), but I still wish it were… more. Boscos and Blackstone both serve great food, but I’ve never felt that their beers were quite up to snuff with their foods. Let’s throw out Big River Grille (though I’ll give them my vote for Nashville’s best root beer).
If we factor in ratio of good beer to people, Nashville has Atlanta beat. Though that’s not saying a lot.