Month: July 2012

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Brewery and Brewer Profile: Ben Bredesen and Fat Bottom

Profile by Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

There was music in the background…

…no, wait, that was a saw, or a drill, or a grinder…

Maybe all three?

The air was filled with the scent of sweet hops…

Well, it will be, but on the day I visited Fat Bottom, the brewery had tanks, kettles and busy workers remodeling what had been Fluffo Mattress into Fat Bottom Brewing. Fat Bottom will sit on the south side of Main Street; probably THE major northeast conduit out of Nashville… turning into Gallatin Road a few miles from here. Yes, “Gallatin Road,” which ends up in, well, um:  Gallatin… eventually.

I’d been here before. No, not Fat Bottom. Fat Bottom was still under construction: not up and running for the public when I typed this. But a few months ago I wrote about The Pharmacy: a beer and burger place just north east of Fat Bottom… both are in a part of Nashville that’s been spiffing itself up since we moved here in the late 70s. We didn’t know. We had been mostly in “avoiding” mode since the late 70s. Back then all that lived here were grody vampires, werewolves who had been kicked out of London and an occasional visit by the Blob to wipe off excess blob-ery.

I’m joking! Let’s just say this part of East Nashville has come a long way, and places like The Pharmacy have contributed to one great “spiff,” and soon to spiff up the area even more: Fat Bottom Brewery.

Enter brewer and brew dreamer: Ben Bredesen.
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Brewer Profile and Interview: Derrick Morse

Profile and Interview by Millie and Ken Carman for professorgoodales.net

KC: State your name for the record!!!

DM: Derrick Morse. M-o-r-s-e,  like “Morse code.”

KC: Any relation to Samuel B.?

DM: No, we’re more related to the Morse brothers who were pretty intricately involved in the Revolutionary War.

At this point we talked about his pump, and Nashville’s Jackalope Brewing who had to have a Mandarin manual for their equipment. Derrick told a story about Twisted Pine where he brewed before Cool Springs.

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Brew Biz: Werts and All

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Ken Carman is a BJCP judge; homebrewer since 1979, club member at Escambia Bay and Music City Homebrewers, who has been interviewing professional brewers all over the east coast for over 10 years.

The Topic: Starting a Brewpub in Tennessee via England and Boulder

As told by Chris and Jane Hartland (Owners: Cool Springs Brewery)

Imagine yourself spending, or losing if you wish, thousands a week just to ride a kiddie roller coaster. Then, practically the next day as if by magic, it becomes the wildest wild mouse imaginable.

That’s only part of the Cool Springs Brewery story, and part of Chris and Jane Hartland’s story. But let’s go back before that.

Do you hear the time machine running, or is that my over watered coffeemaker?

Oops. Hold on.

I’m back.

Anyway, back to the rightfully proud owners of Cool Springs Brewery in Franklin, Tennessee.

Chris and Jane met in 1997 in Norwich, England. Jane had just finished college and she was bartending at Chris’ local. (For you blithering Yanks that’s the local pub: very community based pubs with regulars. Kind of like Cheers only better with an accent. Or do we have the “accent?”) Chris was in the army and had just got through basic training in Cambridge. He would come back to his local from time to time on weekends and drink only Stout.
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