Owner Mark Kamp will soon be operating Williamson County’s first microbrewery, Turtle Anarchy in Franklin. He and brewmaster Mike Kraft expect to be pouring beer by the end of May. / Sanford Myers / The Tennessean
FRANKLIN — When Mark Kamp looks at the craft beer industry, both here in Nashville and across the United States, he sees a revolution slowly taking hold.
Every pint poured is an opportunity to bring someone new into the movement.
By the end of May, Kamp hopes to be filling glasses and contributing to that revolution as the owner of Turtle Anarchy Brewing Co. Kamp, a 2010 graduate of Belmont University, is opening Williamson County’s first microbrewery.
Kamp joins an emerging craft beer scene that is just beginning to build momentum in the Nashville area but since the 1990s has exploded elsewhere across the U.S.
“We want to be on the cutting edge of things,” said Mike Kraft, brewmaster for Turtle Anarchy.
Kraft is leaving Cool Springs Brewery, Williamson County’s only brewpub, to join Kamp’s startup. “Beer has never really been as popular as it is now.”
Kraft might be right. A 2010 survey by the Brewers Association in Colorado revealed there are more breweries operating in the U.S. than at any point in the past 110 years. Craft brewers are far and away the driving force behind that growth.
The survey found 1,759 brewers in the country. Of that, 1,716 are craft brewers. Twenty years ago, fewer than 500 brewers were making beer in the U.S.
Nashville has five breweries, and the Cool Springs Brewery has stood alone in Williamson County since it opened in 2009. But that is changing. Kamp and Kraft expect to be pouring beer by the end of May, right around the time Nashville’s newest craft beer maker, Jackalope, will celebrate its one-year anniversary. Two more breweries, Fat Bottom and Broadcast, are renovating space in East Nashville.
It’s difficult to pinpoint why craft beer is finally catching on here, but there are probably a few factors. Julia Herz, craft beer program director for the Brewers Association, said friendly legislation, home-brew clubs and a strong food culture can help. A brewers guild also can raise the industry’s profile, she said.
“In the South, people are eating and drinking from more localized sources,” said Neil McCormick, sales and marketing manager for Yazoo Brewing Co. “I think with that, people are a lot more knowledgeable about where it comes from and that it’s not some magical place.”
Others in the craft beer industry here said interest is definitely growing. Several brewers are forming the Tennessee Craft Brewers Guild. The state has 19 home-brew clubs registered with the American Homebrewers Association, and the restaurant scene has come on strong of late.
“We’re a little behind in the times, but we’re reaching a tipping point,” said Kurt Strickmaker, a Nashville beer distributor who opened his company at the start of 2010 and carries only craft beer. He doubled his sales volume in 2011 and is moving his business from a 2,500-square-foot warehouse to a facility with 11,000 square feet.
Cooperative spirit
Whatever gains are being made in the craft beer industry, there is room for new competition. Nationally in 2010, craft beer accounted for only 4.3 percent of all beer sold.
Brewers in Nashville are working together to try to raise the industry’s profile. McCormick said he’s asked daily whether Yazoo feels threatened by the newcomers to Nashville’s beer scene.
“We never feel like we’re in competition with one another,” McCormick said. “We’re all trying to make our beers distinctive. There’s still a lot of room to grow, especially in Nashville.”
Bailey Spaulding, a co-founder of Jackalope Brewing, said that when she and Robyn Virball were opening their business, they turned to Yazoo founder Linus Hall for help navigating the process. The two breweries are within walking distance of each other.
That cooperative spirit continued, Spaulding said, when the founders of Turtle Anarchy and Fat Bottom started coming to her with their own questions.
“It was never anything where you felt like somebody was spying on you,” Spaulding said. “It’s definitely like a pay-it-forward kind of process.”
Spaulding is among those working to create the Tennessee Craft Brewers Guild. It will primarily lobby state and local lawmakers to change laws regulating the industry. There is a 17 percent wholesale tax on beer, which makes it difficult for brewers dealing in smaller volumes to compete. The state also regulates beer based on its alcohol content, which means anything with more than 6.3 percent alcohol is essentially classified as liquor and must follow another set of regulations.
Kamp and Kraft, from Turtle Anarchy, are also involved in the guild effort. Kamp described the state’s alcohol laws as “archaic.”
The desire to change how beer is governed inspired his brewery’s name: Turtle Anarchy.
“It’s a slow revolution. One pint at a time,” Kamp said. “There’s a solid meaning behind that.”
Contact Josh Adams at 615-771-5417 or jadams@tennessean.com.
