Foundation as Nashville Brewing Company (1859–1892) The city of Nashville, Tennessee was designated to be the capital of the state in 1843. which would eventually become the Nashville Brewing Company, and which was "the first production brewery in Nashville". An 1873 news article referred to the brewery as a "mammoth establishment", being "of proportions much larger than one would suppose who had not visited it". Pfeiffer died suddenly in April 1876, and the company was then sold in an
auction. In 1882, Burkhardt entered into a partnership with William and Archibald Walker, two Scottish brothers from Cincinnati. The Walker brothers bought complete control of the company from Burkhardt in 1885. Archibald Walker died in 1889, prompting surviving brother William to convey ownership of the company again in 1890. In September of the same year, the company won a bronze medal in the 2018
Great American Beer Festival competition's
kellerbier/
zwickelbier category for its NashZwickel, an unfiltered lager. In May 2019, Mertie and
Vanderbilt University anthropology professor John Janusek used
ground-penetrating radar to map the area beneath downtown Nashville's 6th Avenue South, in an attempt to locate tunnels and cellars thought to have been used by the original Nashville Brewing Company, and its successor, the William Gerst Brewing Company. The results of that search will determine whether the Vanderbilt University anthropology department will begin an archaeological excavation. ==Beers==