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Blackstone Restaurant & Brewery, Nashville, Tenn.

There are four brewpubs in Nashville. I only had time to try one, and selected Blackstone simply because that was the one I found the easiest. I can review it, but can not compare it with others in Nashville.

Blackstone is designed as a functional building, with imaginative use of brick and plaster. Although it appears to be a workplace, it is obviously new, and very attractive. The one problem with the decorations is that there is no soundproofing. It is unacceptably noisy.

All six of Blackstone's beers are good, and are close to their descriptions on the menu. It is quite safe to select one by picking a favourite style from the list. The pale is based on a German Kolsch, not an English pale. I am not familiar with the type, so I can not say how true it is. Both the pale and hefeweizen (wheat) are light beers. They are golden in colour, light in taste. The wheat had a hint of sour taste, which is true to type, but not sufficient to offend those not familiar with it.

The Old Yorkshire Ale and the Red Springs Ale both claim to be based on English bitter recipes, although neither resembles anything I have ever drunk in Britain. Yet they are both good. They have more flavour than the pale or wheat, were not quite as smooth, with hints of the flavour more commonly associated with an American amber. Hops were not predominant, although both had nearly 30 units of bitterness. Indeed both were well balanced with malt and hops. I knew my drinks for the evening would be between these two, and eventually I selected the Yorkshire. I made a good choice.

The porter is a standard although good example of its type. No surprises, but well worth drinking. I like porter, and normally would have stayed on that all night. However I decided I could get such a drink in many places, so preferred to stay with the different taste of the Yorkshire. The nut brown also seemed to be a good though standard representative of its type.

I started out my drinking career with brown more years ago than I care to remember, before switching to bitter, but that was not a nut brown. I have never liked the type, and did not like this one. Those who like nut brown will like Blackstone's, but my own personal preference means I am not one of those.

Blackstone had a fair menu. There were burgers, pizzas, standard pub food, as well as some salads and other offerings. There were interesting touches to the food. When I requested mustard, I was offered either yellow or Dijon. The steak and biscuits I ordered were served with a dish au jus. The dessert menu included sweet potato pie. The key lime pie was served with a slice of fresh lime. Blackstone has paid attention to its beers, and clearly also to its food. If this is typical of the brewpubs in the area, then Nashville is very lucky.