Employees of TailGate Brewery gather after their votes led to the brewery being named a Top Workplace.
TailGate Brewery
Craft breweries rarely call a fruit-flavored wheat beer their flagship beer. Nashville-based TailGate Brewery has placed that distinction on its TailGate Orange wheat beer, and last month it won a gold medal at the U.S. Open Beer Championship.
The brewery describes the 5% ABV beer as “light-bodied, creamy and zesty from start to finish.” A July 13 consumer review at the influential Beer Advocate website, which rated the beer as “very good” with a score of 87 of 100, is more descriptive.
“Bought a solo can of this at Trader Joe’s to take home and wish I had bought a case. This is a very smooth, drinkable wheat with low carbonation and just the right amount of orange sweetness without being overpowering. Smells great, like a freshly peeled orange…The essence is perfect, and everything is balanced, my new favorite summer beer. I could suck these down like soda and get in trouble quick..”
Wesley Keegan, TailGate Brewery’s founder and sole owner, says no special brewing process or preparation was done before entering TailGate Orange in the U.S. Open Beer Championship, which calls itself the third-largest brewing competition in the United States
“We literally just grabbed the cans from our cooler in the taproom,” he says. “No special anything to it, besides what we do for every brew.”
TailGate Orange wheat beer captured a gold medal last month.
TailGate Brewery
TailGate Brewery has nine taprooms in Tennessee, including one at Nashville International Airport. The brewery’s Nashville headquarters was a former Moose Lodge, and its large taproom, outdoor bar and pizza shop sit on seven acres.
The brewery opened in 2014, but Keegan says a lot of prior beermaking work was expended.
“There were about eight years of hard knocks prior to the opening,” he says. “I started like most brewery owners do—from a homebrew background. Homebrewing was huge when I was in college in San Diego, and Ballast Point’s Home Brew Mart (now under different ownership) was the mecca. I have family in Nashville, so it was a natural landing place for me.”
Many of TailGate’s beers are rated highly at the BeerAdvocate website, but Keegan prefers talking about employee workplace awards. TailGate employs about 300 workers.
In 2023 and 2024, the brewery was named a Top Workplace. That’s a national designation given to companies with more than 150 employees who rate their employer highly in a survey.
“There’s a lot of virtue signaling done on platforms like Linked in by people preaching from their local public workspace that ‘people are your best asset’ or some similar biz-speak garbage,” Keegan says. “But we really walk it here. We pay great. We offer 100% paid healthcare to 100% of our team members. We have paid time off and a 401k with a 4% match. And we invest in our spaces—resources, equipment, comfort, safety. It matters.”
Tennessee isn’t renowned for its craft beers, but the state has some great breweries, Keegan says.
“The Embrace the Funk program of the original Nashville Yazoo Brewing is some of the best wild beer in the country,” he says. “I really like Oddstory of Chattanooga. Xul in Knoxville is doing crazy hype-beer, and Wiseacre of Memphis does great business in a huge city with very little competition. I like to think we help make Nashville a great beer city, too.”
Besides Tennessee beers, Keegan has many favorites that are known to beer drinkers worldwide.
“I grew up near Chico (Caifornia) where Sierra Nevada was everywhere,” he says about the ground-breaking Chico brewery. “I still love their stuff to this day.”
Saison Dupont of Belgium’s Brasserie Dupont is the gold standard of the saison style, Keegan says.
“Saisons don’t sell in our market, no matter how good they are,” he adds. “But I love them. Give me a Saison Dupont and a stemmed beer glass, and I’m happy.”
Any beers brewed by California’s Russian River Brewing meet Keegan’s approval. “But I really enjoy Blind Pig,” he notes. “I can drink more than one. It’s a textbook example of a great IPA.”
Four other beers are favorites: Guinness, Slow Pour Pils brewed by Denver-based Bierstadt, Kirkland Lager of Oregon’s Deschutes and Hefe Weissbier of Germany’s Weihenstephan.
“Weihenstephan Hefe Weissbier is such an incredible beer,” Keegan raves. “I have not made it to Germany but really need to. I think beers like our TailGate Orange have so much thanks to give to beers like this. It’s timeless.”