The Tennessee River Town That Has Quietly Become One of the Best Craft Beer Destinations in the Country

People are still taken aback by the drive into Chattanooga. As you round a bend on I-24, the Tennessee River opens up below, and all of a sudden you’re looking at a city that appears smaller and more alien than its increasingly well-known image. The city is wedged between ridges and water. It doesn’t make an announcement like Nashville or Asheville do. No neon is present. Pedal taverns are not overflowing with bachelorette parties. It’s just a slow-moving, peaceful town with one of the most intriguing beer scenes in the South.

Locals will tell you that the change occurred gradually. After a brewpub opened here and a taproom there, everything seemed to come together around 2018. That year, Chris and Mike Dial established WanderLinger Brewing Company in a downtown brick building. They named it after the phrase “wander on, linger often,” which has since evolved into a sort of unofficial city motto. It is appropriate. Rarely do visitors to Chattanooga merely stop by.

The proximity of everything else, rather than the number of breweries, is what gives this area’s beer scene a distinct feel. You can spend the day on a patio sipping a Munich Helles brewed three blocks away, climb a sandstone bluff by lunch, and paddleboard the river in the morning. This type of stitching between pint glass and landscape is less common than it might seem. It’s in Denver. It’s in Bend, Oregon. Even though it hasn’t realized it yet, Chattanooga is subtly joining that group.

Take a Friday night stroll through the Southside neighborhood to begin to appreciate its allure. Within a few blocks of one another, Odd Story Brewing, Naked River Brewing, and Terminal BrewHouse each draw a slightly different clientele. A couple wearing cycling kits are gently debating which IPA is more hoppier. An extended discussion about the Tennessee Valley Authority is taking place among a group of elderly men seated at a corner table. Outside, the Walnut Street Bridge illuminates the water, and people approach it without seeming to be in a rush.

Some breweries may have been unprepared for the city’s expansion. Over the past few years, the number of tourists has increased steadily, and you can feel the pressure on hectic weekends. Lines grow lengthy. Parking becomes strange. Speaking with the bartenders and brewers here, however, reveals that no one wants to lose what makes the establishment function. A few years ago, Mike Dial told an interviewer that he and his brother intended to stay in Chattanooga for a very long time. The breweries’ operations, which include art exhibits, live music events, and fundraisers for neighborhood trail organizations, reflect this kind of unyielding rootedness.

Almost reluctantly, Chattanooga Whiskey is also brought up because beer tourists don’t always anticipate a distillery that is worth their time. However, it coexists peacefully with the breweries, which serve as another reminder that this city has been producing goods for a very long time—mostly without taking much pride in it.

Observing all of this, it seems like Chattanooga is doing something that larger Southern cities have forgotten how to do. creating a scene without overly promoting it. It’s genuinely unclear if that holds true as more people learn about the town. But for now, the mountains are here to stay, the river continues to flow, and the beer is delicious.