The Beer-Lover’s Guide to Smith & Lentz: What to Expect from Our Rotating Lineup
At Smith & Lentz, our rotating selection of beers keeps us in good company with the ever-growing East Nashville brewery scene. Let’s preview some of our favorite beer creations so you can come in prepared to try something new. Whether you’re looking for a fresh brew, pizza, or homemade dessert, we’ve got all the bases covered.
Nashville Craft Beer
Before we relaunched our shop in 2020 and transformed it into the pizza-focused restaurant it is today, we were an independent craft brewery. We’ve since expanded, but great beer is still very much a mainstay.
Creating flavor profiles that connect on every level and give our customers something they won’t find in a mass-produced product is just part of our DNA. We're passionate about sound process, and the way great hops and quality grain turn out new, exciting Pilsners, IPAs, Lagers, and German-style Kölsch.
We also like to educate interested Nashville craft beer customers about the different hop varieties and how they pair with our food and pizzas. We strive to be method-driven to deliver both local beer Nashville residents and visitors might actually want to talk about, and a restaurant that contributes to our local neighborhood vibe and foodie scene.
The Fundamentals of a Great Beer
Every beer begins with four essential ingredients: water, hops, and yeast. Today’s beer recipes also include fermentable adjuncts. These are what influence flavor, texture, and alcohol levels. Ingredients such as wheat, oats, rye, corn, rice, honey, or fruit all shape specific beer styles. Just like the music in Music City, the combination of all these notes is endless.
Malted barley provides the foundation of our beers. During the malting process, grains are soaked, germinated, and kilned to unlock the natural sugars that later fuel fermentation. Darker-roasted grains produce deeper colors and flavors, such as toast, caramel, or chocolate. Lightly kilned malts create the crisp brightness of lighter styles like Pilsners and Kölsch.
Hops add bitterness to balance the malty sweetness, aroma, and flavor. Some hop varieties bring bright citrus notes while others lend floral, piney, or herbal qualities. Adjusting the timing of hop additions during brewing can dramatically change a beer’s profile from the clean bitterness of a classic lager to the aromatic intensity of a hazy IPA.
Yeast is the little engine behind the entire brewing process. The type of yeast used has a major influence on the final character of the beer, with ale yeasts and lager yeasts producing very different results.
Finally, since beer is mostly water, its chemistry plays a critical role in brewing. We pay close attention to factors such as pH levels, mineral hardness, alkalinity, and the presence of flavor ions like calcium, sulfate, and chloride.
Flavor Profiles from Here to YaYa
Learning to taste beer is an experience in itself. Begin by noticing the aroma before your first sip. Examine how your beer looks in the glass and consider the balance between malt sweetness, hop bitterness, and the clean or hearty finish created by fermentation. Then it’s time to decide on the food pairing that will take everything to the next level.
We recommend pairing our Supreme Pizza (topped with pepperoni, Soppressata, sausage, olives, and onions) with a crisp, hop-forward IPA. Its citrusy bitterness cuts through the savory cured meats while the clean finish highlights the subtle tang of our homemade sourdough crust.
You could also choose the Hazy IPA with the Nectaron hop variety; Mosaic Lupomax hops for fruity notes of mango, guava, and blueberry; Idaho 7 aroma hop, and Citra Dynaboost.
Our Fichtenschatten Schwarzbier is a German-style black lager that balances dark malt flavors like coffee and chocolate with a smooth, dry finish instead of a sweet and heavy one. And our Little Hearts Club 10° is a palate-awakening blend of lemony notes, with a gentle floral aroma derived from traditional Czech Saaz hops.
This list goes on and on.
Tapping Into the Freshness: Crisp, Biscuity, and Bold Beer on Tap
We provide an ever-changing tap lineup that invites experimentation, so when people come by, they can always try something new. We also want to be a place where fans of delicious craft beer can rally like fans of our local sports teams, rooting for the newest pints to pair with our handmade artisanal pizzas. A lofty goal? Maybe. But we sure do enjoy learning about our customers’ preferences so we can conceptualize and experiment with new brews.
Come In for Killer Beers and Great Times
At Smith & Lentz, we're brewers who love beer. And with our constantly rotating beer and pizza specials, every time you and your pals pop by, there’ll be something new to try.
Pull up a chair, order up a pint and a pizza, and see what we’ve been experimenting with this week. And don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter for updates on our pizza, beer, and wine specials!
