The votes are in! Knoxville crowns its favorite brewery in our bracket challenge

Brenna McDermott, Knoxville News Sentinel
·2 min read

Knoxville has spoken! We're a beer-loving town (like we didn't already know).

Knox News readers narrowed 32 beer brands down to one champion in our March Madness-style bracket challenge. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!

It all came down to No. 1 seed Xül Beer Company and No. 3 seed Abridged Beer Company.

Knox News seeded the breweries based on their Untappd customer scores.

Knox News readers: Your favorite Knoxville brewery is...

The people have spoken! Abridged Beer Company was selected as Knoxville's favorite brewery in the Knox News bracket challenge. Founder Jesse Bowers said every Knoxville brewery is doing its own unique thing, and that makes Knoxville's beer culture even better.
The people have spoken! Abridged Beer Company was selected as Knoxville's favorite brewery in the Knox News bracket challenge. Founder Jesse Bowers said every Knoxville brewery is doing its own unique thing, and that makes Knoxville's beer culture even better.

Congratulations to Abridged Beer Company, Knoxville's favorite brewery in our 2023 bracket challenge!

It's been a big 12 months for Abridged, which expanded late last year with a new Cedar Bluff location in the former home of K Town Tavern. The new space brings all the branches of Abridged's business under one roof, founder Jesse Bowers told Knox News.

You can also check out the Bearden location, its traveling food truck or The Oak Room, its barrel-aged beer bar in Happy Holler.

Later this year, Abridged will launch production at the Cedar Bluff location, which Bowers said will allow them to produce three times the amount of beer as at the Bearden brewery. That means more packaged beer and wider distribution.

41 must-try breweries in Knoxville and the Smokies!

Bowers said Abridged's approachable feel attracts more than just "brewery people."

"We started out as more just a home brewing background and we opened just like most other local breweries have here," he said. "But once we started, once we rolled the food into it and became popular, I think we just started reaching a whole new audience and had the opportunity to actually start introducing people to craft beer.”

For people new to the Abridged brand, Bowers suggested they try the Toppy Rock IPA, the "Hellescopter Dad" or the Dollypop sours.

Although readers picked a favorite brewery, there are so many great choices and it's cool to support them all.

“Every local brewery has kind of grown into having its own personality, which I think is cool and reminiscent of more highly developed beer culture cities that I’ve been to for years, like Portland and Nashville," Bowers said. "You can support a ton of breweries, because they’re not all trying to be the same.”

Gannett

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville breweries: Vote for your favorite East Tennessee beer