The brewery at 900 River Bluff Drive sits on 6.5 acres above the Cumberland River. It has a 40-barrel brewhouse behind the taproom and a walk-up burger window out front. Since July 2019 it has been Yazoo Madison. In October 2026, TailGate Brewery founder Wesley Keegan bought the whole campus, production floor and taproom together.
TailGate needed more room to brew and found a site already built for exactly that. That reason matters to anyone who drinks there on a Thursday, because it's the reason the taproom is staying.
Yazoo came to Madison for room to grow
The River Bluff Drive campus was planned for capacity from the start. Eater Nashville reported in March 2018 that Yazoo had bought six acres on River Bluff Drive, with the move timed to the sale of its Gulch property at 910 Division Street. When Yazoo opened in Madison on July 12, 2019, NewsChannel 5 described the new brewery as about twice the size of the Gulch operation, with a taproom and a big porch.
FOX 17's coverage of the move gave founder Linus Hall's reasons. Trucks had trouble getting in and out of the Gulch, and the brewery had a hard time connecting with local drinkers there. At the 2019 opening, NewsChannel 5 reported that Hall talked about getting back to neighborhood life and seeing former regulars return. Those regulars go by "Yazooligans."
So the place was built as a production brewery with a neighborhood taproom attached. Seven years later, that combination is what TailGate paid for.
TailGate needed a brewhouse, and the taproom came with it
Keegan said it plainly when Nashville Scene broke the story: "We've just outgrown our capacity, and desperately need more room for (brewing) activities!" The Scene calls TailGate the fastest-growing independent brewery in the region. The Madison campus becomes its primary brewing hub, working alongside the original headquarters in Bellevue.
That puts Madison at the center of a growing operation. TailGate already runs taprooms on Music Row and in East Nashville, Germantown, South Nashville/Antioch, Hendersonville, Chattanooga and Murfreesboro, plus its Bellevue headquarters and an outlet at BNA. According to FOX 17, the company says River Bluff Drive will become its primary production facility and its ninth Tennessee taproom.
A company that buys a site for its brewhouse has every reason to keep the taproom out front busy. Keegan's "the taproom isn't going anywhere" line was about TailGate's Bellevue headquarters. For Madison, the signal is the "ninth taproom" plan TailGate announced. That plan treats the River Bluff Drive taproom as a location in its own right.
What the deal keeps in place
Most of what a regular would recognize carries through the sale, based on the announcements reported by the Scene, FOX 17 and Axios Nashville:
- Yazoo beer, brewed on site. The campus will keep making Yazoo's lineup for distribution through R.S. Lipman.
- The brands were never part of this sale. The Yazoo beer brands joined the R.S. Lipman Brewing portfolio in 2025, so this deal covered the facility and taproom.
- The same crew. Keegan offered jobs to the entire Yazoo staff.
- Linus Hall. He stays with the combined operation to oversee production and sales of the Yazoo line.
Hall's own statement to the Scene puts the most weight on that continuity:
"It's been a wonderful ride the last 23 years, but it's time for me and Lila to start a new chapter. We're both happy Yazoo will continue to be brewed by the same people we've worked with for years, and that they will all have opportunities to grow with TailGate."
In the same statement, he said he looks forward to making the brewery "a place where Nashvillians gather for a great beer."
The food window is the first visible change
The change regulars are most likely to notice first is what comes out of the kitchen. TailGate plans to bring its pizza kitchen to Madison, the program it runs at every location from West Nashville to Chattanooga. That means Grillshack Fries and Burgers, the walk-up window at the Madison taproom, will move out. Grillshack keeps operating in East Nashville and Germantown, so the burgers are a short drive away.
The closest preview of the new menu is about 20 minutes up the road. TailGate Hendersonville, at 248 Sanders Ferry Road, pours 30 draft beers, ciders and seltzers. Its kitchen serves scratch-made pizza, salads and appetizers. TailGate's website describes that setup, 30 draft lines and a scratch pizza kitchen, as its standard taproom format.
What the Madison taproom already offers fits that format. Yazoo's taproom page lists indoor and outdoor seating, a dog-friendly patio and brewery tours. The change is a burger stand making way for a pizza oven. The room around it stays.
No date on the sign yet
As of this week, the reports don't agree on when the handover happens. The Scene's announcement said the transition "will begin immediately." Axios reported the purchase had closed but said TailGate would take over operations "later this year," with no taproom switchover date announced. FOX 17 reported that TailGate has not set an exact transition date and will share more about the new location later.
Read together, the deal is done and the handover could land anytime before the end of 2026. There's no announced date for the pizza kitchen, the new name or Grillshack's last day on River Bluff Drive. Yazoo's taproom page lists hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. That page still carries an old special-hours notice, though, so check it again before a weeknight visit.
A few things to watch over the next several weeks:
- Thursday trivia. Nerdy Talk Trivia's current schedule lists Yazoo Madison at 7 p.m. Thursdays, hosted by Ryan. Check that listing once the TailGate name goes up.
- December traditions. Last year Yazoo held Beer with Santa on December 20, 2025, with Santa photos and seasonal beer. The listing described the event as "back." No 2026 date has been posted.
- Grillshack's last window day. If you're a burger regular, the window's closing date hasn't been announced. The East Nashville and Germantown locations will still be open after it closes.
The river afternoon stays the same
The campus that drew Yazoo here in 2019 still sits above the Cumberland. A taproom stop still pairs naturally with the river parks on Madison's side of town. Metro Parks describes Peeler Park, at 2043 Neely's Bend Road, as a roughly 600-acre Cumberland River property with greenway hiking, equestrian trails and primitive camping. A morning on the Peeler trails followed by a pint on River Bluff Drive works the same whichever brewery's name is on the menu board.
Keegan summed up the deal in the Scene announcement: "None of it works without the support from our neighbors and community." In Madison, the neighbors who stop by River Bluff Drive will have a pizza oven to try soon, and the beer they know will still be brewed in the building behind them.
At Christian Wilson Homes, we follow the places Madison actually gathers, from Gallatin Pike to the river bluffs. If you live near River Bluff Drive and want to know how changes like this one affect your street, request an instant home valuation and we'll walk you through it.
