Nashville's rich brewing history spans 100+ years. When Scott Mertie moved to Nashville, TN and visited the Gerst Haus restraurant for the first time, he was amazed by the vast display of breweriana throughout the restaurant.  While that visit sparked a specialization in the William Gerst Brewing Company, Mertie has enjoyed a fascination with brewery collectibles since he was a young boy.

Beginning his collection career at age six by picking up beer cans along the roadways, Mertie expanded his interests to home brewing and the craft beer revolution while attending Ohio State University.

The culmination of this avid collector's career to date is the publication of Nashville Brewing by Arcadia Publishing late last year.  Never before seen vintage photos, and pictures of collectibles from the Wm. Gerst Brewing Co. - as well as other historical and current breweries of Nashville - are now available to a wider public.  Throughout Nashville's brewing history, only Gerst survived Prohibition and operated into the 20^th Century.

Some highlights of the book:

• The history behind the famous Gerst Haus restaurant
• Nashville breweries from 1890 through the late 1950s
• Notes on post-Civil War Breweries that most Nashville residents never knew existed
• Updated guide to Nashville's current boom in microbreweries and brewpubs