Smoky Mountain Brewery in Pigeon Forge

SMB is the oldest craft brewery in East Tennessee. Our Gatlinburg location opened in 1996 when the idea of local microbrews served fresh was, well, unpopular. People would order a Miller Lite or a Budweiser. When we would tell them we only served beer brewed in house, they would get upset.
The U.S. craft beer movement was still in its infancy. Jim Koch, of Sam Adams and Boston Beer Company notoriety, didn't purchase the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewery in his hometown of Cincinnati and start scaling up production until 1997. Yet, there we were in the Smoky Mountains, perfecting our own beer recipes and serving a very, very limited menu of sandwiches and wood-fired pizza on paper plates.