We recognize local winners of spirits competitions here on Bites fairly often, but beer awards often get overlooked. To be honest, Middle Tennessee beers don’t win many major national and international awards. Off the top of my head, I can remember only a few nods for Blackstone Brewing, Yazoo’s “Embrace the Funk” series and TailGate Brewery in the years I’ve been writing this column.
Well, I missed one this year. What's worse, I missed an even bigger recognition for the beer back in 2023.
The beer is called The Fulkin, and it’s a Scottish-style ale courtesy of Nate Newton, founder and brewer at Half Batch Brewing in Hendersonville. This year, The Fulkin won a bronze medal at the World Beer Cup, known as the “Olympics of Beer.”
Besides the fact that now I’d really like to see people compete in the Olympics while drinking beer (except for the javelin throw), this is a pretty big deal, especially because Newton won a gold medal in the same competition for the same beer two years ago. This achievement cements The Fulkin as a global leader in the world of Scottish-style ales.
Newton recognized the achievement in the official release of the news, saying: “We’re incredibly proud of The Fulkin. It has been our best-selling beer since we opened in 2017. Winning gold in 2023 was a dream come true, but being recognized again in 2025 with a bronze shows our consistency and ongoing commitment to quality.”
More than 250 judges sampled 8,375 entries from 49 countries to determine the best-in-class winners of the multitude of beer styles in the competition, which has been around for almost three decades. While Scottish-style ales might be rare around these parts, it is a popular international style.
Not to be confused with the stronger (and sometimes peated) Scotch ale, the Scottish-style ale features a sweet malty character and low bitterness. The Fulkin comes in at a sessionable 5.2 percent ABV and a low bitterness rating of 20 IBUs.
Naturally, I wanted to try it for myself — but I had never seen The Fulkin on the shelves of my usual beer marts or on a local restaurant menu. Imagine my surprise when I saw it sitting on ice in a satellite beer stand at a recent Nashville SC game. I thought, “Well, If I’m gonna try it, I might as well pay a dollar an ounce for it, amiright?!”
So I swiped my credit card and popped open a tallboy can of Scottish-style ale. Even before the first sip, the caramel/toffee notes were powerful, like a Werther’s Original candy from the bottom of your grandma’s purse. I happen to like Werther’s, so I dove in.
People often assume that dark beers are heavy, thinking about stouts and porters, but The Fulkin is nice and light-bodied. The caramel was joined by brown sugar and raisin flavors upon first taste, and the finish was smooth and dry. As opposed to my normal Nashville SC libation, the much boozier and hoppier Homestyle IPA from Bearded Iris, this was a nice change of pace. I’ll be looking for packs of 16-ounce cans at spots like Frugal MacDoogal and Corkdorks Wine, Spirits and Beer Midtown — where I can buy four beers for the price of one soccer beer.
Or I might make my way to 154 Bonita Parkway in Hendersonville, where I can drink The Fulkin straight from the tap at the brewery and congratulate Nate on his achievement. I’ll probably also ask him where the beer's name comes from. On the brewery website, there’s a line about, “Say ‘falcon’ in your best Scottish accent,” but I choose to believe it’s a shortened version of a word from The Meaning of Liff, British wags Douglas Adams and John Lloyd’s humorous dictionary of things there should be words for. They define “fulking” as "pretending not to be in when the carol singers come round."
That way those bloody singers won’t interrupt your beer drinking. Cheers!
