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In a city saturated with craft breweries, one is the 16th-fastest-growing in U.S.

From left, Hutton & Smith's Promenade IPA, Igneous IPA and On Sight Alt are seen at the brewery's production facility in Chattanooga, Tenn.
From left, Hutton & Smith's Promenade IPA, Igneous IPA and On Sight Alt are seen at the brewery's production facility in Chattanooga, Tenn. From left, Hutton & Smith's Promenade IPA, Igneous IPA and On Sight Alt are seen at the brewery's production facility in Chattanooga, Tenn.

By Emily Crisman 3 min read

Hutton & Smith has a lot of reasons to celebrate.

Marking its fourth anniversary this month, the local brewery and taproom is also celebrating its recent ranking by the Brewers Association as No. 16 on its list of the fastest-growing small and independent craft breweries in the country.

There wasn’t much happening in Chattanooga’s craft brew scene when Hutton & Smith owners Joel and Melanie Krautstrunk visited the city back in 2014, she says. Still, they decided to move here from Las Vegas to open their brewery and taproom, named for the men considered to be the fathers of modern geology, James Hutton and William “Strata” Smith – who were rumored to have kicked back a few brewskies while taking breaks from writing books and making geological maps.

The Krautstrunks’ production quickly tripled from 400 barrels in 2016 to 1,200 in 2017, leading them to open a larger production facility on Riverside Drive. As they slowly added markets one at a time, including Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis, production grew to 4,000 barrels in 2018.

photo Local microbrewery and taproom Hutton & Smith is ranked 16th on the Brewers Association’s list of the fastest-growing small and independent breweries in the U.S. / Contributed graphic by the Brewers Association

This is the second year the not-for-profit Brewers Association has released its rankings of the fastest-growing small and independent breweries, comprising 50 craft breweries across 27 states. Hutton & Smith is one of four to make the list a second time. Last year, it was ranked No. 50.