Beer Co

Pretentious Beer Co is an experimental brewery located in the heart of the Old City of Knoxville, TN. This is what happens when a glass artist opens a brewery. We are the only place in the world where you can drink beer made in-house, out of glassware made in-house, and watch everything being produced!

Our specialties include IPAs, Lagers, Creative Sours, and unconventional Seltzers. We dig the Craft of Craft Beer. We are always playing with the styles, the ingredients, the new ideas, and the old truths. As it is all small-batch brews, those options are constantly changing and won't be here for long. So if ya love a beer, ya better come back soon to get it before it's gone ;)

Glass Co

Pretentious Glass Co is a glassblowing studio dedicated to glassware designed specifically for Craft Beer, Wine, Cocktails and Whiskey. It is one half of the Pretentious Beer & Glass Company (now called Pretentious Craft Co). The other half is Pretentious Beer Co, a Craft Beer Brewery that focuses on experimental and one-of-a-kind brews. This combo is the brain child of glass artist turned brewer, Matthew Cummings. Both businesses are located in the heart of downtown Knoxville and connected via a stunning beer garden. To our knowledge, this is the only place in the world where you can drink beer made-in-house, out of glasses made-in-house, and watch everything being produced!

Pretentious originated in 2012 from a small drinking club at the Mellwood Arts Center in Louisville, KY. Each Friday afternoon, a group of artists/entrepreneurs would take off work early to sit in the courtyard and drink great craft beer. After a couple “too many” (all good ideas start this way, right?) the club decided that I should make beer glasses for everyone. I designed the Hoppy Beer glass and gave each member a customized version of that glass. After making that first glass, I started to notice a lack of unique beer glasses for craft beer. It was just such an obvious problem that it was invisible…hiding out in the open. I started the Pretentious Beer Glass Company as a remedy for that problem, and spent over 6 months making, testing, and refining designs that highlight different styles.

We make all the glasses by hand at Matthew Cummings Studios in Knoxville, TN. We use techniques that haven’t really changed in several hundred years (except for a few safety features). Molten glass is collected on a hollow blowpipe, and shaped with the use of wet newspaper pads or wooden tools. After the glasses are finished hot, we take each glass to the coldshop where we engrave and/or grind the bottoms flat. Once finished, each glass gets inspected and then we package them in branded gift boxes. Despite the volume and breadth of distribution of these products, it is still a small scale operation with the help of a few friends, who quickly became family. I hope that you enjoy drinking out of these glasses as much as we have enjoyed making them for you.