Nashville’s beer scene is about to welcome its newest member, when Jackalope Brewing officially opens its doors at the end of April. This new venture by Bailey Spaulding and Robyn Virball, two college friends, features monthly beer offerings that incorporate seasonal themes and ingredients, community outreach and a host of mythical creatures. We sat down with Spaulding to see what Jackalope’s all about.

Lots of people dream of opening a brewery. When did you have your “Wow, we’re really doing this” moment?

Maybe about 10 minutes ago. No, it was probably when we signed our lease on the building last October—that was a big moment. We sent out a press release that we didn’t think people would care about, and the next day we got calls from a TV news crew, and we were like, “We’ve got to make this happen now.”

Where does Jackalope fit into Nashville’s beer community?

We’re just down the street from Yazoo, the only other distributing craft brewery in town. People are now calling this the beer district. As far as our beer, we’re really hoping to bring in new and different flavors people aren’t used to seeing in Nashville, and to highlight the craft of brewing. We want to have a lot of community involvement, explanation of the process, and beer and food pairings. Yazoo really paved the way for us, and we’re hoping to expand even further.

In a few words, sum up the mission or vibe of the brewery.

We’ve had an internal catch phrase: “Seriously good beer that doesn’t take itself too seriously.” It’s something we really care about, and we want it to be seen as a craft. It’s an artistic venture but we want to have fun, too.

So, what’s the story behind the name?

I believed in jackalopes for a really long time. I had a family friend growing up who had taxidermy jackalope heads, and she used to tell me lots of stories about where they lived and what they ate. It probably wasn’t until I graduated from college that I found out they weren’t real.

We hear your tap handles are antlers.

They’re being designed right now. They’re going to be made out of resin to look like a deer antler. If people are looking down the tap line and there’s an antler, they might think about us.

You have an upcoming beer, Bitter Over Ewe, inspired by your affinity for Prince Charles, right?

Yes, we were both at [University of] St. Andrews when William and Kate were there. Robyn had a class with him. When they got engaged, people asked Robyn a lot of questions. We wanted to do a beer, and decided to do an ESB. We feel just a little bitter about the situation.

What else can we expect to see on tap?

Three year-round beers, and as of last week they’ve all been renamed. We have a red rye called Rompo, which is an African/Indian creature that has a head of a rabbit and the ears of a human, the front feet of a badger and back feet of a bear. Bearwalker is our maple brown. It’s apparently a Canadian bear that turns into a person. We also have an American pale ale that we’re naming Puck, which is an Irish creature that takes the shape of a black horse with gold eyes.

You’re offering monthly small-batch beers, too?

We’re definitely going to play with local adjuncts, so seasonals will be truly seasonal.  One of my favorite homebrews was made with beets, so we’ll do a beet saison. We also have ideas for a black IPA, a pumpkin beer and Lovebird, which is a strawberry-raspberry hefeweizen. We’re hoping we can kind of keep them linked up with whatever month it is.

What’s the League of Enduring Legends?

It’s our membership club. It was a way to generate some cash, and also generate interest and slowly begin our community involvement. We want people to feel like they’re part of the brewery. The whole point of being local is that your loyal customers can really feel like they’re part of the business.

Jackalope is one of a few—or perhaps the only—brewery owned and operated exclusively by women. What are your thoughts about that?

It certainly wasn’t a motivating factor as far as why we got into it. Each one of our monthly beers in our taproom will be linked to a local cause, and there are a couple of women shelters that we want to raise awareness about. Women have a slightly different perspective on beer, but showing that there’s a diversity in beer culture is going to be good.