Top places to find good #CraftBeer while you're in AGS! My third edition of this annual write-up won’t be as extensive as it has been in the past. Most things haven’t changed, and I would encourage you take a look at my 2014 & 2015 posts for some more in-depth expositions. So where do we stand in 2016? To answer that, lets look at the area’s newest craft beer developments.
This Beer Purgatory will soon be the home to two (at least) new craft breweries!
Just outside of Downtown Augusta, the newly opened Riverwatch Brewery is Augusta’s first brewery in ~90 years! Owner and brewer Brey Sloan has already begun production, and looks to have product on local taps for Masters. Brey recently retired from the Army, has been homebrewing for years, and has a great business plan and Siebel schooling to stand on. We cant wait for our first pint!
By this time next year, Augusta will also be home to Savannah River Brewing. The operation just received its tanks and equipment, and hopes to be up and running by this Summer. Just this week however, they ran into a bit of trouble when the received a Cease & Desistletter fromThe Masters for looking to name one of their brews 'Green Jacket Pilsner'. I suppose we will allow them a Mulligan for that one. Or perhaps a 'Mulligan Pilsner'....
Outside of this exciting development, what are the best places in Augusta to get your Craft on? Follow me… If you are looking for the best place to sit down and enjoy great craft beer variety, along with great food, then look no further than the block of 10th St between Ellis and Broad Sts. This is the area’s epicenter of craft beer, housing 3 restaurants that you should most definitely be on your visit’s itinerary. - Bee’s Knees (211 10th St; @beeskneestapas): Bee’s Knees is the has the longest tenure on the block, well known for its tasty small plate tapas (Get the Smoked Gouda Nachos!) and a good craft beer selection. They have several taps and additional bottle/can selection, mostly of rotating and eclectic craft variety. - Hive Craft Beer Bar (215 10th St; @hivegrowlerbar); Right next door to TBK is its new younger sibling. Hive features 76 taps, 58 of which offer an impressive and constantly changing craft menu, and a food menu with a yummy eclectic take of pub grub. You can also get growlers filled here as well.
Hive Growler Bar
- Füse (1002 Broad St) The new kid on the block is built around an ever-changing menu of international and southern recipes using local ingredients. And to top it off, it has 30 taps of craft and another dozen or two in bottles.
Füse
If you are looking to top off you’re a growler or two during your visit, Augusta now has several places that can do so, which is a huge improvement over 2 years ago.
- Gravity Growlers (341 Furys Ferry Rd, Martinez; @gravitygrowlers) Run by two years ago by two brothers who know their stuff, at Gravity offers 25 taps and numerous bottles of great craft beer. Visit them and you will not be disappointed! - Tip Top Taps (4317 Washington Rd, Evans; @TipTopTapsEvans) Opened just after Masters last year, Tip Top you can find 20 taps for growler fills. Convenient for those further up Washington Rd.
If you are looking to find a bottle shop in order to build a craft six-pack, or buy a sixtel, there are three great choices in the area. First is Toast Wine & Beverage (417 Furys Ferry Rd, Martinez). Equally as impressive is the selection at sister stores Beverage Outlet (248 Bobby Jones Expy, Martinez) & North Augusta Wine & Beverage (1135 Knox Ave
North Augusta, SC). Beverage Outlet is currently claiming 50+ brands available in kegs of various sizes. Both also have what seems to be acres of wine and liquor selections to finish out your drinking needs. Lastly, if you are pressed for time, you can find a fairly good selection at our new Whole Foods while out shopping for some gourmet eats. They have a 5-tap growler station, and have a good variety of craft single and six-packs to choose from. While we don’t have any Brew Pubs here in Augusta, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Aiken Brewing Company (140 Laurens St SW, Aiken, SC). This brew pub is located in the Aiken shopping district, and if you are staying North of the river, I would recommend you check them out.
So that is it for this year....enjoy the golf, and enjoy the best Craft Beer that this Beer Purgatory has to offer!
- Enjoy Monday Night beer samples - Learn about hops during an educational presentation from Monday Night brewers - Take home a Rally-exclusive gift from the AHA - Meet Monday Night brewers and staff - Take a VIP brewery tour - Mingle with local homebrewers - Win great prizes from the AHA and Monday Night
AHA Rallies are free to current AHA members. Non-members can join now, or sign up onsite at a discounted member rate. Save time and fill out a membership form in advance to bring with you to the Rally. Don’t forget to RSVP to help us properly prepare for the event.
A Georgia lawmaker has filed a bill in the state Senate that aims to repeal a number of Prohibition-era regulations that brewers have said are overly burdensome and restrictive.
The Beer Jobs Bill, as its dubbed, would allow for breweries to sell up to 72 ounces of beer per person for on-premise consumption and up to 144 ounces of packaged product to go. Currently, breweries are expressly prohibited from selling direct to consumers for both on- and off-premise consumption, though they can give away free samples. Likewise, brewpubs would be granted the right to sell beer for off-premise consumption under the same quantity limitations, should the bill pass as written.
It couldn't come soon enough! Though it currently would change craft beer availability here in Augusta, since we have no breweries or brewpubs....
This past Monday I was fortunate enough to be invited by 'Beer Me Augusta' on a trip to the Atlanta area to visit a couple of up and coming Georgia breweries. Our second stop after lunch was to the corporate cubicle escapees at Atlanta's Monday Night Brewing. Situated in an awesome space near downtown Atlanta, Monday Night encourages all it's fans to cast off their ties, and tie one on. And that is just what we did!
"We spent almost 5 years perfecting our Eye Patch Ale and Drafty Kilt
Scotch Ale before bringing them to market. Years of minor tweaks,
arguments over hop profiles, and experiments with different brands of
base malts are poured into every glass that we brew. In the summer of
2012 we launched our 3rd offering, Fu Manbrew, which won Bronze in the
US Beer Open in its first month.
The appropriately bearded brewmeister, Duck, gave us a quick tour of the generous brewhouse, where they are not yet brewing to capacity, but as they gain wider distribution in Georgia, and perhaps neighboring states, the brewhouse will no doubt become a round-the-clock operation. (Too many commas?)
Duck working his comedy routine
Black Tie fermenting
Afterwards in the cavernous garage of a tasting room, Josh tended the taps I got to try my first taste of their Fu ManBrew Belgian-style wit. Along with their regular Blind Pirate DIPA, Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale, and Eye Patch IPA, I got to try their limited "mythical, mysterious" Serrano Eye Patch IPA. Very nice with just a bit of pepper-bite on the tail end.
This huge tasting room is also set up for some great outdoor action as well, but the roll-up doors on the bar stayed closed as it was just too darn cold. I hate this Global Warming! I am a giant fan of the Monday Night Brewery, and have been following their development online as they built out this space. So I was excited to finally get to visit and see why they are having so much success. I am also glad that Monday Night is a growing brand in the Augusta area, as I see more bottles on shelves and tie-shaped tap handles behind many bars. If you don't have it where you are, ask your bartender to request it. Let's make these guys brew 7 days a week! ;-) Just to finish things off, here is a video of the MNB backstory and ethos. Cheers!
This past Monday I was fortunate enough to be invited by 'Beer Me Augusta' on a trip to the Atlanta area to visit a couple of up and coming Georgia breweries. Our first stop was Red Hare Brewing in Marietta... Red Hare is the first craft brewery in Georgia to actually can its beer, and is starting to spread its wings with distribution into South Carolina, and just this week, Tennessee. The one thing that struck me was how much brewing, fermenting, canning and serving is packed into such a small space (11k sqft). And as crowded as it looked, head-brewer Bobby Thomas told me that they have room for expansion in their current facility.
The Red Hare brewhouse features a steam-jacketed brewing system, 3800bbls worth of fermentation capacity, a nice cold room/bright tank area, and lots of cans!
Bobby- Red Headed Head Brewer
Fermentation goin' on
Bright Tanks
Canning Line
Lots and lots of cans!
Given that Red Hare is now expanding out of state, and that they are brewing every day of the week, I can see them filling up their remaining space with fermentors real quick. Of course the real fun of a brewery tour is to try out the proprietor's wares, even if it is still before lunch! Red Hare's frontage tasting room has a good line up of their regular offerings, as well as some seasonals and 'Rabbit Reserve' series.
We were lucky in that Red Hare had just released their most recent seasonal, Cotton Tail Pale. Additionally, they had their Rauchbier on tap, as well their 1-year old Bitter Hearts Double Black IPA. Given that it was that old, it had held up really well. The only reason we knew about it was that Bobby was drinking one during the tour. Unfortunately they had just floated the last keg of Thrice Hopped Imperial IPA at their Pale Ale release party, so I missed out (until later....). Lastly, I tried their Root Beer on tap. Now I lost my liking for Root Beer a long time ago, but this did hit the spot. Perhaps it was the pure cane sugar and spices.... I do hear you can find it in some stores here in Augusta.... Where will Red Hare go next? Perhaps they will add another offering to their regular line-up, but don't expect that too soon. Instead, keep and eye out for their seasonals and Rabbit's Reserve Series. In fact, go out of your way to ask your bartenders to request these items of the distributor. Otherwise we will probably never see them here in Augusta. Thanks again to Bobby and Bryan for the great tour and tasting, and here's to continued growth and success for that scarlet rabbit....
Bloomberg News had a few segments on Craft Beer over the past couple of days. The most interesting is the discussion on whether the beer you drink is really 'Craft Beer'. For some of us who follow Craft Beer with a bit more regularity, the distinctions are obvious. But for a normal, everyday beer drinker, they may not be. And sometimes who really owns a beer label can be surprising. Bloomberg: Is Your Craft Beer Not Really Craft Beer?
And for giggles, here is a discussion on what defines craft beer...in the UK. Interesting that things are coming full circle. Once we looked to them for inspiration, and that became the vibrant U.S. Craft Beer scene. Now they a looking to us to go the craft/microbrewery route... Bloomberg: What Defines a Craft Beer?
So remember that first time when you said, “I think I want to start a brewery”! After all of those experiences of getting the brewery up and running, if you could travel back in time and tell yourself some advice, what would it be? At MicroBrewer, we wanted to know and thought that you might too so we asked craft brewery owners the following question:
What do you wish you had known before starting your brewery?
The article covers several topics, with some candid comments on each one from craft brewers across the country. Amongst the topics discussed:
- Plan For Expansions From the Start
"People are thirsty! We started with a 3 barrel brewhouse, and that barely made enough beer to keep our tap room stocked. And the tap room was only open two days a week. We recently upgraded to a 20 barrel system, and we’re already planning the next expansion!"
- Costs to Running a Brewery and Time Required Will Be More Than You Plan On
"We planned for it to take twice as long and cost three times as much and it still took twice as long as that."
- Permitting and Other Legal Issues Are Complicated And Take Time
"Even with two other operating breweries in my city prior to my opening, many of the city inspectors, officials, etc. had no idea or understanding of what a brewery was or how it operated..."
- Opening A Brewery is More than Just Brewing Beer… Get Ready For Administrative Work!
"If I had known how much administrative work I would be doing, I would have built a bigger office inside the brewpub!"
- Running Brewpub is Opening a Restaurant that Sells Beer That Was Brewed There
"I thought I was opening a Brew Pub, when I was really opening a Restaurant that sold beer that was brewed there."
- Talk To Other Brewers in Your Area and Do Your Research
"Brewers tend to help each other out with things like advice, ingredients, and man power. It’s like no other industry I’ve ever seen."
- The Journey Is Half of The Reward of Starting the Brewery
"I wish I knew just how much fun and rewarding becoming a Craft Brewer would be, and I would’ve left that perfectly good paying job about 5 years earlier."
If you are a brewer, even if you aren't looking to open your own brewery, this is a must read for some terrific insights into the craft beer industry that we all hold dear.
@CL_Atlanta & @austinlouisray recently provided at great run-down of up & coming Georgia craft breweries.
Georgia Brewery Watch 14 new breweries to look forward to in 2014 One year ago almost to the day, Creative Loafing devoted its cover to the many in-progress craft breweries and brewpubs cropping up in and around Atlanta. Of the eight forthcoming beer makers highlighted in that piece, four — Jekyll, Three Taverns, Eventide, and Reformation — have opened. By CL's count, at least 14 are currently in the works this year. Will they all introduce beer to the market in 2014? Not likely. But the crowded pack represents a continuing upward trend that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
The article includes a nice overview of some great additions to metro ATL's embarrassment of brewing riches, including the previously profiled Southern Brewing Company, and some intriguing ideas like Geer Beer and Slice & Pint. With regard to the latter, pizza and beer sound good to me. Any chance they would want to open a second one in the CSRA?
It looks like I may have to convince the wife to take some more side trips to the ATL....
Of course there is a cluster in the Atlanta region, as one might expect. But what about Georgia's second biggest city, Augusta? Well....Augusta sits smack dab in the middle of a "No Brew Zone".
While the aforementioned Aiken Brewing Company and brewpub is about an hour away in South Carolina. But on the Georgia side of the border Augusta residents have to travel at least 90 minutes (and not in a direct route) just to find the closest craft brewery. And the plethora of locations around Atlanta can be up to 3 hours away, making any visit a long day trip, or an overnight venture.
First they screwed up homebrew laws, now possibly on-premise growler
sales.... Ironically, in the homebrew arena federal laws are actually pretty common-sensical. Homebrew "may be removed from the premises where made for personal or family use at organized affairs, exhibitions, or competitions such as contests, tastings, or judging". Nice and simple. Of course, never underestimate the ability of well intentioned politicians with no practical knowledge on an issue to screw things up. Back in 2013, Georgia legislators passed HB99 with the intention of addressing the transportation and consumption outside of the one's household, an activity which previously was not mentioned in Georgia laws. So one could debate whether this made transport technically illegal, or technically legal. But either way, the state of Georgia had gotten along fine for decades without it being addressed. This where the politicians step in. And as we know, the road to hell is paved with good intentions...
"Recently, House Bill 99 (HB99) passed and became law matching the federal production limits... It also attempted to legalize transportation and consumption outside of the household. However, instead of following the federal language and treating transportation of homebrew the same as transportation of commercial beer, it only allows for "transportation and delivery by the producer for use at home-brew special events in a quantity not to exceed 25 gallons". By default, these homebrew special events can only be held "at locations not otherwise licensed under this title" and a new special event permit is now required."
Awesome! From fairly unregulated to bureaucracy and required permits (which have to be issued by separate municipalities that probably don't have a process for this requirement) in one easy step!
"To add even more red tape, any homebrew leaving your household is now required to be labeled with personal information as well as the new permit number. No permit, no transportation. Prior to HB99, despite being technically illegal, transportation of homebrew was completely unregulated and monthly club meetings and contests were held at any venue that would tolerate them. No government oversight was needed or wanted.
[...] HB99 appears to have been written to finally legitimize competitions, but ironically it seems to have had more of a negative impact. Municipalities with little or no knowledge of the aspects of homebrewing and little resources, time, or perceived benefit are now slated to draw up an ordinance allowing an event in their jurisdiction...and several annual competitions are in jeopardy with at least one having already been cancelled.
Thanks again helpful politicians! Why did we even ask for your help? If you think that is bad, let's move to the simple idea (in over 3 dozen other states) of letting craft brewers let their on-site customers take some fresh beer home with them. Surely the politicians couldn't crew this up, right? Well, initially in 2013 proposed pieces of legislation (HB 314/SB 174) actually took some straightforward approaches "...to allow packaging breweries and brewpubs to sell a limited amount of beer (only 288 ounces per person per day) for consumers to take home." However, those bills languished in committee, and never got to a vote. What did get passed however was the establishment of a "Senate Study Committee on Brewpubs and Alcoholic Beverage Tastings". Yep, it was as bad as it sounds... And whodathunkit, the outcome of said committee was pretty craptacular.
"Despite an abundance of compelling testimony from Georgia craft brewers, the Study Committee Report favors prohibition-era, big-government regulation over modern free market principles. After three hearings held in August, September and October, the FINAL REPORT OF THE GEORGIA SENATE STUDY COMMITTEE ON BREWPUBS AND ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE TASTINGS was released on Friday January 17, 2014. While the Committee Hearings provided an unprecedented opportunity for Georgia craft brewers to explain the craft beer industry to our State legislators and the public-at-large, the report reveals ongoing misunderstandings and shortcomings that must be addressed."
Would you like to see stupidity in action? Check out how the report from this distinguished panel of public servants recommends that growler purchases at breweries and brewpubs should work.
The growler contains malt beverages manufactured on the premises;
The patron purchased and consumed a meal on the premises and consumed a
portion of the growler containing 64 ounces of malt beverages manufactured on
the premises;
The partially consumed growler is capped by the patron and placed by the
licensee or its employees in a bag or container that is secured in such a manner
that it is visibly apparent if the bag or container has been subsequently opened or
tampered with, and a dated receipt for the growler and meal shall be provided by
the licensee and attached to the bag or container; and
If transported in a motor vehicle, the bag or container with the capped growler is
placed in a locked glove compartment, a locked trunk, or the area behind the last
upright seat of a motor vehicle that is not equipped with a trunk.
Interesting. I have never seen politicians actually recommend that people drink a portion of their alcohol purchase before driving home. But seriously...in order to get a growler of fresh beer one must buy a meal AND drink a portion of said growler before leaving. Where the heck did that come from? Before I get more profane, I will let the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild (GCBG) to again express their frustration.
First, the recommendations of the Report entirely ignore packaging breweries. The Study Committee heard testimony that breweries in forty-two other states are allowed some form of beer sales to-go. Further testimony was provided on the bounty of economic and other benefits that would result from the proposed limited to-go business for packaging breweries. Yet, the Report is silent about whether Georgia's packaging breweries should be given a fair opportunity to strengthen their consumer relationships in the same way that out of state competitors can in their home states. The Legislature needs to address laws which impede our craft brewer's ability to effectively compete, before Georgia's craft beer industry loses additional ground to neighboring states.
Secondly, the “merlot-to-go” recommendation on page 20 of the Report for how brewpubs should be allowed to sell growlers shows an apparent lack of understanding of the realities of beer service and quality. The recommendation limits the consumer to only one 64oz growler, WHICH MUST BE PARTIALLY CONSUMED AT THE BREWPUB. The remainder can then be taken home if it is wrapped and sealed in a plastic bag. The report even goes so far to specify where the container can be placed in the patron's car, creating additional burdens and risk on consumers who simply want to enjoy their favorite beer in their own home. Not only would the recommendation require the patron to drink part of the growler before getting back on the road, it overlooks the fact that beer is not wine. A half-filled container of beer will be flat and oxidized before the consumer can return home. The “merlot-to-go” recommendation is unworkable, as written, and does not serve the interests of Georgia’s craft beer industry or the interests of Georgia’s adult consumers.
Another major flaw in the Report is the lack of any meaningful consideration of the consumer demand. The Senate Study Committee was provided with reports, analysis, news stories and other background material that indisputably proves the enthusiasm and sophistication of craft beer consumers in Georgia. The Report does not seem to understand or appreciate this sophistication and the recommendations seem to indicate that these sophisticated consumers in Georgia should just accept the status quo. This is unacceptable for many reasons and the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild will continue to fight to create the best possible environment for craft beer consumers throughout the state of Georgia. It's time to bring the laws governing Georgia's craft brewers up to speed with the rest of our country. The Georgia Craft Brewers Guild is opposed to the Study Committee’s recommendations and will continue to push for passage of HB 314/SB 174 into law.
So....while one can buy a growler of their favorite local beer at growler stations throughout the state (where by the way quality of the beer cannot be guaranteed) and take it all home. But if they buy an identical growler at that beer's brewery, they must buy a meal and drink some before they go home. Makes perfect sense! I don't get why the pols are making things so complicated. It is not like this is a real threat to the three-tier system (Certainly not here in Augusta). And has been shown in other states in the region, updating these very types of laws can have an immediate and positive affect on the state's brewing industry, and by extension, its tax base.
Changes in State Law Fueled S.C.’s Brewery Boom "No matter where you go in South Carolina, there’s little doubt that craft beer is experiencing something of a boom. “South Carolina is right on the edge of an explosion,” says Nick McCormac, who blogs about South Carolina beers at drinkblogrepeat.com. So, what was the spark that lit that explosion? Two words: Pint Bill. On June 6 of last year, Gov. Nikki Haley signed into law an amendment that granted microbreweries the ability to sell up to 48 ounces of beer to patrons on site instead of limiting their intake to free samples, giving breweries a much-needed up-front source of income beyond selling through distributors. While it took a coalition of brewers and enthusiasts lots of hard work to get the bill created and pushed through, the results were immediate and dramatic. “Already [since the Pint Bill passed] there are about 10 different breweries of various sizes and in various locations in the planning stages, and that’s just going into 2014,” McCormac notes"
Alas this type of progress, as has been advocated by the GCBG, seems to elude the narrow minds of Georgia state legislators. One can only hope that sanity will prevail, and the original proposed text of the House and Senate bills will become law, without the idiotic recommendations of the esteemed Senate Study Committee on Brewpubs and Alcoholic Beverage Tastings...
Red Brick is hosting an unprecedented festival which aims to gather all currently operational Georgia breweries under one banner for a day of celebrating our local craft beer culture. The VIP area will feature 12 specially crafted beers, each one by a different participating brewery. There will also be food trucks and some of the best local live music that Atlanta has to offer. The event will benefit the Georgia Craft Brewers' Guild (insert anything here that you want to say about the guild).
In pursuit of my goal of seeing good local craft beer take hold here in Augusta, I wanted to look at the question of what would it take for someone to start a craft brewing operation from the ground up. So it is my intent to talk with some of the newly arrived regional craft brewers, and see how they got (or are getting) their dreams off the ground. First out of the chute is Southern Brewing Company of Athens, GA.
Founded by Brian Roth and Rick Goddard, after many years of dreaming and planning SBC is on the verge of production, and well on their way to opening their own facility in Athens. Below is a Q&A I had with Brian about where SBC came from, and where it is going...
-Tell us a little
about yourselves. Your website
says you have a good deal of experience in both industry and homebrewing. What are your backgrounds, and how has
that helped you make the jump to commercial brewing?
Rick Goddard and Brian Roth
I have worked
in beer distribution for 22 years and started homebrewing in 1993. The first craft beer that I had
any experience with from a sales standpoint was RedHook back in 1997. They had signed a distribution
agreement with A-B and had started expanding their territory. I also worked with Red Brick out of
Atlanta around that time. In
2003 I started lobbying for the beer wholesaler side of the beer
industry in Washington DC. The
NBWA goes to DC once a year to talk to the house and senate about
pertinent issues. This is where I
met Rick Goddard. Rick was the lobbyist
for the Beer Institute and lobbied on behalf of 95% of the brewers in America. He lived in DC and spent over 7
years working on issues for the production side of the industry. Rick is friends with a large number of
craft brewers and at the time I was working on bringing more craft beer into
distribution in the state of Georgia.
That made us a great fit for hanging out and talking shop. Rick was an incredible resource and I
enjoyed meeting everyone in his network.
- What got you started in homebrewing?
We had a gentleman
working with us at the distributor named Kenny Havener. He was one of the greatest draft
beer guys I have ever met. He was
in charge of building, fixing, selling and working with all things related to
draft beer for the distributor. I
was twenty-four and my wife was pregnant with our son. At the time I was a sign
painter for the distributor and I did banners and murals etc. Kenny had me design his labels
and let me help him brew. I
was the guy that helped sterilize bottles and clean. Kenny was like a wizard to me back
then. I was amazed at the whole
process and how effortless he made it look. He lived on Nantahala St in Athens, GA so he affectionately
named his operation after that street.
Oddly enough there is a commercial brewery by that name now up near
Hickory, NC. Kenny let me help him
out but eventually moved to North Carolina. That left me with a passion for brewing and zero equipment. It also made me realize that Kenny was
the composer and director. I could
do anything he told me to do but I couldn’t solo at that point. So I spent a few years drinking great
craft beer and reading everything I could get my hands on. Kenny’s operation was a partial grain
stovetop setup and I wanted to go all grain. Back then that felt like jumping out of an airplane without
a chute. I didn’t own a single
piece of equipment at the time and that added to the complexity.
- What has been your favorite style to brew?
Lambics. We've been doing lambics for a few
years now and to do it properly takes a ridiculous amount of time and patience. You have to ferment for an entire year
before you bottle and then you have to wait for another year for that to mature. The complexity will change in the
bottle for up to four more years.
It's frustratingly slow but to watch that beer change that slowly has
taught us a lot. Mainly, it
taught us that great beer takes patience.
Conversely we love brewing everything. In the summer we love a Kolsch. That beer ferments quickly and is so clean and
fresh. Kolsch doesn't age well so
we never feel guilty about making that style disappear fast. We became famous for brewing in a giant
pumpkin every year. We actually
plumb a pumpkin and use it as a mash tun.
This year we had two Giant Pumpkins running side by side. We turn it into an all day event
and invite a ton of folks to come over to help. So from an entertainment perspective that's our
favorite.
- Before you started the process, had you been dreaming of going
commercial for a while, or did you have an epiphany one day while stirring the
mash?
Rick came up with the
idea. I was constantly picking his
brain and using his network to convince people to distribute in Georgia. He asked me why I didn't just open a
brewery. That was 7-8 years
ago. I laughed at first and then
he got serious. He said, "No
really, why don't we open a brewery together?” Rick and I are both Air-Force
Brats. His dad had retired in
Warner Robins and my dad's last duty station my senior year had been Warner
Robins. I had never lived anywhere
longer than a few years and after I graduated in 1989 I followed my high school
sweet heart to UGA and we planted roots.
I love the south and Rick was looking to come back to Georgia. Brooklyn had just rolled out in
the state and Rick is good friends with Steve Hindy the owner of Brooklyn. Rick suggested that Brooklyn would
struggle in Georgia in the beginning because a New York brand wouldn't generate
a lot of interest (he was right, they had a hard time those first few years). Southerners like the south. So Gary Fish, the owner of Deschutes
suggested that if that were the case Rick should open a brewery and call it
Southern Brewing. That was seven
years ago and stemmed from a quick conversation that Rick had at a bar
with those guys. I had started
partial grain brewing solo about nine years ago and jumped into all-grain eight
years ago with an igloo cooler. I
had been saving up a chunk of money to restore a 1973 VW Bug for my son and
took all of that and started building an all grain system at the house with a
proper RIMS system and a yeast lab.
- Your website also mentioned that you have done extensive research,
visiting well over 200 breweries. What
were the top questions that you “asked over and over again” during your visits.
I added it up the
other day after you asked this again.
My number now is 425 individual breweries. I feel very lucky to have been able to visit these breweries
from a distribution standpoint. Craft
beer guys love to share their knowledge and I had a lot to learn. I was fortunate enough to be friends
with Owen Ogletree who is a huge beer enthusiast and writes for many
beer publications. He runs Classic
City Brewfest in Athens every April and that's one of the longest running
festivals in the south. Owen
taught me a lot and took me on a couple of trips over to Europe. We went all over Bavaria, Scotland
and England. Those beer cultures
blew my mind. I had lived in
Europe as a kid but didn't pay attention as much to how beer was made
back then. So after talking to
Rick I made a list of everything I lacked from a knowledge standpoint and a
network standpoint. If you're
going to jump out of a plane and you have to pack your own chute you
better do a lot of research. Obvious
questions related to the size of systems or what a breweries SOPs were for
various parts of the brewing process.
Those taught me a lot. The
one question that always started a two hour conversation that became a
classroom for me is' "What was your biggest mistake. What would you have done differently?"
I realized it's the one thing that nobody asks but everyone loves to talk
about it. It's hard work getting a
business going and I think we're all proudest of the moments that define us and
shape us. Those stories are
fascinating. I would love to write
a book about those. It would save
a lot of people a lot of headache and frustration. There were some very funny stories and usually ended hours
later at a bar somewhere.
- What was some of the best advice that you got out of that
research? What was the most surprising?
One answer
covers both. Quit trying to
perfect a recipe or style, and to just brew everything and anything. I talked to a lot of really good
brewers and I asked them how they scale recipes up. Sam Calagione gave me one of the greatest answers. He had been brewing on a Sabco system
at his brewpub for a long while and that allowed him to do really small batches
and to throw in a lot of crazy stuff.
That's where he learned to be creative and throw caution to the wind. You learn the most from your mistakes. I love it when we have a life lesson on
a batch. New home brewers that
brew with us get torn out of frame when one of their assumptions get kicked in
the guts. To me, great brewers
know how to adjust. They're like
fighter pilots. Something always
goes wrong on a brewday. It might
be a pump failure or a stuck mash or any number of things. It's experience that keeps that batch
from failing and sometimes it takes guts to make a split second decision. It also takes knowing when a batch just
didn't work and knowing why it didn't work. So many young brewers throw failures down the drain. I bottle them and make people drink
them when they come to brewday. You
have to know what off flavors are and why they happen. Having a living example of a bad batch
helps educate. We bottle
everything and we make sure every batch has a short fill and that one bottle is
clear glass, etc. We want to know
how time, heat, light and age affect our beers and their ingredients. I've known brewers that have great
breweries and they've only brewed three beers. They brewed them a thousand times each but it's all they've
done. They have great breweries
but they struggle from a creative standpoint.
- Was there any one question that everyone answered the same way?
Great question! It
made me snort-chuckle a little.
I've never even gotten two people at the same brewery to answer a
question the same. That's what I
love about this process. It's the
art side. Chef's all have their
own tricks and even though we use the same ingredients it's amazing how
many variables affect the outcome.
- In your leap from avid homebrewers to being fully committed craft
brewers, how difficult was it to “scale up” your recipes and processes?
This is a big
difficulty and we have yet to do it for our system. You have to brew on a system to know it's efficiencies
and the recipe needs to be built around that. We're going to contract brew at Jailhouse in Hampton and
Glenn knows his system inside out.
That will make it easier to dial us in. However, we'll have to re-do everything again when get our
system up and going. That
keeps it exciting. The other
issue is that all brewing ingredients are agricultural. Each season is different from year
to year. Great brewers are always
adjusting their recipes. When I
buy ingredients I taste them first, especially at local homebrew shops. Grains go stale, hops start oxidizing,
and yeast becomes less viable. I
only brew with ingredients that smell fresh and taste fresh. I don't use close dated yeast. I don't go to a homebrew shop with a
recipe in hand. I go with an idea and
build the recipe based on that.
Brewers that are tweaking recipes tend to buy the same ingredients all
the time. They have to. It's their recipe. The problem is that specialty grains
sit for long periods at home brew shops and even get infected by weevils,
mice, etc. The
humidity in Georgia is ridiculous and that really affects efficiencies.
- Have you found that being in Athens and close to Atlanta/Decatur, both
areas with strong craft brewing cultures, a help or a hindrance to getting a
small brewery off the ground?
Yes. I am a lover of craft beer first
and foremost. The fact that I can
drive to some really awesome breweries within an hour of my house is a huge
bonus. I love the Georgia brewing
community. I could write a
separate book on each of those guys and their struggles and triumphs. It’s really a great group of folks. Out of the 400+ breweries I have been
to only two have been uncooperative.
Those two are in the wrong business. Everyone else always helps. This is the only industry that I know of that works
like that. If a brewery needs help
other breweries are right there helping out, especially locally.
- What ware the top 3 (or more) things you need to start a small craft
brewery?
1st - You need to
really love what you're doing. Running
a business is hard work. Brewing
raises that to a ridiculous level.
As a brewery owner you're doing everything and getting paid after your
employees and usually less than them for a long time. You're going to be cleaning toilets, learning to weld,
running tours, brewing, running promotions, selling in the market, cutting the
grass, the accountant, the HR person, The counselor, training everyone,
developing recipes, and the list goes on forever.
2nd - Make sure you
own your brewery. Funding is
really tough. It took us over two
years to put together our team. Don't
give up controlling ownership and make sure there's room to give up more share
later without giving up control. I
have seen a lot of people lose ownership of their dream by being impatient. We had to knock on doors and have
heated discussions with a lot of friends and family. Don't over promise anything and let everyone know that
you're not going to generate revenue, much less profit, for a long time. You need a group of investors
that are happy with little or no return. If you don't have that I wouldn't do it. Use all your resources and ask a
million questions. Use banks to
help learn. Local agencies are
awesome Small Business Development Group, Small Business Administration, etc. Don't over capitalize but don't under
capitalize either. Right now it
takes about two million dollars to set up a proper brewery. You can do it for less but the work to
grow becomes exponential.
3rd- Know the industry. Beer is a regulated industry that is
controlled at the federal, state and local level. Each of those levels is complex and confusing. The three-tiered system mandated by the
21st amendment places control of the system with State and Local agencies. Georgia has a lot of strict enforcement
and laws that, at times, make it unfriendly. When you sign with a GA distributor it's a permanent
relationship. PERMANENT. Make sure you choose the best system
and do your research. Make sure
they have resources and passion for the industry. Make sure they don't have too many breweries or too few
people. Think about growth and 10
years from now. Make sure that it
firs with your business plan.
4th- Write a business
plan. I spent 5 years researching
ours and it took close to another 900 hours to finish it. We worked with the SBDG at UGA to polish
ours up before we submitted it to banks.
Learn how to take criticism.
Realize that you don't have all the information and research all your
choices. Where are you getting
your equipment? Draft, Cans, Bottles? Where are you going to get your supplies?
Yeast lab? Yeast supplier? Employees? Growth model? You better meet all the
other brewers in the state and start making relationships with retailers and
distributors.
- Someday in the future when an avid homebrewer comes to Southern
Brewery’s shiny brewing facility, what is the one piece of advice you would
give them?
Know what you want in
life and figure out how to get it.
Make sure that it doesn't conflict with other plans. For me, family is my number one
priority. I wasn't going to open a
brewery until my son graduated from high school. I have many friends that own and run breweries with
kids still at the house. They do a
great job balancing both. I knew
that I would put too much time in at the brewery to be the dad that I
wanted to be. I wanted to
coach my son's soccer team and attend all his events. Travel soccer requires a huge commitment and you can't coach
from a bar on Saturday via phone.
He graduated last May.
I can now devote my time to running my brewery the same way. Be committed.
- Tell us about the first recipes you are looking to produce when you start
production. And what time frame are
you shooting for?
A lot of short run
local stuff. We are going to focus
on finishing the brewery out and making that a cool space. We will have a farmers market and we'll
be brewing with local farmers. I
do a lot of growing around the house, Hops and fruit. We use that to make some
really nice short run stuff. We'll
also be working on beers that will work well in the South. Kolsch, Berliner-Weiss, Pale Ales,
Lambics, IPAs and some unique barrel aging. All in due time.
It's hard to be too creative when you're contract brewing. We'll be in a holding pattern
early on and that will depend on seasonality. Our timeline is always flexible. Don't get your heart set on definitive times. So much depends on a myriad of
uncontrollables (i.e. the weather). We're slated to brew on our own system
in mid July. We should start
contract brewing in late January or early February. We're waiting on a handful of
uncontrollables to get pinned down.
-
I see from the proposed brewery plans, that you will have a phased rollout. What will be the size of your initial
system (in bbl) and facility? And what do you envision as the size of a
full (4-phase) operation?
Initial system will be
30 BBLS and we will be able to reach 2,450 barrels before we need to buy more
tanks. It would be hard to imagine
what the final build out would be.
The next brewhouse size would logically be a 50 or 100-barrel system. We will have enough room for either. The market will dictate the growth and
help us decide which system is necessary.
We hope it's 100, but only time will tell.
-
Lastly, and most importantly, will you have a tasting room?
We will definitely
have a tasting room! That's one of the most important pieces. From marketing stand point you can't
beat it. We'll run tour hours
similar to everyone else.
Many thanks to Brian for being my first real foray into beer journalism. For anyone in the Augusta area who dream of opening their own craft brewery (And I know a few of you!), keep your eye on SBC as an example of what it takes.
I hope to get to Athens and watch them work, and perhaps inaugurate their new brewery when it opens.
If you are looking to top off you’re a growler or two during your visit, Augusta now has several places that can do so, which is a huge improvement over 2 years ago.
