E-Malt.com News article: USA, GA: Georgia to have more than a dozen new breweries and become a Southern beer destination

For as long as he can remember, SweetWater Brewing Company CEO Freddy Bensch says Georgia has been known as a "craft-brewing wasteland", clatl.com reported on February, 7.

Between 1993 and 2002, a handful of craft breweries and brewpubs began popping up around the Atlanta area. Elder statesmen such as Red Brick (formerly Atlanta Brewing Company), SweetWater, Five Seasons, and Terrapin introduced such household names-to-be as 420 and Hopsecutioner, and laid the groundwork for the current craft beer boom. Unfortunately, by the early aughts, archaic distribution rules, and prudish, restrictive alcohol-by-volume (ABV) laws had stifled the homegrown industry. Georgia capped ABV at 6 percent, limiting the ability of local brewers, barkeeps, and beer lovers to experiment. But in 2004, the state raised the legal ABV limit to 14 percent, a move that not only allowed establishments like Decatur's Brick Store Pub to start serving some of the finest high-gravity beers in the world, widening palates and deepening consumer interest in the process, but also freed up local brewers to be more adventurous with their creations.

Likewise, 2013 will be a pivotal year for Georgia's craft-beer industry. More than a dozen new breweries and brewpubs are currently in the works. Their additions will nearly double the number of craft-beer producers statewide, doing in one year what it previously took 20 to accomplish. The presence of new breweries reveals Atlanta's ascendance as a Southern beer destination and Georgia's path to becoming a craft kingpin.

"If you love craft beer, there is no better time to live in Atlanta," says Tom Stahl of new Decatur brewery BlueTarp, which released its first beer, the Irish Red Ale Bantam Weight, on December, 27. Its second beer, the Mother Hoppin' Double IPA, is set for an early February release.

Raising ABV limits completely altered the trajectory of beer culture in Atlanta. The influx of specialty beers fostered new businesses, including retail establishments such as Decatur's Ale Yeah! and the Westside's Hop City. From 2009-2012, seven new establishments entered the local market, including Jailhouse Brewing Company, O'Dempsey's, Wild Heaven Craft Beers, Burnt Hickory Brewery, Monday Night Brewing, Red Hare Brewing Company, and Strawn Brewing.

"I mean, when you look at all this beer, if you're stuck brewing under 6 percent, that's extremely limiting. That held a lot of people back," says David Stein. Stein recently left Twain's Billiards & Tap in Decatur, where he was responsible for the hoppy Godspeed Double IPA. He's now co-owner/co-brewmaster of the forthcoming Athens-based Creature Comforts Brewing Company.

Georgia's alcohol laws have long been restrictive. In addition to prohibiting the sale of booze on Sunday, vagaries in state law also prevented retailers from selling draft beer. But thanks to the efforts of Athens-based craft-beer retail store the Beer Growler and its lawyer, in 2010, local governments started approving ordinances allowing the sale of growlers, 32- and 64-ounce glass containers of draft beer. After Athens, beer-loving Decatur and Avondale Estates quickly followed suit. In November 2011, Atlanta and Decatur finally saw fit to leave the dark ages as citizens voted overwhelmingly in support of Sunday sales. The already-active local homebrew community flourished thanks to all of this change.

One new establishment on the smaller end of the spectrum will be Alpharetta's Jekyll Brewing, which could be brewing as soon as April. Brewmaster Josh Rachel says his company will start with a lighter, German-style Kolsch ale and an IPA. He says Jekyll's goal is "to appreciate the love of beer" and to keep its focus community-oriented. "Jekyll Brewing will be one of the smallest microbreweries in Georgia," he says. "This is something that I'm actually very proud to say."

Others are starting small by necessity, with hopes of expanding over time. Jason Pellett intends to set up his operation, Orpheus, near the Atlanta Beltline's eastside trail. While he's only about half-funded and plans to order his brewing equipment in March, his beers include a King of Pops-inspired plum saison called Siren, and a winter IPA brewed with coniferous tree branches. "I love sours," Pellett says. "I want there to be an easily accessible, year-round, not-very-expensive sour."

The three men and one woman behind Atlanta's Eventide, opening in late summer or early fall, plan to roll out a Kolsch, an American pale ale, and a stout. Brewer Geoffrey Williams is excited to be a part of Georgia's craft-beer boom.

Amid this burgeoning group of beer purveyors, Athens' Creature Comforts and Decatur's Three Taverns will likely define the Georgia brewing conversation over the next decade. Stein's Creature Comforts will initially produce an IPA, pilsner, and a Berliner Weisse. For Brian Purcell's Three Taverns, the focus is on a Belgian IPA and a Belgian-style single to start.

Georgia's craft-beer boom has been a long time coming, but it also has a long way to go before it can keep up with juggernauts like Oregon and Colorado. "I'm not sure Atlanta is pushing the envelope, so much as catching up to the kind of beer culture other cities have enjoyed for a long time," says Southern Brew News editor and Atlanta Journal-Constitution beer columnist Bob Townsend.

There are obstacles, of course, primarily Georgia's handling of the three-tiered distribution system. The nationwide post-Prohibition legislation splits the alcohol industry into three parts — manufacturing, distribution and retailing. The intent was distribution of power, and control of the unruly flow of spirits. But when it comes to beer, in Georgia the scales are tipped in favor of the distributor. A brewer's deal with a distributor is a deal for life. The only out: halting operations for five years — a deathblow to any business.

With the exception of tours, Georgia law doesn't allow breweries to put their products directly into the hands of consumers. And even then, tour attendees are only permitted "tastes" - they can't purchase and take home what they just enjoyed. Georgia could learn from states such as New York that permit self-distribution among home- and nanobrewers.

North Carolina, in particular, is seeing the benefit of opening its arms to brewing culture. In addition to a flourishing local scene, big craft names such as New Belgium (Colorado), Sierra Nevada (California), and Oskar Blues (Colorado) are building out East Coast locations in the state. Meanwhile, Georgia has the third-highest beer excise tax rate in the nation — $1.01 per gallon compared to North Carolina's $0.53, and Oregon and Colorado's $0.08.


15 February, 2013