SweetWater Brewery Company
is a craft brewery that was
founded in 1997 by Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerny. The two went to college
together at the University of Colorado at Boulder and decided they were destine
to open up their own brewery. The duo visited Atlanta during the 1996 Summer
Olympics and saw an opportunity to bring a West Coast style brewery to the
Southeast and shortly after they opened their brewery near downtown Atlanta.
I was born and raised in Atlanta and grew up with SweetWater
being the beer of choice from my parents and family members, so naturally when
I was old enough to taste the beer I too couldn’t get enough of it. I visited the brewery a few weeks ago when I
was home and enjoyed every second of it. Every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,
from 5:30 – 7:30 and Saturdays from 2:30 – 4:30 SweetWater opens our doors and
taps to the public. For $10 you are able to enter the brewery, receive a tour,
and get a souvenir SweetWater pint glass, with 6 sample tickets for 5.5oz
samples of SweetWater’s brews.
I went on a Friday afternoon and this tour/tasting was a
perfect alternative for going to happy hour at some boring bar. The environment
at the brewery was very welcoming and lively. After I paid my entrance fee we
walked into what is known as the “tasting room.” It was a big open room with
several bars surrounding it with all of the SweetWater beer on tap. Additionally
there was a great outside area with more bars and a stage that had a band
playing. My friends and I headed to the bar to start sampling the different
beers on tap. I had have a few of the beers before but was surprised at the
wide selection they had to offer. After about 30 minutes after our arrival we were
escorted to the back of the room so we could go on a tour of the factory.
Overall the tour was really fun and relaxed, our tour guy
was super friendly and didn’t even act like this was “work” he really seemed to
be passionate about the brews. The tour itself lasted about 20 minutes. We
walked around the factory and saw the different steps of the brewing process such
as the ingredients that went into it (hops, barley, and yeast), mashing,
boiling, fermenting, filtering and packaging. We got to see the brew kettles
that boiling the beer and the tanks that the fermentation process. The coolest
part of the tour was seeing all of the barrels of beers stacked up on top of
each other, there must have been hundreds. Seeing the packaging of the bottles was
really neat too, the machines moved so quickly.
We were educated on
the different types of beer they have, how Sweetwater got started, past
locations, plans for future growth. I learned that most of the brews are
currently sold in select cities in the Southeast, in Georgia, Alabama, Florida,
Tennessee, South Carolina & North Carolina. The beers they offer year
around are:
420 Extra Pale Ale-- most popular brew, is a tasty West Coast Style
Pale Ale with a stimulating hop character and a crisp finish; 5.4% alcohol.
This is my favorite beer, probably of all time! It has to much flavor yet is
still so refreshing.
Blue-- unique light bodied ale enhanced with a hint of fresh
blueberries. I love this wine but it is a little too fuity for my taste.; 4.9%
alcohol.
India Pale Ale-- IPA is subjected to an extensive
dry-hopping process which contributes to its very intense hop character. This
beer is unfiltered and as always, unpasteurized to leave all the natural
flavors intact; 6.7% alcohol. This is definitely my second favorite, it had a
strong blog taste and was really hardy.
Georgia Brown—is a deep, copper colored, mild brown ale. GB
is accentuated by a slight nuttiness from its malt character. 5.1% alcohol.
This beer was really different but I loved it!
Exodus Porter - First brewed on Bob Marley's birthday. 6.3% alcohol. My friends and I called this a coffee
beer. It was really dark and almost chocolaty. I liked this beer but was only
able to have one tasting before I got sick of the taste,
LowRYEder IPA – this Rye IPA is ignited by a 25% shot of rye
malt and capped by a super hoppin blast of Mt Hood and Centennial hops that
makes this IPA bounce. This was delicious and very refreshing.
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