It’s hard out here for a brewer
West sent in this uplifting story about how difficult it is to make it as a brewer in Georgia. The article doesn’t contain any information that we don’t already know, but it’s always good to remind ourselves of the barriers we’re up against. The difficulty of being a micro in Georgia is actually one of the reasons why we feel compelled to do it. From the story:
Demand for microbrewed beer has grown in the last few years — and the South is one of the hottest areas for the craft beer market. But Georgia microbrewers say they’re basically blocked from taking full advantage of the potential market here.
In the last few years, Georgia has lost three microbrewers: Dogwood Brewing Co., Zuma Brewing and Old Savannah Brewing Co. Its three remaining microbreweries produce about 45,000 barrels a year, or roughly $10 million in revenue. That’s a pittance compared with microbrewers like California’s Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., which does nearly 700,000 barrels a year.
“It’s tough to be in this business,” said Freddy Bensch, the big kahuna at Sweetwater Brewing Co., another Atlanta area microbrewer.
I encourage anyone living in Georgia to read the full story. You’ll definitely appreciate Georgia’s 3 remaining micros more.
Jonathan, Joel & Jeff
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:58 am
[...] Monday Night Brewery amens a recent AJC story about the challenges of brewing in Georgia. Tags:atlanta blogs, Bloglanta, [...]
January 2nd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
“Under a new set of proposed rules being unveiled this week, visitors to Georgia’s microbreweries may soon be limited to 24 ounces of beer, roughly half of the self-imposed amount brewers poured.”
I would love to haze you guys about how the south sucks and this is what you get…but this crap really pisses me off. In New York keg deposit legislation makes kegging and distributing cost prohibitive all but the biggest breweries. Legal regulations will not allow a liquor store to sell ice or mixers. Wineries cannot sell beer, so on and so on…it’s all crazy.
This is knee jerk legislation to try and mitigate social problems with regulation. Its backwards and the kind of thinking that influenced prohibition.
Fight the power guys! Even if your beer sucks…keep fighting.