Sweetwater Brewing, Atlanta GA
Early in my beer-drinking career, I discovered a brewery down in Atlanta called Sweetwater. They were one of the featured breweries in a “beer of the month” style club. That was my first exposure to a really great nut brown called “Sweet Georgia Brown” (now renamed to just “Georgia Brown”). Unfortunately they don’t distribute in these here parts; I’m told that they only go as far north as Raleigh, North Carolina, but that they have plans to expand up into Virginia soon. (Update: Sweetwater tells me that they hope to be distributing to Richmond, Charlottesville and Virginia Beach by summer.)
I found myself driving through Atlanta at Christmas time this year (long story, don’t ask) and decided to check a few convenience store freezers for some of their brews. No Georgia Brown, but I did pick up a 6-pack of their 420 Extra Pale Ale. It’s a nice, easy-drinking, well-designed beer. Very sessionable, and probably also what I’d call a “training wheel” beer — one that you could easily pull out to help someone interested in making the transition from drinking mass-produced beers to craft beers. Still craving that Georgia Brown, but kudos to Sweetwater for this light, crisp, well-done beer.