Craft beer culture brewing up big in Middle Georgia

Beer enthusiasts like their brews cold, but the craft beer business in Macon is heating up these days.

In the last five years, a brewery, multiple growler stores and a brewpub have sprung up in downtown and other areas of Middle Georgia.

Jeremy Knowles, one of the founders of Macon Beer Co. along with Cory Smith, said the influx of new housing and other initiatives downtown have helped spark that growth.

“I would say with all the energy going on with all the housing projects, all the lofts, people recognizing that people like to sip on beer, sit outside and have one,” Knowles said.

Knowles actually founded Macon Beer Co. in 2011, but it took about two years to get from there to producing beer in 2013. Part of that was the process of developing the brewery’s business plan and the beer itself, but Knowles said a healthy portion of that time was devoted to the licensing and other regulatory requirements of opening a brewery.

“That took close to a year just to get licensed,” he said, noting that Macon didn’t even have a brewer’s license until Macon Beer Co. was coming on board.

The local focus reflects the growing presence of breweries and brewpubs statewide. Until about 2009, there were just three breweries based in Georgia: Red Brick and SweetWater in Atlanta and Terrapin in Athens. Now, the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild lists more than 30 such breweries, including Macon Beer Co. and others in Savannah, Columbus and Blue Ridge.

That boom, as a result, has led consumers to seek out not just craft beer, but local craft beer.

Chuck Fowler, manager of the Growler Spot on Northside Drive in Macon, said a group of Kentucky residents was in the store earlier this month on the way to the Wanee Music Festival in Live Oak, Florida. The Allman Brothers Band originally hosted the festival.

“They wanted to buy stuff that was local to us that they couldn’t get locally back in Kentucky,” Fowler said.

Beers of Macon

Macon Beer Co. is looking to meet that desire for local brews.

Knowles said the initial plan was to have two flagship ales – a pale ale called Macon Progress and a darker ale called Macon History. Both beers are in production, but Macon Progress became the company’s flagship brew and can be found in bars and restaurants around the area.

Still, the company’s goals extend beyond those two varieties.

“The case was always going to be that our main focus was going to be on seasonals and getting seasonals into the market that had something to do and could really highlight and celebrate Macon,” Knowles said.

One of the more popular seasonals is Macon Love, a Cherry Blossom Festival-inspired blonde ale “infused with a sweet cherry puree, sourced from a small family cherry farm in Oregon's Willamette Valley,” according to the company’s website. Knowles said the pink beer, usually available from March to May, was different from most other cherry beers because it’s light and more sweet than tart.

“There’s very few recipes out there with sweet cherries,” he said.

New beers for 2016 also will play off local traditions. One will be called Macon Mounds, at the request of the Ocmulgee National Monument Association. It will be a dark beer to honor the tradition of the “black drink” among Native American tribes of the Southeastern United States.

While the beer won’t completely emulate the drink’s spiritual traditions, which often included ceremonial purification rites, Knowles said it would be an effort to honor Macon’s founding by Native Americans.

“We’re going to use yaupon holly tea leaves and try to create something around that so that we can celebrate their heritage by pulling something from the heritage,” Knowles said, adding that the goal was to use native grains such as millet and sorghum in the brewing process.

Another of the new beers this year will be a peach beer called Macon Dreams to honor what would have been Otis Redding’s 75th birthday. Knowles said rather than being guided strictly by styles, Macon Beer Co. started with end results in mind and “reverse engineered” the beers from there.

“We decide what we want to make, what we want it taste like ... and then we kind of work backwards from that,” he said.

Beer by the growler

Another beer option developing across Middle Georgia is the growler store, which allows patrons to fill 32- or 64-ounce glass bottles with draft beer, providing fresher beer that can be savored in the comforts of home.

Locally, that option is available at the Growler Spot and Just Tap’d in downtown Macon and Warner Robins. At all three locations, customers buy their own growler, then purchase fills of craft beer — or even soda — from taps in the store. Growler Spot offers as many as 44 options, with Just Tap’d offering 64 in Macon and 45 in Warner Robins.

“The primary thing is the freshness of the beer,” Fowler said. “Beyond that would be the variety of the beer.”

At any given time, you can find 16 different styles of beer on the Growler Spot’s 44 taps. That number could be even higher if you count variations such as the Black India Pale Ale, which combines elements of IPA and stout styles.

“That’s another thing that you’re seeing now with craft beer — that blending of styles,” he said.

Another style that’s been increasingly popular has been Scotch ales. Scotch ale has been around since the 1800s, but breweries have started taking their shot at producing the brew again. Fowler said a Scotch ale could perhaps best be described as a more “intense” version of the more common amber ale, known for a malty or caramel taste.

“You still get a lot of those flavors,” Fowler said, adding that Scotch ales often double those flavors.

At Just Tap’d in downtown Macon, people can fill their growlers and also purchase beer by the glass. Owner Jeff Kressin said that’s because the store’s First Street location isn’t near many grocery stores or other shopping options, and he knew the establishment wouldn’t be able to focus solely on growlers.

“Some people just wanted to hang out and have a quick beer or taste multiples,” he said.

While the store still sells beer by the growler, the late afternoon hours bring a healthy crowd of people stopping by for a glass with friends both inside and out in front of Just Tap’d.

“That’s what we tried to create here is a Starbucks for craft beer,” Kressin said.

Just Tap’d is also hosting a Taste of the South Craft Beer and Food Festival on April 30 from noon to 6 p.m. in Rosa Parks Square, one of several beer-related events — such as the Macon Beer Festival — that have sprung up in recent years.

The pub option

Macon beer drinkers will also get to enjoy a new brewpub soon, with Ocmulgee Brewpub set to open downtown later this year.

Owned by Kressin, the brewpub will offer something that hasn’t been an option in Middle Georgia since Texas Cattle Co. closed its Riverside Drive location in 2006 — a concept that might have “just been in the wrong era,” Kressin said. Ocmulgee Brewpub will brew its own beers, which can be purchased by the glass alongside burgers, salads, truffle fries and regular french fries.

“That place’s point is food and craft beer that’s brewed locally,” Kressin said.

The plan for Ocmulgee Brewpub, which Kressin hopes to open by late summer or early fall, is to have six original brews on tap at once. Four of those will be consistent beers – likely an amber ale, an IPA, a stout and a wheat beer of some kind. The other two beers would be seasonals or even guest taps, with the seasonals including varieties such as Oktoberfest, vanilla porters and Christmas ales.

“So we will have a variety of things,” Kressin said, adding that Doug Evans will be Ocmulgee’s brewmaster.

Before any of that can happen, though, Kressin will have to get approval from the city, state and federal governments to brew beer at Ocmulgee Brewpub. That’s on top of the licenses and inspections to serve food, which could also include buffalo, elk and bean-based burgers.

“So there’s three pieces of approval just for the brewing piece,” he said.

Once all that is up and running, though, Kressin will be able to provide locally brewed beer in his own restaurant, a special opportunity for him that even a brewery owner might not get. He’ll get to see people drinking his beer right there in front of him, and he noted there’s “nothing fresher” than a beer that has just completed the brewing process in-house.

“I can’t even explain how cool that will be,” he said. “Number one, it’s really neat to be able to make your own beer. ... It’s almost like magic.”

Like Kressin, business owners Richie Jones and Brian Whitley have been working with the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority to secure a loan for their own brewpub, Piedmont Brewery and Kitchen. With that approval, Piedmont could join Ocmulgee Brewpub in opening this fall.

Alex Morrison, executive director of the Development Authority, said that more beer options are a frequent request when the agency surveys Macon residents.

“At this particular time in our history, beer is a civic engagement piece,” he said.

Part of the community

Over the past few years, these establishments that were once novelties have become a regular part of life in Middle Georgia. You’ll find taps with Macon Beer Co. handles at local establishments such as Just Tap’d and Growler Spot or chain restaurants such as Carrabba’s Italian Grill.

Knowles was at a bar with a friend recently, eating dinner, and he heard orders for the beer he made. He made sure to watch which tables his product was headed to.

“That’s really neat to see,” Knowles said. “It’s encouraging.”

He’s also started to see people he doesn’t know wearing Macon Beer Co. T-shirts. And he’s finding decals with the company’s logo all across town.

When the company first opened three years ago, those items belonged only to his friends.

“We’ve had a lot of verbal support and a lot of people that are actively out there being ambassadors for us,” he said.

That has manifested itself in people asking that restaurants and other establishments start carrying Macon Beer Co.’s brews. Knowles said he’s even started getting interest from other markets for his varieties. That, he said, would be a way for his small brewery to have a positive impact on the local economy.

“Ultimately that’s another reason to have a brewery is that we manufacture here, but our biggest market’s going to be Atlanta,” he said. “So we can actually manufacture it here and bring Atlanta money here to Macon instead of it going the other way.”

Macon Beer Co. has recently started the process of bottling its beers, which would allow restaurants and other venues to more easily keep multiple beers from the hometown brewery in stock at the same time.

Kressin also recognized that, down the road, Ocmulgee Brewpub could start distributing its beer, although he said local distribution would come before anything — and even that wouldn’t happen immediately.

Alongside persistent talk of even more brewpubs and breweries that could open in the future, Kressin said the beer culture in Macon could gain momentum beyond what it is now. As more people become aware of the options available through craft beer, the demand will only grow.

“We are still at the bottom side of the wave climbing,” Kressin said.

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Craft beer culture brewing up big in Middle Georgia."