For two years running, I’ve opened my annual year-end roundup by declaring it the biggest year for craft beer in Georgia since I first started writing this column.
But given the pace of change, not only in our state but all over the United States, let’s just go ahead and say it a third time, and look to the past as a prelude to 2019.
In 2018, more than 7,000 breweries operated in the U.S., up some 20 percent over 2017, according to the Brewers Association, the not-for-profit representing small and independent American brewers.
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Around Atlanta, some of the biggest news of 2018 was the January opening of New Realm Brewing from former Stone Brewing brewmaster and IPA expert Mitch Steele. And not long after, Steele and his partners opened a second brewery and taproom in Virginia Beach, Va., taking over the former Green Flash production facility.
Bigger for Georgia, Athens' Creature Comforts opened a new production brewery in June 2018 — a $11 million project housed in an impressive 40,000-square-foot historic building filled with state-of-the-art equipment, including a fully automated dual 85-barrel German-made brewhouse.
The wave of the future, though, seems to be the increasing number of small, local, taproom-driven breweries — such as Variant in Roswell, Pontoon in Sandy Springs, Tucker Brewing in Tucker, and the just-opened Contrast Artisan Ales in Chamblee — plus the larger taproom spinoffs from production breweries like Monday Night Garage.
Among the openings to look forward to in 2019, Halfway Crooks' "own premise" brewery is a groundbreaking partnership in Summerhill that includes Joran Van Ginderachter, the former Belgian brewmaster of Three Taverns Brewery in Decatur.
Sceptre Brewing Arts should be open in Oakhurst Village in early 2019. The new venture from the team behind Argosy in East Atlanta Village will replace the short-lived Oak Brewpub, which closed in November 2017.
First announced in 2017, Decatur’s Wild Heaven is on track to open a second, somewhat scaled back facility with a taproom in early 2019, joining Monday Night Brewing at the Lee + White development in West End.
After a quick name change, and a series of delays, Best End Brewpub should be joining Monday Night and Wild Heaven at Lee + White in 2019, with a full-service restaurant and bar and house-made beer.
First announced for a March 2018 opening, Steady Hand Beer from brothers Brian and Kevin Sullivan already sells contract-brewed beer in Atlanta, but January looks to be the month its new brewery and taproom finally opens on the Westside.
Reformation Brewery opened a new downtown Woodstock location in 2018. And in 2019, Reformation will relocate its production facility to The Mill on Etowah mixed-use development in Canton, with a new brewery and taproom in the works.
Three Taverns Imaginarium, a second location with a taproom and brewhouse focused on "experimental and creative beers," will be part of the Atlanta Dairies development on Memorial Drive, blocks from the Beltline.
Brewmaster John Roberts of Max Lager’s and Brewed to Serve Restaurant Group is still working on the Bold Monk, a Belgian-influenced brewery and beer garden at the Third & Urban development on the Westside.
The Lost Druid Brewing in Avondale Estates had a groundbreaking ceremony in September, promising an “own premise” neighborhood brewery with a taproom and shareable small plate-oriented kitchen.
Of course, there are many more breweries in planning, or in the works, as 2019 promises to be another bigger year for beer.
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