Kennesaw’s hometown brewery is getting a whole lot bigger. Well, relatively speaking.
Burnt Hickory Brewery, which has been attracting metro Atlanta beer geeks with high-flavor, high-gravity (that means high-alcohol) brews for the past two years is increasing its capacity by tenfold.
In other words, the nano is becoming a micro.
“This is still a very small brew house,” says owner Scott Hedeen. “This is a 20-barrel brew house, which is pretty much entry-level for a microbrewery.”
The first, four-tank portion of “Clementine,” the spanking-new, stainless steel system, has been set up and will be on display from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, at Burnt Hickory’s open house, the first event at the brewery since installation began.
Also on display this weekend will be Burnt Hickory’s distinctive take on open houses.
“I like to turn our open houses once a month into kind of mini festivals,” Hedeen said. “Where it’s kind of like a beer fest and you get more bang for your buck.”
The brewery’s location in a small Kennesaw industrial park lends itself to outdoor events. There’s simply not much room inside the building to accommodate the crowds that throng to sample the creations of Hedeen and brewer Will Avery.
The set list for Oct. 18 includes their flagship pale ale, an imperial pumpkin porter and a green peppercorn tripel. Limited pours include their barrel-aged quadrupel, a cranberry-infused tripel and an eggnog stout with pumpkin spice.
Also on tap: an IPA wet-hopped with 40 pounds of fresh Citra shipped directly from Yakima, Wash. The hops were only 12 hours off the vine when they arrived three weeks ago. Hedeen was checking the shipment’s progress through FedEx all the way.
“We started brewing and it was like ‘OK, they’re an hour away’ so as soon as they showed up we walked it right in and started throwing them in,” he said.
The beer, We’re Desperate: An Ale for X, floods the nose with a bright, juicy, citrus aroma. Intensely flavored, yet well balanced, X is proof that you don’t have to dumb down beer in order for it to be accessible.
Clementine’s first test is planned for early November and Hedeen expects to get the system cranked up to full capacity quickly. Three of his most popular beers, Ezekiel’s Wheel pale ale, Cannon Dragger IPA and Big Shanty graham cracker stout will be the first brews to hit metro Atlanta store shelves in 22-ounce bottles. He plans to explore canning in the near future.
“The next couple of months for us are going to be huge -- to make sure we keep our customers happy, our fans happy, Hedeen said. “We have a growing fan base of people who really like our beer and I think there’s a lot of eyes on us. If we put our beer out and it doesn’t taste the same – well I hope it will taste even better -- but if it doesn’t, if it’s not good, people will be disappointed. And there’s enough breweries opening in the state now that there’s a lot more choices.
“What’s going to make or break all these breweries is quality. We have to make sure the quality is up there.”
Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18. Free; souvenir glasses for sale on site. 2260 Moon Station Court, suite 210, Kennesaw. www.burnthickorybrewery.com
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