![SweetWater Brewing Company](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/SweetWater_Brewing_Company.jpg)
SweetWater Brewing Company is a
craft brewery
Craft beer is a beer that has been made by craft breweries. They produce smaller amounts of beer, typically less than large breweries, and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as having an emphasis o ...
founded in 1997 by Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. SweetWater's beers are
unpasteurized and distribution is limited to select states.
History
Founders Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney were roommates at the
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sy ...
, where they also worked part-time cleaning kegs at a local brewery. After graduation in 1993, Bensch moved to
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
to study at the American Brewers Guild, while McNerney went on to work in several breweries in
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
and California, including
Rockies Brewing Company,
Avery Brewing Company
Avery Brewing Company is a regional brewery located in Boulder, Colorado, founded in 1993. The brewery produces year round beers as well as seasonal beers, some of which have received praise from brewing competitions and festivals such as White ...
and
Mammoth Brewing Company
Mammoth Brewing Company is a Californian regional brewery founded in 1995 in Mammoth Lakes.
History
Mammoth Brewing Company was founded in 1995, and is one of the highest elevation breweries on the West Coast of the United States at over 8,000 f ...
.
Bensch visited Atlanta during the
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...
and saw an opportunity to bring a West Coast style brewery to the Southeast. McNerney soon joined Bensch in Atlanta raising initial funds to open the brewery's first location off
Interstate 20 on Fulton Industrial Boulevard.
Bensch named the brewery after kayaking down
Sweetwater Creek, a tributary of the
Chattahoochee River, in Georgia's
Sweetwater Creek State Park located a few miles west of the brewery. The brewery also adopted the official motto "Don't Float the Mainstream" as a tribute to its namesake. Bensch and McNerny began brewing in January 1997 and sold their first keg on February 21, 1997 - SweetWater ESB and Blue. SweetWater's most popular beer, SweetWater 420 Extra Pale Ale, named after the date it was first brewed (April 20), soon followed.
Two years later, SweetWater hosted the
World Beer Cup
The World Beer Cup is an international beer competition organized by the Brewers Association, a trade group
A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organizat ...
, an international brewing competition. In 2002 SweetWater won Small Brewery of the Year at the
Great American Beer Festival
The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is an annual beer festival hosted by the Brewers Association, held in Denver, Colorado. Typically held in late September or early October, the event is currently held at Denver's Colorado Convention Center. ...
in Denver. In 2003 the brewery outgrew its space on Fulton Industrial Boulevard and moved to a 25,000 square-foot facility in Atlanta's Armour Circle Industrial Park on Ottley Drive. In 2004 SweetWater signed with United Distributors, one of the largest volume beverage distributors in the U.S., increasing SweetWater's distribution from 200,000 to 700,000 cases in six years.
Kevin McNerney resigned from SweetWater Brewing Company in 2008 to spend more time with his family, and later became brewmaster at 5 Season's Brewing Company.
In 2012 SweetWater completed a three-phase expansion project adding additional office and event space, a bottling line and packaging hall, and a tank farm that increased capacity from 100,000 to 500,000 barrels per year.
In 2013 SweetWater ranked 26th among the top 50 U.S. breweries and 19th among the top 50 U.S. craft brewing companies based on sales volume.
On September 29, 2014, SweetWater announced that it was selling a minority interest to
TSG Consumer Partners
TSG Consumer Partners is an American private equity company based in San Francisco, California. The firm was founded in 1987, and was among the first private equity firms to invest exclusively in consumer companies. .
In July 2015, SweetWater promoted Kim Jones from Chief Financial Officer to Chief Executive Officer. She was the CFO since 2013 and before that, she held senior financial and management positions with
Spanx Inc. and
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrup ...
.
On November 4th, 2020,
Aphria Inc Aphria may refer to:
* Aphria (company)
Aphria Inc., headquartered in Leamington, Ontario, is an international producer and distributor of medicinal and recreational cannabis. The company operates through retail and wholesale channels in Canada ...
., a large producer of cannabis based in Canada, acquired SweetWater for $300 million.
In July 2021, the company acquired the
Fort Collins, Colorado brewery of Vancouver-based Red Truck Beer.
Environmental and community commitment
SweetWater sponsors a number of programs designed to give back to the Atlanta community as well as environmental causes. The brewery also implements a variety of sustainability practices within its day-to-day operations, and has partnered with
Gas South to purchase direct carbon offsets to reduce their carbon footprint. In 2013, SweetWater recycled more than 9.5 million pounds of
spent grain
Brewer's spent grain (BSG) or draff is a food waste that is a byproduct of the brewing industry that makes up 85 percent of brewing waste. BSG is obtained as a mostly solid residue after wort production in the brewing process. The product is i ...
, 165,000-lbs of spent hops and 150,000-lbs of yeast for local farmers to feed livestock and use for compost. Water reclamation practices used during brewing and bottling also reclaim more than six million gallons of water annually to be used in future brewing.
Beers
Perennial Brew
*420 Extra Pale Ale, ABV: 5.7%
*Blue,
ABV
Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...
: 4.6%
*Georgia Brown, ABV: 5.1%
*IPA, ABV: 6.3%
*Hop Hash Easy IPA, ABV: 4.2%
*Take Two Pils, ABV: 5.5%
*G13 IPA, ABV: 6%
*G13 Mango Kush IPA, ABV: 5%
Catch N' Release series
*Road Trip,
ABV
Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...
: 5.2%
*WaterKeeper Hefeweizen, ABV: 5.7%
*Crank Tank Helles Lager, ABV: 5.8%
*Whiplash White IPA, ABV: 6.2%
*Festive Ale, ABV: 8.5%
*Spinnerbait Belgian-Style Red Ale, ABV: 6.0%
*Happy Ending, ABV: 9%
*Triple Tail Tropical India Pale Ale, ABV: 5.5%
Dank Tank series
* DP Barleywine, ABV: 10.2% (June 2009)
* Big Ol' Belgian Blue Balls, ABV: 8% (August 2009)
* Wet Dream Ale, ABV: 7.5% (October 2009)
* BSP Quad Ale, ABV: 11% (February 2010)
* Magnum IP Imperial Pilsner, ABV: 9% (July 2010)
* Border Hop-per Ale, ABV: 8.6% (October 2010)
* Mean Joe Bean Imperial Porter, ABV: 8.5% (February 2011)
* Ghoulash, ABV: 8.5% (October 2011)
* Fresh Sticky Nugs, ABV: 8% (November 2011)
* 420 India Pale Ale, ABV: 8.5% (February 2012)
* Danktoberfest, ABV: 8.5% (October 2012)
* The Gimp, ABV: 10.3% (December 2012)
* Some Strange II Black IPA, ABV: 10% (January 2013)
* The Price is Wrong, ABV: 9% (August 2013)
* Red Hot Mama, ABV: 8.6% (October 2013)
* Second Helping IPA (Collaboration with The Giving Kitchen), ABV: 7.5% (January 2014)
* Johnny Ha$h, ABV: 8.5% (April 2014)
Anniversary beers
*15 Years of Heady Beers, ABV: 10% (2012)
*16 So Fine Red Wheat Wine, ABV: 11% (2013)
*17th Saison Farmhouse Ale, ABV: 9% (2014)
*18 Belgian-Style Tripel Ale, ABV: 10% (2015)
Retired beers
*ESB, ABV 5.6% - Retired 2000
*Hummer White Ale, ABV: 5.1% - Retired 2008
*Sch’Wheat Pale Wheat Ale, ABV: 4.7% - Retired 2012
*Exodus Porter, ABV: 6.5% - Retired 2018
*LowRYEder IPA, ABV: 6.2% - Retired 2014
*Motor Boat, ABV: 5.6% - Retired 2014
SweetWater 420 Fest
The
SweetWater 420 Fest
The SweetWater 420 Fest is an annual event presented by SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta, Georgia held on a weekend closest to Earth Day. In 2014, the festival announced it would be celebrating its 10th anniversary at its new home in Centenni ...
is an annual three-day craft beer, music and arts festival formerly held in Atlanta's historic
Candler Park
Candler Park is a 55-acre (223,000 m2) city park located at 585 Candler Park Drive NE, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is named after Coca-Cola magnate Asa Griggs Candler, who donated this land to the city in 1922. The park features a nin ...
. As of 2014 the fest is held in
Centennial Olympic Park on or around the weekend of April 20. The
Earth Day inspired festival was first hosted in 2004 and features live music, local art, standup comedy, food trucks, craft
beer tasting
Beer tasting is a way to learn more about the history, ingredients and production of beer as well as different beer styles, hops, yeast and beer presentation. A common way is to analyse the appearance, smell and taste of the beer. Then a final judg ...
and a 5k.
References
{{reflist
External links
SweetWater Brewing Company website
American beer brands
Beer brewing companies based in Georgia (U.S. state)
Manufacturing companies based in Atlanta
Food and drink companies based in Atlanta