SweetWater Brewing Company is a

craft brewery Craft beer is beer manufactured by craft breweries, which typically produce smaller amounts of beer than larger "macro" breweries and are often independently owned. Such breweries are generally perceived and marketed as emphasising enthusiasm, ne ...

founded in 1997 by Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. SweetWater's beers are

unpasteurized In food processing, pasteurization (American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), also pasteurisation) is a process of food preservation in which packaged foods (e.g., milk and fruit juices) are treated wi ...

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 university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

, where they also worked part-time cleaning kegs at a local brewery. After graduation in 1993, Bensch moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

to study at the American Brewers Guild, while McNerney went on to work in several breweries in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

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 R ...

and Mammoth Brewing Company. 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 Interstate 20 (I‑20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I-20 runs beginning at an interchange with I-10 in Reeves County, Texas, and ending at an interchange with I-95 in Florence, South Carolina. B ...

on Fulton Industrial Boulevard. Bensch named the brewery after kayaking down Sweetwater Creek, a tributary of the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River () is a river in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida and Georgia border. It ...

, in Georgia's

Sweetwater Creek State Park Sweetwater Creek State Park is a Georgia state park in east Douglas County, from downtown Atlanta. The park is named after Sweetwater Creek which runs through it. Cherokee people were forcibly removed from the area and it eventually became h ...

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 organizatio ...

, 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 Cente ...

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 1986, 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 corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...

. On November 4, 2020,

Aphria Inc Aphria may refer to: * Aphria (company) Aphria Inc., headquartered in Leamington, Ontario, was an international producer and distributor of medicinal and recreational cannabis. The company operated 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 Fort Collins is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality in Larimer County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The population was 169,810 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, an i ...

, 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 Gas South is an American natural gas marketer based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company serves nearly 500,000 residential, commercial and governmental customers throughout the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Company Gas South began operations ...

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 ...

, 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 alc/vol or ABV) is a common measure of the amount of alcohol contained in a given alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the volume the ethanol in the liquid would take if separated from the rest of the solution, ...

: 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,

: 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 ...

. As of 2014 the fest is held in

Centennial Olympic Park Centennial Olympic Park is a public park located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, owned and operated by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority. It was built by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) as part of the infrastructur ...

on or around the weekend of April 20. The

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network) includin ...

inspired festival was first hosted in 2004 and features live music, local art, standup comedy, food trucks, craft

beer tasting Beer tasting is the experience of sampling beer. Depending on how the tasting is designed, it can be 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 co ...

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 1997 establishments