Tour of Sweetwater Brewery

Ok, so a few months back my wife picked up what she thought was a corny keg that I could use for my homebrew. She only paid a buck for it. Well it turned out that it was a keg from Sweetwater Brewery. It was just like a corny keg, but was modified and welded up with a sanke connection. There wasn't much that I could do with it, so I contacted the brewer about returning it to the brewery. He said that they no longer use those types of kegs. So I then decided to just pair it up with a hand pump tap that I had back in college. I was asking $15 for both, figuring I could get a little bit of money out of the tap and someone could take the keg and do whatever they want with it.

Well out of the blue someone from the brewery saw the listing on craigslist and offered my asking price plus a case of their 420 if I bring it to the brewery. This sounded like a sweet deal to me. I told the guy that I was wanting to take a tour of the brewery anyway, so it was no problem coming by....plus the free case of beer was a nice bonus! Well, to make a long story short I ended up with 2 passes to tour the brewery and a case of beer for bringing the keg and tap to the brewery.

We ended up going last night (Friday night). It was packed. Everyone at the brewery was awesome. Very friendly. My wife and I had a blast. Here's some pictures of the brewery, in case any of you are interested.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hossthegreat/SweetWaterBrewingCompany?feat=directlink

These guys are great. They went through a lot of trouble to get my homebrew club 2 cases of IPA and APA a couple months back.

Of course, why wouldn't they all be friendly? They're all allowed to drink beer on the job.

I finally got to taste some of their products while we were up in Georgia...camping on Tybee Island.

I had the Sweetwater 420... it was light, refreshing. Then I stopped on the way back to camp and got a 6-pack of the 420 and the IPA. The IPA wasn't bad...but not quite as crisp a hop bite as I like in an IPA. The 420 still held it's own as an all-around good beer to go with seafood...which is all I eat when I'm up on the Georgia coastal region ---YUMMY!

Can't wait to get up there to take a brewery tour! I'd love to try some of their other beers...but they don't seem to be distributed down in FL yet...at least that I've seen anywhere.

chuggs said:

I finally got to taste some of their products while we were up in Georgia...camping on Tybee Island.

I had the Sweetwater 420... it was light, refreshing. Then I stopped on the way back to camp and got a 6-pack of the 420 and the IPA. The IPA wasn't bad...but not quite as crisp a hop bite as I like in an IPA. The 420 still held it's own as an all-around good beer to go with seafood...which is all I eat when I'm up on the Georgia coastal region ---YUMMY!

Can't wait to get up there to take a brewery tour! I'd love to try some of their other beers...but they don't seem to be distributed down in FL yet...at least that I've seen anywhere.

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Actually they said that the would begin distributing to Orlando before the end of the year. At the brewery was the first time I had a chance to try the IPA. I really liked it. Certainly had a lot of grapefruit aroma and tase coming through.

Love Sweetwater! One of the guys there went to college with me. Helped to bottle the Festive Ale one year. Great time. Drink one, bottle one.

Halldawg said:

Love Sweetwater! One of the guys there went to college with me. Helped to bottle the Festive Ale one year. Great time. Drink one, bottle one.

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Man, I imagine that must have been a blast.

I am also a big fan of Sweetwater's 420!

Man, I sound like Richard Nixon on The Simpsons, "Uh, I'd also like to express my fondness for that particular beer."

Shooter said:

I am also a big fan of Sweetwater's 420!

Man, I sound like Richard Nixon on The Simpsons, "Uh, I'd also like to express my fondness for that particular beer."

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Yup, the 420 and the IPA were by far my favorite 2.

yeah 420 is great, but the Sweet GA brown is my favorite regular brew of theirs. Man i miss the Exodus Porter. They should be slapped for replacing it with the hummer. Damn fools.

BA_from_GA said:

yeah 420 is great, but the Sweet GA brown is my favorite regular brew of theirs.

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Hmm, that one is sounding familiar. I think I tried it a few years back as well.

BA_from_GA said:

yeah 420 is great, but the Sweet GA brown is my favorite regular brew of theirs. Man i miss the Exodus Porter. They should be slapped for replacing it with the hummer. Damn fools.

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Yeah, the Brown was great too. Who am I kidding? They were all great.

BA_from_GA said:

yeah 420 is great, but the Sweet GA brown is my favorite regular brew of theirs. Man i miss the Exodus Porter. They should be slapped for replacing it with the hummer. Damn fools.

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I too was very fond of the exodus porter. The last time I had it, my appreciation and palate was subpar. Hell, I couldn't even legally purchase alcohol then. But if my memory serves me correctly, it was a good porter.