Omnivore - Six brews to check off your Atlanta beer bucket list

aka six beers to drink in Atlanta before you die.

Image


When my editor asked me to complement Creative Loafing’s 100 Dishes feature with some Atlanta beers everyone should “drink before they die,” I’ll admit I was a bit stumped. For one thing, our craft-beer scene is only just getting started. Sure, we’ve got a few established big guys, some exciting newer operations, a whole slew of great bars, and a ton of promising breweries on the way. And that’s the thing: We have so much to look forward to in the next couple years, I could make a list comprising solely unreleased beers.

This is a good problem to have, of course. As SweetWater CEO Freddy Bensch told me recently, for as long as he can remember, Georgia’s been a “craft-brewing wasteland.” As a co-founder of the state’s most successful brewery, he’s been hoping for - and making - better Georgia beers during the last 16 years and change. We’re finally catching up with the rest of the country, too. “You see a completely different picture today, with the Southeast as a top emerging and thriving craft-beer market,” he said, finishing his thought optimistically.

All this without mentioning the unpredictable releases of exemplary beers from brewpubs and breweries. From seasonal releases to infrequent one-offs, craft beer is a world where something delicious shows up and then disappears in a week. It can be as hard to keep track of it all as it is to stand up if you have one too many. (Pro-tip: Do not drink the entire list below in one sitting.)