 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
| Founded | February 21, 1997 |
| Founder | Kevin McNerney Freddy Bensch |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Area served | United States |
| Products | Beer |
| Parent | Tilray |
| Website | www |
SweetWater Brewing Company is a craft brewery founded in 1997 by Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney in Atlanta, Georgia. [1] SweetWater's beers are unpasteurized and distribution is limited to select states.
Founders Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney were roommates at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where they also worked part-time cleaning kegs at a local brewery. After graduation in 1993, Bensch moved to California to study at the American Brewers Guild, while McNerney went on to work in several breweries in Colorado and California, including Rockies Brewing Company, Avery Brewing Company and Mammoth Brewing Company. [2] Bensch visited Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics 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. [3]
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. [3]
Two years later, SweetWater hosted the World Beer Cup, an international brewing competition. [4] In 2002 SweetWater won Small Brewery of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival 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. [3] 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. [2] 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. [5]
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. [6]
On September 29, 2014, SweetWater announced that it was selling a minority interest [7] to TSG Consumer Partners.
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. [8]
On November 4, 2020, Aphria Inc., a large producer of cannabis based in Canada, acquired SweetWater for $300 million. [9] [10]
In July 2021, the company acquired the Fort Collins, Colorado, brewery of Vancouver-based Red Truck Beer. [11]
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, 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.
The SweetWater 420 Fest is an annual three-day craft beer, music and arts festival formerly held in Atlanta's historic Candler Park. 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 and a 5k. [12]
Pale ale is a golden to amber coloured beer style brewed with pale malt. The term first appeared in England around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with high-carbon coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Different brewing practices and hop quantities have resulted in a range of tastes and strengths within the pale ale family.
India pale ale (IPA) is a hoppy beer style within the broader category of pale ale.
Victory Brewing Company (Victory) is a brewery founded in 1996 in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, United States. The main brands are HopDevil, Prima Pils, Headwaters Pale Ale, Golden Monkey, DirtWolf, and Storm King, which are distributed in 34 states and nine countries. Victory Brewing is located at 420 Acorn Lane Downingtown, Pennsylvania 19335.
Beer, called maekju in Korean, was first introduced to Korea in the early 20th century. Seoul's first brewery opened in 1908. Two current major breweries date back to the 1930s. The third brewery established in Korea, Jinro Coors Brewery, was founded in the 1990s. It was later acquired by Oriental Breweries (OB). Hite Breweries's former name was Chosun Breweries, which was established in 1933. The company changed its name to Hite Breweries in 1998. OB Breweries established as Showa Kirin Breweries in 1933. The company changed its name to OB Breweries in 1995.
Weyerbacher Brewing Company is a brewery in Easton, Pennsylvania, United States, founded in 1995 by Dan and Sue Weirback.
Terrapin Beer Company is a brewery founded in 2002 by Brian "Spike" Buckowski and John Cochran in Athens, Georgia, United States. In July 2016, Molson Coors announced its majority stake in Terrapin, ending its status as a craft brewery.
Oskar Blues Brewery is a craft brewery with locations in Longmont, Colorado, Brevard, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas. The company began as a brewpub in Lyons, Colorado in 1997 and began brewing beer in the basement in 1999. In 2002, they became one of the first to put their own craft beer in cans. In 2012, they began marketing some of their craft beer in resealable aluminum containers, and in 2012, they expanded and established another brewery in Brevard, North Carolina.
Thornbridge Brewery is an English, independent brewery founded at Thornbridge Hall, now based in Bakewell, Derbyshire, and known for its Jaipur American style IPA beer.
Panama produces three brands of rum and a similar liquor known as Seco Herrerano, but beer is also quite popular. There are multiple brands produced by six companies.
The Malt Shovel Brewery is an Australian brewery owned by Lion, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Kirin. It is located in Camperdown, New South Wales. Malt Shovel is best known for its James Squire range of beers. The beer is named after the convict turned Australia's first brewer James Squire, who also went on to grow Australia's first hops and is said to have created Australia's first commercial brewery.
The beers of the Caribbean are unique to each island in the region, although many are variants of the same style. Each island generally brews its own unique pale lager, the occasional stout, and often a non-alcoholic malta beverage. Contract-brewing of international beers is also common, with Heineken Pilsener and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout being the most popular. The beers vary between the islands to suit the taste and the brewing method used.
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 Rascal Belgian-Style White Ale at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival. In 2017, Spain-based Mahou-San Miguel Group acquired a 30% stake in Avery. In 2019, Avery sold another 40% stake to Mahou-San Miguel Group and Founders Brewing Company.
Beer in Scotland is mostly produced by breweries in the central Lowlands, which also contain the main centres of population. Edinburgh and Alloa in particular became noted for the export of beer around the world in the 19th century.
Green Flash Brewing Company is an American craft brewery headquartered in the Mira Mesa neighborhood of San Diego, California, and founded in 2002. In early April 2018, the company sold to a group of investors, WC IPA LLC following a foreclosure by the company’s principal lender, Comerica Bank.
Uinta Brewing Company is a craft brewery founded in 1993 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The company produces a range of beers, naming them after Utah's cultural and natural icons. As of 2016, Uinta was the 39th-largest craft brewery in the country.
The Archipelago Brewery was a Singaporean brewery owned by Heineken Asia Pacific. It labelled itself as "Singapore's Craft Brewery".
Cigar City Brewing, LLC is a craft brewery in Tampa, Florida, at 3924 West Spruce Street. Founded in 2007 by Joey Redner, it has been producing beer in Tampa since January 30, 2009. It currently produces approximately 170,000 barrels of beer annually. Since 2009, it has brewed over 6,000 individual brands of beer.
Monday Night Brewing is a craft brewery founded in 2006 by Jonathan Baker, Jeff Heck, and Joel Iverson in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mammoth Brewing Company is a Californian regional brewery founded in 1995 in Mammoth Lakes.
Tilray Brands, Inc. is an American pharmaceutical, cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company, incorporated in the United States, headquartered in New York City. Tilray also has operations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America, with growing facilities in Germany and Portugal.
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