Sweetwater Brewing Company - Sweetwater Ale (ESB)

This highly accoladed ESB was the silver medal winner in the English-Style Bitter Category at the 1997 Great American Beer Festival, took home the silver again at the 1997 World Beer Championships and then the Gold at the 1998 World Beer Cup! You could say…it’s a champion in its style. Look for a deep rich copper color with some amber red hues in this medium bodied ale. We found a predominately English hop nose to be subtle. You’ll get them more in the body. Some pale malt in the nose. Kevin uses Kent Goldings for aroma and Centennial and Willamette, Kent Goldings and Cascade for flavor. The complex malt flavor is very well balanced with pleasant hop bitterness. Note a slightly malty sweet finish. Enjoy!

You got your 3 friends that are all equally passionate about quality beer. You got your business plan, some start up cashola, and BAM! …you’ve got your grassroots microbrewery producing some fine beers. The first thing the lads that founded Sweetwater did was to move halfway across the country from Colorado to Atlanta.

Why would three good friends make such a sacrifice? Well, the answer is two-fold. First, Colorado continues to be the top market in the country for microbrewed beers. It leads the country in many brewing categories, including most breweries per capita, most number of individual beers available for sale and most barrels of beer produced annually. Bottom line? Barriers to entry, Baby. So it’s off to "Hot-Lanta" where educating the general populace on the finer points of freshly brewed craft beer are slightly more challenging…But there are that many more to convert!

The Sweetwater Brewery officially opened on February 17th, 1997 and quickly began winning over the taste buds of beer lovers all over Georgia. For anyone in the brewing industry, this came as no surprise.

Fredrick Bensch, Sweetwater’s master brewer, had repeatedly proven himself at the Oasis Brewery, Rockies Brewery, Mile High Brewing Company and at the Marin Brewing Company. If you aren’t familiar with these breweries, they are some of the more respected breweries in the country. Marin holds literally dozens of Gold Medals from the Great American Beer Festival.

Kevin McNerney, Sweetwater’s head brewer, had already turned heads brewing for Rockies Brewery, Avery Brewing Company and Mammoth Brewing Company. And Matt Patterson, the final piece in the puzzle, had helped put Breckenridge Brewery on the map as their Western Regional Sales Manager.

With their combined knowledge of the brewing industry, this was a brewery bound for greatness. Being the second most decorated brewery in the world at the 1998 World Beer Cup certainly proves that they have achieved that goal.

For those who reside in or are planning to visit the Atlanta area, The Sweetwater Brewery opens its doors on Monday afternoons at 4:20PM to the public. Stop by and meet the guys, have a beer, and take a tour of the brewery.

For more information about the brewery and scheduled tours, call (404) 691-ALES or check out their web site at www.sweetwaterbrew.com.