If you’re ever in Atlanta and looking for really cheap decent beer, you could have worse ideas than heading down to the Sweetwater Brewery in the warehouse district outside of Atlanta. After two hours having cheap beer and laughs, I came up with the follow list of observations

1. Dress for the season, but leave your coat in the car, since there is no coatcheck and the floor is devoid of anything to sit on
2. Like anything cheap and half decent, arrive early. The gates to the brewery open at 5:30 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings and stay open till a little after 8 p.m. You paying $8 for 6 drink tickets, each good for a 1/2 L of beer, with my superior math skills, that works out to be 3L of beer for $8. Did I mention you get to keep the glass?
3. You will need to show proof of age and pay $8 in cash, then receive a pint glass with SweetWater and the trademark draft logos and several carnival size tickets for drafts. Did I mention that the glass is yours to keep.
4. You see a nice mixture of people drinking on a weekday at a brewery.
5. Tip the “pourer”, in my mind, if your only function is to pour beer, you’re not a bartender. However with a tip, you might get extra beer in your glass. $1 per draft seems reasonable.
6. I like the Blue and the 420, I was not a fan of the Blueberry draft.
7. Ask for the sample seasonal brews, which are often available but only for a limited time.
8. Don’t waste your time with the brewery tour, even though it is FREE! Too much bad beer science as explained by the kid who was our guide. He talked about brewing beer in charred Jack Daniels casks. AS IF!

The dressed up tank was a hoot though…

Notice the expression on Tonya’s face as she holds her head while listening to the kid, yeah that’s right … I said it… don’t take the tour, stay in the bar area and drink beer!

Since the brewery didn’t serve food, we had to head out for some food and the initial suggestion was for the legendary Vertex’s Burgers, we settled on Gordon Biersch. What is up with me drinking this amount of beer? Well I have to say, it’s another place that you could do much worse than. The food was good; they make one of the spiciest Jambalaya Pastas ever… when I said kick it up… you bet they did!

I’ve been told that there are 6 breweries in Atlanta, and since I’m sure I’ll be back for work or a mileage run of sorts, then it’s time to explore them all.

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