Grand Opening
By Amy Lopp
T
he long‐awaited brewery from the ingenius
homebrewer, Brian Roth, and beer policy guru,
Rick Goddard, opened its doors (and its taps) on
May 14th. Roth and Goddard have been forward‐
thinking throughout the development of their joint venture
and have set the stage for Southern Brewing Company to
become a regional powerhouse. Though the current facility
is rela vely modest in size, the crew at SBC have already
designed and engineered expansion plans to make efficient
use of the en re 15‐acre site, including an outdoor
ampitheater.
Roth has been a fixture in the local beer scene for years and
has earned a reputa on as a “mad scien st” of sorts in the
homebrewing community. His penchant for experimenta on
plays out in the laboratory at SBC – an uncommon inclusion
for a brewery of SBC’s rela vely small size – where Roth and
Co. are cul va ng local yeast strains, including varie es
cultured from the Cherokee Rose (Georgia’s state flower) and
wild azaleas (Georgia’s state wildflower). SBC’s current
por olio of brews features tradi onal beer