Father’s Day Gift Guide

Newsflash: this Sunday is Father’s Day. If you just had an “oh shit” moment, chill out and browse through this handy gift guide we put together for all your dad’s needs. Be sure to read the last bit even if you skip the rest.

Sporty Dad
What can we say about the Perfect Cast S/S Polo that isn’t covered in it’s compelling website description: Built from a mid-weight pique fabric that wicks moisture and blocks UV rays, this performance fishing polo features radial sleeves to accommodate dynamic arm movement, as well as rear shoulder vents to keep you cool, dry comfort out on the water. Long story short, this shirt will keep pops lookin’ fly whether he’s throwin’ flies, poppin’ fly outs or flyin’ solo on the links.

Tech Dad

We know not everyone’s papi confuses calculators for cell phones. Hook your parental unit up with one of these custom jobs from Case-Mate and he’ll be catchin’ all kinds of looks from the younguns.

Outdoors Dad

When we woke up in the woods with a thrown-out back from sleeping on rocks, Pa always used to say it built character. Weird thing was he slept on an air mattress. Help the old man keep that streak of hypocritical comfort going with this lazyboy of the outdoors, the Camp Creek Sports Chair. Bonus: it works great on those rock hard stadium benches, so even when his alma mater’s football team has him throwin’ beer, his back will be in tip top shape.

Executive Dad

In the high-stakes white collar world, a man is only as good as the coffee mug on his desk. Or at least we think so, we try to steer clear of “office buildings” so we’re not sure how things go down in there. Regardless, papa bear will be the envy of his colleagues with one of these badass tankards slammed down on his desk. Nobody has to know what he’s drinkin’ out of it either.

Classy Dad

Don’t get confused by the pic and think you slipped into a Mother’s Day list – sometimes the head of the house has need of candles too. Next time you aren’t home, let el hefe whip out these beauties from Brew Blazes and flip the ol’ Barry White record. Ready for a lil’ brother/sister?

If none of these ridiculously awesome gifts seem right for your bropa, you can always visit the schwag shop in the brewery or online to see what else we have. Alright, we did our part – the rest of the day is up to you. Just make sure it involves plenty of good grub and brews.

 

Whoa hold the phone, you thought we were done? Heck no, we got you a shot at free schwag. It’s pretty simple – head over to our Facebook event page here, submit a photo of you and dad bonding with SweetWater brews, and you’re entered to win a Dad Schwag Grab Bag plus 2 passes to the brewery. You’ve got until 4:20 on Father’s Day, which is this Sunday if you already forgot, to submit your pics. Winner will be announced Monday – Game on!

SweetWater Sundays are Here

Sunday afternoons just got a whole lot better!

Starting June 2, we are cracking the doors on Sunday tours at the brewery, and we are starting it off right with a great organization that is working to support our local hospitality community.  Beginning this Sunday we are adding Sunday tours to the mix to give the great folks of Atlanta, and those visiting it, a better opportunity to come down to our brewery, say hi, sample some beers and learn a little more about us.

With the growth of craft beer in the South, and our new shiny digs, the crowds have become “thirsty” for a little more (see what we did there!), so now we’re allowing you fine folks the chance to visit five times a week.  Sunday tours will run from 2:30 – 4:30 as a part of our regular tour rotation, so hopefully y’all can find a good excuse to come to the brewery soon and raise some samples with us.

Beyond adding another day to our tour schedule, we are stepping up to the plate with an organization that is working to change the scope of what hospitality truly is.

We will be donating $2 from every souvenir glass sold at our Sunday tours in June to the folks with Staplehouse and the Giving Kitchen.  The Giving Kitchen initiative supports the metro Atlanta restaurant community by lending a helping hand to industry members impacted by medical or other unanticipated hardships. Learn more about what their mission is at the video below, join SweetWater and do what you can to support them and their ambitious work, or come by for a coldie one Sunday soon.

We can all help.  Their capital campaign to get Staplehouse off the ground is coming down to the wire.  Click here to become a founding member, and be a part of something special for this community.

But wait, there’s more! Since we know ya’ll like to have a good time while you’re with us, we’re also making it easier for you to get to and from the brewery safely.

We teamed up with badass transportation pros Uber to cut you some serious deals on their private driver service. First time users can get $20 off car service using the promo code SweetWaterATL, and the first 100 people to arrive at the brewery June 2  will receive $10 extra Uber credits.

If you’re already a seasoned town car passenger, you can use the promo code UberSweetWater to get $5 off two trips to the brewery until September 2.

However you plan to get here, make sure it’s safe and on time, cuz you won’t wanna miss a second of our kickoff party.

The Offical 2013 420 Fest Post-Party Post

Phew, everyone hangin’ in there? We’re still in recovery mode from another epic weekend at 420 Fest.

Things might have started out dreary on Friday, but George Clinton and P-Funk had us bumpin’ in no time. If it was a blur for ya after that, we’re bringing you the highlights of what you might have missed, along with some phat photos to jog the ol’ memory.

Of course we had to bring back all the fan favorites like the KidZone, the artist market, tasty eats and the Planet 420 non-profit village. Plus, the Relapse 420 Comedy Tent was back too with more knee-slappin’, side-splittin’ comedians from all over Atlanta.

This year we tried something new with The SweetWater Experience tent, giving ya’ll a chance to sample some seriously unique brews and learn more about how beer is made, what makes it great and even some live Q&A with our Big Kahuna himself, Freddy Bensch. Hopefully you were able to sample a bunch from the lineup, because chances are you won’t see some of ‘em again.

Also new this year was Gas South’s charity cornhole tournament. After you guys raised a mondo $3,000 which Gas South and SweetWater matched, youth mentoring organization YES!Atlanta won the tourney and took home a fat check for $9,000! Always great to give back and help a good cause.

Last but not least, we brought out a brand spankin’ new silent disco, courtesy of Area 51. If you saw a bunch of cool cats getting’ down, but didn’t grab headphones and join in, you missed out on some super talented DJs spinning all weekend long.

Special thanks to all our outta-this-world volunteers who made the whole thing possible and to the great artists who kept the music funky all weekend long.

Oh and one more thing, 420 Fest may be how we choose to celebrate Earth Day and conservation efforts, but keepin’ Mother Earth in tip top shape is a year-round effort. Check in with some of our favorite partner organizations, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and Georgia Conservancy (just to name a couple), to see how you can give back the other 51 weekends out of the year.

Until next year…remember, “we’re here for a good time, she’s here for a long time!”

PHOTOS: it was a rough morning, but we got Some Strange

Hope y’all are in the mood to go out on the town and get yourselves Some Strange soon. Our new black IPA was flying down the line today, getting packaged up all nice and purdy for ya. We had to pump out some test runs and annual batches in the new brewhouse before we could get this dankness a brewin’, but we promise this one’s worth the wait.

It’s the first official Dank Tank series beer to flow through the new brewhouse, breaking it in proper. We will be shipping these beauties out to distributors early next week, meaning they should be available on shelves to tantalize your taste buds by mid-week.

Prime the pallet — it’s game time.  And good luck explaining to your better half why you have a receipt for “Some Strange” in your wallet!  At least this is Some Strange you’ll be proud to share.

Check out some photos from today here:

Giving Back at the 2013 Candler Park Work Day

We want to give a huge thanks to all of the folks who came out today and volunteered their time at our 420 Festival Work Day at Candler Park. The weather Gods were certainly in our favor on this one.

Each year, we donate a portion of festival proceeds to continue beautification and improvement efforts at Candler Park - the festival’s stomping grounds. This year, we were able to partner up with Park Pride and Lowe’s Home Improvement to get down and dirty refreshing, restoring and re-mulching the Candler Park walking trail. A couple dozen volunteers worked hard to remove trash and excess brush from the area, and then bring in fresh mulch to revitalize the path.

This project is near and dear to us dating back to its installation a few years ago. We decided to clear out a run-down area within the park (containing trash, debris and overrun brush) to install a trail providing more usable space for park neighbors and visitors to enjoy. In an effort to upkeep the path, we funded a green collaboration project in 2012 featuring roughly 100 sheep from the “Have Ewe Heard” environmentally-friendly camp to eat and eliminate invasive plants along the trail such as poison ivy, kudzu, and privet. In addition to this project, we’ll also be cleaning and refreshing the Candler Park pool house in the upcoming weeks.

We had a great time today and it’s always a good feeling to see folks enjoying the finished product. No way we could have done it without the fine people who showed up to volunteer. Big thanks to Mellow Mushroom for donating the pies to help fuel our folks along the way. Check out this album of photos here, or click the photos in this post to see more of the new trail, and our hard workers who made it possible.

The final product

Remember…“we’re here for a good time, she’s here for a long time!”

Red Wheat Wine Rollin’ Down the Line

Nothin’ soothes our ears better than the sound of those bottles running down the line…and this morning was a special occasion. We fired ‘er up with a heaping load of our latest special edition – Red Wheat Wine – an honorary brew for our sweet 16 anniversary and part of our Dank Tank series.

You can expect to get your paws on this goodness in 22-oz bombers, and on draft at select locations, starting the first week of March (that’s next week for those too lazy to check a calendar). Want more info on the Barleywine brew? Get the 411 here.

In the meantime, here’s a plethora of pics to rev your engines before this racy Red Wheat Wine parks itself in a store near you.

SweetWater’s Sweet 16 Recap with Photos

Well, it looks like we survived 16 years of  heady beers, and while we may have knocked out a few more brain cells celebrating the occasion this weekend, it was definitely one of the most rad parties for our record books.

We had one hell of a group come out to show some birthday love. Pimpin’ out some of the finest neon, crimped hair and spandex the city has seen since 1985, y’all truly made this SweetWater-palooza one of our most fave parties to date.

Cheers to the winners of the costume contest for their rendition of Caddyshack. They took home 16 buckeroos and a party at the brewery, plus bragging rights for their totally tubular outfits. 

Yacht Rock Revue killed it with  an insane jam-sesh, while we tore up that tie dye birthday cake and filled up on Red Wheat Wine, which had us feelin’ fine (until those hangovers kicked in on Monday). Big ups on those who played it safe hopping a ride with the Fur Bus shuttle to MARTA, or those who used Uber. We can’t thank ‘em enough for hooking us up for this event.

PHOTO INFO: All in all, you party animals killed, which means it might have left your memory of the day’s event a little foggy. We have a small handful of pics below, but go ahead and check our full album of pictures on Flickr for a righteous reminder, and check out your photo booth pics here. Props to Addison Hill Photography and Chucky Foto for capturing the fun.

Here’s raising a little hair of the dog as we roll on down the line to the big 1-7. See y’all there!

Caddyshack Costume Contest WIiners

Yacht Rock Revue

Big Kahuna Speaks on Stage

Cask Station

Yacht Rock

Psychedelic Sweet 16 tie dye cake

Cheers to 16 Years of Heady Beers

Fletcher Fish Photo Opp