SweetWater tour update, and a donation to Camp Twin Lakes

Stopped by the brewery lately?  What a whirlwind, as many of  you have seen we have lots going on with the expansion, new tour pricing and more – figured it was time for a bit of updating.

If you have been out, maybe to last week’s Crank Tank Launch party – we thank you!  As we are sure you can see, we are moving fast and furiously to keep the build-out of our new expanded home on track and are excited to bring you guys the capacity to brew five times the amount of beer we are currently producing.  We are targeting the end of the year to have things really moving and hopefully will be all dialed in by January.

Beginning this Thursday, Sept. 1. the cost for the souvenir pint glass at the brewery will be $10. It has been 5 years since we last thought about it, and since then we have all sorts of new bells, brews, toys and whistles.  SweetWater is now providing unique, only available at the brewery, casks on Wed, a new covered stage with live music on the weekends, signature pint glasses that at times are special in design and limited in run, we have added more tours during each session and most days you are able to not only sip our lip smackin’ year round line-up but often our Catch & Release seasonal goodies, our demented Dank Tanks series, treats from the cellar, and even those limited run specialty beers we have recently been brewing like Waterkeeper to support Waterkeeper organizations throughout the south, or the Crank Tank to benefit Camp Twin Lakes and promote the Spin for Kids ride in October.  Lots of brews to be enjoyed!

SweetWater will continue to host guests every Wednesday thru Saturday and over the coming months you will see our expansion continue to take shape with a new/additional tasting room, ultimately a few more bells and whistles for your sampling pleasure! We know nobody likes to shell out more dough.  We are gonna kick-in for a cause as well, now thru mid October as we donate $2 from every tour admission to Team SweetWater’s Spin for Kids campaign to help support Camp Twin Lakes.

Where can you get this kind of tasting experience and big night out for that?  We think it’s a smokin’ deal and hope to see you sippin on a SweetWater at a tour really soon!

Join Us at the 2nd Annual Atlanta Santa Speedo Run!

What’s better than stripping down to a swimsuit and running 1.5 miles through Atlanta in the middle of December? Doing it for charity!

SweetWater returns this year as the official beverage sponsor of the Atlanta Santa Speedo Run, a fun run that begins at 1 pm on Saturday, December 11 at historic Manuel’s Tavern on North Ave. 100% of the proceeds will benefit Camp Twin Lakes, provider of camps for kids with special needs and serious illnesses that are well-equipped for those kids’ health requirements, teaching them confidence and giving them a much-needed recreational outlet.

You can register at Camp Twin Lakes’ website. See the photos from last year on SweetWater’s Flickr.

In ASSR’s first year (2009), 180 runners raised more than $42,000 to benefit CHRIS Kids, Inc. In 2010, our goal is to raise $65,000 for Camp Twin Lakes. Check out the Facebook event page, and we’ll see (all of) you on the 11th

We took a Spin for Kids this past weekend

What a weekend it was!  My first time doing any sort of road bike ride, and leaving the house while it was still dark outside made for some rough motivation.

The day began Saturday just after 6am because i have two little kids that were heading out to Camp Twin lakes with me.  Getting everyone dressed, feed, myself coffee’d up and the fandamily on the road just after 7 to head down to the brewery to meet the rest of Team SweetWater by 8.  We loaded up the kegs into the SweetWater van (needed some motivation to finish the ride!) and a dozen of us in various SweetWater rides were on the road heading about an hour east of Atlanta to Rutledge, GA and Camp Twin Lakes for our ride.  Most of us took part in the 27 mile course which left at 10am, but there were just as many other who did more.  The 100 mile ride went off at 8am, after a wrong turn which actually made it 110 miles, they were off.  The 67 and 47 were next followed by us at 27 and the fun riders who did the 5 mile loop.  all in all over 750 riders turned out and raised over $250,000 for Camp Twin Lakes.

The start was tight, i kept hearing how things would bunch up at the beginning and i was going to bust my ass since i had never ridden with the clip in shoes before

in line to start the ride

(thanks to Nick for the unbelievable loaner bike – much better ride than my 20 year old Trek mountain bike i had been training on) but we were off without issue – one of guys get a flat about 100 yards in, but a bike repair team was on site and got him back on the road within minutes.  I was towards the back with a Ed from Wild Wing and Nicole, our tasting room managerother SweetWater folks at the start so we stepped on it once the coast was clear to catch up with the rest of the SweetWater crew.

The ride was great – some rolling hills, fun declines, a few tough climbs back up those hills, and a beautiful course into the town of Madison where the half way point rest area was.

about half of us out front of the Madison Welcome Center

loaded up on some fluids and some funny looking jelly beans and heading our on the back stretch.  about two hours after we began, we were back at the camp, welcome by a great round of applause from the crowd as we crossed the Shoulberg Finish line.  Quickly got of the bike, ditched the funny shoes (didn’t fall once!) and heading for the SweetWater wagon which was pouring free beer for all the riders.  After the most refreshing Sch’Wheat of my life, the rest of the Team had gathered and the stories began to unfold.

The kids got to participate in camp activities all day and were the happiest people at the camp once the counsels brought them back from the paddle boat to the festival site.

Thanks to all the riders that participated with Team SweetWater and all the folks, friends, and family

in honor of David Shoulberg

that made donations to the camp on behalf of myself(not too late to still make a donation!), members of our team, or the slew of other great teams and riders that participated.  If you aren’t familiar with Camp Twin Lakes, or Spin for Kids click on the links to learn more, and also check out the Crank Tank Rye’d Ale we created to help spread the word – hope to have your support next year and a few more of y’all riding along side of us.  Now I need to make the call to buy a bike of my own, so i don’t have to wait till the day before to get my hands on one. That and some better padding on my butt, that was the most painful part of the ride!

Steve Farace

Take A Spin for Kids with Team SweetWater

You all know that SweetWater loves keeping it local. Well, we’ve joined up with the folks at Camp Twin Lakes and their Fifth Annual Spin for Kids Fundraiser that’s running Oct. 23-24, 2010.  Camp Twin Lakes runs camps for kids with special needs and serious illnesses that are well-equipped for those kids’ health requirements, teaching them confidence and giving them a much-needed recreational outlet. It’s a pretty great cause, so not only have we created a bike team to participate in the fundraising bike ride, but we’ve also put together a special brew for the occasion, Crank Tank Rye’d Ale, coming to Atlanta in 22 oz. bottles early this September.

Yeah, we know that selling beer to benefit sick kids may come off a little weird, but, hey, they say “stick with what you know.” And we know that this is going to be a real tasty one. Crank Tank Rye’d Ale is made with 25% rye malt and has been dry hopped to the spokes with Mt. Hood and Centennial hops, with an ABV of 6.2%. Yowzah.

Our blog will continue to keep you in the loop about the ride and the beer, but here are the details for now:

If you’d like to join us, you can come ride with the SweetWater team at Camp Twin Lakes’ residential camp facilities in Winder and Rutledge, Georgia and then join in a post-race festival at the camp in Rutledge on Oct. 24^th. All ages and skill levels are invited to participate, as they offer 5, 27, 47, 62, and 100-mile rides.  Our goal is to log at least 27 miles, if our beer bellies don’t slow us down. To ride with Team SweetWater or to sponsor one of our riders – and receive a limited edition SweetWater and Spin for Kids shirt – visit Spin For Kids.

And when you’re buying that delicious Crank Tank or another of SweetWater’s lip smackin brews at one of the many retailers around town that are in on the campaign, be sure to look for the displays, posters, and post cards we’re setting up throughout Metro Atlanta. We’ll be giving away a Giant Boulder bike to one lucky customer. Look for the bike and sign up for your chance to win on the SweetWater team page at Spin for Kids.