Terrapin revs up
There was a great article in the Athens Banner-Herald this month on Terrapin Brewery. I’ll hit the highlights. First, Terrapin started by contract brewing:
Since 2002 when Terrapin introduced its first beer, Rye Pale Ale, the Athens-based company has been contracting with other breweries to make its beer, most recently getting its bottled beer done at the Frederick Brewing Co. (now Flying Dog) in Frederick, Md., and its draft brew with Zuma brewery in Atlanta. The Rye has become Terrapin’s flagship brew, said Cochran, who is a brewer himself, but spends most of his time on the management and sales end of the business.
Why contract brew first? Money.
We spent three to four years of trying to raise funds before we were actually able to release our first beer,” Cochran said. “What we finally realized was we were not going to get the capital we needed to open a facility right off the bat, so that’s why we started contract brewing.”
They finally gained enough noteriety to raise $800K to open their own brewery with used equipment in Athens. They just finished building it out and plan to start selling beer brewed in their new facilities in early March.
Once Terrapin gets cranked up for production of both draft and bottled beer, the brewery is expected to make 10,000 barrels of bottled and draft beer a year. That translates to about 20,000 15.5-gallon kegs that Terrapin will make at home, but the company also will continue having the brewery in Maryland make 3,000 to 4,000 barrels of its Rye Pale Ale in bottles.
Here’s to more beer brewed in Georgia!
Not being able to get the Rye Pale Ale is one of the things I miss about not living in Georgia. That is one absolutely outstanding beer.
I had never realized they were contract brewing, though. If I go down that route in the future, that’s good to know.
Which reminds me… I bought a 6-pack of Rye to send you but never got around to it. I need to do that soon…