Finding Craft Beer in Alabama

By Curtis Barnard

Craft brewing is alive and well in the United States, especially here on the West Coast. Often when searching for that next new beer to try, consumers pick something up from breweries located in California, Oregon, the Northeast or even Europe. Rarely does one think of trying something from the Southeastern United States. Recently I had the opportunity to taste some southern brews and visit the only brewery in Birmingham, Alabama.

I left Portland International Airport, where Laurelwood and Rogue both have pubs, and touched down in Birmingham to be greeted with Budweiser and Sam Adams. Luck was better at the local supermarket where SweetWater Brewing (Atlanta, GA) and Abita Brewing (Louisiana) six packs could be found. Both are rather large, regional craft breweries, so I picked up a six pack from each to try. I went with the Jockamo IPA from Abita and the IPA from SweetWater to see how they represented the style down in the south. It’s common to hear that East Coast IPA’s are nothing like the hop bombs out West and I wanted to see if it was true.

I have to say I was surprised with both beers. The SweetWater IPA was very balanced, while some hop lovers may scoff that it wasn’t bitter enough it certainly had a nice aroma from the dry hopping. It’s one of the more sessionable IPA’s I have had in recent memory and while it may not be exactly west coast style I would definitely drink it again. On the other hand I was disappointed with the Jockamo IPA. It was far too malty and lacked the great hop nose that IPA’s typically have. Most of the hops contributed only to bitterness and left me wanting more flavor and aroma. I would say the Jockamo is closer to a bitter amber.

A couple days later, on the Sunday after Christmas, I headed down to Good People Brewing located near downtown Birmingham. It was a frigid day and snow flurries were falling, but founder Michael Sellers was waiting to eagerly show off the brewery. After eight years of homebrewing Michael and co-owner/brewer Jason Malone came across an unused seven barrel brewing system in 2007. It wasn’t long before they had a brewery located in a basement and were pumping out kegs of craft beer for local accounts.

Now they are located in a large brick warehouse with lots of character, similar to something that would be seen in Portland. As we walked from the front office into the brewery space I saw several new 60 barrel fermentors and a shiny new 30 barrel brewhouse. They are currently upgrading to the 30 barrel system so they can feed enough beer to their canning line. Unfortunately they weren’t brewing or canning while I was there so I wasn’t able to taste any beer. The plan is to hit the Birmingham market with cans of their IPA and Brown ale over the next year and hopefully expand outwards as demand grows. The largest market nearby is Atlanta and they hope to have product there within the next year or two. Us left coasters won’t be able to buy any cans in the near future, but if business takes off maybe we will see some sooner than later.

I was curious as to why Good People decided to can rather than bottle. Michael explained that can’s are not only portable and preserve the beer better, but that cans appeal more to the southern audience. Along with the company’s logo and label designs, which give off a down home Southern aura, the cans are just another way to try and get yellow beer drinkers to try something new.

Previous to the canning line Good People has only bottle one beer: County Line. County Line is a series of one-off brews cold in bombers in only one county in Alabama. Due to archaic Prohibition laws, bottles larger than 16 ounces can only be sold in a few counties. One of the future batches is a Coffee Oatmeal Stout aged in Tennessee Whiskey barrels and it will only be available at an Exxon convenience store in Coosa county. How’s that for limited edition?

Before wrapping up the tour I had one last question: Why don’t you have a brewpub? I’d noticed that the building was huge and even with the new equipment there was plenty of room for a pub or at least a tasting room, plus the building had great ambiance. The answer further uncovered Alabama’s unfriendly beer laws. Brewpubs are only legal within very tight restrictions. Good People is able to rent out the space and host parties, but they cannot both produce, distribute and serve beer. Coming from the land of brewpubs this was a sad thing to hear. Luckily there may be a change in the law soon. Free the Hops, a pro-craft beer consumer group has introduced legislation to try and open the laws up.

Good People is a unique brewery located in an area where craft beer isn’t as widespread, but they have something in common with all the most well-known breweries. They want to bring good beer to the people. With the expansion and addition of canning line, they are sure to grow and prosper in the Deep South.

Later in the day after my tour around Good People I stopped by Whole Foods to try and find some more regional brews. I was in luck as Whole Foods had individual bottles for sale from several breweries located around the South East. I picked up the following; Lazy MagnoliaYazoo Sly Rye Porter (Nashville, TN), Olde Towne (Huntsville, AL) Amber, Back Forty (Minnesota) Truck Stop Honey Brown, and Highland (North Carolina) Oatmeal Porter. Both porters were good, but I liked the Yazoo Sly Rye in particular as the rye and chocolate flavors melded together perfectly to create a rich dessert like beer. The Olde Towne Amber was forgettable as was the Back Forty Brown. Indian summer was a good wit style beer brewed with wheat, orange peel, and coriander. It was light, refreshing, and low in ABV. I imagine it would be great on a sweltering autumn day in the south. (Mississippi) Indian Summer,

I enjoyed my time in the South and trying their beer, but I was ready to get back to Beervana. The trip really made me appreciate not only the selection and quality of beer in Oregon, but also the culture of beer. You can go to almost any convenience store, super market, or gas station and find several varieties of microbrews, something that wasn’t true in the south. It was clear that the gospel of good beer was spreading though and it may only be a matter of time before brewpubs and seasonal brews abound.

Read Brewpublic’s previous post about beer in Alabama here.