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Beer burglars hit SweetWater Brewing

24 Jun
ale

Photo courtesy of: alesharpton.blogspot.com

If you are a lover of SweetWater Brewing Company’s summer seasonal ales, it may be a little more difficult than normal to find a six-pack of your favorite brew. Sometime between close of business Monday, June 20 and opening Tuesday, June 21, more than 79,000 bottles or 3,300 cases of SweetWater brews disappeared along with two trailers that they were loaded in. The trailers were recovered, but much of the beer is still missing.

But, the reason the beer was stolen remains a mystery. By law, retailers cannot accept beer from anyone other than a licensed SweetWater distributor. So, if the motive was to sell the beer, valued at more than $125,000, the thieves are destined to hit a brick wall.

In an article posted to the Men’s Journal website, Tucker Berta Sarkisian says, “We can’t speculate, [why that much beer would be stolen], “but maybe someone is just trying to throw one hell of a party.”

That would be one hell of a party. Just to put it in perspective, that much beer would be enough for every person in attendance at a sold out Jaguars game at EverBank Field to have one beer. Even at that, there would be beer left over for every person in a seat at a sold out Sun’s baseball game to have two beers.

The Associated Press reports that about 25-percent of the beer was found in a warehouse south of Atlanta where SweetWater is located. Ironically, the warehouse is located close to locations where the 1977 comedy Smokey and the Bandit was filmed. The movie’s story revolves around a shipment of Coors beer being trucked through the southern United States. While the similarity of the story and the theft is not lost on SweetWater officials, they are not amused.

Company marketing officer, Steve Farace said that even though some of the beer was recovered, SweetWater would not resell it.

“We can no longer trust that the beer would be up to the quality standards that we as a brewry maintain,” Farace said in the AP article before uttering the words no beer-lover likes to hear. “So, unfortunately we have to destroy it all.”

The beer in the stolen trailers consisted of the company’s summer variety pack that contained their “Goin’ Coastal IPA.” The brew, flavored with pineapple is one of SweetWater’s best-selling seasonal brews. Because of the theft, the vast majority of Goin’ Coastal for the Atlanta region has been lost and must be remade. There is no word on how the heist will effect shipments to Florida or other SweetWater markets.

 
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Posted by on June 24, 2016 in Beer, Beer News

 

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SweetWater 420 to be served on Delta flights to NYC

27 Mar
Photo courtesy of: alesharpton.blogspot.com

Photo courtesy of: alesharpton.blogspot.com

If you are flying from the Southeastern United States to just about anywhere else chances are you will have a stop at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Located seven miles south of downtown Atlanta, Hartsfield has had the distinction of being the busiest airport in the world since 1998. Nearly 95 million people pass through the concourses of the airport every year to board nearly 1 million flights. By any accounting, that is a lot of traffic.

Hartsfield-Jackson is also the central hub for one of the nation’s largest airlines; Delta. With almost 1,000 flights per day Delta ushers over 59% of their passengers through the airport. And it is because of those numbers that Delta’s new partnership with another Atlanta icon; SweetWater Brewing Company.

In an announcement made through Facebook in Thursday, March 27, SweetWater announced that cans of their flagship 420 Pale Ale will be stocked on all Delta flights bound for LaGuardia Airport in New York beginning April 1, 2014.

Prior to just a few months ago, it was impossible for SweetWater’s beers to be made available on flights because they were only packaged in glass bottles. With the higher precautions do to the events of 9/11, glass and airplanes just doesn’t mix. But, cans are perfectly acceptable for aircraft.

420 is one of the first craft beers to make it on to Delta’s in-flight menu and the brewery could not be happier. In an article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, SweetWater founder Freddie Bench said, “Our new cans eliminate the glass restrictions that previously held us back from offering our beer in great spots like airplanes, stadiums, beaches and more.”

In March, the brewery began canning 420 using a special can-conditioning process that produces a stable beer with a longer shelf life. The process is similar to the used by many brewers to “bottle-condition” beers. A small amount of sugar and yeast is added to the bottle before it is sealed, as the yeast eats the sugar it also removes any oxygen that may be in the can. By removing oxygen, the bane of all beer, the brewery extends the beer’s shelf life.

Delta will also serve SweetWater 420 on flights from Atlanta to Denver April 7-9 during the Craft Brewer’s Conference.

 
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Posted by on March 27, 2014 in Beer Cans, Beer News

 

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Holiday beer segment flashback — 2012

13 Dec

Last year during my Holiday Beer segment on ‘I Know Jax,’ I talked about the history of holiday beers. FOr those who may have missed it, I have reposted the video here.

This year’s Holiday Beer segment airs Saturday, December 14 & Sunday, December 15 at 9:30 p.m. on CW17 in Jacksonville. For those of you outside of the Jacksonville, Fla. area, watch this blog next week, I will post the new segment as soon as the show’s producers put it on YouTube.

 
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Posted by on December 13, 2013 in Beer Education

 

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Sweetwater brews to flow into Tampa area Oct. 15

05 Oct

It’s always a good thing when a new beer enters a market. It provides consumers with yet another choice for a tasty, quality beer to drink and expands the craft beer scene. In just a few short weeks, Sweetwater Brewing Company will do just that and begin serving several of their flagship brews in the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg/Clearwater area of Florida.

“After an arduous and comprehensive wholesaler assignment process,” Sweetwater Director of Sales, Dave Guender began. “We are glad to announce that we’ve selected Pepin Distributing Company for the Tampa market, and Great Bay Distributors for St. Petersburg and Clearwater.”

Sweetwater will bring their tent pole 420 Extra Pale Ale to bars and restaurants throughout the area beginning Oct. 15. Later in the week 12-ounce bottles of 420, Sweetwater Blue, and Sweetwater IPA will hit store shelves.

Along with the roll out of Sweetwater brews, the company is planning several days of launch parties and events. Founder and Big Kahuna Freddie Bensch will join the festivities to help his 15-year-old company hop things up in Tampa. Among the events are:

Wednesdays, Oct. 17

  • Pub crawl featuring SweetWater samplings, specials and meet-and-greet with Freddy in Tampa (times/locations TBD)

Thursday, Oct. 18

  • Pub crawl featuring SweetWater samplings, specials and meet-and-greet with Freddy  in St. Petersburg (times/locations TBD)

Friday, Oct. 19

  • SweetWater’s presents Olde Bay Café’s Craft Beer & Crab Festival at Edgewater Park in Dunedin from 2-10 p.m.
  • Brews featured at Safety Harbor 3rd Friday in downtown Safety Harbor from 6-10 p.m.
  • SweetWater will be flowing at the JJGrey & Mofro show at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg at 8 p.m.

Follow the brewery’s Florida events on its Florida Facebook page for updates on events and appearances at: facebook.com/SWHeadyPeddlersFlorida.

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Posted by on October 5, 2012 in Beer, Beer News, Craft Beer Brewery

 

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Sweetwater Brewing Sponsors Benefit for St. John’s

27 Jun

On a very rainy Sunday evening in Jacksonville Beach, Sweetwater Brewing Company sponsored a concert event at Freebird Live to benefit the St. John’s Riverkeeper’s organization. The concert on June 24th featured opening band Bison and headliner Railroad Earth. Both bands are ecologically involved and strive to educate the public on the perils of environmental destruction through messages on their websites and support of causes such as Sweetwater’s ongoing Waterkeeper campaign.

Sweetwater’s Minister of Propoganda, Steve Farace said, “[We chose Railroad Earth because] they played our 420 Fest last year and they have a similar mindset as us. They attract the kind of crowds we want to get our message out to. They get it.”

Farace said that throughout the history of the Sweetwater brewery, the company has always had an interest in saving the rivers of the south. After all, he says, without the rivers, Sweetwater would not have the clean water they need to make beer. He says that the concert series with Railroad Earth is a step beyond the cards they have been placing in their six-packs distributed throughout the Atlanta area.

Andy Goessling, Railroad Earth’s acoustic guitarist among other instruments, echoed Farace’s reasons for the band coming on board Sweetwater’s cause. “We have been getting our message out through the blog on our website and Sweetwater seemed like a good fit with that; they overlapped with our environmental ideals.”

Shannon Blankenship of the St. John’s Riverkeepers praised Sweetwater and the bands for their stewardship of Waterkeeper organizations throughout the south and even organized a pub crawl earlier this month to bring attention to the plight of our river. The crawl took place appropriately in Riverside and attracted approximately 50 people.

Sweetwater has raised over $350,000 since 2006 with their Save the Hooch campaign aimed at saving the Chattahoochee River and preserving it for generations to come. In a quote on the company’s website, Founder and Big Kahuna Freddy Bensch says, ““I have spent a lot of time on Atlanta’s waters since moving to Georgia in ’96 to start the brewery, and I’ve seen a lot of the issues firsthand. Keeping our water clean is a cause I think we can all believe in, and we’ll continue to do anything we can to help raise awareness and funding for the great folks who are out there every day protecting our water.”

Concert-goer Charles Price summed things up well with his thoughts regarding the ecological message presented by Sweetwater and the bands at the concert. He recognized that the St. John’s River is integral to our city’s survival and is a resource that must be preserved. “The river,” he said, “is this city’s livelihood.”

 
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Posted by on June 27, 2012 in Beer, Events

 

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