ATLANTA — After years of giddy growth in an exciting industry, some metro Atlanta craft brewers have been quietly shutting down.
Some Atlanta craft breweries are finding that staying in business can be just as hard as starting up.
Monday Night Brewing went from a home-brew among friends 12 years ago to a well-established commercial brewery with two Atlanta locations.
"It can be pretty exhausting to try to keep up with the latest trends, continuing to grow and expand," said Jeff Heck, who is one of the Monday Night Brewing cofounders of the craft beer surge over the last 20 plus years – canning beer like Taco Tuesday lager on Friday.
But of late, he’s seen other Atlanta craft brewers quietly close their doors.
11Alive visited Atlanta’s Orpheus Brewing in Midtown in 2015. Orpheus shut its doors this spring.
We visited Kennesaw’s Burnt Hickory Brewery a few months later. It closed its taproom last month.
And Atlanta Brewing Company closed its longtime brewery in Midtown weeks ago.
"There has been, industry-wide, a bit of a slowdown in craft’s market share growth," Heck said. "So that’s definitely happened and we’ve seen the impact of it."
Heck said demand for craft beer has stopped surging. Prices have risen for supplies and labor. And he says the industry has matured.
Monday Night has opened new taprooms to serve drinks – but most of them are out of state.
Georgia’s state law still restricts how much retail beer customers can take out to one case per customer, per day.
Georgia law also requires tap rooms to make beer on-site.
"The equipment to do that is incredibly expensive. It’s part of the reason we’ve opened tap rooms in North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama -- where it’s easier to open a new location," Heck explained.
To stock those facilities, Monday Night can ship beer from its northwest Atlanta production brewery. Yet despite the demise of some brewers, Heck said Monday Night is on track to have its richest year ever.
"For those of us who continue to innovate, and provide great experiences, it’s a lot of fun," Heck said.