Opening Day – A letter from Chris

We opened our doors this weekend for the first time . . . and it was amazing, the people were amazing, the reaction and feedback was amazing, the beer was amazing (I do say so myself), everything was amazing. During the day a number of things struck me, and I decided I wanted to share them with you all.

First and foremost I was struck by the overwhelming need to say THANK YOU! Thank you to all the friends, family, and investors who have helped to make this dream of ours a reality and for pushing us forward and believing in us when it seemed like the road to completion was never ending. Thank you to our amazing brewers, David Stein, Adam Beauchamp, and Blake Tyers for working tirelessly and for never settling for anything . . . period. Thank you to Katie Beauchamp for holding everything together. Thank you to my own wife Laura, for supporting me when I said I want to leave behind a 9 year corporate career, move across the country while she was 7 months pregnant with our third child to live with my parents so I can chase a dream. Thank you to all of our new staff who have quickly become family. Thank you to our distributor, Savannah Distributing, and specifically Jared Penso. Thank you to all the retail accounts that put us on draught and supported us right out of the gates. Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend to support us on our Grand Opening, you all made the weekend more than we could have imagined and I am humbled and grateful and look forward to serving you all for a long time.

The second thing that struck me, was that I believe in our brand more than I even realized. I believe that if you crave curiosity, that you can uncover your passion, and that if you follow that passion you will find happiness, and then you can enjoy the creature comforts of life. We are living proof of that formula and I am so proud to have a brand that feels so authentic and genuine. I really hope we can inspire others to follow the same path.

Finally, I was stuck by the overwhelming show of support. We had high aspirations for ourselves, I think you have to when you are starting up. You don’t work as hard as the team here has worked and then hope for an okay turn out. But I was not ready for the humbling numbers that showed up to support us and the events that were taking place at our home on Saturday nor for the local retail support of our brands. Our Distributor Savannah Distributing, was essentially sold out of our beer in 3 hours due to the phenomenal support of our local retailers, and our brewery had nearly triple the visitors that we expected on Saturday. The positive vibe, the upbeat energy, and the welcoming nature of Athens showed through. I have never been more excited about our location and more pumped up about everything that Athens is going to do in the coming years. We hope to play a role in bringing people to Athens so that they can see what a great city we have here.
A city known for education, music, arts, food . . . and beer!

Stay Curious my friends,

Chris Herron
CEO & Ultimate Warrior