2024 has been a challenging year for Georgia’s brewing industry, with several prominent breweries announcing closures. Best End and Torched Hop, both in Atlanta, will close by year-end, adding to the list of closures that includes Steady Hand Beer Co., Elsewhere Brewing, Eventide Brewing, Kettlerock Brewing, Iron Hill Brewery Buckhead location, Moon River Brewing, Dry County Brewery, and Liquid Nation Brewing.
Customers, like Marcus Daye, are trying to support their local breweries before they close, with Daye expressing disappointment about the closures during the celebratory end-of-year period. Industry experts, such as Joseph Cortes, Executive Director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild, attribute the closures to economic pressures, inflation, changing consumer preferences, and Georgia’s strict regulations on breweries.
Cortes highlighted that Georgia remains one of the most highly restricted states in the nation for breweries, limiting their ability to sell products to local retailers and restaurants quickly and affordably.
The Georgia Craft Brewers Guild is actively lobbying for changes in distribution laws. A proposed bill known as the Fair and Open Access to Market Act FOAM has failed to pass in the past two years but is expected to be reintroduced when the state legislature reconvenes in January 2025.