PROF I L E
Matt Shirah
E N T R E P R E N E U R • B E E R L O V E R • F A M I LY G U Y
By India Powell After taking home the second place win for USA Today’s 10Best’s “Best New Brewery 2017,” Matt Shirah of Scofflaw Brewing Company has a big reason to drink up. He left his fast-paced, travel-packed career as a corporate turnaround executive more than a year ago to birth Scofflaw Brewing Company. “I took one look at my daughter and decided I was not going to wear a suit anymore,” he says. In August 2016, Matt and Brewmaster Travis Herman officially opened the 18,000-square-foot brewery, having developed beers on a one-barrel system in Matt’s mother-in-law’s basement. Now they pride themselves on providing a burgeoning hub for community and togetherness in Buckhead.
Q
What is it about the world of brewing that you love?
Q
What is your favorite Scofflaw beer?
Our double dry-hopped Galaxy version of Double Jeopardy IPA. It’s a super flavorful beer with an unnoticeable 10.5 percent alcohol by volume. The aroma is also incredible. It comes from the Galaxy hops, which are difficult to come by, and very expensive if you do.
Q
What flavors are you serving up for winter?
Interrogation is a great milk stout that is cold steeped with coarse ground coffee beans from local roasters. It is available now at the brewery and will be in cans soon, but just for the cooler seasons.
Q
How does family life dovetail with your work life?
Our kids and extended families are often with us at the brewery. We have made it a place where the kids get to see the family pull together like a team and a place where they can also have fun. Since we keep our families close and welcome others to do the same, it is not uncommon to see as many as 75 to 100 children here on a Saturday.
Q
What do you love about the Buckhead community?
The Bolton neighborhood is the backbone of our business. In the beginning, it was just us; now it seems it’s us and all of our friends from around town. It’s a weekly friends and family reunion without any of the anxiety. For an evening out, we go to Bistro Niko. ScofflawBeer.com
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WINTER 2017
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CATMAX PHOTOGRAPHY, HAIR AND MAKEUP BY THE GREEN ROOM AGENCY.
Beer brings people and families together. I see it in my brewery every weekend—thousands of people meeting up to hang out and share time with each other and their families. We interact with all of them and it has become part of our story and they have become part of our family. Our passion for beer stems mostly from wanting to exceed the community’s expectations in the hopes that this will create a sense of added pride to the community—that we share this business and its success.
23 10/31/17 10:46 AM