in the SPIRIT
Terrapin
takes off
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By Kathryn Schiliro
For Athens-based Terrapin Beer Co., business is hopping. Pun intended. The turtle is showing up in bars, restaurants, and marinas across the region. At 18,000 barrels—that’s 558,000 gallons—the brewery in the Chase Street area of the Classic City is at capacity. Terrapin’s reach does not extend too far beyond the Southeast, but demand for the beer is high and the company is doing their best to keep up. “We can’t brew enough beer right now,” says Terrapin Founder and Brew Master Brian “Spike” Buckowski. “If we had the capacity, we could do 28,000 to 30,000 barrels this year. We just can’t turn it around fast enough.” In December, Terrapin will mark four years in Athens. The idea behind the brewery, however, was born fourteen years ago, when Buckowski and Terrapin President John Cochran met at Atlanta Brewing Company. In 1998 the pair put a business plan together, but their contract for brewing in Atlanta fell through. After years of searching for funding, they launched their Rye Pale Ale (RPA) at the Classic City Beer Festival in 2002. Intentionally, the beer was only on tap in Athens; from the get-go, the idea was to make Terrapin synonymous with the city. Six months after the Classic City debut, Terrapin RPA won “Best Pale Ale” in the country at the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado and was then introduced into the Atlanta market. In 2004, Terrapin launched Golden Ale, and two weeks later took home a silver medal—the highest honor available in the category—at the World Beer Cup.
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Enjoy a picnic lunch at a historic home! At that point, Terrapin made its way into bottles—the packaging designed by none other than Richard Biffle, artist for the Grateful Dead, who Buckowski met at Bonnaroo. Terrapin brewery opened in Athens, the first bottles rolling off the line in January 2008. As the company and its capacity grew, so did the diversity of Terrapin’s portfolio. Hop Karma, an India-style brown ale, followed the Golden Ale, and Hopsecutioner, another India Pale Ale (IPA), completes Terrapin’s year-round offerings. In 2005 the company took advantage of a change in legislation that permits breweries to brew beers with more than six-percent alcohol content (called “high gravity beers”) and Terrapin’s “Monster Beer Tour” was born.
The tour included an imperial red ale, Big Hoppy Monster; All-American Imperial Pilsner, which is now retired; Rye Squared; and Wake ‘N’ Bake, a coffee stout brewed with a coffee created through a collaboration with another Athens landmark, Jittery Joe’s Coffee. Gamma Ray, a wheat beer made with Georgia-grown honey, and Monk’s Revenge, a cross between “a classic Belgianstyle Tripel and a new age American Double IPA,” were later added to the tour. Terrapin always has seasonal selections as well as “Side Projects,” one-time release brews for the Athens area once every three months or so. The company participates annually in collaborations with other American and international breweries: a 2011 collaboration with a Colorado
The Terrapin brewery is open for tours several days a week. Live music and multiple Terrapin beer offerings are always on tap.
brewery may produce a peach-infused brew; look for it in late September. “Reunion Beer” raises funds for the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research. The ideas for growth are, well, flowing. Buckowski hopes to implement more barrel-aged brews in the near future and to get Terrapin into cans. Marketing is built into Terrapin’s location. “There was never a question: it was always Athens,” Buckowski says. “The population here obviously fluctuates with the incoming of students. It’s great: as these kids travel across the country to get jobs and we expand our market, they’ll remember Terrapin and hopefully pick it up.” But, more than that, he says, “The main thing we want to do is make Athens proud we are here and have a world-class brewery.” Kathryn Schiliro is a freelance writer based in Athens, Ga.
September 23 & 24, 2011 Morgan County Historical Society Heritage Hall
277 South Main Street, Madison, Georgia 706-342-9627 www.friendsofheritagehall.org summer 2011
lake oconee living
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