Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Cowan.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
We started making beer because Geoffrey Williams, our head brewer and an old college roommate of mine, had a passion for craft beer. One day as we were drinking some beers, he made the comment that he really liked the beer we were drinking, but there were a few things that he would change if he had made it. He said, “I wonder if we could make this,” and my response was, “Well, somebody made this, so I’m sure we could make it”.
From there, we started educating ourselves about the brewing process and the history of beer making. We built a small pilot system and started developing our own recipes. It wasn’t until later that we had the thought about what it would take to make beer and sell it. In Georgia, you can make a limited amount of beer, but you are not legally allowed to even share it with your neighbor, let alone sell it.
We started looking into what it would take to build a brewery and ended up convincing my wife, Haley, and our friend, Mat, to join the campaign. Eventide grew from there. Just one foot in front of the other and we have yet to run out of projects to do. It has been a fun adventure.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The alcohol business, in general, is not a smooth road, and it almost seems like it is designed to be that way. Getting started without a lot of backing is hard because the lead time is long and there are a lot of requirements for licensing.
Adding to that the three-tier system for distribution in Georgia (producer, distributor, retailer), breweries need to operate above a certain output before it’s feasible to try to enter the market. On the tasting room front, there are a ton of laws and regulations to hurtle with weird outdated laws governing how we can interact with consumers.
Please tell us about Eventide Brewing.
Eventide is a small craft brewery located in Grant Park, Atlanta, GA right along the Beltline. Our motto is ‘Great Doesn’t Have to be Complicated,’ and we live by that when it comes to what beers we create. While we can make complex brews, our focus is on creating the most appealing and true-to-form beer of each category.
So our Pale Ale, IPA, Kolsch, and seasonal offerings which are available in cans all around Georgia, exemplify the best properties of each of those types of brews making them incredibly drinkable and delicious. Our Dry Irish Nitro Stout is also a big seller but you can only get that on draft. While we make beer, which is what keeps the lights on, we really make all kinds of stuff.
The brewery gives us the opportunity to engage with local artists and craftsmen, but also the opportunity to build different things that we use in production, as well as in the tasting room. If you come to the tasting room, you will see we have built most everything in there from the tables to the tap handles.
I think the thing I’m most proud of as a company and what sets us apart for others is our focus on craft and the empowerment of the craftsmen. Going back to the moment we realized if someone could make the beer we were drinking, then surely we could make it ourselves, we’ve made it a cornerstone of our business to support those who have a passion for their own craft and build a community around it.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Probably building things with my dad. He was a general contractor, engineer and a fabricator so I grew up working with him a child building everything from office buildings to dune buggies. We had a big shop that was slap full of everything you could think of. I used to spend all my day’s building whatever would pop into my head.
I didn’t realize it at the time but my dad was teaching me how stuff goes together, all manner of skills needed to build/fabricate those things, and most importantly he was teaching me how to think. So that it I got in over my head on a project I knew how to learn my way out.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1015 Grant St SE Atlanta, GA 30315
- Website: eventidebrewing.com
- Phone: 404-907-4543
- Email: info@eventidebrewing.com
- Instagram: @eventidebrewing
- Facebook: eventidebrewing
- Twitter: @EventideBrewing
Image Credit:
Sarah Buckner, Daniel Lockwood
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