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Meet Carly Wiggins of Southbound Brewing Co. in Savannah

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Carly Wiggins.

Carly, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
While attending Georgia Tech in Atlanta, I was introduced to the craft beer world by a number of friends who were working part-time at breweries around the city. I had the opportunity to get a job with SweetWater Brewing working in the tap room and I immediately fell in love with it. I was already working on a degree in Business with a concentration in marketing and I decided, I wanted to really delve into the lift of a product from ideation to completion, so I added on a second degree, Industrial Design. I was then able to work around doing a number of different things at SweetWater, which continued to fuel my drive for the craft industry. I shifted all of my school projects to focus on beverage manufacturing, efficiencies, and product marketing. It was a perfect match! After working there for a number of years, I had the chance to move to Charleston, SC to set up the front of the house for a startup there. My business partner and lifelong friend, Smith Mathews, was on the same path that I was. He graduated from Tech and went to Siebel for his International Brewing Diploma and began brewing for SweetWater. He was the one who moved to Charleston first to set up back of house for the same startup.

Once I moved down there, it completely solidified my decision to remain in the craft beer industry. While working at the startup, we began meeting after work to plan for our own brewery, Southbound. After a couple of years, we decided to take the leap and move down to Savannah to make it happen. We had to fight for the ability to have a production brewery in the city by getting legislation passed. It took a long time and a ton of work, but that made the opening even sweeter! We are coming up on 5 years of beer at Southbound in May, which in turn means 11 years of beer for me, personally. Once we got Southbound off the ground I decided that I wanted to be highly involved in the Georgia Craft Brewer’s Guild. After seeing the laws change to become for industry-friendly in South Carolina, I felt it was something I had to do here in Georgia. We have amazing products coming out of this state and the laws just weren’t set up our industry for success. I’m proud to have been on the GCBG board as the membership chair for the past four years. I was also lucky enough to be the President of the Guild the year, we finally passed the law that allowed for direct sales from a brewery in Georgia. It took years to accomplish that with so many people volunteering their time with the guild to make it happen.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We’ve had our challenges. Our first major roadblock was setting up the brewery in Savannah. When we moved here there weren’t any production breweries in town, only MoonRiver, our local brewpub. The laws in Georgia are very different in regards to breweries and brewpubs. There was legislation on the books for the brewpubs, but not for us. Instead of defaulting to the state law, we were told it wasn’t legal without specific regulations in the city code. We were opening our facility in an industrial area and there was a lot of concern about having an alcohol manufacturer there. There was a lot of general confusion on how we could operate initially as well. Overtime (a long time) we were able to provide the right tools and education to show everyone how a production brewery operates. New things always take time.

Of course, the biggest challenge for breweries, in general, was the state law. Up until last September, we weren’t able to sell product directly to the consumer from our facility. Initially, it was tied to a souvenir cup and we were forced to give away the product, then tied to an educational tour that we had to sell, then moving into variable “tour” levels that provided different quantities of beer for the consumer. It was so convoluted. As a brewery in Georgia, we were significantly (2.5X) less profitable without having the ability to operate a tasting room like all of our neighboring states. It took a brewery in Georgia an average of five years to break even where other breweries in other states could do it in year one.

There are always challenges. The most amazing thing about these challenges is what it brought out of those who were facing them. With our local issues, we had the backing of the people who lived and worked in the city. With the state issues, we had the backing of the residents of Georgia. We were able to come together to build the Guild to be the strong organization it is today. After all, obstacles do not block the path they are the path.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
At Southbound, we focus on making approachable, crushable, beers with a twist. For example, we recently launched our “Southern Lager”, Mountain Jam. It’s a dry hopped lager with very little perceived bitterness. It’s flavorful, but not something that would scare away someone new to craft beer. However, it’s subtle complexity keeps the craft lovers coming back! Smith also loves making sour beers. My personal favorite and our most popular seasonal item is Transilience. It’s an Imperial Berliner Weisse with mango and pomegranate. Generally, a Berliner comes in around 4% ABV – but ours is 7% and it still drinks like a 4! Tart, fresh, balanced and approachable.

All of our beers revolve around music. Music is a huge part of who we are at Southbound. Its always been a big part of our lives and we wanted to put who we were into the beer. Each beer is named after some of the musical references and we have really beautiful, unique art for each can. Beka Butts is our illustrator and she is fantastic! She is able to take all of the pieces of musical influence and combine them with the flavor profiles of the beer to that you have a visual image of what it will taste like. For example, Transilience is a reference to the Grateful Dead. Its what they called the transition between the songs, the “jam” between the songs. We created that beer to transition/launch into the Atlanta market. The art has a vibrant mandala of mango and pomegranate in the background, with a skull and bones treble clef in the foreground. It’s perfect.

What were you like growing up?
I’ve always had a huge interest in music my entire life. I played a lot of sports and took many years of piano lessons from a young age through high school. I’ve always been at my best when I’m busiest. That leads directly to how I am today for sure! It’s interesting because I’m the type of person that always wants to make sure everyone is having a great time and enjoying life, but also I’ll work myself to the bone. Somehow, I’ve always balanced the free spirit with the workaholic. My mother told me when I was growing up I would spend an hour lining up all the toys to make sure they were perfectly lined up after playing with them all day. I guess, I’ve been like this since day one!

I also grew up with my business partner, Smith Mathews. We’ve been friends since we were three years old. We actually took swimming lessons together! We like to say that I probably pushed him into the pool a lot when people weren’t looking. I don’t remember that, but it sounds about right to me. I will say it’s been an amazing life journey that we’ve taken together. Over thirty years of friendship, multiple states, and breweries and over ten years of beer together. I’d like to think our journey prepared us for where we are today.

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Image Credit:
Wen Mcnally

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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