Today we’d like to introduce you to John Reynolds.
John, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The idea of Slow Pour was born out of a Christmas present when my brother in law and business partner gave me a homebrew setup. I started homebrewing and really fell in love with the creative outlet that it gave me. I started brewing in my front yard as often as I could. While I was homebrewing Marty was involved with other entrepreneurial endeavors. He had started a coffee company and I mentioned to him it would be really cool if he partnered with a new local brewery and did a collaboration on a stout using his coffee. He casually said no we should just start a brewery and do that beer ourselves. I really thought he was just kidding. I mean, after all, all I had ever done to this point was home brewing. Neither of us knew what it meant to start a brewery much less run one. A few months later he told me he had found a building and had come to an agreement on purchasing it. There were some key additions to the team Chuck Spink and Brian Barnard joined the ownership team each bringing unique skills sets to the team. Chuck was the general contractor for the build-out of the project and Brian is our brand manager. At this point, we teamed up with Chase Medlin as our consulting brew master and away we went. Chase has since left to start his own brewery Contrast Artisan Ales in Chamblee. We started with three fermentation tanks in September of last year and today we just stood up our 6th tank with a 7th tank on the way. Oh and that coffee stout that helped birth Slow Pour is currently in a fermentation tank will be ready for our anniversary party on September 29th.
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?
There have definitely been bumps in the road as we moved down this path. Very early on we really struggled to find a name that said something about who we are as a company that wasn’t already taken within the beer industry. There are over 90,000 brands in the market, coming up with something unique was a painstaking process. Ultimately we wanted to convey a slower pace of life one where we turn off electronics and really focus on building community through conversation. Beer is one of those things that can people together that have never met before and by the end of the conversation, you walk away with a new friend. It took us almost a year for us to secure our name, but as we like to say nothing good happens in a hurry.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Slow Pour Brewing Company story. Tell us more about the business.
We are super proud to be Gwinnett County’s first craft brewery! We opened our doors in September last year and the response was awesome. To be able to have that little piece of history under our belt is something we are all very proud of. There is an amazing beer culture here in Gwinnett County and to be able to be a part of that is really special to us. We currently have three year-round beers Nostalgia IPA is 6.4 percent ABV it is crisp, aromatic and delicious. Nostalgia won the battle of the brews at Suwanee Beer Fest which we are also very proud of. Southernality IPA is 5.2 percent ABV with notes of citrus & tropical fruit. Cotillion is a blonde ale that is light, and dry with subtle esters. We have many other beers that are offered on more of a seasonal basis like a belgian tripel, dunkel, brown ale, sours, porter, pale ale and so on.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I would definitely say that we have had some luck with where we are as a company. First and foremost to be able to be the first craft brewery in the county is pretty lucky. We are also extremely lucky to be able to be a part of the Lawrenceville community. The leadership team for the city is truly awesome and to be able to work with them on getting the brewery up and going has been awesome. They have really helped us to put on some amazing events this year. One such event was the Simple Southernality event where A Thousand Horses, Beau and Luci, and local musicians came and played. It is going to be an annual event and was a lot of fun.
Contact Info:
- Address: 407 North Clayton Street
Lawrenceville, GA 30046 - Website: https://slowpourbrewing.com/
- Email: john@slowpourbrewing.com
- Instagram: slowpourbrewing
- Facebook: Slow Pour Brewing Company
- Twitter: Slow Pour Brewing
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