Atlanta is currently undergoing two types of hullabaloos. One is the preparation for the World Olympics, the other is preparation for what I call “The Beer Olympics.” The first will come and go in just two weeks, the second will stay around for decades — and hopefully much longer.

Only two years ago, the Atlanta area had no locally made craft beer. Since then, four craft breweries and six brewpubs have opened and several more are under construction.

Being a Johnny-come-lately in the craft beer movement, what took 10 years to happen on the West Coast is being compressed into only a couple of years in Atlanta.

In the middle of the Atlanta ferment is Dogwood Brewing, owned and operated by Crawford Moran. Born and raised in Atlanta, Moran graduated from the University of Georgia in nearby Athens. During his senior year a bar named The Globe opened with an excellent range of imported and craft-made beers on tap. The Globe became one of Moran’s regular hangouts. While he was in graduate school, Moran began brewing in his apartment. One thing led to another, and before graduation he had already completed a business plan for a microbrewery in Atlanta.

The other half of the equation at Dogwood is brewer Joe Schaar. Schaar, like Moran, began making beer while in college. After obtaining a degree in electrical engineering, he went to work for a large engineering firm in the Atlanta area but soon became frustrated with the corporate environment.

Schaar’s eyes were opened one day while drinking his homebrew with a friend. Schaar said he wished he could make beer for a living. His friend responded with “Why don’t you?” Schaar began investigating. He volunteered at a brewpub that was opening in Indiana and then at a microbrewery in Atlanta. After that he took a 10-week diploma course at the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago. “If you know the science of it, you can make good beer,” he said.

Dogwood Brewing Co. uses a turnkey system. Moran said he started out talking to just about all the equipment manufacturers and eventually narrowed it down to two companies importing equipment from Europe: Bohemian Brewery Importers for the brewhouse and fermenters and Prospero for the bottling line.

Moran and Schaar were quoted a 14-week delivery time on the brewing equipment, but it ended up taking more than twice that long.

Substantial down payments had to be made for both systems. Moran remembers walking into his 12,000-square-foot warehouse, which he was paying rent on, seeing it empty, and shouting “Oh, my God!” The bottling line was also behind schedule, but it didn’t matter since there was no beer to bottle anyway.

Once the equipment finally arrived, installation went fairly smoothly. Still, there were licenses to get and things needed to be inspected once, twice, and sometimes three times.

Representatives from Bohemian were on site for about two weeks to check everything out and to show them how to use the equipment. The system consists of an activated carbon filter, a hot liquor tank, a dual-powered roller mill, a 20-barrel brewhouse with a mash-lauter tun and a steam-fired brewkettle whirlpool, a heat exchanger, four 40-barrel fermenters, a 40-barrel bright beer tank, and diatomaceous earth and plate-and-frame filters.

According to Schaar, Atlanta water is probably the best brewing water in the country. What makes it so great is its incredibly low residual alkalinity — it’s very, very soft water. He says it has about 20 residual alkalinity, whereas the famous water from Burton-on-Trent, in England, is more like 270. Schaar says they treat the water with calcium sulfate (gypsum). Of their two beers, they raise the alkalinity a little higher on the pale ale than on the wheat beer.

As for the bottling line, Moran said it works pretty well despite some problems. It is capable of bottling 3,000 bottles an hour using a counter-pressure filler and features an inverted bottle rinser and a bottle labeler. They are currently bottling at about 32° F and 16 psi. The filler had a couple of stuck valves, so they ordered replacement parts. The technicians from Prospero were on
site to install the bottling line and came back at their own expense to fix problems. The labeler is the most finicky part of the apparatus. “I have never heard anyone rave about their bottling line — it’s not a matter of having no problems but of how few problems you have,” said Moran.

The biggest job in retrofitting the building was tearing up the floor to install drains. They did not remove the entire floor to give it a slope, but they did install a lot of drains. They also had to upgrade the electrical system. Because the building was air conditioned they decided not to install a cold room, assuming they could get quick pick up of the beer by the distributor before it warmed up.

To raise capital for the brewery, “I made a list of people I knew who had more money than I did and could afford an investment,” said Moran. “I started making calls and got referrals and still more referrals. I eventually attracted about 10 investors. The investors didn’t have to be convinced by a market study. They were familiar with the Atlanta market and its potential.”

Even with two competitors already out there, Moran remains confident in the brewery’s potential. “The Atlanta market is right at the bottom of the bell curve. Actually, having two existing breweries makes it easier to convince new accounts to take you on. We’re already looking to expand and the first beer hasn’t gone out the door yet. If we add more fermenters, we could probably do about 12,000 barrels a year.”

While finding new accounts might not be a problem, finding a distributor is more difficult. Moran thinks most distributors see any change as a threat, and craft beer is certainly a change.

When the Georgia brewpub law was written, distributors pushed a clause that made it illegal for beer produced in brewpubs to be distributed. So with the stroke of a pen, the distributors cut themselves right out of the most dynamic sector of the contemporary beer market.

However, Moran thinks he has found an excellent distributor. When he asked retailers who they liked and why, he kept hearing the same name: Empire Distributors. Empire has several good things to offer Dogwood. Since they already have the Samuel Adams account, they know a lot about handling craft beer. They distribute throughout the state and are primarily a wine and liquor wholesaler. Moran hopes that with only six or seven beer brands, Empire will give much of its attention to Dogwood beers.

Moran is also working with a large local ad agency to generate promotional ideas and build awareness of the brand.

And what about the beers? Both of them, Dogwood Pale Ale and Dogwood Wheat Beer, debuted at the Second Annual Atlanta Brew Fest. The pale ale had a nice balance between the sweetness of the malt and the hop bitterness.

The wheat is in the Bavarian krystal weizen style, complete with a moderate amount of clove, banana, and bubble gum esters. To bring out these characteristics, Schaar uses a genuine Bavarian yeast strain.

Next time you’re in the Atlanta area, be sure to seek out these two beers. You might also like to tour the brewery. Dogwood Brewing is located on the north side of Atlanta, just off of Chattahoochee Avenue and about one mile from the intersection of I-75 and Howell Mill Road.

Steve Johnson lives in Clemson, S.C, and is author of three brewery guidebooks: On Tap: a Field Guide to North American Brewpubs and Craft Breweries, On Tap New England, and On Tap Northern California.