Cherry Street Brewing wants you to Know Your Georgia Brewer
Get to know Cherry Street Brewing Co-op Head Brewer, Nick Tanner
I’ve known the Head Brewer at Cherry Street Brewing Co-op, Nick Tanner, for a few years now. I even have a picture of him and his family cutting the ribbon to the brewery at the opening. One of his tag lines that he puts on a lot of his marketing materials is “Know Your Brewer”. He feels that a brewery building a true community around its product and the people who make it and sell it. I sent Nick a few questions and have been up to have some of his award winning beers to help all of us do what Nick suggests. Let’s get to Know our Brewer.
Cumming, Georgia is a lovely community north of Atlanta off Exit 12B on Highway 400. Nick’s family’s restaurant, Rick Tanner’s Grille and Bar, is somewhat of an institution in the area. Famous for its chicken fingers, “chicken lips” (a cheesy chicken egg roll), and other home cooked goodness (Best Country Fried Steak I’ve had since moving back to Georgia from Arlington, Texas). Nick was brought up in the family business and went to Colorado State University for degrees in tourism and business, but found himself in a hotbed of home and commercial brewing. He shared with us how the brewing bug bit him:
“I did not go to Colorado State for brewing. I went to CSU because they have one of the top Tourism departments in the country and just so happened to be the Napa Valley of Beer. I graduated in Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism and minored in Business. While I was in college, I had a friend who was homebrewing, and I fell in love with it. We started a co-op homebrew club and one of our fellow brewers was going to CSU for hop cultivation. She is now at CSU getting her masters in brewing. CSU now has majors and minors in brewing chemistry and business. (CSU) will soon have a fully functional brewery bigger than ours on campus for education, and then sell it at the Ramskeller, a beer bar on campus where I spent a lot of time.”
Nick came home to Georgia and opened a microbrewery in a post office space right next to his father’s restaurant and got the license to be a brewpub. From fairly small beginnings, the brewery has grown and now has an amazing array of styles of craft brewed beer in the restaurant and now the taproom on the other side of the brewhouse. And the guys enjoy the Manly Man Company gadgets in the place.
Variety is the spice of life at the Taproom
“At Cherry Street, we pride ourselves on our selection, variety, and freshness. We consistently have 26+ beers on tap, with 14 year round, around 6 barrel aged, and an array of IPAs, Berliners, seasonals, fruits, you name it. We are brewing a different batch or 2 every week. We have a solid team, and quality is our number one focus. It is not hard to keep up with the rotation. (Well, I don’t think it is hard. We are in a great stride. I am ADHD, and it definitely shows.) We are extremely flexible, have plenty of equipment to make last minute decisions to make new beers, and can squeeze batches in due to sales. We operate our brewpub in a brewery production style and own a very large arsenal of kegs for our size. This allows us to do this. Brew, brew, brew and stockpile. We have plenty of vintage barrel aged and imperial beers aging.”
One of my favorite beers that Cherry Street brews is Summer Fling, a watermelon seasonal that this year used 100% watermelons from Georgia farms. I asked Nick why he decided to do that, and if he thought he might use more Georgia grown products in the future.
“A few things. I have been brewing this beer for 10 years now. When I first started homebrewing, I was in Colorado and got Mexican watermelons grown in poor soil and conditions and had no flavor. South Georgia, Cordele to be specific, is the watermelon capital of the world. The best, sweetest watermelons come from that region. These are the biggest, heaviest, juiciest melons I have ever seen. They are delivered 24 hours to us from the farm.”
“We use plenty of Georgia Honey from Blue Haven Bee Company in far North Georgia. Their honey is world award winning. We use it in our Hoppy Balboa Imperial IPA. We have used peaches a few times. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. We are working with a local pumpkin grower if they can harvest early enough to keep up with the fall beer shift. We will use a lot more Georgia fruit once we begin to do more sours.”
As a big fan of tart and funky beers, that last sentence makes me pretty happy. I can’t wait to see what the crew up in Forsyth County does. New regulation has allowed brewpubs to sell a limited amount of beer to go directly to the consumer based on approval by local government. The ordinance was just changed, and I asked how that affects Cherry Street as a going concern.
It’s worth the trip to try these great beers and you can bring some home with you
“Selling growlers and specialty package will allow our brand to go further. It is really hard to find our beer in the market since we are draft only, and this will allow more awareness to be able to sell more beer. Also, most people do not realize what we are actually doing up in the sticks. Allowing patrons to take these fine products to Atlanta and further and share with their friends will increase our brand awareness. Growlers will also further increase the freshness of our product. We are only brewing 7-14 keg batches, and this will allow us to get bigger tanks to brew more, fresher beer.”
Bigger tanks? More fresh beer? I liked what I was hearing. I know their space in the present space was pretty much bursting at the seams with brewing equipment. Is it time to expand?
Coming soon to a retailer near you
“We will be doubling our production by the end of the year. We have signed a lease for the space next to us, which will almost double our space, and allow for increased production (primarily for package), double our barrel aging capacity to about 100 barrels, and increase our taproom seating. Since the law changed for brewpubs last July, we are changing our focus over the next 6 months to more package and away from draft in the market. We feel package will allow for more opportunity for our brand. Once we get more space, we will have room for bottling. I know what you are thinking.”
I’m thinking maybe I’ll see some of these great beers in retail stores a little closer to me, and Cherry Street Brewing Co-op won’t be such a closely held secret anymore. These guys have been making great beer for a long time, but just aren’t as well known as some other intown favorites. Nick and his crew make a lot of different beer styles, and the tap room has an amazing selection of 28 different beers that they make. Yeah…..TWENTY-EIGHT!! The tap room also has a full bar and Rick Tanner’s has been making great food for 30 years, and it’s right next door. They have a great local following, but as they expand, and are able to distribute some in town, the word will get out.
They also do some great stuff with specialty beers for local charities. When I last visited, there was a beer which part of the proceeds went to the local animal shelter. Drink beer…..help puppies and kittens….wins all around! You can always get some of their beer at Rick Tanner’s and you can find out what is on tap and what the hours are on the Cherry Street Brewing Co-op Taproom website.
Cherry Street Brewing Co-op
5810 Bond Street
Cumming, GA 30040
770-205-5512
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Fantastic write-up on my favorite brewery, Cherry Street Brewing Co-op. I look forward to others venturing North OTP to Cumming, and enjoy the treasure trove of beers Cherry Street produces.