This story is from the Aug. 15 edition of Side Dish, a weekly newsletter about Atlanta’s dining scene. Subscribe for free via the Newsletters tab at the top of this page.
Eventide Brewery in Grant Park quietly closed at the Beacon. Its last day, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, and neighborhood residents, was on Sun., Aug. 11. It’s now listed as “permanently closed” on Google.
Rumors had been circulating for months that the brewery’s closure was imminent after co-founder and CEO Nathan Cowan told Atlanta Business Chronicle in September 2023 that Eventide’s operations costs had skyrocketed by 30%. It also faced growing competition from larger breweries. Cowan gave Eventide a “50-50 chance of being around in a year.”
Rough Draft Atlanta reached out to Eventide Brewing before the closure last weekend but did not hear back. The radio silence tracks with what patrons and neighborhood residents have been saying about the closure, which the brewery didn’t publicize. Some people called the decision not to make its closure public “weird” and “odd.” It’s unclear if the brewery will keep making beer for distribution via a wholesaler.
Small breweries in Georgia continue to face an uphill battle as craft beer sales are down significantly from five years ago and the state’s distribution laws remain unfavorable to local breweries like Eventide.
In more Georgia beer news, Tilray Brands will acquire a majority stake in Athens-based Terrapin Beer Company from Molson Coors in a multiple-brewery acquisition deal. According to Reid Ramsey of Beer Street Journal, Tilray already purchased Atlanta-based SweetWater Brewing in 2020.
Tilray CEO Irwin D. Simon said the company will seal the deal soon, adding six new craft breweries to its portfolio and expanding the company’s distribution business by over 20%, Brewbound reports.
