Atlanta Craft Brewery Guide

The space, with its exposed wood ceiling and group seating, feels more like your neighborhood pub (sans food menu) than a brewery. And that’s the spirit co-founders Matthew Sweezey, Nathan Cowan, and Haley Cowan wanted to create.

If an award existed for best theme integration, hands down, it would go to Jailhouse. Employees are cheekily referred to as inmates, live events are promoted as lockdowns, and each beer name gets better than the next.

From surviving old beer laws that banned high gravity brews to having their original location threatened by a road expansion project, Atlanta’s oldest brewery has brewed award-winning beers (like their flagship IPA, Hoplanta) and grown a loyal fan base against plenty of odds.

Since 2002, Georgia’s second largest production brewery has been a reliable destination for beer styles not widely available in the Southeast—take Wake-n-Bake, a coffee oatmeal stout so rich and creamy that it might as well be a breakfast beer.

The tasting room feels like a college dorm common area—it includes a couple of arcade games, minimal seating, and occasional live music, though during a recent visit the impromptu was a cross-legged dude in flip-flops, half-heartedly strumming a ukulele with friends accompanying him with song.

Aesthetically speaking, Monday Night is arguably the best tasting room inside the city of Atlanta. The beer is priority number one, of course, but a pleasant vibe—ambient lighting, cozy café-like seating, lots of room—is also wonderful.

Surely it doesn’t get any more intimate than this—enter the brewery to a host of hellos from regulars who’ve taken up their weekly perch. A schnauzer greets you at the door—you’re okay, come on in.