6 Best Craft Breweries near Athens

“We were in town and stopped by for one beer. From the moment we walked in the door we felt at home. The woman behind the bar greeted is enthusiastically and genuinely. The live music was great, all the other people were friendly, and the vibe was great. we have a handful of breweries and taprooms that have that we have been to that have that I am at home feel, and Normaltown is definitely on that list. And we havent even made it to the beer yet! So Ibhad an IPA and my wife had a stout and both were exactly what we love. While this was our forst time to Athens it womt be our last, We enjoyed Normaltown and want to spend more time and try more beer there“

“A good selection of beers with a full liquor selection. The flight is really nice; select 4 and then you can choose a favorite. There was an also an impromptu band playing when we went, 3:30 pm on a Sunday. Very relaxed atmosphere. No food however.“

“I love Figment! It's really nice to have a local kombucha brewery to support. The staff is very friendly and the kombucha is tasty. I have a 32 oz growler and can refill it for $12 which is way more sustainable and cheaper than buying cans--(which I do love that they package in cans). They always have a lot of interesting flavors that you can't buy at the grocery store. They also have a booth at the Athens farmers market virtually every Saturday which makes it that much more convenient to get a refill.

They also sell boutique-y pantry items in store which are cool for gifts and stuff.“

“The beer is just phenomenal. The Athens location is also most excellent. I love the vintage tire store vibe, and the patio is super nice with fans when it’s hot. We took our pup and he was comfortable. Excellent staff as well. Thanks for a great experience, we’ll be back next time we are in Athens to visit our UGA student.“

“To start things off, the reason I’m only giving 4 stars and not 5 is because I feel that there has been a drop off in the quality of Terrapin’s beer over the last year or two. Being a born and raised Georgian (North Georgia), Terrapin was one of the main breweries that hooked me into craft beer. Their limited release line was amazing for so many years. I was also able to get limited releases local from several craft beer package stores from 2009 to around 2020. Yrs, I know Covid screwed a lot of things up, but what’s crazy is I was able to get amazing beers from breweries all over the country during Covid, yet distribution of Terrapin seemed to slow and then now only the core beers are available in package stores, including no Wake-N-Bake distribution and no more Moo-Hoo in production at all! I was told you could go to the brewery and buy W-N-B, so I decided to make the almost 2 hour drive to the brewery to pick some up. Upon entering, I noticed the gift shop side and immediately saw some older limited release WNB bottles that were left over before one of their previous brewers left, which I quickly grabbed 8 or 10 bottles of them and took them to the counter to put aside for me. I also ordered a couple of their new WNB variations that are only available on draft in house. I had the Cinnamon Roll WNB, Irish Buh Bye and Cherry Garcia. They were all very good, but there was no comparison to what these variations use to be. There was almost zero Cinnamon in the Cinnamon Roll, not much Cherry in the Cherry Garcia and the best of the 3 was the Irish Buh Bye, but none of them compared to the quality of the variations from years past and to me, that’s sad considering how awesome they use to be. Still very good (not great) beer.
The brewery itself.. fantastic space and some very nice staff that was very accommodating. The place was very clean and I definitely enjoyed my time while I was there. I also learned that whatever company owns Terrapin also owns Sweetwater in Atlanta, which I also feel the quality of Sweetwater declined 6-8 years ago and I have quit drinking Sweatwater all together.
I know the craft beer scene isn’t what it was a few years ago, but I hope Terrapin’s beer doesn’t continue to decline. Again, overall.. really enjoyed myself at Terrapin and I will go again when I’m in the area, but given the lack of quality in the beers, I don’t know if it’s enough to make me want to drive back to drive just for a visit to the brewery.“

“Amazing staff. knowledgeable and friendly. the oktoberfest was delicious“