6 Best Craft Breweries near Athens

“We couldn't be happier to find this brewery!! The beers we had were great and matched to type. We love the building and the laid-back atmosphere. Best of all, we really enjoyed talking with the beertender, Allison. So friendly, welcoming, and cheerful. She made our visit a joy. Normaltown Brewing is a winner all the way around!!“

“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.“

“Best brewery in Athens, GA (maybe even all of GA)! Though I have since moved away from Athens, I think about how awesome the CC Brewery and Taproom is, and how unique (and delicious) the beers are. Really wish they had the supply chain to be stiocked where I currently live!“

“This is an excellent venue. The staff is open, communicative and friendly. The drinks here are exciting and varied. The location is useful for the events it houses. I have attended several and Athentic has always made each important on its own.“

“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“