A new brewery seeks to bring a family-friendly space focused on events, entertainment and quality craft beer to Monroe.
Grizzle Beer is currently under construction at 208 S Broad Street, but the concept has been a long time coming.
“It’s been a passion project for 20 years,” co-owner Joe Grizzle told What Now Atlanta. “It’s always been a dream to be able to open our own spot. I worked in the industry in Colorado and was an avid home brewer, waiting on the opportunity to be able to pull the trigger on this. The stars aligned.”
Their vision: create a space that can cater to the downtown area with square footage suitable for events.
“We feel like for a brewery these days, you need to be walkable to downtown, and you need to be able to cater to more than just an excellent product of beer,” Grizzle said. “There needs to be more of a reason to come.”
Grizzle and co-owner and head brewer Erin Boydstun have been actively working on the project for two years. In addition to craft beer, Grizzle Beer will have live music and entertainment, featuring an event space suitable for weddings, corporate events and more.
Grizzle Beer will be located at the historic multi-tenant Ford Building that was built in the 1920s.
“I feel like every craft brewery is in an old automotive building,” Boydstun joked. “We are too. We’re upholding the tradition.”
They purchased their equipment from Atlanta’s Elsewhere Brewing, which closed in fall 2024. With multiple outdoor spaces and potential for a variety of uses, the space has been designed with intention.
“One of the big things we’ve thought about in the design of the space is introvert and extrovert spaces,” Boydstun explained. “We have these nooks, little spots where you and a friend could sit down for awhile, play a board game and hang out. Then there’s the large event space, a large bar area, for people who like to be in the middle of everything. The idea is that based on the night and what the individual patron’s vibe is, you can have totally different experience.”
Monroe is located in Walton County, east of Atlanta. The Grizzle Bear team is excited about the location, in the heart of a town that has seen a lot of population growth, commercial development and events in recent years, such as the Fall Fest, which brings thousands of people downtown.
“It’s a picturesque southern downtown,” Grizzle said. “It’s a beautiful space, lots of restaurants, lots of bars, a lot of events. It’s kind of the cornerstone of eastern Georgia.”
Grizzle Beer is slated to be the only business currently in Monroe that has a front patio along Broad Street. In addition to the 1,500-square-foot patio, there will be an outdoor space with a deck that will be shared with the neighboring restaurant, adding to the variety of spaces to enjoy at the brewery.
Opening a brick-and-mortar business often comes with unforeseen challenges, but breweries in particular can have their own unique hurdles.
“I’ve been in the industry for almost 10 years and seen a lot of breweries open,” Boydstun said. “It’s a lot of hurdles because it’s the nexus of local regulations, state regulations, federal regulations, food-safety regulations and alcohol regulations, plus wanting to open a well-designed, functional space on top of it and trying not to just make things work, but to make them better.”
The owners are hoping that Grizzle Beer will be fully open in summer 2025. Buzz has already been generating from passersby wondering what the 18-wheelers, forklifts and telehandlers lining the street are for.
“It’s a very busy street,” Grizzle said. “We get hit up locally.”
Follow on Instagram @drinkgrizzlebeer for updates about the progress.
