Trey Sinclair, the founder of Dry County Brewing Company, announced that the brewery plans to debut a second taproom at 2861 N Main St. in Downtown Kennesaw by early July.
In 2016, when the first Dry County taproom opened at 1500 Lockhart Drive NE, breweries could only distribute their products to retailers rather than directly to patrons; aside from tasting events, the building initially housed the operation’s equipment and production.
As state laws changed, so did the capacities of the business, which grew to encompass in-house drinking, events and partnerships with area food truck vendors. In 2018, Dry County’s original location became the first building in Georgia where spirits and beer were brewed under the same roof — this led to the inception of their refreshing blueberry lemonade vodka and their bottled take on the old fashioned along with their hop-based mainstays, like their Kennesaw Bourbon Ale and now-classic Dry County IPA. As more beverage types were produced and more patrons began drinking them, the brewery started to outgrow its original home.
“We have certainly learned a lot about operating a taproom over the past five years — enough to know that we want to give the drinkers of Georgia an even better experience than what our current Lockhart Drive taproom allows today. That is exactly what we intend to do in Downtown Kennesaw, On top of all that, you guys continue to drink more and more Dry County liquid.”
An array of little tanks for small-batch beers and twice as many taps as Dry County’s Lockhardt Drive location will facilitate “creativity in a way that is not currently possible at [their flagship] taproom.” Sinclair wrote that he and the company’s brewing team “are extremely excited for this new creative freedom,” which will allow them both to ferment new liquors and beers and to bring back discontinued beverages that customers have long asked after.
Sinclair wrote that, along with their expanded selection of libations to drink, their future restaurant will also feature a menu of things to munch on. The brewery’s founder was tight-lipped about specifics, however, only divulging that “local, established, chefs will be owning/operating a new restaurant concept adjoining our taproom space and food options.”
Patrons of the new Dry County location can sip the brewery’s take on a German Berliner Weisse, Neon Neon, or whatever other Dry County distillation suits their fancy atop their planned rooftop space. Thanks to the city’s newly established open container districts, they can even take their drinks with them throughout Downtown Kennesaw’s Common Grounds Plaza.
Although their products are only available at bars, restaurants and stores within the state of Georgia, the brewery’s ample success over the years has warranted their expansion to a second location. So, why didn’t the company branch out to another nearby city rather than opening another location less than two miles away?
“Kennesaw is our home. Plain and simple,” wrote Sinclair. “Several other cities presented opportunities for taproom locations to us throughout this process, and while some of those may have made more sense on paper or in spreadsheets, Kennesaw is the only location that made sense to me on a personal level. I cannot think of a future for Dry County in which a Kennesaw Taproom does not exist, and hopefully, you can’t think of a future for Kennesaw in which Dry County does not exist either. I am extremely excited about the future that I see in and around Kennesaw and I want us to be as close to that action as we can be.”
