Cheering for beer this month in Roswell, Georgia

Photo courtesy of Visit Roswell GA CVB

We love craft breweries, especially ones sporting creative names. Here are a few we discovered in Roswell, Georgia, with some fun events coming up this month:

Abbey of the Holy Goats

Kathy Davis owns this small craft brewery, a product that resulted after years of pondering whether to own a goat farm or brew beers. Guess which won? Davis and her beers with names such as The Lazy Goat and Ghost of the First Order have nabbed accolades at brewing competitions, including second place in Georgia State University’s Business Plan Competition.

Abbey of the Holy Goats will celebrate its first anniversary from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 14 with a beer and chocolate pairing. Taproom Only releases include a Coffee & Chocolate Chevre Noir, a Cherry Chocolate Red Strong and a Licorice Brown Ale.

Gate City Brewing Company

Another brewery with a birthday is Gate City, which will celebrate its third anniversary with a “Birthday Weekend” Feb 9-11 with nightly bands, food on-site, special release packaged beers and anniversary tees and glassware. Entry is free.

Other upcoming events at Gate City include:

Mardi Gras (Tuesday, Feb. 13), a New Orleans-style 7-piece jazz band performs and Big Easy dishes will be served.

Valentines Dinner on Feb. 14 featuring a four-course dinner with your choice of beer or wine pairings. Call to book reservations at (770) 910-9799.

From the Earth Brewing Company 

This craft establishment is the baby on the block, opening in November, 2017. But they haven’t wasted time. Beer Guys Radio voted From the Earth Brewing 2017’s Best New Brewpub in Georgia. And they offer live music every Thursday in February.

Variant Brewing Company 

This craft brewery was also recognized by Beer Guys Radio with five awards, including third place for Best Overall Brewery. Variant also took the People’s Choice Award for their Midmorning Imperial Stout at the Atlanta Cask Ale Tasting. Variant will host a Super Bowl party starting at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4. Visit the website for additional details.

And if that’s not enough to make you want to haul off to Roswell, the Sixth Annual Roswell Beer Festival will be Saturday, March 24, in the Historic Town Square. All proceeds help the STAR House Foundation, providing after-school tutoring and mentoring programs for at-risk children throughout North Fulton County. 

The Roswell Beer Festival begins at 2 p.m. and ends at 6 p.m. and there will be more than 300 varieties of beer as well as food and music.

Weird, Wacky and Wild South is written by award-winning travel and food writer Chere Dastugue Coen, who loves every kind of Southern spirit. 

Save the world with beer!

Dave Rathkamp

In Marble Falls, Texas, Dave and Quynh Rathkamp are attempting to save the world, one mug of beer at a time.

The couple, who met at Tulane during their medical residency, spent vacation time visiting impoverished areas of the world. Dave loved to brew beer and Quynh loved to donate to charities so the two left medicine behind and started Save the World Brewing Company.

The makeup of Marble Falls, Texas, water is akin to Belgium, so Dave creates Belgium-style beer. Since both have a Christian calling, the beers reflect Latin names such as Agnus Dei Witbier, a wheat beer with orange and coriander hints that means “Lamb of God” and the Humilus Filius (“The Humble Son”) pale ale, what Rathkamp calls his “meat and potatoes beer.”

Visitors are welcome in the brewery’s tasting room on Fridays and Saturdays to enjoy standard and seasonal brews. Profits help Food for the Hungry, Habitat for Humanity and Meals on Wheels and the couple works hard to maintain a small carbon footprint. There are solar panels on the roof, they recapture greywater from the brewing process to use in irrigation, recycle about 40 percent of the breweries’ waste and use LED lighting. Grains used in the brewing process are donated to local farmers for livestock feed.

Want to read more? I wrote a story about the couple in Louisiana Road Trips magazine this month. Read it here.

Cheré Dastugue Coen is a food and travel writer living in South Louisiana who is the author of several Louisiana romances under the pen name of Cherie Claire and the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.