ART OF THE CRAFT

DBell@CalhounTimes.com

It’s been about two years in the making, but the Freight and Rail Brewing Company in Downtown Calhoun is finally set to open their doors and serve up some local beer Saturday.

Founding partners Andrew Tierce, Justin Childress and Dakota Raspberry hosted members of the Calhoun Rotary Club on Thursday afternoon to give the group a sneak preview of the operation, as well as a few samples of the four beers that will be available this weekend.

Among the early offerings will be a blonde ale, a red ale, an oatmeal cream stout and a hazy Indian pale ale. Tierce said they already have a lager in the tanks that will be ready within a couple weeks and that a saison and a Belgium-style beer won’t be far behind.

“We’re going to take this weekend to see what people like and what they ask for,” he said.

Freight and Rail will be open from noon until 11 p.m. Saturday, with musical acts Craig Conway and Sean Carter taking the stage from 3 to 6 p.m. and the band My Ninja performing at 7 p.m.

Other near-future plans include the addition of growlers and canned beer, and ideally distribution to craft-beer focused bars.

Childress told his fellow Rotarians on Thursday that he and Tierce met two years ago as members of the CalhounGordon County Leadership program hosted by the Gordon County Chamber of Commerce. He said Tierce had this idea to start a brewery and Childress, who works in real estate, said he ought to open it in Calhoun.

Tierce added that changes in Georgia law helped make the idea a reality, when the legislature in 2016 allowed breweries to begin selling their product directly to customers. Before that,

BREWERY,

he said, breweries were only allowed to sell to distributors.

“It was very difficult. It was very risky,” he said.

Both Tierce and Childress said they envision Freight and Rail being more than just a bar or a place that makes beers, with Tierce pointing out that microbreweries are often big parts of the hospitality and tourism industries.

“We’ve seen that breweries can be a catalyst for development,” he said.

Childress said he sees the brew pub becoming a place where people can go after 5 p.m. and spend time together, not looking