2 ex-teachers to school Marietta in craft beer

When it comes to beer, you might want to be the teacher’s pet.

Two former schoolteachers have announced that they plan to open a brewery near the revitalized Franklin Gate- way area of Marietta.

The owners, Thomas Monti and Justin Waller, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they plan to open School- house Brewing this spring.

Soon after the two met about 15 years ago at Mari- etta Middle School, Waller’s wife gave him a home brew- ing kit for Father’s Day.

“It was fun, but it was missing someone else, so we started brewing together,” Waller said.

In January 2014, with Waller still in the classroom, Monti opened Schoolhouse Beer and Brewing on Whitlock Avenue, filling growlers and selling supplies for home brewers in between hosting events.

They said they kept getting one constant question: Where can we get your beer?

With the game-changing Senate Bill 85 letting makers of booze sell their goods right from tasting rooms in Sep- tember 2017, the pair starting batting around the idea.

When they were thinking of where, Monti said they kept coming back to one place: “Marietta is home.”

The Whitlock Avenue spot will stay open through January, and they hope to be able to sell supplies out of the brewery soon after, even if it’s before the beer flows.

The brewery will have a 3,500-square-foot tasting room with 2,000 square feet of brewing area and the same amount of outdoor drink- ing space. They plan to run a relatively small seven-barrel operation.

They said that setup makes it so people can expect different beers more frequently. They plan to open with 10 beers.

If people having a hankering for something that’s no longer on tap, the duo will happy sell the supplies and give away the recipe. The two former teachers said continuing to educate home brewers and sell ingredients and tools was important to them.

“For us to be educators of the craft beer world, we have to stay abreast of the best practices and what is really happening in the craft beer world,” Monti said.

SCHOOLHOUSE BREWING / CONTRIBUTED Justin Waller (left) and Thomas Monti plan to open Schoolhouse Brewing in the Franklin Gateway area of Marietta this spring. They aim to debut with 10 beers.