Atlanta breweries BlueTarp and High Card Brewing, both operating out of the same storefront in Tucker, will close this weekend.
The closures were announced on the breweries’ Instagram accounts.
Tom Stahl opened BlueTarp Brewing about 12 years ago in Decatur. Five years ago, he moved from Decatur and joined with Alan Pugh from High Card Brewing to open a joint taproom at 2316 Main St. in downtown Tucker.
Down Home Brewing, which lays claim to being Georgia’s first Black-owned and operated brewing company, also brewed its beer out of the space. A representative for Down Home Brewing did not immediately respond to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s request for more information.
Stahl attributed the closures to Georgia’s overall brewery climate, which he said isn’t “conducive to successful brewery ventures, especially small brewery ventures.”
Credit: Courtesy of BlueTarp Brewing
Credit: Courtesy of BlueTarp Brewing
The industry has become more difficult to navigate since the pandemic, he said, but in the last year it was clear they wouldn’t be able to continue much longer.
Georgia law limits the amount of beer breweries can sell to customers in their tasting rooms, and most breweries can’t sell beer to retailers without using third party distributors, Stahl said.
After the pandemic, Stahl’s distributors almost entirely stopped buying and selling BlueTarp’s products, “so our distribution was basically dead.”
“Without that, we have no legal way of selling beer outside of our tasting room,” he said. “I think that makes it very hard for breweries to exist just by selling beer in the tasting room, and limited by how much beer we can sell per person.”
Pugh, who said he doesn’t plan to reopen in a new location, echoed Stahl’s reasons for closing. He started out brewing with several friends, eventually collaborating with Schoolhouse Brewing and Burnt Hickory Brewery in Kennesaw before opening High Card. Their popular beers include White Queen, a Russian stout.
It’s been a challenging few years for craft breweries in Georgia. Last year, at least 10 breweries closed their doors, including Dry County Brewery in Kennesaw, Steady Hand Beer in west Midtown, Elsewhere Brewing in Grant Park and west Midtown, Eventide Brewing in Grant Park, Kettlerock Brewing in Peachtree Corners, Iron Hill Brewery in Buckhead, Schoolhouse Brewing at Emory Point, Torched Hop Brewing in Midtown and Best End Brewery in West End.
Pontoon Brewing closed its Tucker location in 2023. Tucker Brewing Company remains open in the city.
Sen. John Albers (R - Roswell) has introduced Senate Bill 122, the Craft Beer and Local Economy Revitalization Act, which would “modernize Georgia’s craft beer laws by granting small breweries the ability to self-distribute a limited amount of their product, eliminating daily off-premise sales caps, and allowing direct charitable contributions,” according to a news release from the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild.
Stahl hopes that the beer laws will make more progress this year. “To have a thriving beer community, it would make things totally different across the board,” he said.
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