Located 68 miles southwest of Atlanta on I-85, LaGrange once was known for mills and manufacturing. More recently, the city has been revitalized with a lively mix of restaurants, shops, galleries and a pair of travelworthy breweries.
Wild Leap Brew Co. opened downtown in 2017, transforming a former tire company space into a brewery and tasting room adjacent to an outdoor plaza that is the scene of a variety of events.
When I visited recently, Elliot said that he supervises everything to do with brewing, including the design and recipes. “We have a 30-barrel BrewFab brewhouse,” he said. “In Atlanta, we have a five-barrel system and that’s where we do most of our experimental beers now.”
In addition to its core beers, including Local Gold blonde ale, Chance India pale ale and Superlager German-style pilsner, the taproom offers cocktails, slushes, ciders and several wines.
Credit: Bob Townsend
Credit: Bob Townsend
“We have a beer license, a distilling permit, and farm winery license,” Elliot said. “Slushes are the most popular thing that we have. We credit it for keeping us alive during COVID, and we kept all of our employees because of that.”
Beer Connoisseur magazine named Wild Leap as its brewery of the year in 2021 and 2023.
Looking ahead, Elliot is excited about the upcoming festival season.
“We’ve been adding on with food truck spaces, and we have a ramp for tour buses to pull in,” he said.
Across town from Wild Leap, Beacon Brewery and Restaurant opened in 2018 in the historic Hillside area.
Credit: Bob Townsend
Credit: Bob Townsend
The space features four different areas, including an indoor taproom, a screened-in patio, an outdoor beer garden and a hideaway known as the Lounge, which doubles as an event space.
When I stopped in, founder and owner Chase Hudson showed off the newest, fanciest addition — Tutto Pepe, an Italian restaurant offering fresh pastas and Italian wines.
“There will be Czech side-pull faucets and we’ll be doing three Czech-style beers,” he said. “Everything in-house is our own beer, and we created an Italian pilsner for Tutto Pepe. We’re also planning to do some Italian grape ales, and we’ll get the juice and blend that with our beer in fermentation.”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Hudson and head brewer Dave Hash are passionate about using regional ingredients as much as possible, including malts from Riverbend Malt House in North Carolina.
I really liked the beer selection in the taproom, including the bright, refreshing Tutto Pepe, recently on draft at Brick Store Pub in Decatur. An American amber lager called Waves of Grain was both beautiful to behold and surprisingly crisp.
“We usually have eight to 12 beers on tap,” Hudson said. “We do have our own canning line. We’re trying to make sure that pretty much everything on the tap list is its own individual beer. So many breweries are making one beer, then adding fruit in 12 different ways just to build out the list. For the most part, everything has its own recipe and is purpose-created.”
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