With a family background in manufacturing and selling building products, and a passion for German beer, siblings Ryan Chapman and Ashley Chapman Hubbard opened Tucker Brewing Co. on June 2, 2018.
The brewery is located in a small industrial park on Bibb Drive in Tucker, and features a spacious tasting room, as well as a sprawling 8,500-square-foot beer garden, with seating areas surrounded by trees and flowers, a stage for live music, and a play area for children.
But what really sets Tucker Brewing apart is its founders’ and brewers’ dedication to German lagers. Honeysuckle Helles, TKR Pilsner, and Rebel Keller Pils are among the beers on tap, along with Southern Heaven Hefeweizen and the Black Schwarzbier.
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Brewmaster Tucker Eagleson grew up in Maryland and learned homebrewing from his father. He graduated from York College in Pennsylvania and took a job working as an analyst for the federal government in Washington, D.C., before finally deciding beer was the business he wanted to pursue.
To that end, he served an apprenticeship at historic Schell’s Brewing in Minnesota, as a prerequisite to attending brewing school at VLB Berlin — the German “research and teaching institute for breweries.” After that, Eagleson returned to Maryland, where he got more hands-on experience at Heavy Seas Brewing in Baltimore, before landing the head brewer’s job at Tucker.
“Homebrewing was always a hobby throughout college,” Eagleson told me recently while we sampled some of his beers at the bar in the Tucker tasting room. “But I knew I was only scratching the surface of brewing with homebrewing, so I decided to enroll in the VLB. You need professional experience to get into the school, so they gave me this contact in Minnesota with brewmaster Jace Marti.
“His family runs August Schell’s, which is the second-oldest brewery in the United States, and it’s all German-style beers. They’re only in four states, but it’s a top 25 brewery in sales, and they just make some awesome beers. I trained as an apprentice under Jace for six months, then I left for Germany for another six months. It was extremely hard, and I learned a heck of a lot. Then I spent two years at Heavy Seas, which is quite the operation, 24 hours a day.”
Eagleson landed in Atlanta after responding to a post on the industry website ProBrewer.com.
“I was kind of casually looking for a position, and that was the most recent posting,” he said. “I sent Ryan an email, and I said, ‘Hey. My name is Tucker, and I brew beer. What more do you want?’ I think I got a phone call in two minutes. We talked for about half an hour, and Ryan laid down what he was going for with Tucker Brewing.
“He said, ‘We want to be a German-inspired brewery, and we want to tackle those styles that are really hard to make. Would you be up to the task?’ Honestly, that’s exactly what I was looking for, after getting that deep appreciation in Germany. And after coming down, and seeing the brewery, and the beer garden, I was sold.”
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Tasting through the lineup, Eagleson started with TKR Pilsner, a crisp, bright-gold lager made with all German malt, hops and yeast.
“I kind of hang my hat on the TKR Pilsner,” he said. “That’s my baby. After my time in Germany, I really gained an ultra appreciation for finely crafted lagers — especially Pilsners. You can’t throw a bunch of dry hops in there to cover up some kind of off flavor. You are hiding nothing. It really takes very good brewing practices, very good ingredients, and your cleaning efforts have to be pristine. Basically, everything has to be perfect to make a good Pilsner.”
Right now, Tucker Brewing is distributing its beer only in DeKalb County, where you can find it on draft in bars and restaurants and in cans at package stores. The latest release, Tucktoberfest Märzen Lager, was brewed for the Second Annual Tucktoberfest, which is Sept. 28 at the brewery, and is currently available in cans.
Tucktoberfest 2019
$30-$65. 4 p.m. VIP / 5 p.m. general admission Sept. 28.
