One recent Saturday morning, Josh Miller was behind the bar at the Outrun Brewing taproom in Stone Mountain, readying the space for a luau-themed event celebrating Princess Papaya Sour Ale.
Dressed in a Hawaiian-style print shirt and matching face mask, and illuminated by the pink neon Outrun logo, Miller arranged a scattering of brightly colored leis around a huge pineapple.
“We really wanted to do something different here,” he explained. “We just want to have fun and make things less intense, and a little less serious, I guess.”
Before opening Outrun, Miller and co-owner Ryan Silva were brewers at Three Taverns in Decatur.
In Stone Mountain, the duo found a former combination gas station and garage on East Mountain Street that evokes the look and feel of 1950s Los Angeles — though the name and the decor pay homage to an ’80s arcade game.
The bays with roll-up doors proved perfect for the small five-barrel brewhouse and adjoining taproom. And the large corner lot and parking spaces offer plenty of room for outdoor seating, plus a mature magnolia tree, and views of Stone Mountain.
Asked what it was like building out and opening a brewery during a pandemic, Miller laughed and said, "It’s not advisable. We had this building almost two years before we were able to get it up and running.
“We were going to open in March, but luckily we were small enough that we were able to be nimble and change how we operated. We put more small tables outside, and just tried to make it as safe as possible inside. With the bay doors up, it feels like outside, even if you’re inside.”
Since the grand opening on Fourth of July weekend, Outrun has been building a following, offering a range of mostly lower-alcohol beers aimed at appealing to both locals and tourists.
“I met Ryan at Three Taverns, and we kind of had the same philosophy of beer," Miller said. "We were both kind of tired of brewing big, intense beers. We wanted to step back and make beer for people who aren’t really into craft beer, and make it a little more approachable, rather than 100 IBU IPAs and 12% stouts.
“With this size, and this space, and not being in the city, we’re able to do what we want to do creatively, and not have to just brew IPAs. We always try to have an IPA and a lager on, and we just rotate different things from there.”
The day I visited, there was a super light and refreshing 4% Mexican lager, called Sunset Empire, brewed with local corn and Vienna malt. At 3.5%, Pitmaster Grätzer paid homage to the rare Polish style with pecan wood-smoked wheat malt and Georgia peaches. And Big Trouble in Little Beer was a fruity 4% dry-hopped saison fermented with a blend of yeast strains.
Outrun beers aren’t in distribution, and probably won’t be in the future. But you can buy crowlers to go at the brewery, and eventually six-packs may be on offer, too.
“We wanted to control every aspect, so that people can have the beer in its best form, and have something unique they can’t get anywhere else,” Miller said. “We’re enjoying it. We have good crowds. We love the locals. And it’s kind of cool to be away from the hustle and bustle of the city.”
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