Hop City's Kraig Torres: Atlanta Restaurant Impresario and Classic Beer Style Defender

Atlanta-based craft beer entrepreneur Kraig Torres graduated high school in 1986 and fancied himself a "beer expert" because he drank Moosehead. A stint in the Coast Guard took this New Jersey kid to England, Ireland, Germany and Australia, where he marveled at the extraordinary diversity of world beer styles and pub cultures. Long before Untappd, Torres hauled around a notebook where he recorded the name of each new beer he drank. 

Torres' travels sparked a passion for craft beer that motivated him to open four impressive craft beer-focused outlets in Georgia and one in Alabama. In his Coast Guard days, Torres never imagined that craft beer would provide him with a new career. 

After moving to Atlanta in 1994 for brief stints in the insurance and stock brokerage fields, Torres longed to start his own business. A visit to a craft beer store in Asheville, North Carolina, motivated him to formulate a business plan for his own Atlanta craft beer outlet that would also sell bottled wines and homebrewing supplies. In 2009, Hop City Beer & Wine opened its doors on Marietta Street near downtown Atlanta. It took a couple of years to build recognition and make the retail shop successful, but Torres learned much from the process.

When Torres began scouting locations for a second Hop City, a friend told him about the opportunities available in Birmingham, Alabama. Skeptical at first, Torres made the two-hour drive to Birmingham to scope out the craft beer possibilities. "I quickly realized the area was hungry for a craft beer and wine retail outlet," he recalls. "In those days, Piggly Wiggly was the retail beer leader in the area. We opened Hop City Birmingham in 2012. After a difficult and stressful opening, the new store proved an instant success."

What caused the stressful Birmingham opening? In 2012, Alabama still classified homebrewing as an illegal hobby. When applying for his Birmingham Hop City permit, Torres explained to an Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board chief that he wanted a corner of his store stocked with some grains, hops and yeast. No homebrewing instructions or books would be sold. Reluctantly, the ABC chief agreed that this seemed legal. A few weeks later, when Torres returned to the ABC offices to pick up his license, the new chief told him, "Boy, you know homebrewing is illegal in the fine state of Alabama." 

It took a couple of years to build recognition for the Hop City brand and to make the retail shop successful, but Torres learned much from the process.

The next morning, armed ABC officers showed up at Hop City Birmingham in a van and confiscated all the grain, hops and yeast from the shelves. The chief promised to return the next day with a bigger van, so Torres loaded up the remaining homebrewing supplies from the backroom storage area and stashed them at a local brewery. When the ABC officers returned and found no more supplies, they handed Torres his permit.