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The Origin Story
Southern Sky Brewing Company is a 100% family owned and operated brewery. The one employee is our brewmaster, and he receives help from his wife and two sisters. We believe this not only makes us unique, but also gives us a special quality that we can bring to the Atlanta beer community. We do not have any investors, so all decisions can be made by the brewmaster to benefit the beer and help fill a specific need in the metroAtlanta area.
The size of our system and our streamlined decision making process gives us flexibility to create new one-offs that are a little bit out there. We want to work with the community to bring a wider variety of craft beer to the Georgia market. We are open to collaborations with other members of the beer community, from home brewers to established local breweries.
The Team
Jon Near
Master & Commander, CEO, Brewmaster, Janitor & Paperwork Guru
Jon graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. After working at Lockheed Martin for five years, he decided to pursue his true passion: beer. Jon started brewing beer with a couple of his fraternity brothers in college in 2008. In this time, he experimented with everything from a Mint Chocolate Stout to a Jasmine Green Tea White Ale. After four years of honing his craft brewing skills, he decided to take it from a hobby to a career. On October 12, 2012, Southern Sky Brewing Company was founded. Since then, he has been laying the groundwork for an unconventional brewery. As the brewmaster, he likes to experiment with one of a kind tastes and delicious combinations.
Jennifer Near, Rachel Near, Melissa Near and Jon Near
Life At Southern Sky Brewing
Fractals (The Art & Maths)
When first trying to conceive of a theme or logo for Southern Sky, we wanted to find something that was abstract, flexible and reflected our nerdy personality. It needed to be easily recognizable yet adaptable to different beers. It also needed to represent our celestial theme. That’s how we came up with fractals.
Fractals are a form of computer generated art created by infinitely repeating a mathematical equation, forming a pattern unique to that particular equation.
The Facility
The brewery, located at the intersection of 41 and old 41 in Kennesaw, Georgia, just south of McCollum Airport, is 6,888 square feet total. We recently finished constructing a full tasting bar and are now open for brewery tours and tastings. These feature a selection of our tasty brews. We also sell swag, such as t-shirts, coozies, glassware, etc at the brewery during the tours and tastings.
The brewery tours discuss our philosophy, the brewing process and feature the brewing system in the warehouse. Our current system is an all-electric, steam jacketed, seven barrel system. This allows us a production rate of 21 barrels a week. We also have a half-barrel pilot system. This smaller system is where Jon conducts his mad scientist experiments, crafting our specialty one-off beers, some of which may become seasonals based on popularity.
Community
We put a lot of thought into where we wanted to locate the brewery and establish our roots. We wanted a community with a rich, vibrant culture that’s ready for beer that’s a little bit out there. Kennesaw is an obvious choice for multiple reasons. Having an academic environment and a well-rounded community, as well as other local breweries for collaboration opportunities, created the environment for a prime brewery location. There is a general interest in craft beer in Kennesaw, and in the North MetroAtlanta area. Several local restaurants and bars heavily support the local craft beer movement, and have strongly supported our efforts to start brewing. As a thanks to the community as a whole, we chose Kennesaw as our home. We hope to see you soon to share a beer with us!
