All we set out to do was make good beer to share with our friends. We never imagined that our passion for brewing would become a business. But, thousands of hours, hundreds of hiccups, two abandoned day jobs, and one business license later, Good People Brewing Company was born, with the sale of our first keg on July 4, 2008, in our hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. And, so far, so good. Our offerings now include five year-round brews, four seasonals, and an occasional one-off. Good People is now enjoyed by folks in Alabama and Tennessee, most of whom we don’t actually know yet.

In 1874 there was only one beer produced in the Brewery but by 1960 this had grown to eight. These were three draught beers – a light mild, a dark mild and XB bitter and five bottled beers: IPA, Double Brown, Nut Brown, Dinner Ale and B.B.B. Up until the mid 1970’s naturally conditioned Guinness, Bass and Worthington was also bottled at Batemans.

ABOUT

Tom chose Fannin County for two simple reasons:  Fresh air and fresh water make for fresh beer.   He hooked up with Pat Walker at Blue Ridge Brewery, who was also planning to produce his own brews.  Tom bought the equipment, Pat built the space, and they began selling their first beers in October 2012.

We operate a 5 bbl brew house. All of the equipment is 304 stainless steel (SS) or better, and the Hot Liquor tank (HLT) and Mash/Lauter tun (MLT) are both insulated to save on energy costs and to allow for more accurate temperature control. We made adjustments to the burners and installed thermocouples to aid in heating times and to make the process for heating as automated as possible. We also ran all of the ventilation (steam and burner exhaust) ourselves with SS tubing; the process for cutting 8″ holes 10′ up a wall was particularly interesting.